Matrix Games Forums

See the main thread on Deluxe AWD in the Mods section to download the new edition.
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 8&t=126288

Thanks, a welcome addition:

***UNIT STAT CHANGES***
• Added in some more tech points to WA CAG torp
• Added some tech into LA for WA air

Yes there are probably about a dozen or more points added into the WA tech pool. New allied units on the board too and on the flip side a small amount of Italian power was taken away. The readme contains my thoughts on the North Africa Meta so I won't bother getting into it here.

I have an open game challenge just waiting for anyone to have a game with me. I usually do a turn a day, sometimes two.

Looks like it has already be taken. Too bad. I am opening another on 1.07.

Lebatron wrote: Tue May 28, 2024 6:17 pm See the main thread on Deluxe AWD in the Mods section to download the new edition.

Well done!

1.071 should be out in a few days. Sgt Rice is doing an awesome job of polishing up the documentation for Deluxe AWD. Once he is satisfied, I'll be uploading the new version.

Great, what will be the changes?

1.071 is out now. The readme will have the version change notes you are looking for. Plus you'll be blown away by the nice new PDF that Sgt Rice made for me.

Wow. Some excellent changes. The United States does look much easier to conquer now that it's only three sections.

Bo Rearguard wrote: Sat Jun 29, 2024 5:00 pm Wow. Some excellent changes. The United States does look much easier to conquer now that it's only three sections.

Well I doubt I will be able to conquer USA one day.

The Axis mediterranean nerf can well be a killer in the opposite direction.
Italy starts with just 1 transport and thus cannot help Afrika at all... UK can simply mass in Egypt and then shank Tobruk before Axis can say anything.

A very bad change to alter the Italian transports.

What's missing is leadership. Italians were plenty and did not achieved anything in Egypt. UK outnumbered, destroyed them. And later, Rommel outnumbered, destroyed UK forces. Really a skill / leadership problem.

If you want to have any success in North Africa you build some transports for Italy the first chance you get. Once you have Greece you can additionally use that rail source to NA and pour more forces there than the Western Allies can keep up with. If that is your Grand Strategy it will cost you some on the Eastern Front. It's probably best to postpone Barbarossa until Summer of 1942 if you are committing that hard to taking the Suez.

This issue with game balance before the nerfing of Italy's transport was that it was all too common to take the Suez. The Western Allies couldn't answer that. This is not Axis&Allies were that is the expected move and the drive down Africa for IPC's is normal.

The point has not came across well, or better the Italians can get shanked in Africa before they have a 2nd transport down and then it may just be a rush to save a last province or simply ditch the battle for North Africa, reducing it at a two turn business for the whole war.

It goes like that:

Italy joins the war and cannot reinforce, puts TRS in production.
UK has prepared and takes Tobruk.
Italy still has no TRS yet for this other turn... it cannot reinforce Africa.
UK takes Tripoli. (or in case failed Tobruk, shanks Tobruk and there is Tripoli as leftover)
Italy gets first TRS but now must invade...

I know the point you are trying to make. I've played this variation out many times. If Britain is going that heavy in NA have you tried to exploit that by having the Germans mass tons of pressure on England itself? You can easily cause some serious damage to England (if not outright take it) if the British are not careful in how they balance their forces between making sure they don't lose England vs saving the Suez. And if they manage to hold England and knock the Italians out of Tobruk it's not really the end of the game anyway for the Axis. It's not a must have.

Also, the U-boat campaign can make it difficult for the Allies to get forces to NA going around the Cape of Good Hope. A well played U-boat campaign can be just the turning point. Eventually, the combat ratio at Suez will favor the Axis.

Over the years, I've seen new players make observations they think are totally sound, but when they put their theory to the test vs a veteran player of AWD they come to see that perhaps the blind faith they had was in error.

However, In the end I'm always open to suggestions and further tweaking to remove Metas that create imbalance. The old one was that the Axis could take Suez to easily. I worked on that, and I believe I am close to finding the right balance. Each update does tweak things a bit. In the end, maybe a small change in Italy's favor is needed, but I am certainly not going back to the transport capacity level they had prior. That was the issue in the first place.

So just enjoy the game and keep getting better and stay in the loop. I will be putting out an update soon.

I would not see the issue in having a 2nd transport for Italy on map so that they can link the N.A. from the first turn and ship something down there.

Another option is to reinforce Italian forces in Lybia and that makes it harder for the Brits to storm it right off the bat.

I've not sent troops from UK btw - I simply sent all the Indian and Austrlian business there and have not helped China instead as tradeoff. It's abunch of troops but Aussie and India produce some more and simply once N.A. is secured these units can reflux back in the Pacific. Or at least that's how it played out.

Edit:

Adding, -also- to freeze the Mediterranean front whole til Italy is at war would be wise.
That way it cannot be reinforced at all. Both Italy AND the regions around Ethipia / AOI.

Last game Italian North Africa fell in 1 turn, the very first turn Italy activated, and UK had 3 INF, 2 ART and 2 AA in England so far from being invadeable. (plus planes)
I was the Axis in this case, but simply that's how it goes.

The Italians could retreat into Tripoli and would leave the fortress of Tobruk freely ... that would delay their fate of 1 turn since anyhow no transports at avail to bring them more men.

Seems like a no brainer to me. I have loved this game since 2004 or whenever it came out.