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So our group just finished our first game. Seems like a semi-relaxing game that only takes around an hour to finish once you have the rules down.
We had some questions and/or perceived balance issues though.
Advancements- There didn't seem to be any real incentive to get level 2 advancements, at least not until much much later in the game. Level 1 advancements are by far more useful. Level 2 will save you a card or two a turn in one particular influence area, but costs 4 cards. Meanwhile level 1 only costs two cards and deters anyone from messing with you in the first place, instead focusing on other players. Level 2 advancements don't seem like a viable choice until after all three level 1 advancement are nearly maxed (and you're going to be blowing your 8+ card income a turn on offensive conflicts).
Then there's nukes. Never seemed like a viable option except as a deperate ploy for the very last turn to win by one global influence point. Actually using a nuke offensively never made sense. You may prevent one person from winning at the very last second, but you cripple your ability to place new cards and close the gap. Use at the last minute if someone is beating you by one or two points? The fact that it can't be used on distant regions further limits its usefulness and sealed the deal for any of our group considering to get one (would it really be imbalanced to use it anywhere?).
Theme - A huge chunk of appeal is the theme of playing the different ideologies. While sides like Fascism and Imperialism play like they should feel (military aggression and beating up on third world countries), others feel a little left out. Communism doesn't really have anything distinguishing it from any other totalitarian regime. Capitalism is tenuous. We realize balance takes priority, but just wished there was some way in the rules to flesh those two out more.
Luck - Things felt a little too luck heavy regarding region draws. Having an early independent reagion be adjacent to you is a MASSIVE advantage, one that can very easily snowball. Similarly, Imperialism receives an unfair advantage if the first two or three regions are level one.
Both of these issues are somewhat mitigated by the "no distance penalties first turn" variant, but it still felt like early region luck played too large of a roll.
Faction balance- Capitalism feels like it gets the short straw. While every other faction in the game gets some kind of unique ability, Capitalism gets nothing that can't be recreated with an advancement: starting out with innovation and a culture defense power (that ends up being less useful than just having a one level patriotism advantage). Very skilled players might be able to snowball off innovation before anyone else gets it, but the "no distance penalties on first turn" variant really reduces the chance of that happening.
Then there's their second ability, which seems by far the weakest in the game. Three sides receive one undeflectable offensive conflict a turn (two of them in any area of influence) while another suffers no distance penalties for half the independent regions in the game. Capitalism gets...a 100% chance of one of their cards being eligable to be burned in order to deflect a culture attack, as opposed to 33%, and can only be used on defense? That doesn't seem anywhere close to even.
Then there's their strengths being divided. Their culture is (slightly) harder to dislodge, but it's economic they get the starting placement advantage in. Compare to fascism who gets defense bonuses to compliment his military placement bonuses.
All that wouldn't be so much a problem if Capitalism's weakness was less than the others, but in fact it's one of the most limiting in the game, if not semi-crippling. Compare how much more leniant Fundamentalism's weakness is and how much better its strength is (or seems to be).
It was still enjoyable and we'll be playig more, but we wanted to see if any of these had "solutions" so we could nip any future problems.
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Andrew Parks
United States
Somerset
New Jersey
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Hi, Mr. Body.
I'm glad to hear you guys enjoyed your first game and are looking forward to the next one. 
Here are some responses to the issues you raised:
1) Level 2 Advancements: Purchasing Level 2 Advancements can be very effective early in the game if there aren't many Independent Regions showing up beside you. This way, the entire world will become your oyster during the mid to late game, when your influence cards are much better spent spreading influence rather than purchasing advancements. A player with at least two Level 2 Advancements can be getting a lot done when others are only just starting to invest in them.
A good rule of thumb is: If you are adjacent to Regions and are fighting others to keep them, build up Level 1 Advancements. If most Regions are far away from you, then defense is not your most important concern, so trading up to Level 2 Advancements will help you when Regions come out that are far away from everyone.
2) WMD's: Towards the end of the game, these are a very viable way to score extra Global Influence Points (especially when you are relying on Advancements less frequently and don't mind trading them in). They are not meant to be fired often, but certainly you would fire one if you needed to stop someone near you from winning the game.
During early playtests, when these were effectively ICBM's with unlimited range, then once someone built one no one wanted to be in the lead spot. The endgame was truly endless. Therefore, we went with the more old-school nukes (short range missile launchers and/or airplanes that drop bombs) that required strategic positioning on the map.
