League General Discussion Thread

[gamerman01]

Players like @Karl7 were particularly fond of the re-roll years ago, like 1 per player.
League rules are not changed for things like this, including some tweaks to the OOB game that crockett36 was bringing up, which led to this whole discussion.

Preferences like the re-roll, even if popular among a number of players, will not make its way into the league rules or defaults because they are departures from A&A.

So you will probably not have a hard time finding a player who likes your idea and agrees to do it, but there is no way I’m changing the league rules for house rules because everyone has the right to play pure A&A.

League rules address issues like declaring fighters on carriers because Triple A doesn’t do it, or time limits for making a move.

I appreciate everyone’s participation and ideas, but I want to make it clear that the vast majority of these discussions will not change league rules because #1 is not pushing or requiring players to play a house rule. The BM and PTV mods are fully supported by the league because they are separate from the OOB. In the case of BM, it is a collection of many “house rules” but no one is pressured to play it, is the point. The OOB version is the default that will not be changed.
The BM version, also, has a default that is what the designers made it, so again, even with BM no house rules are incorporated in league rules for the same reason.

[gamerman01]

League rules CAN be changed by league player suggestion, but they are not house rules or changes to the game.

The main change SO FAR (window is still open for good ideas) is the idea to give the last year’s champ and runner up the automatic #1 and #2 seeds in the playoff. You can see how this rule change is entirely different than changing league rules to accommodate some house rules, no matter how popular.

But again, you will have little trouble finding players who will enjoy agreeing to whatever house rules, so you are not really constrained much by league rules.

[gamerman01]

About the dicings early in the game -

In the likely event that your opponent agrees the dicing was very regrettable and spoiled your game, you could scrap the game and replay, it doesn’t have to be reported IF BOTH players agree.

Similarly, the re-roll could be granted by the opponent without reciprocating, and without agreeing to it at the beginning of the game.
If your opponent agrees, the agreement is pretty much always honored by the league. I will never step in and say you can’t do re-rolls UNLESS one player does NOT agree

[Arthur Bomber Harris]

@Booper I won’t agree to reroll when facing a superior opponent since I need dice luck on my side, and it isn’t that equitable for me to ask for rerolls against inferior foes.

Hence, I haven’t had that many such matches in recent times.

[crockett36]

@simon33 the idea is to change as little as possible. Try it out and see where the bid resettles.

[simon33]

@crockett36 said in League General Discussion Thread:

@simon33 the idea is to change as little as possible. Try it out and see where the bid resettles.

Sorry I’m still really confused by your post. Seems to contain a bunch of points I would disagree with.

[pacifiersboard]

@gamerman01 said in League General Discussion Thread:

The UHD map is so gorgeous. It is a little bit of a work in progress, and my maiden voyage started over a year ago because @oysteilo is very tough. It took us quite a few rounds to get used to the differences, and Oysteilo found 2 boundary errors and I found 1, so it keeps getting better. @Black_Elk and @barnee have continued to improve it as well.

I got drawn in by the beautiful colors, topography, and the flesh on the infantry. Check out the rivers. Those aren’t just designs, they’re the actual rivers and lakes.

If you try it out, I promise a pretty tough learning curve. I tried it out to be adventurous and to report back to you all. Well… I just did G17, turned out the fog of war in the first several rounds really set us up for an epic game (not to mention a bid of 40 which I believe is double 20) and the battle still rages.

I have downloaded! Are e.g. Saudi Arabia and British Somaliland adjacent to each other? Do you know: Can I use that map but default units?

[gamerman01]

Those UK grounds around Saudi Arabia are aesthetic only, no game play

Don’t know about default units

The main thread, I think, for support and info on UHD is here

https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/topic/39809/new-triplea-map-uhd-world-war-ii-global/2?_=1737408574705

That’s great you’re checking it out

@barnee and @Black_Elk are the contacts, though I know what a player would know after playing a game on it for many hours, like that Saudi Arabia question!

