gigiduru wrote: Mon Sep 25, 2023 11:39 am
Played the mod a few times in SP as both Axis and Allies and 2 times MP as allies - one time until Oct/Nov 40' v.1.3(oponent dissapeared) and one time until Dec '41 v.14 BETA (i resigned because i wasn't confortable with certain mod changes).
I want to provide some feedback for whoever wants to read.
Firstly i want to thank Lothos for the work and commitment he has put into this. The mod is amazing and really fun to play both in SP and in MP. I respect him and his work and i hope he can accept both praises and criticism.
1. Subs in 1.4 Beta seems slightly OP to me. While in 1.3 they were complete garbage (i was hunting them with CA/CC with 1 point in ASW) in 1.4 they have been improved. There are tons of convoy routes and the map is very big so an apt german player can do a lot of raiding. Coupled with the new and improved ZoC subs get in 1.4 Beta i find that a bit too much. If you want to keep the ZoC for them at least consider thinning a bit of the convoy routes. Then again i haven't played past Dec '41 in MP so i dunno how much the game is impacted with US into the war.
2. Greece - Historicly Greece held on vs the italians but when the germans came it was over in a few months. PRoblem is that in this game the germans can arrive and help as soon as the war breaks out. Introducing the Yugoslavia 'bonus' in the equation will make the german player invest everything necessary to have Greece asap. Greece troops start undersupply and not upgraded and you need a couple of turns to actually do smth about that. Vs a competent player you don't have a couple turns. German players could have their AF , 2 HQ 2 cores and maybe the paratroops in albania and southern Italy by the end of September and when the invasion starts Greece is half occupied. No ammount of british troops will save that. I guess people could House Rule german involvement until a certain date but even then a better prepared italy would pose serious problems. TLDR - buff Greece to actually stand a chance or abort the Yugo event.
3. Prepared attack bonus - Like previous people have said i think that is not a good ideea. It is one of the most important core mechanics of the game and for me it's important in setting up an offensive or a defensive.
4. Localized Weather Patterns - I might be on the minority here but i have to say that i dislike this. In theory it's a great ideea but in practice it means you might have weather gaps in your defensive. The first 2/3 years for the allies are only defensive battles and while some of them you are supposed to loose (Polan/France/Greece/Yugo) you really don't want to loose all of your land in USSR. I am asking for it's removal from the mod but if maybe enough people support it we could have a version of the mod without it. There are already very many dice rolls in this game - i don't want weather to be a part of it.
5. Free France and it's uses (or lack of it). In a SP game you can use the Free French to go conquer back your colonies and maybe have something to do when it's time to invade Europe. But even so there is a big big problem with the difference in research. By 1943 even the Italians will be able to easily dispose of them. With no posibility to upgrade your navy ASW your DD/CVL's will get one shot by german > lvl 2 subs. My problem is that Frence gets a lot of MPP's in 40' and 41' - MPP's that are useless for them. It't not like you have a big front where to fight and every unit is important. In case of invasions - space is at a premium and every space needs to be occupied by an upgraded british or american troop. I think that the base game represented the free french in a good manner. So either make free france a minor of the UK (or US) or cut their income to 1/3 and give the difference (by convoy route) to the brits who actually can fight the germans.
These are my 5 major points of criticism. I know Lothos doesn't have any reason to respond or take notice of them.
Otherwise the mod is great. Can't wait to play it more!
I will try and address each item by the number you mentioned
1 - In our MP game I had the opposite experience. You did kill a few subs, I believe your expectation is that if you find it you should be able to destroy it and that is not really how subs should work. They are different than surface combat ships and should be though of as a wolf pack and not an individual ship. Doing damage to send them back to port is the intent which was successful. I believe your thought (and are useto) is to virtually destroy every Axis sub within a few months and not have to worry about them for about a year (as they take a long time to build). Again that is not historically accurate, in this case I think it is an issue of player wanting it to be easy vs historically accurate.
2 - Other players pointed that out and with the latest beta (I put out last night) there was a huge amount of changes done in the Greek area and to the Greeks. Refer to the changelog in Discord for specifics.
3 - This is again a player resisting change because they are comfortable with it. The fact is Infantry units in World War 2 were really no different than Infantry units in World War 1. If it was not for air power and armor it would have been trench warfare all over again. The change makes prepared bonus only available to armor and mechanized units. Again this represents more accurate to what it was like. Also, I have ran some sims and the AI seems to be handling the change just fine. I am going to play another solo game soon to see how it effects the invasion of Poland and France but I suspect (just like the AI) it will be just fine.
4 - Not going to comment on this one other than to say I strongly disagree with you and your assessment.
5 - Again strongly disagree. You are using your knowledge of the future to your benefit instead of the historical reality of the situation. Free France build is coming from their colonies and they historical used that to continue the fight. What you are asking for is to get rid of Free France and give everything to the UK (which is NOT historically accurate) for UK efficiency. I can see the communication from Churchill to DeGaulle. I know you wish to continue the fight but you should use words and not guns, send your guns to London. VIVA LE FRANCE!!!! Yea that will go over well with DeGaulle.
