I am wondering if my group is playing the tech wrong in this game. Here are some issues I am having with the 1936 set-up and tech.
First question: How many roles do you need to make to complete a tech? Is it 4 or 5 roles? Most tech you have to roll at least a 7 or better to move your market to the first stage of tech. Then there is stage 2 and stage 3 and then finally stage COMPLETE. Since you have to make a ROLL to start on STAGE 1 is it reasonable to assume when you reach the COMPLETE stage you have to make one LAST role to get the tech moved OFF off of the chart? So a total of 5 rolls rather than 4?
Also, in the 1936 V3 rules ( Germany and the US have 5 or 4 tech roles to start ) BUT they have to stop advancement when they reach stage 2 tech until they reach a certain time frame (July of 1939). So as an example, the German player is lucky and gets all 5 of his tech to stage 2 by turn 3 of JULY 1937.
Can the German player BEGIN 5 new techs then and then they have even average luck and now they have 10 techs by July of 1939 at stage 2! If you go by the chart they could have 5 techs playable by Jan of 1940 or for sure by Jan. 1941 and then another 5!! So 10 techs on the board by Jan 41!! That seems crazy to me. ( and we had this actually happen )
So, is it that they have to complete a tech BEFORE they start a new one or upgrade a factory to a Major to gain a new tech roll?? So start 5 and then when you hit stage 2 you have to wait until you COMPLETE those techs which will resume in July of 1939 which means the earliest you could bring a tech into play is 1940? Or can you start 5 techs, stop in 1937, then start 5 more techs in 1938, reach 2nd stage in July of 1938 and then start 5 more techs if your that lucky???
Building off of my last paragraph… Just to be clear… once you start a tech line you have to reach completion BEFORE you start another tech line? So in GW36 it’s possible to reach stage 2 in techs for as many rolls as you have. Do you then wait for July of 39 to make rolls to complete those techs making the earliest possible date of completion Jan. 1940?? That seems really fast for a tech advancement like Radar and Jets and rockets?
Lastly, when does TECH come into play? Example, I am Germany and we are playing GW 1936 and I got better than average rolls and make all 5 rolls to level 2 ( I am assuming 5 rolls to move a tech off of the chart to completion) of my techs to stage 2 by Jan 1937. I wait, then in July of 1939 I start again and make my roll in July of 39 and Jan 1940 to the COMPLETE stage then 1 more roll to move it OFF of the COMPLETE column in July of 1940. So does TECH become ACTIVE the minute I make that last roll so on the next action which is PURCHASE units I can then BUY jets, heavy armor, adv. mechs and adv. artillery??? OR since the discovery was made at basically the very beginning of my turn I have to have the tech for 1 FULL turn so that tech can be purchasable and goes into effect on the following turn?? This is how we have played it A&A for a long time. Your tech has to be completed for 1 full turn following your completion before you can start buying units or getting the benefit of the upgrade.
The steps are:
Roll for peacetime income increases
Make tech rolls
Purchase new units and (REPAIR units?) Is the correct stage that damaged facilities get repaired?
Diplomacy
Pay to more units along
Declare lend lease
The weird thing is that the rules state if you repair a factory you GET the technology die roll in the same turn?? So wouldn’t that imply that FACILITY REPAIRS HAVE to take place BEFORE tech rolls?
A lot of nuanced questions here but a group of long time A&A players I game with were really frustrated by the tech in this game and after a few games want to make substantial changes to fix what they see as run away tech.
BTW, when does repairs fit into the order of sequence???
Here is what I think…
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That you need to make 5 rolls to advance a tech off of the chart to become active. 1 roll to get on the chart, 3 rolls to move it to stage 2, then 3, then COMPLETE then 1 MORE roll to move it OFF the chart to active.
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You can’t start a new tech until you FINISH a tech that has been already started.
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Tech becomes ACTIVE 1 full turn AFTER you achieve it. So, if you roll just above average ( 1936 start ) and make your (5th roll). The first chance to buy or have a tech ACTIVE would be January of 1941 ( 2 rolls before July of 39 then in July of 39, Jan 40 and July of 40 3 more to make a total of 5 ). You wait 1 FULL turn before the NEW techs become active but you can START NEW tech rolls on the chart in July of 41. In JULY of 1941 your first 5 techs become active and purchasable units can be paid for and placed on the board at the end of your turn to become active in Jan of 42. You can start 5 NEW techs in July of 41 (Germany) that would then become active in July of 1944 ( assuming you got lucky and made every roll perfect ). So at the most, if Germany made every roll for tech perfectly by that date they would have 10 techs in July of 44. That seems much more reasonable to me than having 10 techs become active as early as July of 41 vs 10 techs active in July of 44. That would mean that unless you use the variable ending rules the chances of getting another 5 more techs before game end would be next to impossible unless you got the war to go to 1948!
Again, thank you for all of your input for those who respond…