[gamerman01]

Guys, just so you know, respect @simon33 , he is a mainstay around here, plus did who knows how much programming with TripleA

Like THREE HUNDRED SEVENTY SEVEN games completed, mainstay

That is most games played, with karl7 and dawgoneit just barely behind

These guys are/were our backbone,
Get @Karl7 back here - kill, kill, kill

[Black_Elk]

Oh wow! I only just caught this right now. I get the email push sometimes. Knew it had made the rounds here and there, but league action is next level! That’s badass! Hopefully got all the connects sorted now, but if not, I guess I’ll find out real soon hehe

Yeah I think it should like totally work with all the BM right? Cause the stuff simon33 mentions for balanced mod I just ported straight from the standard G40. That was the hope at any rate, that it would function the same way, just with a bit of a glow up for 20 yr anniversary tripleA, but still working for Balanced Mod, or Oztea’s or any of the standards. Anything like that based off the main game, cause for the main XML basically just the same thing going on as vanilla. Plan was to a quick flip version that would work also for some of the 2.7 features, and also to get the map blends working. Like so the sea zones lines and such wouldn’t break when zooming in/out. I think there’s a quick skin for Revised style colors too, or to blank the terrain or switch to a pattern if some of that is distracting. Or just to snap up the unit art and throw them into the regular G40 folders, if peeps just wanted those Frostion digi sculpts tinted out for National Colors. Kept the labels the same so should be able to plug em in that way if desired. Some of it’s a little wonk for the map, like the Aden/Trucial States getting attached to a nearby tile. I think for an easier read, could probably just do a neutral thing like there like OOB if it makes more sense, or like if one wanted to the same for Sakhalin or any of those additions for stuff that’s cosmetic. The TT connects are the same as vanilla, since that was the XML used, so I think that’s just like one line in the polygons txt to do a quick switcheroo for any TT like the stuff around Arabia.

I think the next step if it works well, would be to upscale to from 11110 px to 16000 px and do a slightly larger relief, since I have the topo-under map ready at that scale. Just takes some time to go back over the lines for the borders and such to do the two tone thing, or for the highlight effect in tripleA when a territory or sz is selected. I’m running GIMP on gaming laptop, which works fine for 1080p gaming but kinda lackluster for image editing, so sometimes it lags hardcore when the map is really large, so trying to reduce the number of layers I need to make it work, before going jumbo again. I think it’d be simpler now, since the hardest part was trying to do all the morphs to get it aligned with OOB.

Sorry, been super MIA for ages it feels like. Got some RL tethers trying to help get the fam sorted, so I’ve been super light footprint. 2025 already! Time travelers paradox, good to see the old crew still rocking!

Good gaming all!

[barnee]

@gamerman01 said in League General Discussion Thread:

@simon33 , he is a mainstay around here, plus did who knows how much programming with TripleA

Absolutely. He added Canada to bungs map and did a bunch of options for BM.

I always try and credit those in any mods I work with and he and the BM crew and many others are credited :)

Really want to see what UHD will look like with Canada lol

[Stucifer]

I know many of us are working on our league playoff games, but I wanted to draw some attention to this thread, since it is easy to miss in the activity of the forum:

https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/topic/41499/pre-announcement-the-axis-allies-cup

@djensen Is taking suggestions for a separate team competition that I think many of us would be interested in participating in

[gamerman01]

I asked Panther how to rearrange pinned topics, and I’m happy there is the capability,

So all I’m saying is, the pinned league topics have been organized and are in a different place than you’re used to - enjoy!

(I didn’t want the new Classic discussion to be the topic on the top!)

[simon33]

It is with pleasure I can announce the availability of version 2 of the “French Rebalance”. Main change with this is that after the fall of Paris, formerly French territories can be activated by USA/UK/Anzac. If Paris is liberated, usual rules apply. More info here: https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/post/1738044

I think I have tested the changes just enough but of course, if there are any bugs, let me know.

And of course if you would like to playtest, DM me.

