Air power still seems overpowered

[Sugar]

We`re not talking about an unplayable game, gents. I played 51 PbEMs, with 4 further still going on, and I managed to win them all, on either side.
The Axis is in favour by 60:40 I guess, that`s not justifying a complete change in gameplay.

In fact, if the Allies are able to survive until 44, the tide will undoubtly turn. Don`t forget the Allies` carriers, allthough not very efficient against land units, they are at least against aircraft.

Reduce Axis bomberpool, reduce their range, increase costs of buying in favour of tanks instead, and strengthen the SU slightly.

[KorutZelva]

ORIGINAL: Leadwieght

Replying to KZ on Sealion--I can't see how the Germans EVER succeed if tac. and medium bomber units are altered and given the same characteristics as artillery and don't have the possibility causing SP losses or only a slight possibility of doing so.

Let's say there's a British corps in Dover. The Luftwaffe hammers its morale to a low level and reduces its entrenchment to zero. But the Germans have only three or maybe four attacks from offshore ampib units in which to cause 10 SPs of losses. And only one of those ambips get ashore--the remainder are still at sea at the end of the turn in plain view of the RAF and RN. The German player can try to supplement with paras, but only if the Allied player hasn't put AA or Garrisons behind the Corps.

My point is that it would be much too easy for the Allied player to forestall Sealion with minimal investment. It takes away a huge elemnt of doubt from the game.

That's not the only point of entry. The UK players would still have to protect the coast line from Plymouth to London.

I would be fine if the window for Sealion would basically require destroying the BEF and overcommitment in other fields (tech, diplo, egypt).

[Harrybanana]

ORIGINAL: Sugar

We`re not talking about an unplayable game, gents. I played 51 PbEMs, with 4 further still going on, and I managed to win them all, on either side.
The Axis is in favour by 60:40 I guess, that`s not justifying a complete change in gameplay.

In fact, if the Allies are able to survive until 44, the tide will undoubtly turn. Don`t forget the Allies` carriers, allthough not very efficient against land units, they are at least against aircraft.

Reduce Axis bomberpool, reduce their range, increase costs of buying in favour of tanks instead, and strengthen the SU slightly.

Sugar it is not, at least for me, just a question of game balance. It is more a question about some semblance of historical accuracy. Air power was extremely important in WWII, but it was not the be all and end all that it tends to be in this game. There needs, in my opinion, to be more balance between the air and land components.

[Sugar]

Yes, that's why I'm demanding to weaken numbers of bombers slightly in favour of tanks. But both will still be needed, since they are the key elements in operational manouevre warfare in the european theatre.

Tanks are not able to stand on their own, their punch has been reduced, as well as their numbers and mobility. If your changing the role of tac. bombers to arty, it will be simply impossible to penetrate any fortified line even with increased numbers of tanks, and that would be completely unhistorical.

[Leadwieght]

As I said, I would favor keeping bombers' punch vs ground units the same as now, while making it (eventually) easier to defend against them by upping the potential AA defense of ground units and (somehow) making it a bit harder to send air units instantly, en masse, to sparsely populated regions with scanty infrastructure.

I think there would still be ample room for strategic and tactical subtlety, without some of the more wildly ahistorical gambits that are now possible.

[Sugar]

The first turn of the game has to follow the historical setting, from then on it should be the decision of the player, where to put his investments or even concentrate forces.

The issue is, that it isn't somehow punishing to favour NA instead of Russia for the Axis. There's no real time pressure, and the SU is simply to weak to deliver any threat, even in 42 or 43. I already complained about this issue in another thread, even at really good circumstances they`re not able to do a scratch on equivalent units; and that is really unhistoric.

In SC Breakthrough SoE Germany had a forcepool of 10 tanks and 6 bombers (there were no heavy tanks or med. bombers), no DAK, and the Inf. lvl. was capped at 3 for every nation, with no extra russian penalty. That game was very well balanced, allthough of course the better players concentrated their bombers in NA. Flak was completely useless, other than now.

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