Weather

This change certainly fits in with the better Allied knowledge and forecasting of weather since most weather patterns went from west to east in Europe. There was a reason that the Germans tried to sneak weather stations on those North Atlantic islands.

The Weather Forecasting does help the Russians. It is more pleasant to play Russians with it, and certain unrealistic German progress in poor weather is off-set by this and various weather rule changes. I have bought into Alan's desire to see that play in '41 will feel and play right, and then have the balance calibrated. Some problems were discovered wrt story boarding and to balance last Summer. There has been much improvement with the "story", and now we are striving for balance. This is a very long game (though the time flies for me), so it will take a while to get the balance figured out--I hope we succeed in a reasonable amount of time. The many remarkable improvements in ETO-izing TITE are nearly complete, and we'll see.

<<We want TITE 2 be well-balanced, and to see a lot of Russian forces destroyed in '41--it should feel like an ordeal most of the time.>>

I agree 1000!!! But this rule seems to favor the Soviets again. So I’m confused about that thought process.

This new rule, called Weather Forecasting, makes playing the Soviets a little simpler when they are still on the defensive, since they will know whether Overruns are possible, how fast units will be able to move, etc. It's emotionally and mentally more work to play Soviets, though I love doing it. You typically have to see so much destruction of your forces before you can, if ever, go on the strategic offensive. Playing Germans on defense later in the war is easier because the Russians are less explosive, and mistakes are less damaging on the whole. Some players have seen the Russians win the majority of games (Barbarossa) in TITE, and would not relate so much to my point. We want TITE 2 be well-balanced, and to see a lot of Russian forces destroyed in '41--it should feel like an ordeal most of the time.

There is a new SOP that has the new step for the Weather forcast- Allied/Soviet Weather Step when the Axis player determines the next Game Turn’s weather. I can not get to the new file but the step happens just before the Repair & Recovery of the Allied/Soviet player turn. There is always an Axis player so they are the roller. I will just use Soviet to explain.

After the roll, if the weather is the same the next turn, nothing is done with cards. If the weather is going to change, the new weather card is placed under the old but at 90 degrees. The Soviet player completes that turn. When the new turn starts and there is a 2nd card (the weather is changing), remove the old weather card and rotate the new card upright. The Axis begins the turn.