[simon33]

Oh and while I am getting the version bumped along so you can upgrade the map, until that is done, you will need to delete the global map and re-download it.

[crockett36]

@GovZ said in League General Discussion Thread:

Since this seems to be the place to toss out ideas to balance the game, I’ll add mine - Allied Advantage (based on an optional rule from the original game): Russia starts with Industrial Tech, UK starts with Radar, & US starts with War Bonds.

I didn’t give this the love it deserves. Adding in game optional rules like tech from the get go is BRILLIANT. And those are great. I would add War Bonds for Russia and even UK. That would bump the income. Obviously tech tokens anniversary style would be a cross variant easy LH approved fix.

[crockett36]

@gamerman01 said in League General Discussion Thread:

@crockett36 Those are some really cool ideas,

As to the Allies in Russia NO, I love this one.
#1 the NO is realistic because Russian morale is much higher when they know they’re on their own, it is the Great Patriotic War. The rulebook says “national prestige.”
Gameplay, it’s awesome because you have to balance whether you want the 5 or you want allied help.

I hate you! LOL. We could cross variant allow the optional rule in classic that Russia seizes the foreign units as their own. That would be OP.

[GovZ]

@crockett36 said in League General Discussion Thread:

I didn’t give this the love it deserves. Adding in game optional rules like tech from the get go is BRILLIANT. And those are great. I would add War Bonds for Russia and even UK. That would bump the income. Obviously tech tokens anniversary style would be a cross variant easy LH approved fix.

Thanks, but the credit goes to Larry - it’s from a 30 year old rule book and how we played in high school. I feel old typing that.

@axis-dominion said in League General Discussion Thread:

I think what’s needed most to breathe fresh new life into global (all variants) is that ever illusive overhaul of the tech development. It’s a whole dimension of the game that’s gone MIA for too long.

Instead of tech being random, my play group is toying with the idea that certain techs are activated once a power takes a specific action. It would work a lot like a one time NO. Examples would be the UK getting Paratroopers the first time it attacks Holland or Japan gaining Shipyards after building an AB on the Solomons. We haven’t played a game - or even figured out how all the techs would work - so I have no idea how this would impact gameplay.

[Stucifer]

I had a conversation via DM with @Crockett36 regarding Global 1942. I recently rediscovered this map after playing in once several years ago, because I saw that for the Global Tournament at Gen Con they used this setup. I’m planning to attend Gen Con this August. I would be interested to hear from other League players if they have played this in any format, and what your thoughts are, please reply!

More on Global 1942:
It’s a Larry Harris creation, some might say Global 3rd Edition, and gets all players directly into the action. All powers start at war with each other, and the turn order is significantly changed.

Turn Order:

• USSR
• Japan
• USA/China
• Germany
• UK
• Italy
• ANZAC/France

The turn order prevents Italy from being used as a can-opener on the Eastern front for Germany, but also gives Germany a chance to respond to US landings in Europe before they can be reinforced by the UK - so some interesting play differences.

Also seems to be a little more balanced, I have even seen some evidence that the typical bids (a couple years ago) were in the Axis +6 to +7 range. Japan is in a commanding position in the Pacific, but Germany will likely be scrambling to recover from losing a lot of valuable matéiel and momentum on the Eastern Front. To Italy’s delight, its theatre of operations is largely devoid of UK ships and manpower, but that certainly won’t last long! As Germany doesn’t have a factory in Southern France to supplement any action in the Mediterranean.

If you haven’t checked it out, it is part of the download pack for Global 1940, so you most likely already have it installed!

• The Red Army prepares in counterattack into Ukraine and Belarus, the beginning of Round 1.
  

• The Japanese are in position to destroy a significant part of the American fleet at the Solomons, but doing so may put them in a position to be destroyed themselves–and transports to capture valuable territory are nowhere in range.
  

@gamerman01 @crockett36 @Daaras @mikawagunichi

[Stucifer]

• Normandy-Bordeaux has both the Naval Base and the minor IC removed; Southern France has the minor IC removed in this setup.