Balance/Meta Thoughts v1.17
Posted: Sun Sep 24, 2023 7:18 pm
After coming back and playing a few MP games, I wanted to leave some thoughts on the current meta and balance. Overall the game is pretty fun and I think the last few patches have generally improved it. But there are still some things that could be further improved to create more interesting decisions and promote better balance. The overall Axis vs Allied balance is actually pretty good and I think only at top levels of gameplay the Axis are slightly favored though not as much as before. These thoughts are mostly MP centric and suggestions will mostly try to avoid impacting AI and lower level MP balance too much. The goal is try to create more varied gameplay and try to avoid the game being solely decided in the USSR in 1941-1943. The suggestions are also more of a list of options not that all of them should be done.
1. Early France Invasion - Most good Axis players invade France in late 1939 after Poland surrenders T1 or T2. There is very little reason not to as the extra several turns of mobilization gain for USA/USSR for DoW on Belgium and Luxembourg is fairly minimal for the trade off of having those turns to grind through France and cause them to surrender earlier than they even did historically which was already very quick. This was made even more advantageous with the air weather changes so that bombers can crush morale even during winter. It would be nice to see more early spring invasions of France or at least penalize the early invasions a bit.
Suggestions
- Consider adding a NM or mobilization boost for allies or penalty to Germany for a DoW before Spring 1940 (represents that Germany was being even more aggressive and invading during winter would be brutal)
- Increase the allied mobilization for Belgium/Luxembourg
- Make winter invasions in France more difficult by increasing bad weather chances in France and/or decreasing bomber effectiveness in land bombing during bad weather
2. Axis Ignoring North Africa - North Africa is generally quite risky for the Axis and if they aren't going to go for Cairo/Middle East then generally they essentially abandon it. It would be better to see less all in or all out gameplay by making it so at least trying to hold North Africa more meaningful not just some minor NM hits to Italy. If Germany completely abandoned North Africa then Italy would have probably caused all sorts of problems and potentially even left the war much earlier.
Suggestions
- Add more Axis NM penalties/bonuses either per turn like US Pacific islands or for losing/holding the North Africa cities based on when they historically were captured to promote more action in North Africa
- Change Afrika Korps event to spawn the units in North Africa either as an option or the only option so its more costly to transport them back to Europe rather than the other way around
- Consider some events to allow Algeria/Tunisia to join Allies if Axis lose all North Africa cities
3. Axis Ignoring Greece - Seems like most Axis players ignore invading Greece as their is pretty limited upside and not much penalty for ignoring it. Would be nice to see invading Greece the meta while still allowing for some games to not invade it.
Suggestions
- Adjust the DE to have more benefit for invading and more drawbacks for saying no
- Increase MPP or NM value of Greek resources
4. Med/Tact Bombers are OP - After the air weather changes, bombers are generally much stronger than before as they now are useful every turn rather than just in good weather. While I think air to sea combat now is better with weather having less of an impact, air to land combat is too strong during bad weather especially during the winter months. This mostly impacts France and USSR which allows the Germans to take more advantage of attacking during the winter months as bombers still cause full morale losses and do half damage (later in the game Allies can use bombers to crush the Axis as well though). The USSR in particular really struggles to deal with German bombers as they are usually behind in fighter tech (Germans often don't even need fighter escorts) and have very limited AA build limits.
Suggestions
- Halve the morale damage during bad weather
- Reduce/remove the morale damage increase per GAW level
- Reduce damage to land units
- Increase AA/fighter damage to bombers
- Increase AA build limits for USSR
5. Game decided in 1941-1943 in the USSR - Most games don't go past 1943 as either the USSR surrenders by 1943 or the Germans are stopped cold and the Allies MPP advantage is already too much. It would be better to see more games go into later years and more stable gameplay in the USSR. It should be fairly rare for the USSR to surrender and the USA shouldn't really be invading France/Italy in 1942. I think some of the concepts that have been applied to China should also be used in the USSR to make it be able to hold out longer. The USA should probably have less income in 1942, Japan less free units, and long range amphib invasions should be more costly/difficult.
Suggestions
- Add some events for USSR to get some free unit spawns as various Soviet cities are captured similar to China so they don't quickly collapse when losing
- Decrease USA income in 1942 further by making some of the resources not come online til later years. Probably decrease the number of free units Japan gets as well.
