@vonLettowVorbeck1914:

@Fee:

I attribute this to the fact that I always made sure to buy a mix of all the different unit types.�  The Allies tended to have a lot more buys that were all infantry or just infantry and artillery.�  I tended to have fewer units, but win more battles.�  Incidentally, we forgot that we weren’t supposed to buy tanks until turn 4 - I wonder if that made a difference.

This seems quite backwards to me; buying more expensive units, especially when you’re the attacker, can really bite you in the rear soon as although your units are higher quality you are losing more IPC worth of units over time, since the opponent is spending only 3 IPC to defend at 3.

Actually, they tended to favor large stacks of infantry with maybe a plane or artillery.  I felt like the attacker needs to rely on more expensive units than the defender - the attacker relies on the special abilities of the more expensive units in a way the defender doesn’t.

Wow that is a massively huge mistake. Austria starts with an army that can overwhelm Italy. Without tanks however, an all-out attack on Rome from turn one fizzles out around turn 4-5 if you aren’t careful because Italy starts with enough units to hold out but doesn’t make enough to fight back Austria’s reinforcements.

…but that’s not what happened.  I actually bought relatively few tanks with Austria and used very few of them against Italy.  It was probably the Ottomans for whom it made a big difference against the UK - I wouldn’t have taken India otherwise.  I think Italy ended up losing because they spent a lot of time and resources trying to shore up Albania.  Of course, they could have purchased tanks too.

Congratulations, your first round buy just negated the defensive purchasing power of Italy for every turn in the game.

Wow that is a massively huge mistake

Um, sorry?  Yes, we did  screw up one rule, but I didn’t realize that would make people who weren’t even playing the game this angry.

I get the impression from reading this board that this is not a typical outcome.  After the Russian Revolution happened and Rome and India fell, the Allies gave up.  It wasn’t even a close game - Austria had an income in the mid 40s by the time we finished and Germany’s lackluster performance on the Western Front (it never even controlled Belgium) wasn’t going to matter since hordes of Austrians were going to flood into France.

I attribute this to the fact that I always made sure to buy a mix of all the different unit types.  The Allies tended to have a lot more buys that were all infantry or just infantry and artillery.  I tended to have fewer units, but win more battles.  Incidentally, we forgot that we weren’t supposed to buy tanks until turn 4 - I wonder if that made a difference.

Being a relatively casual player of A&A, I can’t recall a game of it I enjoyed more.  I loved the new combat mechanic and the emphasis on combined arms.  I would love to see a Western Front-only theater level game using this combat system.