Weather

[VonMellenthin]

The weather obviously plays a huge role in the game.

However, being able to anticipate exactly when the conditions will change allows both players to plan ahead.

It would be an interesting variant to have the weather change on a probability basis (like the Axis commandos in Bulge)... I'd certainly be interested in playing that as an expansion/ variant game.

[s_nkarp]

We thought about variable weather, but decided against because of the difficulty of balance. You can test it for yourself by playing turn five using mud rules -- hard times for the Axis. Harder to test a sixth clear turn, but even harder for the Soviets. We thought of having longer Frost if Clear was short, etc., but it's not symmetrical. Given another month I'm sure it would be possible - but we wanted to actually ship a game. Redmond Simonsen, our company's patron saint, used to say, "A game is never finished, only published!" In the end we wanted to get on to the long delayed Desert Fox (Alamein) as opposed to exploring more variants from Moscow. It is one of the few disadvantages of video games vs. paper games that it's harder for players to do their own experiments

[VonMellenthin]

Good point, thanks. An extra turn of clear weather would make it quite possible for the Axis to take Moscow, whereas an early start to mud could be paralysing.

On the gameplay balance, I think you guys have got it about right. I can generally beat the AI as Axis and usually as the Soviets - but the latter requires more time & concentration.