Even though Battlefront does a decent job of setting
point values, one problem dividing the war neatly into three eras is the
"early era" lists have trouble competing with "late era"
lists because technology advanced so quickly during World War II. Pure 1942 lists frequently have trouble
fighting outside of their theater in mid-war because of developments in 1943
which expanded the power of most of the major combatants, especially the
Germans who introduced the Panther, the Ferdinand and a host of other new
vehicles in time for the Kursk offensive.
In Early War, the Soviets introduce the T-34 and KV series of tanks into
broad service starting in 1941. In Late
War, the expanded availability of high AT value Allied guns gives the later
lists a lot more hitting power than their early to mid 1944 counterparts.
Is it time to look at breaking out the eras of Flames of
War into more phases to allow for more even match-ups between forces? One thought would be:
1939-1940: EW
(could perhaps be extended to all operations pre-Barbarossa)
1941: EMW
1942-mid 1943 (pre-Kursk): MW
Late 1943 through mid-1944 (Jan through August): LW (through the Normandy-breakout and
Bagration, but pre-Market Garden)
Mid 1944-1945: VLW
The advantage is it makes it easier to balance forces
within the era, but there are several disadvantages as well. One is that it would be harder to have large
tournaments as there would be a smaller pool of army lists. Additional sub-categories would also make it
harder to find a pickup game as well. It
also takes away from some of the inherent simplicity of the overall system,
which is one of the hallmarks of the game.
Feel free to discuss below!
Interesting ideas on the sub period breakdown, but really we can just do that on our own by being more careful about historical match-ups and running more “themed” events.
ReplyDeleteI've thought about that option as well. Mid-War, especially the North Africa compilations do a good job of separating the periods out. I shudder to think what the point values for a KV-1 are going to be in EW though! :D
ReplyDeleteI agree with the era splits however the negatives that you mentioned are fairly strong cases. I did go to a midwar tournament to see lots of fairly accurate lists only to spot the "frankensteiner" list of 15 (I think) panthers rolling about, it didn't seem like cricket.
ReplyDelete