Slitherine

Ok, correct me if I'm wrong, but the Axis starts with Bryansk in his control and 26 vps. It's a six turn scenario. With Bryansk generating a point per turn, if the Axis does absolutely nothing and sits back on defense all game he will have a draw. If he takes Voronezh in the first half of the scenario --which is totally possible -- he will have a win, and can just sit back and make the Russian attack.

Somehow this does not seem to accurately reflect the Germans' last-ditch offensive on Moscow; it rewards doing little to nothing. Of course there is the possibility the Soviets can take out an Axis armored unit or something, but they are outnumbered and it just feels wrong that the burden of attack should be placed on them when historically the situation is the opposite.

I suspect a VP tweak is needed here as well, or actually I think it would work just fine as is if the Bryansk VPs were disabled. I didn't notice this at first and played the Axis hard aiming to take Tula, Voronezh, hopefully Moscow, and they were good hard-fought games. I can't see doing that again though knowing the Bryansk VPs are coming in...

Any opinions?

Hmm, not sure that we tested a passive Axis strategy. Not sure it would work that well though: Soviet replacements + fuel issues + thin woods make pure defense challenging.

Willing to be proved wrong though -- if you're willing, play a few games with that strategy and let us know what happens?

Well, I've mostly encountered people wanting to play the Axis.

I just requested a game with Dave Dunham; if he accepts, I'll post a few screen captures to illustrate what I mean.

Most of the time I am testing the game and am thus using the sandbox version of Game Center — I don’t see invitations from the real Game Center…

Well, you have one waiting if interested!