Balancing Scenario B The Tractor Works

[fenyan]

Comments here and on Consimworld indicates Scenario B The Tractor Works heavily favors the Russians. ASL Scenario Archive has wins in favor of Russians at 17-8 and they have ROAR at 61-28 so a win rate of 68%.

Other than giving the Germans the scenario balance provision of a hero, what else can be done to help balance this? Allowing the Germans to go first (or last)? Give them another 4-6-7 squad or two? I consider myself a novice player skill-wise and I'll be playing a beginner with two full ASL games under his belt who wants to play the German side.

 

[buser333]

Comments here and on Consimworld indicates Scenario B The Tractor Works heavily favors the Russians. ASL Scenario Archive has wins in favor of Russians at 17-8 and they have ROAR at 61-28 so a win rate of 68%.

Other than giving the Germans the scenario balance provision of a hero, what else can be done to help balance this? Allowing the Germans to go first (or last)? Give them another 4-6-7 squad or two? I consider myself a novice player skill-wise and I'll be playing a beginner with two full ASL games under his belt who wants to play the German side.

This is a classic scenario. Unfortunately I think whoever is lucky enough to get first move has a big advantage.

 

[Markdv5208]

Comments here and on Consimworld indicates Scenario B The Tractor Works heavily favors the Russians. ASL Scenario Archive has wins in favor of Russians at 17-8 and they have ROAR at 61-28 so a win rate of 68%.

Other than giving the Germans the scenario balance provision of a hero, what else can be done to help balance this? Allowing the Germans to go first (or last)? Give them another 4-6-7 squad or two? I consider myself a novice player skill-wise and I'll be playing a beginner with two full ASL games under his belt who wants to play the German side.

OUCH and that was on my replay list......maybe not now

 

[bprobst]

Play a better scenario. Seriously, it's just not very good, other than as an introduction to high-power weapons systems (FT and DC) and showing you how factories work. There really isn't anything to recommend it other than purely as a learning scenario (under which conditions the balance is unimportant).

That said ... as a novice playing a beginner you shouldn't be concerned about balance (as long as you are aware of the problems going in). Play to learn the rules. Rejoice at the wackiness that's sure to happen (Snipers hitting critical units, FTs running out of fuel at critical points, newly-generated heroes arriving to save the day) and just get the feel of the game. After you've played once, swap sides, see if you can identify the "wrong" moves your opponent tried and see if you can identify a better approach. You're not going to master the game any time soon, take the time to experiment.

Once you've both got a better grasp of the factors involved, you can seek out and play better scenarios that feature a similar situation. I'm not a huge fan of "Commando Schenke", personally, but it's a much better balanced scenario and will require a lot of similar decisions, on the German side at least.

 

[GeorgeBates]

I'm not a huge fan of "Commando Schenke", personally, but it's a much better balanced scenario and will require a lot of similar decisions, on the German side at least.

I never thought I'd hear you say this.

 

[STAVKA]

The German player replace 7 German 467 squads with 7x 468.

 

[bprobst]

I don't hate "Commando Schenke", I just don't think it's anywhere as good as a lot of other people seem to think it is. It's even possible (although I doubt it) that the revised version that comes with BV3 is close to balanced ....

There are plenty of "storm the factory" type scenarios, but my recollection is that most if not all of them are mighty big, and thus maybe not very suitable for two inexperienced players (and many no doubt require boards/counters/etc. that they may not have available as yet).