From: "Skip Franklin" Subject: Decision in France Play Balance DECISION IN FRANCE PLAYBALANCE: Geoff Noble who helped me with the alpha version of Ukraine '43 has come up with an elegant solution for fixing the playbalance problem with DiF, which I endorse: "Overall I do think there is an imbalance in favour of the defender which needs addressing but I do not think it is that vast. Overall I would limit the changes to three: € Eliminate the German Overcast replacements € If a poor or overcast turn is rolled then +1 to the next weather roll € Make the Hitler's Will rule a standard rule Given a 24 turn game the above leads to the following: 1 less poor turn and 1 less Overcast turn with 2 more Clear turns - net result 1 less German silhouette replacements making on average only 1 per game 8 less German replacements due to Overcast turns Therefore the number of replacement points (as opposed to reinforcements) is now 15 on the game turn track + 1 silhouette replacements = 15 Total as opposed to 15 + 2 silhouettes + 8 overcast turns = 27 Total So on average the German replacement rate is reduced by 40% approximately. This is very significant in game terms and I believe sufficient to balance the game. The Hitler Will rule prevents the Germans straightening there line and make it much harder to withdraw units to receive replacement steps behind the lines. In addition I have reread some on the comments on Consimworld and notice two areas where people are not playing the game to the optimum for the Allies. One is in the use of Aircraft - I believe there are best employed just behind hexes being attacked thereby disrupting/strafing any units trying to reinforce front line troops which has been attacked in the following German turn. Some people tend to use them to slow up the off board reinforcements - this is I believe a mistake. Secondly I noticed a trend to make a number of low odds attacks - I believe it is better to make a few selective high odds attacks, if possible and combine them with the aircraft as above." The above came from Mark Simonitch and posted on ConsimWorld http://www.consimworld.com Skip Franklin wargamer@gateway.net darksan@yahoo.com http://wargamer.webjump.com