Principles;
All coastal territories are convoy zones. Any income from any territory next to any sea square is vulnerable to convoy damage.
If an NO that can be associated with a territory that borders water (eg, India, Spice, Norway/Denmark, Egypt etc.), that income is also vulnerable to convoy destruction. Example, SZ 112, 113, 125, 126 can destroy up to 8 german income via Norway. SZ 115, 127 can destroy up to 2 income for the germans and up to 5 income for the Russians, etc.
Another Optional Rule with this or without.
Adriatic is Two SZ
A new SZ 128 is located north of SZ 97. The line is drawn from the northeastern border of Southern Italy to the northwestern border of Albania. SZ 128 is a convoy zone and starts the game empty.
Why?
This changes the Allied opener and keeps the Italian Navy alive. The allies could still attack SZ 95, but the Italians keep 2, or 3 transports in most situations. The other effect is to force the allies to cover more SZ in order to destroy all the italian income. Otherwise, most of Italy’s income is vulnerable to 1 zone. Since these are positive benefits to the Axis, some compensatory benefit should be given to the Allies (see the DaveMod 3.0 for a good complementary mod)
I rather see the correct LL convoy routes on maps being used. Not every territorial sz was convoy raided. But if it works in this game what your trying to do good luck.
Sure. It is only a suggestion. Whether you play with the expanded convoy zones or not, I encourage you to play with the Taranto/Adriatic Split as it changes the opener and so prevents the the early game from getting stale and boring.
@taamvan Those sound like fun ideas.
I’d like to see a compensating change to the British sea zones that prevents Germany from sinking the entire Royal Atlantic Navy on the first turn. Germany could have raided the Scapa Flow bases in 1940 if they really wanted to, but they didn’t have the airpower to clear the Channel and wreck Scapa Flow and blast the Portsmouth naval bases southwest of London all within the scope of a few months, even if they were willing to take heavy air casualties. It’s not absurd to think that Germany could have built up the Luftwaffe and based it in conquered France so that Britain couldn’t safely dock ships anywhere in the United Kingdom – but that would have taken time and resources. It seems silly for Germany to be able to launch its short-range fighters out of Bremerhaven and blow up battleships in northwest Scotland while France was actively waging war on the mainland. Britain is…the world’s dominant naval power, and the Atlantic Fleet was the core of that navy. It just feels unthematic for Britain to have its entire Atlantic Fleet sunk before Britain even starts the game.
I think making every single coastal sea zone a convoy zone will tend to strengthen subs at the expense of other types of ships. It might be necessary to either make destroyers cheaper, or make destroyers defend at 3, or allow planes to roll one die each against subs even when the planes aren’t escorted by destroyers, or something like that.
Thanks buddy. One thing I marvel at about G40 is the rich, choice-filled opener. I’ve tried to build a similarly rich and interesting opener into my own versions (which I shared with you) and its made me appreciate the amount of tinkering it must have taken in order to combine the designers intended goals with a fun and somewhat realistic piece setup. Of course, they did issue a second edition which was another bite at that apple.
As you point out, there is nothing realistic about the world’s greatest sea power getting wiped off the map on the first turn. Actually, the opposite would be true; Germany’s surface navy was a one-shot. There is a big problem however with changing that dynamic from where its stands, because we are already used to the UK getting wiped out on the first turn, and recovering the threat projection from that point. Even 1 BB left tipped after the open makes a big difference to the KGF, so leaving say 1 of each UK ship as our goal is generous.
Since Germany needs this opener to succeed or face a REAL UK navy, the play is kind of locked to those expectations. If the Allies bid or the setup has changed, 16 hits needs to come (14 planes and the BB) to “ensure victory”. After that, the Germans have no more to add in any event, which restricts what we can add to the UK team or move and still have the game play out as we are accustomed to.
The game would be more fun if it had a real Battle of the Atlantic, though, I think the rules of AxA regarding blockers, control, sighting units, fog of war are all too simplistic to model that very well. Even the vaunted Europe 1999 edition had a novel idea on how to keep the fight going in the Atlantic, that fight simply cannot operate in the face of the normal game dynamic (that a huge USA fleet is going to cross and its first and priority job is to clear the Atlantic to eliminate the threat and the income nerf). It is especially difficult for germany to place subs in interesting and annoying positions without having the subs be able to “transit” there. Same with convoys, there are alot of mixed ideas about how transports, as represented on the board vs “invisible or invulnerable units/transports” that model economic convoy damage, should be treated.
All in all, the game is pretty fun and though I could think of some tweaks to make it less monotone (like the Taranto Split so Italy might get a core navy), I don’t know how to make the UK fleet part of it more FUN and more REALISTIC.
The split sea zone in the Adriatic is a good idea for both reasons you mentioned.
While the convoy any territory is interesting I wouldn’t be a fan of adding NO’s to convoy ability of the territories. Probably a better approach would be to add a few more convoy zones or just add to convoy ability to zones that contain a capital. Change the die roll to 1-4 or keep the same value and add a die in a capital convoy zone.
There’s always options.