3) Luck: Were you playing with both the "Double Independent Region Variant" (which starts the game off with 2 Independent Regions on the first turn) and the "Distant Regions Variant" (which ensures that both of those Independent Regions are distant to everyone's Regions)? Both of these variants reduce the impact of adjacent Regions being drawn on the board, since the first two in the game are equally viable to everyone.
4) Capitalism: The two variants mentioned above also give a nice edge to Capitalism, since it begins with a Level 2 Advancement and both of the game's starting regions are distant to everyone. I realize that the distance penalty is waived the first turn, but even so, it is often the case that those regions are not fully claimed during the first turn, especially if one of them is a Level 2 Region.
Also, there are other advantages to Capitalism, such as the fact that they begin the game going second in the turn order. Toward the start of the game, that is a nice edge.
In the end, you will notice different Ideologies having mixed advantages based upon the choices made by the other players (i.e. which regions they attack in which order). During playtests, we actually have been told frequently by playtesters that Capitalism was too powerful, and Capitalism has certainly won its fair share of games during 2nd edition playtests. As you play more frequently, you will be surprised at how the tables can turn and how different Ideologies can grow in power based on upon the game's current state.
Thanks!
Andrew
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Ok, that makes more sense. For some reason we were reading the variant rules wrong. "2 regions" sounded like 2 new regions per turn in 4-5 player games, and the "distant" & "first turn adjacent" variants sounded mutually exlusive.
Our games were looking like Fascism, Communism, and Fundamentalism having large advantages due to being adjacent to so many regions. Imperialism was only viable if the first couple of regions were level 1s not adjacent to everyone else (central africa & south america). Capitalism was especially weak since it only starts out adjacent to two. Games were usually decided by whoever had an independant level 2 drawn adjacent to them first.
So if I'm reading them correctly, you draw 2 independant regions on the first turn, they count as distant to everyone (except to the owning player who claims them), and there is no distant penalty the first turn?
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Andrew Parks
United States
Somerset
New Jersey
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Hi, Mr. Body.
When playing with all the variants:
1) You draw 2 Independent Regions during the first turn.
2) If either (or both) of those Regions is adjacent to anyone's starting Region, you keep drawing new Regions until you have 2 that are distant to everyone's starting Regions. All the other ones that were pulled are then shuffled back into the Independent Regions deck (so you still only have a total of 2 Regions out).
3) During the first turn, there is no distance penalty.
Thanks!
Andrew
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Neato. Will try that.
I'd be curious what kind of strategies Capitalism employs for people to think it's overpowered. I think the main reason it was coming in last was our interpretation of the distance variants (they're the worst in the game position wise for adjacent regions, while communsim/fundamentalism/fascism seemed best), but their power just seemed to have no effective focus (in addition to their weakness probably being THE most limiting in the game). The person playing them always feels like they're split between the 3 influence types.
Cultural- You get a (slight) edge to defense on this, so you figure you want to rush and place this as much as possible, but you still have the distance penalty.
Economic- No distance penalty for this, but no other bonus.
Military- Very very difficult to conflict with people here, so you figure rush to place this first so you're not forced to attack someone with it.
So early on they're always torn which to place first while the other Ideologies either get their choice of where to square off (Communism, Imperialism, Fundamentalism) or are significantly boosted in one area (Fascism).
What's poor capitalism to do? From our view they seem like a weaker version of Fundamentalism (both start with level 2 advancement, Fendamentalism gets better power, less limiting weakness, and more adjacent regions.)
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Andrew Parks
United States
Somerset
New Jersey
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The biggest challenge for Fundamentalism is that they start fifth, which means it can be tough for them to climb out of that hole during the early game.
A common strategy for Capitalism, quite honestly, is to stay home and build up the United States as well as their level 2 Developments for the early game. This way, they are not wasting their time fighting others until later.
If something comes up that is distant to everyone, the Capitalists often seize this opportunity to stop building up the U.S. and head over there with Military, hoping to bait another player into declaring war with them in order to remove it (remember: even Fundamentalism must be at war in order to use Jihad against another player's Military Influence). The fact that Capitalism has been building up Level 2 Advancements often gives them an edge against such regions.
Therefore, when deciding the order of placement at a Region, Capitalism should choose Military (to bait players to break them out of Isolationism), then Cultural (to take advantage of Attractive Culture), and lastly Economic (since they can always go in later and ignore the distance penalty).
Good luck!
Andrew
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