This analyze is built on two games, one playing germany up to the fall of france in october -39 , one as USSR until -42. What i aim to describe is the conditions which will effect the balance in multiplayer, where germany and USSR are played by roughly equal players. I compare to arma 1.2 but also to EIR.
It's been said that USSR is overpowered in arma (and possibly all of the vanilla versions of the game). There might be some truth in this, so i'm not all negative to a decrease in ussr. power. I do believe AoD has brought that too far. Here are the observations which has led me to this conclusion.
1) RESOURCES. Developers cut down on resources, completely eradicating the vast energyincome given by some siberian provinces, for example. I believe this is a thing made generally all over the world, to model a less over-saturated market. Germany however (who didn't have as much in arma either) seems roughly untouched. USA might have been decreased, though i haven't played them. I assume this because the allies seem pretty dry on rares from late -38 and onwards, in trade. For germany, this means a bit more scraping and begging to get the needed resources. For USSR (who doesn't really have any trading-partners except equally resource-hungry germany) this means less IC can be sustained. EDIT. USSR resource income 1936 in AoD compared to arma 1.3: ENERGY 800 -> 570 METAL 400 ->261 RARES 193 -> 165
2) STACKING PENALITY. While not at all a bad thing in itself (one of the worst things in vanilla was always the superstacks), it does change the balance on the eastern front. USSR's strength lies in manpower and generally it has a larger army of less quality than germany. Therefore this penality will probably be more hindering for USSR than germany.
3) IC. I've mentioned resources as a limiting factor for USSR in 1). But that's not all there is to it. New national ideas give an increased effectiveness. For germany this nets a nice +15% in -36. Combined with a 10% bonus on industrial construction, means you can afford to build industries in _every_ province owned. Do this for two runs, and you'll have around 400-450 eff. IC in late 37, possibly reaching close to 500 after anschluss and munich events. Meanwhile they also added an infrastructure modifier (again not a bad idea in itself) which eats away 10% of USSRs IC, and doesn't really effect germany at all due to the high infra levels. EDIT also added an "occupied territory" modifier. Not huge, but if USSR falls back to smolensk and along that river-line, it'll be another 10% base IC lost. This adds to imbalance since the war between USSR and germany will most likely be decided on USSR ground. If german land to any larger extent gets occupied, that probably means the war is over anyway. Yet again the idea in itself is good, it's likely to have bad effects on a country to have most of it's densely populated areas occupied. But it further weakens the USSR.
4) MANPOWER. Germany's old time weak point. There are now a few national ideas helping out in this field. If maxed out (though in that case you will lose the IC-modifiers ofc) it can give up to 45% extra manpower!! It's a nice extra dimension to choose between different bonuses (resources, retooling-bonus, IC and Manpower). But it is, as far as i can tell, added on top on what all the nations already had. This might not only lead to less balance, it also simply enlarges all forces in the game, who already in arma where unhistorically big.
5) TRADE. A minor concern, since this one is harder on germany as well. But if trade is more difficult for germany now that it no longer can haggle 45-65% deals, it's almost impossible for USSR. They have to pay loads of money, wich they earn less of to start with because of maxed planned economy. I buy the idea of ussr as a pariah that nobody really wants to trade with, however with the decrease in resources (see 1) ) it does have an impact.
6) SLIDERS. Lastly another minor issue. Now sliders are no longer only movable once a year, but rather can be rushed at a dissent cost. Germany is the only country that regularly and at roughly fixed dates (and therefore predictable) get dissent reducing events. The reduce in dissent is smaller now (-4, -3 etc instead of -10) but it's still there. Combined with the now easier and cheaper dissent-reducing system, it's not hard for germany to max out planned economy and get a fair distance on standing army before war breaks out. USSR on the other hand is the only country which regularly gets dissent increasing events, so they probably have enough to worry about in that area already without rushing sliders. Therefore this is yet another field where germany gets a slight advantage (probably a little less than 1 slider-move more up to -41).
EDIT 7) LAND DOCTRINES. In vanilla german land doctrines have high org and lower morale (which governs rate of re-orging). It is also peaking in power 39-41. USSR doctrines are inferior in org but higher morale (meaning armies will re-organize and be ready for new operations quicker). Starts weaker but steadily gaining, and by 43 is a strong doctrine-tree. However their morale bonus is now 40 lower (reduced in 4 different techs, increased in one). As a comparative number, the german total morale is 50. USSR armies might have re-gained their org too fast in arma, though it was nothing i myself have noticed. However it's another aspect where USSR has been weakened compared to germany, and further adds to the imbalance of the two. Thnx to Alexgorik who noticed the change.
Finally a comment on the nature of these observations. They are strictly limited to the scope of germany vs. ussr. I believe western allies are also strenghtened in the new system, and i don't know to which extent they have lost resource income. I also don't know what their national ideas give. When invading France in october -39 they had approx. 4-5 medium tank divs. That's stronger than they usually are. Also Canada had 8 TACs. This might balance things Axis vs. the rest, but when the big battle in the east starts, it still won't change the fact that USSR likely will be badly outgunned.
If anyone has experience from allied countries/japan/italy, and what impact the new system has on them, please respond to this thread.
