Eric from our group has incorporated many a rule into our own creations from WiF.
He put in a lot of WiF play earlier in his life, but got tired of the long down time when people took forever computing all the combats to the nth degree. He used to bring a book to read while waiting for other to play.
We used to have a lot of our games go one way or the other like you, but that is what drove us to come up with the alternate entry rules. And even with those, things can still quickly "south" one way or the other if there is sub-optimal play one side or the other.
The best game we have actually had are the two grudge matches against the Bostonians. Those went into middle to late '44.
Most of the games our group would play would tip one way or the other earlier simply because of bad play by either myself or Martin. I won't even include our early games with Steve!
We were still learning the game then and his terrible play just contributed to the mess.
Early game in the '39 Scenario is a real tightrope. There needs to be some steady play by the UK and no real stumbles by Germany to get the game out to at least '42 in good shape.
Craig
Is there any chance you could send me a note with the house rules you’re using? I’m really tired of trying to fix this game on the fly. I’d especially like to know the naval air rules/units you’ve mentioned.
We’re in autumn of 1942 now; the Soviets are still not in the war. Your modifications to Soviet entry seem to be fairly historic; I’m concerned they are also unbalancing. With no worry about Russia, it’s given a free hand to Germany & Italy to run free, with predictable results, since they out-produce England by about 2-1. It didn’t help that Peter rolled dice last night about as badly as I’ve ever seen anyone roll dice – and this is no exaggeration. He made one airbase attack with 5 fighters against 5 German fighters – he got one hit; Jason hit with all 5. There was at least one other attack with similar results. In an amphibious invasion he rolled two consecutive rounds without a single hit while Jason wiped him out. Peter would probably be better served playing games like Spades or Hearts – anything that doesn’t involve rolling dice.
The poor dice alone has about killed this game. If Peter had even come close to average dice the game would be quite competitive; as it is, the Axis have a huge advantage now. About the only chance the Allies have is that by going so long with no US entry the VP victory check is going to be pushed back – three turns, as of right now.
Against my better judgment, I let Jason talk me into not making aircraft into a single-use item this game – with predictable results. Aircraft are just too powerful in The Struggle and need to be seriously nerfed. Most of the time I let everyone vote on what house rules to try out. If we play The Struggle again I’m just going to write some house rules and basically say, “My game – my rules.” I’ve had it with the aircraft ruining the game.
I didn’t remember the long wait times when I was playing WiF years ago, but now that I think about it, you’re right. We used to play at a game store that a guy had in his basement, and I remember that a couple of games I actually got into some other game on the side and just told the other WiF players to give me a yell when there was something for me to do – and I ALWAYS had a book with me to read. This memory has come back to me the past two weeks. I’m playing France, China, and the Soviet Union. Since Jason didn’t attack the Soviets, I’ve had virtually nothing to do since France fell. I spent almost all of last night on the internet in the next room.
The long times sitting around with nothing to do while your opponent moves is an issue that all by itself has already caused me to rethink trying World in Flames. We played for 4 hours last night and I never rolled a single die the whole night.