After playing arround 40 turns, as Red and with the 1.06a patch in a 3 players PBEM game, i submit few comments about the game. Be carreful it's just some ideas, they are maybe wrong or right... Often it's not really an idea, but more a question.
Notice that i have only a Red point of vue, beware the game balance, of course.
*** And definitivly sorry for my bad english. ***
¤ At the begin of the game i noticed a lack of war supplies. So i built 3 factories, the game offers a lot more. It was unnecessary. Late nov 1919 my stockpile of warsupplies is at the top and i can't use it. The main red problem is not war supplies, it's money.
¤ Because lack of money, it's impossible for the red to recrute a large red army than IRL. I read in the Orlando Figes's book that red army count 3 millions men in 1919 (with strong problems of war supplies, shoes, uniforms etc... it's right). It's impossible in the game. I have only 15-20% max of this number, because lack of money. I did'nt try to recrut only Red Gards, who are cheaped, but so innficient.
¤ Because lack of money it's impossible to buy expensive units : artillry, armored trains, airports, armored cars... I built a tank factory at Petrograd but why ? After this factory was finished, tanks are too expensive ! It's a gameplay problem. Maybe red side could have more option to rise money in the politics options screen ? of course every turn i try, in special operations screen, to rise tax in my provinces, but the option is often impossible... (Moscow, Petrograd where the loyalty is high though...) Rules about special operations have to be clarified, often i have an alert message that the mission is aborted because conditions are not ok, but why i can selected the option few turns ago ?
¤ Game balance. i don't know if you have a lot of final result PBEM games. Who is the winner most of the time ? Reds ? Whites ? i don't know in my game it's premature to give a prognostication. But what i realize:
- French army leaved the game late (september or october 1919) ,
- In 1919 Reds are near the black sea, in our game Don Cossack are at Kharkov, Ukraine is totally white,
- IRL Never Don Cossack and Siberians meets each other. They did it in our game, at the north of Tsaristine,
- IRL Siberians were rarely at the west of Volga River, in our game they are at the south of Nizhniy Novgorod.
In my idea Whites are very stonger than IRL. But be carreful. The game need to be attractive for both side. Whites must win if possible. if it is not historical never mind. By exemple in the last AGEOD game, the Pont Empire is not attrative to play. They know defeats after defeats. It's historical, but not really attractive...
¤ Garnison. I realize that systematically if an army attacks an engarnisoned city, with red Gards or Garnison units, the white army no suffer casualties. 0 KIA men, for 6000-8000 deaths in my garnison, entrenched level 4 in the city. It's strongly curious. They take the city and it's normal. But 0 men KIA it's abnormal. In game play you consider maybe that Garnison surrended ? But result : never put a little garnison in a city. It's useless. Keep cities without defense.
Just some ideas...