Matrix Games Forums

Interesting discussion on the nickel mines in northern Finland:
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4745651

Someone brought up there is nothing of any kind of resource/production at Petsamo. Now I realize that there is no such thing as the "right" map. You can strive for as close to reality as possible (like Phil is aiming for in his mod I guess), or you can move things around, skip things, abstract things for game purposes.

I don't know all the choices made that led to the current vanilla map. But the lack of the Petsamo nickel mines may be reconsidered. It provided a significant amount of nickel, vital for the German war industry and was the source for much bickering between USSR, Finland and Germany.

So maybe, the Petsamo nickel mines deserve a place on the vanilla map? Makes this area somewhat more interesting too, as nothing ever happens there normally I guess, since there is not much of worth. Or is taking Murmansk as the Axis to cut off Allied LL worth it?

There's lots of areas like this missing. Bauxite mines near Tikvihn, etc.

Petsamo isn't special in this regard, and if you want to add that, I'd want to see the allies get something to offset this. Axis production in this game is rather high already in relation to the allies. 3-2 or so and that's being very generous to the Axis. It should be closer to 2-1.

I think the UK in particular gets shortchanged here. The game treats it as being half as good economically as Germany to start, when in reality the UK should be pretty close to the initial German GDP. This invites cheese like the French sending Britain lend lease which is ridiculous, but that's about what it takes to keep the UK in the production game early on.

And I think the Soviet production multiplier is on the low end. The base production is fine, but it doesn't ramp up anything near as well as it should, considering that the Soviets outproduced Germany for the entire war. The Soviets in this game are overly reliant on lend lease to keep them anywhere near parity with Germany.

I also think removing the British strategic bomber entirely was a mistake, especially in light of their abysmal production.

The bomber should've been put in the queue and set for mid 1940. Having the British build it from scratch is a big ask given their anemic output.

The Soviets, now since it was fixed, should be getting factories in the rear as the war progresses. Soviet air is also cheaper. I was going to make land units but that is the major force in the game and I thought more gamey than making air forces cheaper. Air power in WarPlan isn't as brutal as other games as you know and countered with AA.

Ultimately it is about balancing along with realism so players have a good experience.

I'm not demanding absolute historical fidelity here and understand some abstractions are necessary at this scale. But I do think there are balancing issues here with regards to production. I'll take it under advisement that the Soviet situation is better pending my current game.

I still think the UK is very shortchanged here and needs some love.

Balancing, always tough to get right. Also, I am not advocating creating the Petsamo mines with the aim to to boost Germany. Rather to make a pretty unexciting piece of Finnish real estate a little more interesting. Perhaps by subtracting it somewhere else and moving it to Petsamo, something like that.