ORIGINAL: cpdeyoung
I think the two fronts are too closely linked to separate them. In my PBEM I am very pleased with the balance between my east and west fronts. The alternative might force the west front into a "historical" event time lock. Thus an "event" would trigger a withdrawal of N strength points durring Kursk because the "Operation Husky" event fired. I would much rather defend in the west than have Hitler do it for me. The German army in the East was handicapped by poor decisions in the West, think Tunis. In the PBEM Gary has taken Gibraltar which makes "Husky" much more difficult. I really have been playing "War in Russia" since 6/22/1941, but I do not have to play it under the pressure of the decisions and outcomes in the West. If you want conflict in the East I have had many turns of it.
Chuck
Chuck, I hate to repeat myself, but the entire war (from the German point of view) was a disaster, brought about solely by idiotic Fuhrerentscheidung. I will name just one, which would never have been made by ANY rational German leader, and which, if rejected, would have, unquestionably, won the war for the Germans.
And for those of you who maintain that the game is hopelessly unbalanced in the favor of the Allies, imagine the effect that making (or not making) this same choice would have on the game.
Imagine that Hitler stabs the Japs in the back and refuses to declare war on the United States in Dec, 1941. Churchill and Roosevelt were sick with fear that Hitler would do just that. The result for Hitler would have been some political complaint at home (oh dear!) for losing yet another ally. I'm sure it would have cost him about 15 seconds of concern. The results for the Allies would have been catastrophic. Admiral King and General MacArthur would have led the "Pacific Firsters" to victory over Roosevelt and General Marshal, and the American war effort would have concentrated 110% on Japan. It might even have led to the termination of Lend Lease, which Roosevelt had only been very narrowly allowed to implement because we got a number of extremely valuable base leases that we need to secure our
DEFENSIVE perimeter in the Atlantic. And believe me, thats exactly how they were sold to the Senate, as defensive bases. With our own war to fight, with Americans fighting and dying in Asia, Churchill would just have to fight his own war, and there wouldn't have been an old screwdriver surplus in the arsenal, much less the three hundred Shermans that Roosevelt literaly took out of the hands of the 2nd Armored Division to send to the British in North Africa to save the Suez Canal from Rommel![:-]
Americans have a hard time remembering how strongly isolationist the US Congress was on December 6, 1941. Without Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt and Churchill werent going to get another DIME from people like Arthur Vandenburg, Charles Lindbergh and Robert McCormick. (To give you an idea of how wide spread the "America First" movement was, John Kennedy sent them a contribution along with a letter describing how vital their work was!) And once we were mugged by the Japanese Navy the whole country went nuts. (I love Halsey's comment that when he was finished, the only place Japanese would be spoken would be in hell![:D]) (This is the correct attitude to carry into a war. ed.)
Hitler didn't declare war until December 11. Churchill says that they were the four worst days of his life. If Hitler had kept his temper for just another 6 months (and remember that American ships and aircraft had been shooting at Germans in the Western Atlantic since September 1941) the United States would have been irrevokably commited to the destruction of Japan, and Churchill would have been stareing at the loss of Singapore, another failed campaign in the Middle East (possibly with the loss of Egypt and the Suez Canal -- remember those 300 Shermans!), the Australians and New Zealanders withdrawing their (very badly needed) divisions to defend their homelands while screaming for air, naval and troop reinforcement from the mother country. He would have been doomed and the vote of confidence that he passed in early 1942 would very easily have gone the other way.
And, remember that US aid to the Soviet Union was predicated on America being at war with Germany.
So, if your'e concerned about play balance, Doomtrader has already told us that there is going to be a change (although we dont yet know what change) in the automatic American declaration of war in December 1941.
