What is the purpose of the land units with 2-hex movement?
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Dear TripleA community,
could you please explain what is the purpose of the land units with 2-hex movement?
Lets make brief calculations:
1 land unit with 2-hex movement costs more than 1 land unit with 1-hex movement (of course with the equal other stats).
Therefore, land units with 2-hex movement can be beneficial only if they exploit their movement advantage. But are there really enough situations where it could be done?2 land units with 2-hex movement are superior on offense over 3 land units with 1-hex movement only if all the following conditions are applied:
1.) the front width is 3 and more hexes wide
(«number of land units with 2-hex movement» + 1);2.) enemy land units are spread with at least 1 hex between them;
3.) 2 land units with 2-hex movement cost less than 3 land units with 1-hex movement;
And 2 land units with 2-hex movement are always inferior on defense than 3 land units with 1-hex movement.
To sum up:
2-hex movement is a very occasional advantage on offense and always disadvantage on defense.What the problem you may ask?
Generally, there are only some hexes on the Eastern Front (and Chinese mainland) where the front is wide enough for land units with 2-hex movement to be somehow occasionally beneficial on offense.
Other fronts are generally too narrow: units can only move in one direction or backwards.
Even if the front is 2 hexes wide, there is still only disadvantage for land units with 2-hex movement for the force concentration both on offense and defense over land units with 1-hex movement.Even the best cavalry cannot benefit from the fastest horses if the battle occurs in the narrow pass of Thermopylae!
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@unternehmer In A&A style games, faster units can move up to the front faster from the factories they are built in. That is a significant advantage, even for the strategic defender.
In the end, it depends on costs and position. In most A&A games, tanks cost 5, but in games with many land areas like the Global edition, tank costs are raised to 6, to discourage building too many tanks.
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@rogercooper said in What is the purpose of the land units with 2-hex movement?:
...but in games with many land areas like the Global edition...
Dear @RogerCooper,
thank you very much for your explanation!By the way, what game do you mean under "the Global edition"?
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@unternehmer The combined game of Axis & Allies: Europe 1940 & Axis & Allies: Pacific 1940.
