Axis & Allies Global 1942(An alternative to Larry Harris's Global 1942)

[Kreuzfeld]

@HeinzGuderian:

Okay Kreuzfeld I’ve made a few changes to the Research and Development Rules.  Please tell me what you think!

Hi!

I like it.

I liked the idea behind the original idea too, it was just a little bit too exploitable. I like the decrease in cost from 5 to 3 ipc for the die. As wild bill have suggested, there are many ways of making the techrules, but it is important that the rules are not too complicated.

Great job in making a new scenario, I hope it works out into a well balanced game.

[WILD BILL]

I agree with Shadow about tech being a possible game breaker. The big thing about oob tech is you can invest heavily, but come out with nothing, or a lucky roll gives you the game (oob really sucks IMO). If you are going to mandate tech into the game though, then I would integrate it into the game over a couple turns, not from the start.

I think that if you give each power a break-thru to then roll for a tech, it levels the playing field some, because every power would get something (most get two), instead of one power gets the key to victory because of a lucky break-thru roll. With most powers getting two techs they should get something useful to their cause.

I also think that the entire tech chart should be open for each power, I’m just not too sure that they should be allowed to pick because that might be too much of an advantage. Considering that the allies will be getting more tech because they simply have more powers should also be looked at.

[CWO Marc]

The following would be too complicated for actual use in a game (because you’d need to differentiate and track too many things), but tech upgrades would be more realistic if they worked differently from the OOB rules in two ways.  On the plus side, they’d be more or less automatic for everyone: as the game progresses over the span representing 1939-1945 (a span during which technology progressed enormously), technology would evolve upward automatically (though not in identical areas for the various powers), without any need for research investments or dice rolls.  On the minus side, tech upgrades would only apply to the units bought after the upgrade, not to every unit already on the board.  It’s that minus factor which would make this idea too complicated for general use.

On the other hand, a managable variant (whch would make use of any special extra sculpts that players own from HBG or othere sources) would be to allow every power to automatically introduce at one or two pre-defined rounds of the game one or two special units with special abilities.  These units would not necessarily be the same for each power.  The use of different sculpts would solve the visual differentiation problem, and limiting the concept to just one or two special units per power (rather than, say, half-a-dozen tech upgrades) would prevent things from getting too complicated.  Players would have the option of buying these special units, but would not be obliged to do so.

[HeinzGuderian]

@CWO:

The following would be too complicated for actual use in a game (because you’d need to differentiate and track too many things), but tech upgrades would be more realistic if they worked differently from the OOB rules in two ways.  On the plus side, they’d be more or less automatic for everyone: as the game progresses over the span representing 1939-1945 (a span during which technology progressed enormously), technology would evolve upward automatically (though not in identical areas for the various powers), without any need for research investments or dice rolls.  On the minus side, tech upgrades would only apply to the units bought after the upgrade, not to every unit already on the board.  It’s that minus factor which would make this idea too complicated for general use.

On the other hand, a managable variant (whch would make use of any special extra sculpts that players own from HBG or othere sources) would be to allow every power to automatically introduce at one or two pre-defined rounds of the game one or two special units with special abilities.  These units would not necessarily be the same for each power.  The use of different sculpts would solve the visual differentiation problem, and limiting the concept to just one or two special units per power (rather than, say, half-a-dozen tech upgrades) would prevent things from getting too complicated.  Players would have the option of buying these special units, but would not be obliged to do so.

I really like your idea of ‘special units’.  Which special units would be most beneficial to Axis & Allies Global 1942, in your opinion?

[CWO Marc]

@HeinzGuderian:

I really like your idea of ‘special units’.  Which special units would be most beneficial to Axis & Allies Global 1942, in your opinion?

It would depend on individual player preferences, and on the availability of special sculpts, so I don’t have any specific recommendations to make.  Just to give an example: my A&A OOB sculpt collection includes (in Germany’s current black colour) some older-model Panther tanks (the pre-Battle of the Bulge type), some older-model small Stukas (dating back to when they were serving incorrectly as German fighters) and some older-model small 88mm AAA guns (dating back to when they were serving incorrectly as German field artillery).  If I were planning to use them as special units, I’d designate them respectively as the Jagdpanther tank destroyer, as the cannon-armed anti-tank version of the Stuka, and as the antitank gun (PAK) version of the 88mm AAA gun (FLAK).  This illustrates the concept of taking an existing sculpt and working backwards to invent a plausible special unit function for it.  But players could instead work in the other direction: think of a special unit function they’d like to use in the game, then try to find a sculpt on the market (such as at HBG) or in their collections that looks roughly right for the part.

