Improving Russia's historic stout defense
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Hello all,
I thought I would posit an idea that has been percolating in my head since I started playing this game back in the 80s. Russia is too easy to defeat in this game.
I am curious how many of you have played a full game with Moscow surviving vs a competent Axis player ?
There are a number of ways to improve the defensive posture of the Red Army, however over the years its been easier to gravitate to other titles such as Russian Front, Russian Campaign and Advanced Third Reich to scratch this particular itch.
Rather than switching titles I thought I would make a thread here to address this "tweaked" aspect of the game.
I think the issue boils down to; How to make the Russians harder to defeat while at the same time giving the Axis a somewhat balanced chance at victory.
Here are some spitball ideas I have.
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Russians should be able to voluntarily destroy any factories or bases. Obviously that is an easy one with the edit function but to have the parties agree to the option beforehand is necessary. We know the Russians pretty much always followed scorched earth practices, even back to the campaign of Napoleon.
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Russians should be able to build factories in other locations. There could be a restriction such as for every one they choose to deny the enemy another one can be placed freely. Remove a factory in Leningrad, move it to Novosibirsk. 3 asset purchases allowed in 1 point regions for Russians only (although an argument could be made for Chinese forces as well)
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Russian infantry should cost 2 instead of 3.
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Russians should have the option to retreat from any German attack after the first or second turn of the invasion. We know the Red Army often used this tactic to trade space for time.
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Tweak more resource points towards the Moscow area, taking them from other areas so as not to overly award the Red Army.
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The Germans should get a +1 to all die rolls on the first turn of the invasion, and should be able to blitz through territory occupied by Russian forces.
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The Caucasus needs to have a higher point total as well and should be a critical strategic goal for the Germans. Perhaps a base of some kind would need to be build there for the Axis to score the bonus points. I think the point from Eastern Poland for example can be applied to Caucasus. AKA operation Edelweiss.
Obviously not suggesting such a list be codified, only that they could be considered as balancing options other than the standard bidding system.
I have more ideas but I'll post this now and edit it later.
looking forward to any replies suggestions etc
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@donpaulo You probably should specify which version you are playing (classic vs revised vs global, etc).
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Indeed, although I think the argument could be made for most versions unless I am mistaken.
I currently playing Global 1940 2nd edition
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@donpaulo Ah, yes in that case most players strongly agree Allies are underpowered in Global 40 2nd. You might want to check out Balanced Mod version as that tried to make the balance a bit closer to avoid needing such large bids.
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@redrum said in Improving Russia's historic stout defense:
@donpaulo Ah, yes in that case most players strongly agree Allies are underpowered in Global 40 2nd. You might want to check out Balanced Mod version as that tried to make the balance a bit closer to avoid needing such large bids.
Understood, I know I am late to the "party" so to speak and that this game has more of a strategic focus to it.
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AH 3rd Reich has a great first winter rule where the Wehrmacht are not doubled on defense, the Red Army is also granted a free offensive option which normally costs 15 resources points. To put it into perspective 15 resource points is equal to 10% of Russia's starting resource pool.
The Russian Front has a nifty 2nd impulse restriction when weather is bad that effectively restricts the German ability to blitz.
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@donpaulo Im not a Global player per se, but I have dabbled here and there. The game balance might benefit from a mechanism such a Russian winter. Either a one time event or cyclical events. TWW, Big World 2 BOP, and Big World 3 (in works) have these type of mechanism in various flavors. The latter also has a mechanism that allows Russia to move their capital and destroy front line factories if needed, but will cost them a hefty amount of political influence (PI), that could be used elsewhere.
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@general_zod Zod I believe you owe me a quarter everytime you use the term Poitical Influence.
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@donpaulo You may want to look at TWW. It has many of the features you list that are currently possible. Some features are planned for a new game I am working on... but in essence the type of situation you desire is already there.
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wow thanks for the posts. I will look into TWW
