My goals are:
- Air power equally important to ground power.
- 2 air units are equally important as 1 ground unit.
For the sake of broadening the discussion, consider dropping number #2 in particular, given the increasing dominance of air power from WW2 on. Of course an adjustment would have to be made elsewhere so ground units would still have a meaningful role.
The three things we can adjust are:
- Abundance of oil.
- Abundance of aluminum.
- Proportional value between one bomber, tank, and ship.
20 planes is #2, but not enough information alone. We need all 3 points draw conclusions. Resource abundance is easiest to identify and control... the second goal leads to more aluminum on the map. It also makes sense realistically (aluminum is much more plentiful than oil).
The proportional availability of aluminum vs oil is realistically correct... but we do tinker with iron and horses for better gameplay.
Ships don't have proportional value in the late game, and shouldn't given the AI's inability to use them. Bombers are (and should be) much more effective than tanks vs cities.
The value of units is what I want to alter. You'll remember how I've discussed elsewhere how I like armies comprised of a few elite, powerful units and a swarm of less powerful units. In the modern era aircraft become the swarm, and ground units the elites. This is why I want to reduce aircraft power instead of reducing abundance. In addition to the recent -20% bomber strength nerfs, another way to do this might be buffing anti-air units.
I agree with your logic, but could argue that the bombers are the (results-based) elite unit, and the ground troops the swarm. It also runs smack into the realism issue of bombers being more powerful than they would be if you nerf them further. And I think it would require more nerfing than 9.5 reduces: you lowered them 20% or so, but to me that means I would have had 16 planes instead of 20 - still more than enough to roll right through the AI.
That's why I prefer to look for alternatives. The simple one is to reduce aluminum, but there are definitely others. The AI
does build AA, so buffing them is an excellent idea. (I'd build them myself if this were the case.) For more alternatives:
Operational range of air units should be substantially reduced.
Number of planes you can put in a city should be significantly reduced - default city should be able to have 3 or 4.
My guess is that all three of these proposals, or even 2, would make a huge difference.
It may even allow another of Malachi's suggestions: to buff the power of all air units in the game, for the sake of realism. I'm not pushing this hard, but there is something to be said for accepting the reality of an era. We haven't brought up what follows air power, for example: nukes. They change things all over again, and also need a counter for the sake of game play.
Once we get past air power, though, and situations as unbalanced as the one I emailed you, we can more clearly focus on the ground units mix.