One point to note is that, unlike the basic units that every power has access to under the OOB rules, the special units could be power-specific.  This could lead to some interesting battle dynamics.  For instance: while I would have prefered every nation in A&A 1941 to have its own sculpt models, I’m happy that the game designers choose the German Tiger and Russian IS-2 as the tank units for the Axis and Allies respectively.  The black Tiger and marroon IS-2 sculpts would work very nicely in 1942 or 1940 as special heavy tank units for the Germans and for the Soviets, since both the colours and the designs are appropriate for those countries.  Only Germany and the USSR would have special heavy tank unit available to them, which is more or less accurate historically because such tanks were rare or nonexistent for the other powers.  (Personally, I’d feel very strange using an American-green Soviet heavy tank or a Japanese-orange German heavy tank.)

On a related point, a way to combine practicality with diversity would be to develop quite a few of these special units for each power (assuming the right sculpts could be found), but to have the associated house rule state that each power can only use a maximum of two types in any given game.  Each player could choose which ones to use, but would have to limit himself to those ones.  This would save the players from having to keep track of too many combat performance statistics in any given game, while at the same time creating variety between games as different choices get made in each one.

[taamvan]

Here are some fun, not too playtested ideas I’ve been brainstorming.  Doesn’t add a ton of flexibility/flavor to the game (the existing unit set is pretty solid), but neither do cruisers, tac bombers etc,

Marines Cost 5 (US Japan? only)

1/2 Attack during amphibious invasions at 2, with artillery 3

Self Propelled Anti Tank Gun (SPATG) Cost 5

2/3 move 2, fires first strike on defense (one unit only), hitting armor first if it exists

Self Propelled Artillery Gun (SPAG) Cost 5

2/2 move 2, combos with mechs/inf as artillery

Escort Carrier Cost 11

0/2 move 2 takes only 1 hit carries only 1 plane

Attack Transports  (naval unit) Costs 10

1/1 move 2 carries 3 infantry blocks movement

Strategic Bomber Cost 13 (undercosted)

Cruiser Cost 11 (overcosted)

3/3 move 2 bombards at 3

Banzai Trooper Japan only Cost 4

1/2 move 1 sacrifice during the defense to make them first striking

Cossack Trooper USSR Japan Mongolia only Cost 3

1/1 move 2 can only be produced 1 per controlled “horseman” territory (eg Mongolia, Caucasus, Soviet Far East), place without factories directly on “horseman” territories

Armed Merchant (naval unit) Cost 6

1/1 move 2 carries 1 unit can amphib

Destroyer Cost 8  (Japan UK only?)

2/2 move 2 can carry 1 infantry cannot amphib

[HeinzGuderian]

Thanks for the input!  I like the suggestions that you and CWO Marc are putting forward, however, I think that they would make the game just a bit too complicated.  It would probably be feasible to give each world power a single special unit but not multiples.  Any suggestions as to the placement/number of units in my setup?

[Kreuzfeld]

@ShadowHAwk:

Invasion Tactics ( all inf attacks on 2 when attacking amfibious )
Rationale: once you do a lot of invasions you get better at it.

It really is easier to attack from a staging area on land, than off a boat. Invasions should never be eaiser than a regular attack. I would rather have the defender having first strike in regular invasions, but invasion tactics wil make the combat simulatious.

[Kreuzfeld]

@ShadowHAwk:

@Kreuzfeld:

@ShadowHAwk:

Invasion Tactics ( all inf attacks on 2 when attacking amfibious )
Rationale: once you do a lot of invasions you get better at it.

It really is easier to attack from a staging area on land, than off a boat. Invasions should never be eaiser than a regular attack. I would rather have the defender having first strike in regular invasions, but invasion tactics wil make the combat simulatious.

True it is harder, but you get better at it with proper coordination, ships will provide art support that is well better then what you can normaly get. If you coordinate it properly.

But otherwise most techs and special units are kinda weird.

I was just commenting on the fact that with this rule, inf attacking off ships attack with 2, while regular inf attack with 1……

[HeinzGuderian]

Hey everyone, my friends and I got the chance to try out this setup in our Axis & Allies game yesterday.  We played through four rounds and there was no clear winner in the end.  Overall the game is pretty balanced, however, the Axis powers were able to make some reckless moves and pretty much get away with it so I think the Allies need some minor “buffs”.

[HeinzGuderian]

We played with dice, not low luck.