Gentlemen,
having the chance to lead USSR to it's doom in the current game, I thought
I add my 2 cents considering the balance in the east:
I found it rather hard to find a position for my soviet armies in the very
early game, that did not leave another front totally vulnerable (well, the
two times I was daring enough to do it both were followed by my neighbors
jumping exactly on me exactly there... but that could have to do with the
diplomatic situation as well). Heading south, you forfeit your options in
Scandinavia and with some bad luck, you lose the Baltic states and have
Britain knocking on your door with two tempi and neutral support in
Leningrad. Heading completely north, you forfeit Iraq and Iran, having
Turkey eying Stalingrad directly, able to support themselves in easily.
Sending one unit south, one north and on west makes you completely
depending on DP and other player's help (where I managed to get screwed,
say... three times?).
There are two major weak points that can be very easily addressed inmho:
1.) NRG borders LEN. This does give the British player a major advantage
in taking Scanfinavia, as he will almost for sure have a fleet sitting in
NRG, which is in fact necessary to take Norway - but does put constant
pressure on LEN. a USSR fleet build LEN(nc) in case you have an early gain
is not only the most direct declaration of war to britain, but cannot be
used for anything else than northern Scandinavia, while Soviet armies are
desperately needed everywhere on the map. Removing Len(nc) is not an
option, but reacing it via ARO and Finland (not to forget it's baltic
borders) should suffice to balance the region. Thus, I would relocate NRG
to not border LEN.
2.) The second, I even think grave problem is the "claim" the map gives
Poland on the Baltic states, which makes it difficult to dip about their
fate. They are polish home SC right now, and that will always make Poland
want them badly. It does in the end give you more flexibility to build.
Yet as three of them is much too much - it does neither reflect Poland's
situation in the era, nor does it by any means reflect the importance of
the SC that are flagged "build SC" in the Baltic. Yet simply removing one
or two pink circles does not do the job for me, as any expansion of both
USSR and Poland will still result in a clash there with units, that cannot
be send elsewhere easily. So what I would do redrawing the map is:
- Remove SC LAT completely. It didn't have that much importance
historically, and for the sake of the game's balance in the region this
serves as well.
- Create an SC EUK, not being a build SC for anyone.
- redraw WUK and STA so EUK does no longer touch Moscow.
- optional: redraw STA to not have an (wc) and make EUK a build SC (home
of the Black Sea fleet)
This does result, in terms of tempi, almost in the same location:
bordering a single Soviet home SC and a neutral (polish build option) SC,
which is another move away from a Polish home Sc. Moreover, this gives the
Russian player a single option to take an easy SC, but having to forfeit
concentrating his troops on the north or the Baltic in the first turn. It
will as well never be a completely safe SC, as it is not to far away from
Turkey. And thus it serves to have another reason for Turkey and USSR to
fight over, as an IRAQ/IRAN agreement now can be done too easily imho. As
a plus, it gives a strategic very important region the role it deserves -
just think of the battles of Sevastopol and Kharkov, both EUk.
Just my 2 cents, but happy to read some responses...
Best,
Karsten