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« on: May 10, 2010, 12:30:03 PM »
Guys,
I've been a bit busy hence no posts, but I have been REALLY enjoying playing as Brian's evil Axis 2ic (basically his Scott Evil). Here are my highlights so far from this very interesting playtest.
Overall
- the pace has been great - two experienced players on each side makes for quick turns.
- the teams are well-balanced
- the game is serving a valuable role as a playtest; some rules (Sov trucks, double mech in non-arid summer) are working really well. Others (my stupid candidate rule limiting rerolls) were canned.
Strategic level
- the game is a test of the Fortress Italy model, with a twist (an annoying Axis outpost line in French North Africa). I have established the chain of island defences (Sardinia, Malta, Crete) and will be interested to see if it helps. My suspicion is that the Allies will sensibly avoid Italy and go for the main prize - France and Germany.
- this sets us up for a great test of the Operation Roundup scenario, the 1943 Allied invasion of France.
- in Russia, the forces are very thin and the double summer mech moves make for interesting effects. In Summer 41, the rules perfectly modeled the chaos of a long-range Blitzkrieg. Summer 42 saw both armies too broken to do much. I think Summer 43 is going to be CRAZY.
- in economic warfare, the U-Boats have been put in their place by strong ASW. That's realistic. It wasn't cheap for John to buy all those destroyers, but they are paying for themselves. We've maxed U-Boats since the start of the war, but the split between anti-transport and anti-economic tends to lead to failure in both.
- John has been a very smart British player - he's tried to help his allies (France, Norway) yet has managed to defeat the U-Boats and close down North Africa with an early show of force. John smartly recognizes that the UK is not really threatened by an amphib landing, and from that flowed many good resource decisions.
Tactical level
These lessons are classified for the moment.
Cheers
Mike