Finally suggested changes:
Return some/all of the deleted USSR resources. Reduce german starting IC base a little. Reduce IC eff. for _all_ countries. Reduce manpower base for germany a little.
Regards
Milkman
It's been said that USSR is overpowered in arma (and possibly all of the vanilla versions of the game). There might be some truth in this, so i'm not all negative to a decrease in ussr. power. I do believe AoD has brought that too far. Here are the observations which has led me to this conclusion.
1) RESOURCES. Developers cut down on resources, completely eradicating the vast energyincome given by some siberian provinces, for example. I believe this is a thing made generally all over the world, to model a less over-saturated market. Germany however (who didn't have as much in arma either) seems roughly untouched. USA might have been decreased, though i haven't played them. I assume this because the allies seem pretty dry on rares from late -38 and onwards, in trade. For germany, this means a bit more scraping and begging to get the needed resources. For USSR (who doesn't really have any trading-partners except equally resource-hungry germany) this means less IC can be sustained. EDIT. USSR resource income 1936 in AoD compared to arma 1.3: ENERGY 800 -> 570 METAL 400 ->261 RARES 193 -> 165
2) STACKING PENALITY. While not at all a bad thing in itself (one of the worst things in vanilla was always the superstacks), it does change the balance on the eastern front. USSR's strength lies in manpower and generally it has a larger army of less quality than germany. Therefore this penality will probably be more hindering for USSR than germany.
3) IC. I've mentioned resources as a limiting factor for USSR in 1). But that's not all there is to it. New national ideas give an increased effectiveness. For germany this nets a nice +15% in -36. Combined with a 10% bonus on industrial construction, means you can afford to build industries in _every_ province owned. Do this for two runs, and you'll have around 400-450 eff. IC in late 37, possibly reaching close to 500 after anschluss and munich events. Meanwhile they also added an infrastructure modifier (again not a bad idea in itself) which eats away 10% of USSRs IC, and doesn't really effect germany at all due to the high infra levels. EDIT also added an "occupied territory" modifier. Not huge, but if USSR falls back to smolensk and along that river-line, it'll be another 10% base IC lost. This adds to imbalance since the war between USSR and germany will most likely be decided on USSR ground. If german land to any larger extent gets occupied, that probably means the war is over anyway. Yet again the idea in itself is good, it's likely to have bad effects on a country to have most of it's densely populated areas occupied. But it further weakens the USSR.
4) MANPOWER. Germany's old time weak point. There are now a few national ideas helping out in this field. If maxed out (though in that case you will lose the IC-modifiers ofc) it can give up to 45% extra manpower!! It's a nice extra dimension to choose between different bonuses (resources, retooling-bonus, IC and Manpower). But it is, as far as i can tell, added on top on what all the nations already had. This might not only lead to less balance, it also simply enlarges all forces in the game, who already in arma where unhistorically big.
5) TRADE. A minor concern, since this one is harder on germany as well. But if trade is more difficult for germany now that it no longer can haggle 45-65% deals, it's almost impossible for USSR. They have to pay loads of money, wich they earn less of to start with because of maxed planned economy. I buy the idea of ussr as a pariah that nobody really wants to trade with, however with the decrease in resources (see 1) ) it does have an impact.
6) SLIDERS. Lastly another minor issue. Now sliders are no longer only movable once a year, but rather can be rushed at a dissent cost. Germany is the only country that regularly and at roughly fixed dates (and therefore predictable) get dissent reducing events. The reduce in dissent is smaller now (-4, -3 etc instead of -10) but it's still there. Combined with the now easier and cheaper dissent-reducing system, it's not hard for germany to max out planned economy and get a fair distance on standing army before war breaks out. USSR on the other hand is the only country which regularly gets dissent increasing events, so they probably have enough to worry about in that area already without rushing sliders. Therefore this is yet another field where germany gets a slight advantage (probably a little less than 1 slider-move more up to -41).
EDIT 7) LAND DOCTRINES. In vanilla german land doctrines have high org and lower morale (which governs rate of re-orging). It is also peaking in power 39-41. USSR doctrines are inferior in org but higher morale (meaning armies will re-organize and be ready for new operations quicker). Starts weaker but steadily gaining, and by 43 is a strong doctrine-tree. However their morale bonus is now 40 lower (reduced in 4 different techs, increased in one). As a comparative number, the german total morale is 50. USSR armies might have re-gained their org too fast in arma, though it was nothing i myself have noticed. However it's another aspect where USSR has been weakened compared to germany, and further adds to the imbalance of the two. Thnx to Alexgorik who noticed the change.
Finally a comment on the nature of these observations. They are strictly limited to the scope of germany vs. ussr. I believe western allies are also strenghtened in the new system, and i don't know to which extent they have lost resource income. I also don't know what their national ideas give. When invading France in october -39 they had approx. 4-5 medium tank divs. That's stronger than they usually are. Also Canada had 8 TACs. This might balance things Axis vs. the rest, but when the big battle in the east starts, it still won't change the fact that USSR likely will be badly outgunned.
If anyone has experience from allied countries/japan/italy, and what impact the new system has on them, please respond to this thread.
Finally suggested changes:
Return some/all of the deleted USSR resources. Reduce german starting IC base a little. Reduce IC eff. for _all_ countries. Reduce manpower base for germany a little.
Regards
Milkman
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