tacojohn45
Imp Gamer
Posts: 9
(10/24/03 1:42 pm)
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The Reich Triumphant(TRT) Game 01 Commentary
This discussion thread is for discussions and questions related to play test game 01 of The Reich Triumphant: World War in 1950 (a/k/a TRT), for which the first two complete rounds have been posted on the Game Posts board.
A few preliminary comments may be in order for this play test. As a base-case play test, we decided to play the scenario using the origianl territory and unit set-ups. While the unit characteristics remain the same as in standard E&W, there are several special rules unique to this scenario. I'm not going to go into them here - they're spelled out in the scenario thread - but they do affect gameplay.
Quite possibly, the single most important special rule in the TRT scenario is the minimum infantry placement rule for the Soviet player. Here it is as originally drafted:
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The minimum infantry placement value of any red Soviet-controlled territory is 4, regardless of the credit value. Territories with a credit value greater than 4 are not affected by this minimum placement value. This rule is intended to reflect the mass mobilization of Soviet citizenry to repel invasion.
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I believe this special rule, while certainly valid from an historical point of view, is entirely too strong given the initial unit set-ups. It almost allows the Soviet player to fend off the German assault by himself, without aid from the Allies!
Now, to be honest, and this should be painfully clear from the game post, I didn't plan my opening campaigns very well at all. I had the German forces on the Eastern front attack both Russia and Kazakhstan in the opening combat sequence. This probably doomed Germany for the rest of the game, because in not taking Russia it allowed the Soviets to build on their Round 1 turn. This meant that for the duration of the game, the Eastern front was the Western borders of Russia & Kazakhstan. Germany simply never had enough economic production to overwhelm the Russian builds.
Another area that we (comrade brad and I, as well as Janus) thought was a little too heavily stacked against the Germans was in Africa. The African theater isn't the main event, but it provides vital funds to the victor. And, just as importantly, keeps funds out of the hands of the looser.
The almost complete absense of the German Navy in the Southern Pacific was explainable in the scenario since the Pacific War was concluded in the alternate history just as it was in the real history. However, this leaves the US Navy little clean-up to do, and most of the Pacific units can quickly be transferred to either the Indian Ocean or the Med, or sent through Panama en route to the Atlantic Sea. The US transports are able to begin their Japan-to-Eastern Siberia shuk-shuk by the end of round 2. In our collective opinion, the game seemed a little too unbalanced to give the Kreigsmarine a decent chance to make a good showing.
Finally, the initial set-ups for the German High Seas Fleet, the German Med Fleet, and the US Atlantic fleet seemed kind of thin to us. It was hard for me to believe that, four years after defeating the Japanese, nearly all US capital ships were still in the Pacific. Even though tensions with Germany were rising. And, given ten more years in which to arm itself, it seemed like the two Kriegsmarine fleets were a little short-handed.
However, we gave the original set-up a go, and you can have a look on the Game Posts board. Again, feel free to post any comments or questions here.
tacojohn
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