I've read the pro and con discussions about raising Axis oil levels or not. I know that an experienced player can hoard their oil reserves to continue to prosecute the war to the end. On the other hand, although securing and protecting oil fields and conserving oil should definitely remain one of the strategic factors playing the Axis, I'm not sure that reflecting this in the total grounding of air, sea and mech units is the best way to reflect this. A proposal follows that might make the oil issue more realistic and still remain an overriding factor for the Axis.
The idea is to have zero oil reduce efficiency of units and reduce movement rates when levels hit zero. Obviously no commander would ever use up the last drop of oil but would rather perhaps fly fewer recon flights, send fewer bombers into the air and, most importantly, training time for all oil consuming units would be drastically reduced to save oil for the frontline troops. This could all be modelled by simply causing efficiency levels to drop every turn that oil levels reach zero - and this should be applied most heavily against the heavy oil burners but also affect INF units to a lesser degree. Just off the top of my head I suggest the following -
Luftwaffe - 30%
Panzers - 25%
MECHS - 10%
INF - 5%
SEA units - 10%
Just a thought.
Radical Change to the Axis oil issue proposal
Moderators: firepowerjohan, rkr1958, Happycat, Slitherine Core
Good link to discussion on oil shortages by Axis.
http://karbuz.blogspot.com/2006/10/fuel ... -wwii.html
http://karbuz.blogspot.com/2006/10/fuel ... -wwii.html
My experience during playtesting is showing; especially with the added feature for reduce oil used for partial unit strength (i.e., a unit at 5-steps uses half the oil as a unit at full stength); that oil is not a problem. In my game against Neil it's January 1943 and my oil levels are above 600. Even without this feature as the axis player I usually run out of PP's and / or experience manpower issues well before oil becomes a concern.
Oil does need to be a real constaint for the axis player. I really don't know what you're doing to have issues but whatever they are oil should be constraining you. I would say in the 50 or so games that I've played to completion, as both the axis and allied player, that oil has been an issue in 5 or less. That's 10% (or less) of those games.
In terms of the more experienced players being able to manage their oil better, that's true with all aspects of the game. If an inexperienced player runs out of oil because they're not optimizing their play to manage it then they need to learn. What better lesson than running out in 1943 or 1944.
In terms of oil being historical, I'm wondering through our playtesting if we're giving the axis too much oil. We're currently collecting data on axis oil usage and manpower levels as a function of game turn. We'll be in better position to more properly evaluate this after we get more samples; but again ... we might need to ajust axis levels down if NO tester experiences oil shortages.
Oil does need to be a real constaint for the axis player. I really don't know what you're doing to have issues but whatever they are oil should be constraining you. I would say in the 50 or so games that I've played to completion, as both the axis and allied player, that oil has been an issue in 5 or less. That's 10% (or less) of those games.
In terms of the more experienced players being able to manage their oil better, that's true with all aspects of the game. If an inexperienced player runs out of oil because they're not optimizing their play to manage it then they need to learn. What better lesson than running out in 1943 or 1944.
In terms of oil being historical, I'm wondering through our playtesting if we're giving the axis too much oil. We're currently collecting data on axis oil usage and manpower levels as a function of game turn. We'll be in better position to more properly evaluate this after we get more samples; but again ... we might need to ajust axis levels down if NO tester experiences oil shortages.
The times I've experienced running out of oil are when I've made a push for the Mideast oilfields (v. 1.07). You need a big commitment of air to make it there and this means using oil all through the year leading up to Barbarossa so levels are getting low already by the time you launch Barbarossa. Twice I've been stopped just short of the oilfields by Russians and US - and then out of oil. Once, I got the oil fields but had to keep fending off Russians and Americans in Mideast and fighting Russians in Russia - even with new oil fields and all the others unaffected I ran to zero for several turns in a row and then was nailed due to lack of mobility. That was frustrating. And, twice I've secured the oilfields at a cost of a late Barbarossa - in these games oil is not currently a major issue, though an invasion in another theatre could change that. I am getting better at oil conservation but you have to move fast in Africa to accomplish your goal and that requires heavy hitters that consume oil. Maybe the oilfield strategy is just a losing proposition? I'll be interested to see how oil plays out in the 2.0 version.