Game balance with EF box.

[tyronec]

Have any experienced players played HvH games with the Eastern Front option ?
Just looking at the game would have thought it would give significant advantages to a skilled Axis player, but not sure if they are sufficient to overcome the costs.

[loki100]

purely personal opinion.

on release it gave the axis player a huge advantage. I actually now find it an annoying source of unplanned errors for the axis side in a PBEM. So, I try to leave it off and use historical transfers/returns

I think to make it work for you, then you need a very good understanding of what the Germans shifted and when as well as how units compensate if you do your own model of transfers.

Issue now is (rightly) if the Soviets get ahead of schedule problems escalate - you get more units needing to refit so less fresh equipment in the west and so on, and it ends up consuming your reinforcements. I recently had an otherwise very enjoyable PBEM end early really as a result of this.

So my 2 euros worth - leave it off unless you really know how to match historical flows of units and exploit the small margins that can open up as a result

[tyronec]

Thanks Loki,
Seems that the game has a fine balance and using EF risks swinging it to one side or the other without much gain - unless you are playing it to try out historical alternatives.
And hang on to those euros, you might need them soon.

[Lovenought]

Things are much less tight for the Germans in the 4th Supreme Command campaign, right?

[tyronec]

Would have thought the 4th supreme command variant is even less tested so less likely to work out as a balanced game. For historical interest as a what/if then great.

[Sardaukar]

Does AI use EF box if enabled?

[Devonport]

I think so. When I have played AI with EF box on I get occasional points, presumably when AI has failed to meet EF requirements?

[bomccarthy]

ORIGINAL: Sardaukar

Does AI use EF box if enabled?

Yes - but not very skillfully. I played my first full 1943 campaign game against the German AI with the EF box enabled and won a minor victory when the Soviets captured Berlin a month early. The German AI doesn't seem to allocate enough forces to the EF box to prevent the Soviets from advancing faster than the historical timeline. On the other hand, as the Western Allies I had a very tough time advancing (although it was my first campaign game).

[Devonport]

Latest Beta attempts to address German weakness against Soviets.