- Adjust LRATs to either be more expensive or harder to invade over long distances to promote capturing North Africa and more island hopping in the Pacific while also limiting crazy invasions like US directly to France/Italy and Japan directly to India/USA/Africa. Maybe even make regular ATs cheaper so you get more usage of them.
6. HQ Experience OP - Good players maximize HQ experience gain and get 3 star HQs very quickly which makes units under them extremely strong. This generally isn't the case for the AI and lower level players. Air units in particular seem to be easy to farm up HQ experience. There seems to be too large a HQ experience difference between the attacker and defender as Germany/Japan often have multiple 3 star generals while China/USSR have generals with 0 experience.
Suggestions
- Limit HQ experience to 2 stars instead of 3 stars
- Change HQ experience formulas to be more gradual and more focused on how much their units are fighting and less about whether they are winning/losing/attacking/defending. The Germans having like all 3-star generals in 1941 while USSR/China generals have 0 experience just seems silly.
7. HQ Supply Boosting OP - This can be optimized by good players to provide supply really far from the nearest supply source. Generally the AI and lower level players struggle to take advantage of this but this can allow for example the Germans to push very deep, very quickly into the USSR even with the scorched earth.
Suggestion
- I think the rules were adjusted in some patch to make it so any boosted HQ gets 5 supply so distributes 8 supply which just seems way too strong. This should be turned down to be based on the supply level the boosted HQ actually receives not just set to 5.
- Might need to nerf strat bombers a bit to counteract this which is probably fine since they are still very strong especially after the air weather changes
8. Invading Vichy France - Currently, usually the Axis invade Vichy France the turn the USA joins. There should be more drawbacks to invading Vichy France. Its essentially free income and has no defense and no significant drawbacks to invading it.
Suggestions
- Increase mobilization for a number of other countries especially in Africa
9. Port Blockade Hexes and Subs - With the recent changes to subs not losing supply when attacked, its very difficult to counter subs being placed in the blockade hexes to stop the convoy routes from South Africa and Australia.
Suggestions
- Only surface ships should count as blocking the port blockade hexes
- Just like convoy routes, an adjacent enemy vessel prevents the unit from blockading the port
10. Italy Combat Ships Outside the Med before DoW - Axis players still use Italian ships to scout for the Germans before the Italians mobilize
Suggestions
- Expand the US mobilization zone for Italian combat ships to beyond just near Southampton but any combat ships outside the Med before DoW
11. Carrier Exp Farming - All resources should have at least 1 carrier defense to avoid farming carrier exp and taking no damage
1. Early France Invasion - Most good Axis players invade France in late 1939 after Poland surrenders T1 or T2. There is very little reason not to as the extra several turns of mobilization gain for USA/USSR for DoW on Belgium and Luxembourg is fairly minimal for the trade off of having those turns to grind through France and cause them to surrender earlier than they even did historically which was already very quick. This was made even more advantageous with the air weather changes so that bombers can crush morale even during winter. It would be nice to see more early spring invasions of France or at least penalize the early invasions a bit.
Suggestions
- Consider adding a NM or mobilization boost for allies or penalty to Germany for a DoW before Spring 1940 (represents that Germany was being even more aggressive and invading during winter would be brutal)
- Increase the allied mobilization for Belgium/Luxembourg
- Make winter invasions in France more difficult by increasing bad weather chances in France and/or decreasing bomber effectiveness in land bombing during bad weather
2. Axis Ignoring North Africa - North Africa is generally quite risky for the Axis and if they aren't going to go for Cairo/Middle East then generally they essentially abandon it. It would be better to see less all in or all out gameplay by making it so at least trying to hold North Africa more meaningful not just some minor NM hits to Italy. If Germany completely abandoned North Africa then Italy would have probably caused all sorts of problems and potentially even left the war much earlier.
Suggestions
- Add more Axis NM penalties/bonuses either per turn like US Pacific islands or for losing/holding the North Africa cities based on when they historically were captured to promote more action in North Africa
- Change Afrika Korps event to spawn the units in North Africa either as an option or the only option so its more costly to transport them back to Europe rather than the other way around
- Consider some events to allow Algeria/Tunisia to join Allies if Axis lose all North Africa cities
3. Axis Ignoring Greece - Seems like most Axis players ignore invading Greece as their is pretty limited upside and not much penalty for ignoring it. Would be nice to see invading Greece the meta while still allowing for some games to not invade it.
