Quick thoughts on Armor. Current has
Lgt Armor: A2 D1 M2 C6
Med Armor: A3 D2 M2 C8
Hvy Armor: A4 D4 M2 C11
Mech Infantry: A2 D2 M2 C6
Med Armor is basically the familiar A&A tank from Classic, and Lgt Armor is similar in that they are both better on attack than defense.
This will create a dynamic similar to Classic A&A, where the player is somewhat discouraged from racing forward with their armor, but instead incentivized to use it mainly for pushing the deadzones behind inf/art wall.
Mech is cheaper than Med Armor here, but just as good on defense, so that unit becomes kinda the default blitz unit under the current scheme with that cost. In Revised A&A the defense of Armor was raised to A3 D3, which is the more familiar these days I think for a tank archetype. Perhaps something like this would be cool...
Lgt Armor: A3 D2 M2 C8 (the early period starter tank, classic style)
Med Armor: A3 D3 M2 C9 (the workhorse tank for the midgame)
Heavy Armor: A4 D4 M2 C10 (the endgame tank for the big moves)
Then you could also do
Fighter: A2 D3 M4 C12
Tactical Bomber: A3 D2 M4 C11
And the gameplay would pretty much capture the spirit of familiar A&A style dynamics to help players get oriented while still being pretty unique. I think raising the attack values for those units would create a somewhat more satisfying experience when rolling the dice too, especially if terrain effects retain that malus for the attacker. Least then the armored and air units would be able to absorb a -1 without becoming ineffective in certain terrain TTs.
Inf/Anti-Tank 4
Elite/Bunker/AAgun 5
Mech 6
Art 7
Lgt Arm 8
Med Arm 9
Hvy Arm 10
Tac B 11
Fgt 12
Armor has to be pretty good to compete with infantry if its going to be double the cost. Otherwise it's hard to justify the tank buy when you can get 2 hitpoints purchasing infantry instead of 1 for the same amount of PUs, which is why I think raising the A/D values there makes sense for the armor. With a higher attack/defense value Lgt/Med armor becomes a lot more attractive, and Med/Hvy Armor will be a go to towards the endgame for sure, since they're very useful at carving up bunkers and such. The mobility advantage is already pretty strong from the rail, so to keep pace it would be nice if the tanks hit a little harder.
I think Fighters could use the boost to A/D as well, just to make up the cost there, otherwise they're pretty pricy and kinda outclassed by the mobile ground. Destroyers are pretty cheap here, so I'd be less worried about fighter umbrellas screening vs fleets. I think it would help here actually, especially if one side gets wiped and locked off the water early on, cause then the coastal fighter aircraft can pick up the slack if the navy drops the ball haha. There's no hit 4 in the air here like A&A strat Bs, so you've got a little bit harder situation to manage the naval approaches without a fleet to guard the coast. I think that's where the tactical bombers at A3 would come in handy.
For advanced aircraft like jets you could do the 3/4, 4/4, or introduce a 5 maybe. Rosters rarely show the 5 much love hehe. It might be fun for the battleship or super carrier type unit. But anyway, priced that way at 12 the reg fighter is basically the same cost as the OG fighter from 1984 at the high end of the initial roster. The attack/defense values are lower than classic there which had A3/D4 fighters, here it'd be A2/D3 but still kinda fits with asymmetry and advantage to the defender so I think that would be kinda easy to get into. Tactical Bomber unit was basically carved out as the inverse, better on attack but slightly weaker on defense A3/D2, so they'd each have a niche.
That way for the roster you won't have too many competing prices for the ground game combat units, and spending a remainder can be a bit more intuitive. Since your base fodder is cost 4 PUs for most players (Trained Inf), means that a remainder of 1-3 is sorta the novelty impulse buy. Like when you can't divide your purse neatly into infantry and have a bit left over to burn.
Anyhow just an idea. Otherwise I've been enjoying the latest revisions. Feels pretty entertaining with adjustment to China and India, and the Eastern front a bit closer. The AI still struggles a bit I think with the Italian can openers and moving off the rail factories when they could have more reach holding position, but they still put up a pretty good fight if they can hold out a few turns. Fun stuff!
1941 Global Command Decision - Official Thread
