Game balance under 1.04.01.

[tyronec]

My game with Quantas, which is under the previous patch, we are playing:

Grand campaign, No Early End
TB control off.
Full FOW
Lock HQ Support on
Server game

No Ground Attack ADs except Axis T1. This is a significant nerf to the Soviets as they can do a lot of damage with GA. I know some players like the air war however I am not a fan, this greatly simplifies and largely reduces it to GS, Recon, air supply and Naval Patrol.
No temp motorisation.
No paradrops.
No Amphib assaults.
No air transfer unit

New mods:
+5 for the german and soviet and +10 for the german allies
reduced retreat attrition. These two help the Soviets and make it harder for for Axis to inflict crushing casualties early war.

We are now in late '44 and my feeling is has made for a better balanced game. However one game is not a lot to go on.
The Axis allies are still too weak, most of the time they are of borderline value for combat and were often relegated to ZOC screening.
Late war Axis looks to be too weak so would give them a boost under the current patch.

So am thinking the following might give for a balanced game for MP that would be more likely to run through to '44/'45.
TB control - Off
Reduced Retreat Attrition - On
Combat Delay Effects - Standard ?
Miscellaneous Leader Deaths - Reduced ?
Amphib invasions - Limited
No temp motorisation - On
No airborne ops - On

Morale mod.
Germany/Finland/Slovakia - Early +5. Late +10.
Italy/Romania/Hungary - Early +15. Late +15.
Soviet - Early. +5, Late +5.
(That would make Late war the Germans 75-65, Romanians 60, Hungarians 65 and Soviets 55-65 though the Axis allies have worse equipment/leaders and the Soviets should be building better morale if they are winning more battles).

Axis vehicle repair - Default ?
Soviet vehicle repair - Default ?

Any thoughts ? Anyone have experience of of all the latest options ?
That is a big boost for the Axis allies but I don't think it would make them over effective, perhaps get a lot more use of their elite units.

[chaos45]

This game takes a long time to play even the first 6 months of the war....

HYLA and my game is under the new patch

Air is full use---Germans so far basically just destroy the red air force anytime any German fighters show up.

Romanians +5 entire war Hungarians +5 Late war

TB control off

Everything else standard.

With the +5 The Romanians are slightly more difficult for EW soviets to deal with but not overly so.

We are also playing with the Germans having the ability to do limited unit builds---which HYLA has used to build a few new German Cavalry Divisions and Brigades as I have already had to engage them---so that is the big wild card.

So far up to almost the end of November 1941 and HYLA has had a subpar northern drive, got very close to Moscow--closest point was 3 hexes out.....and took past Tambov in the in the center was a IMO a threat to move on Penza and Saratov.

In the South I have so far managed to stop him at Rostov but he is just over the first major river line towards Stalingrad.....I heavily fortified the Rostov Line before he arrived and committed an entire front to holding Rostov and the major river line----and even with all this preparation he managed to smash up several lvl 3 fort stacks and smack across the major river towards the east.....So far he hasnt crossed as due to MP/ZOC/possible counterattacks forcing him back across and taking losses i dont think he wants to take being the main reason.

So basically vanilla with some slight pro-axis rules changes and seeing the Axis doing I would say a slightly better than historical overall advance without it being to costly in terms of losses on the axis side. Now will have to see how blizzard goes as our next turn is the last one before December weather turns start.

I would honestly rate HYLA for sure the more experienced/rules savvy player between the two of us, but I had some experience on WITE 2 and alot of experience as Soviets in WITE 1 so no slouch at defending with Soviets either and the situation was pretty touch and go to keep in the game in 1941. As well I'm sure he will preserve alot of combat power for the 1942 campaign but again will take a long time for it to play out...

With the limited build options he will also end up having 10+ divisions worth of combat power added to axis forces im sure by mid 1942 between the cavalry builds, extra SU builds, and some limited infantry division/brigade builds. I think he has already added at least like 2 cavalry divisions and 2-3 cavalry brigades....but not sure the exact unit builds he has used from my axis build list---it is restrictive and mostly just cavalary, limited infantry divisions, and various SUs.