Suggestions
- Adjust the DE to have more benefit for invading and more drawbacks for saying no
- Increase MPP or NM value of Greek resources
4. Med/Tact Bombers are OP - After the air weather changes, bombers are generally much stronger than before as they now are useful every turn rather than just in good weather. While I think air to sea combat now is better with weather having less of an impact, air to land combat is too strong during bad weather especially during the winter months. This mostly impacts France and USSR which allows the Germans to take more advantage of attacking during the winter months as bombers still cause full morale losses and do half damage (later in the game Allies can use bombers to crush the Axis as well though). The USSR in particular really struggles to deal with German bombers as they are usually behind in fighter tech (Germans often don't even need fighter escorts) and have very limited AA build limits.
Suggestions
- Halve the morale damage during bad weather
- Reduce/remove the morale damage increase per GAW level
- Reduce damage to land units
- Increase AA/fighter damage to bombers
- Increase AA build limits for USSR
5. Game decided in 1941-1943 in the USSR - Most games don't go past 1943 as either the USSR surrenders by 1943 or the Germans are stopped cold and the Allies MPP advantage is already too much. It would be better to see more games go into later years and more stable gameplay in the USSR. It should be fairly rare for the USSR to surrender and the USA shouldn't really be invading France/Italy in 1942. I think some of the concepts that have been applied to China should also be used in the USSR to make it be able to hold out longer. The USA should probably have less income in 1942, Japan less free units, and long range amphib invasions should be more costly/difficult.
Suggestions
- Add some events for USSR to get some free unit spawns as various Soviet cities are captured similar to China so they don't quickly collapse when losing
- Decrease USA income in 1942 further by making some of the resources not come online til later years. Probably decrease the number of free units Japan gets as well.
- Adjust LRATs to either be more expensive or harder to invade over long distances to promote capturing North Africa and more island hopping in the Pacific while also limiting crazy invasions like US directly to France/Italy and Japan directly to India/USA/Africa. Maybe even make regular ATs cheaper so you get more usage of them.
6. HQ Experience OP - Good players maximize HQ experience gain and get 3 star HQs very quickly which makes units under them extremely strong. This generally isn't the case for the AI and lower level players. Air units in particular seem to be easy to farm up HQ experience. There seems to be too large a HQ experience difference between the attacker and defender as Germany/Japan often have multiple 3 star generals while China/USSR have generals with 0 experience.
Suggestions
- Limit HQ experience to 2 stars instead of 3 stars
- Change HQ experience formulas to be more gradual and more focused on how much their units are fighting and less about whether they are winning/losing/attacking/defending. The Germans having like all 3-star generals in 1941 while USSR/China generals have 0 experience just seems silly.
7. HQ Supply Boosting OP - This can be optimized by good players to provide supply really far from the nearest supply source. Generally the AI and lower level players struggle to take advantage of this but this can allow for example the Germans to push very deep, very quickly into the USSR even with the scorched earth.
Suggestion
- I think the rules were adjusted in some patch to make it so any boosted HQ gets 5 supply so distributes 8 supply which just seems way too strong. This should be turned down to be based on the supply level the boosted HQ actually receives not just set to 5.
- Might need to nerf strat bombers a bit to counteract this which is probably fine since they are still very strong especially after the air weather changes
8. Invading Vichy France - Currently, usually the Axis invade Vichy France the turn the USA joins. There should be more drawbacks to invading Vichy France. Its essentially free income and has no defense and no significant drawbacks to invading it.
Suggestions
- Increase mobilization for a number of other countries especially in Africa
9. Port Blockade Hexes and Subs - With the recent changes to subs not losing supply when attacked, its very difficult to counter subs being placed in the blockade hexes to stop the convoy routes from South Africa and Australia.
Suggestions
- Only surface ships should count as blocking the port blockade hexes
- Just like convoy routes, an adjacent enemy vessel prevents the unit from blockading the port
10. Italy Combat Ships Outside the Med before DoW - Axis players still use Italian ships to scout for the Germans before the Italians mobilize
Suggestions
- Expand the US mobilization zone for Italian combat ships to beyond just near Southampton but any combat ships outside the Med before DoW
11. Carrier Exp Farming - All resources should have at least 1 carrier defense to avoid farming carrier exp and taking no damage