Why prestige reset in Sea Lion?

[robman]

I started Sea Lion last night, and I was puzzled by the prestige reset in Turn 2 of the first scenario. What were the reasons for this decision? In terms of modeling the hypothetical operation, it seems odd to assume that the commander would have been so utterly stripped of resources at the outset of so perilous a mission, and without competition from an Eastern Front. As a practical matter, the reset has no effect, since it is not accompanied by any limit on the player's imported core or reserve units. (I bought 20K worth of fighters and then disbanded most of them at the beginning of the second scenario.) What am I missing?

[nikivdd]

As you wrote, to buy additional fighters, bombers,..., to reinforce/upgrade the core army immediately at turn 1 of scenario 1. At first, the surplus of undeployed units would be cleared as well, but was later removed as seen unfair to those who (especially) played DLC39/40 to begin Sealion.

[proline]

I started Sea Lion last night, and I was puzzled by the prestige reset in Turn 2 of the first scenario. What were the reasons for this decision?

The problem is that the mechanic of carrying prestige from one campaign to the next often isn't fun. If you balance the campaign without accounting for that, it allows players who did well in earlier scenarios to win later scenarios purely by virtue of having unlimited money. If on the other hand you balance the campaign assuming that the player has saved up some money from earlier scenarios you end up with situations like you get in the eastern front DLC where you run out of money and get stuck no matter how well you play and have to go back to 1939 to save up more money. For this reason newer campaigns are either relatively short (Africa corps, Allied Corps) or incorporate a reset partway through (West and Sea Lion).

[robman]

Many thanks for the thoughtful reply. I understand the basic idea, but I was (and remain) confused by the implementation in Sea Lion. The campaign imposes no immediate limit on core import, as 42-43 West does. Instead, the entire core and all prestige is imported without limit, and then the first briefing alerts the player that prestige will be reset at Turn 2. So the player can simply buy fighters until previously accumulated prestige runs out, and then later disband them to get the prestige back. Also strange is that the warning to buy additional aircraft comes at the beginning of Scenario 2, AFTER the prestige reset in Scenario 1, Turn 2--after the point, that is, where the player is (in principle) forced to use or lose the initial prestige allocation.

Beyond these mechanics, I am puzzled by the counterfactual historical modeling involved. Why would the commander of Operation Sea Lion be operating on a shoestring? All of the resources of the Reich and of occupied Western Europe would be at his disposal, with no other major operations competing for attention.

[AMDonline]

(I bought 20K worth of fighters and then disbanded most of them at the beginning of the second scenario.)

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i just did the same thing, the campaign looks broken without clearing the undeployed units,

but was later removed as seen unfair to those who (especially) played DLC39/40 to begin Sealion.

it wasn't unfair, it's was a tough and interesting challenge that the player would have to choose only few from his beloved core units and bid farewell to the others, exactly like Grand Campaign west.

taking that challenge off will make this campaign super easy even at the highest difficulty