ORIGINAL: Michael T
If you take away air fuel drops without a quid pro quo on the Runaway by the Reds in 41 its game over for the Axis in WITE. You all need to bare that in mind.
Even with all the so called logistical benefits the Axis are getting the game is still ultimately (due to running and the blizzard) well in favour of the Soviets. Killing air refuelling will just make the game unplayable for the Axis unless you address running and the blizzard. I hope some reasonable and fair minded people will see this.
I have had a lot of success as Axis, this is true. But I have never come close to losing a game as the Soviets either. And given a choice if playing for a ton of cash I still choose to play as the Reds.
As Erik already implied, for the balance of the game, versus AI or PBEM, a wider view is good. Michael also has a (this) point. I think some way of toning down without eliminating air supply is one aspect of it, but toning down the blizzard penalties should be part of that as well. Presently Axis can and uses the extensive and exaggerated territory gains before blizzard to buffer the blizzard itself and remain competitive in 42. It may look weired if looked at in small, but at the longer term picture you get a reasonable result.
From what I have understand, air supply was done to a degree in 41 , but mainly with the transport Geschwader. It was also done with bombers in numerous cases, and not only in Russia. But the way I read the impact of it, it was affecting battalions or regiments, in order to get over a short term supply shortage to maneuver/defend for another day or two or three, or advance "another" 100 kilometers, aka 4 hexes or so. The effect it seemed to have had, and for which it had been done, seems smaller than the effect it can be used in game. Now is this a lesson to be taken as a fault of the Wehrmacht? Or an issue with the underlying simulation of logistics, fuel consumption or whatever in the game? Who trusts that if it could have been so accelerating the progress, the Germans wouldn't have figured it out quickly? Or couldn't they do it because actually the tempo and supply situation was worse for other reasons, say erring on the side of caution for lack of knowledge of Russian potential?
Perhaps one solution as pointed out would be reducing the amount delivered effectively by anything else but Ju52. That would need coding. Another could be limiting the max fuel to gain by air drops im HQ and units to some percentage, or alternatively, and perhaps much more sensibly, reduce the overall supply/logistic factors such that the new normal would be what many AI players face with the 80% difficulty setting (for both sides) -- as SigUp pointed out. That could be done with the setting, though adjusting it in code to make it the new normal sounds sensible. For AI it works well it feels, and it does also affect the late Soviet offensives in a favorable fashion.
Then also the player presently more interested in a competitive and more equal contest could simply use the difficulty settings to dial it back up to 120% or so, getting back from the historical normal to the present state if they desire. Nonetheless, if anything is touched, one needs to also consider touching blizzard or introducing houserules there as well.
