Blitzkrieg / Elastic Defense (Combined arms)

[Gargantua]

For every combination of:

1 inf
1 art or mec
1 arm
1 aircraft

Recieve an extra die roll at 3 on attack OR defense.

This will promote the creation of more mixed armies, and adjust casualties selections to KEEP some infantry / mixed unit types in your army.  And discourage tank spamming etc.

[knp7765]

So if you attacked with the following:
8 Infantry
2 Mechs
2 Artillery
3 Tanks
1 Fighter
1 Tac
1 Bomber
Then you would get 3 extra dice rolls @ 3?
This would be sort of like the Cruiser shore bombardment (an attack roll that can’t be hit by defense), but would occur in every round that you had this combo, right?

[Guest]

So you would always want to make sure that 50% of your force is infantry, no more no less.  It would mean big changes for Germany (lose mechs before infantry?) and especially Russia (build 50/50 infantry/artillery?)

[Gargantua]

You got it KNP, yep.

3 extra rolls at 3.

Then what happens is you basically monitor your force - as you want to keep it relatively clustered into a formiddable mix.

This avoids superstacks of just one unit type, and encourages more strategic selection.

For example - today - The reason America wins in real-life, is because of all the different angles they can hit you from all at once, and because they take away all of their enemies possibilities (air, tanks, mobility, etc).

It’s to reward armies that are literally just that - complete armies, they’ve got it all, and their organized into a coordinated force.

Either side can do it.  But of course, sides that are at the short end of desperate - and can only afford infantry for example, struggle to keep the pace.  (and the advantage isn’t -THAT- despairing)  And YES the advantage is recurring each round attack and defense.

[knp7765]

You know, this is a really cool idea. First of all, you are right that it’s not an overwhelming advantage. A “3” is in no way a sure thing. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone into a battle, get hits with infantry and artillery @ 1 and 2, only to have my tanks/fighters crap out on me @3. I’m talking rolling for 7 or 8 units and getting 1 or 2 hits.  Very frustrating.

I would imagine you would mostly see this used on the Eastern Front, although it might occur between Japan and the UK when Japan goes after Calcutta. That is unless everyone simply waited until they had this proper combination before staging attacks.

Yeah, I could also see how you might want to waste a Mech or even Artillery BEFORE an Infantry in some cases. Here’s an interesting question for all of you:
Say over the course of a certain battle, you end up with 2 Infantry, 2 Artillery, 2 Tanks and 3 Fighters. This gives you 2 extra rolls @3 for the combined arms bonus. Your enemy still has 6 or 7 Infantry to kill off before you take the territory. He just rolled for defense and got 1 hit on you.
Now, do you take the hit on a cheap Infantry, thus losing one of the bonus rolls, or do you kill an expensive Fighter and keep 2 bonus rolls?
What if the air unit was a Tac or a Bomber?

[Witt]

I would not lose an Air unit.
I too like this idea. Not sure how utilised it would be.

[knp7765]

@wittmann:

I would not lose an Air unit.
I too like this idea. Not sure how practical it would prove though.

I agree, I wouldn’t waste an air unit either. Not only for the cost, but you can use that air unit in later battles but not the bonus roll.

Yeah, I think it wouldn’t be used a whole lot. There are a lot of situations where you just can’t bring the proper combination into battle. However, you might see it used a lot on smaller scales. For example, the US has a fleet and starts taking Pacific Islands from Japan. In the fleet are 2 tranports; one with a tank + 1 Inf, the other with an Artillery + 1 Inf. The US also has a carrier in this fleet, so there is your air units. So, the US will get 1 extra roll @ 3 for the combined arms bonus. It might happen more often than we think.
Also, since it applies to defense as well, some of our most common opening attacks may have to be re-thought. In some cases, the defender may already have the proper combination of units in place or easily moved there (Egypt for example).

[Gargantua]

Yeah, I could also see how you might want to waste a Mech or even Artillery BEFORE an Infantry in some cases. Here’s an interesting question for all of you:
Say over the course of a certain battle, you end up with 2 Infantry, 2 Artillery, 2 Tanks and 3 Fighters. This gives you 2 extra rolls @3 for the combined arms bonus. Your enemy still has 6 or 7 Infantry to kill off before you take the territory. He just rolled for defense and got 1 hit on you.
Now, do you take the hit on a cheap Infantry, thus losing one of the bonus rolls, or do you kill an expensive Fighter and keep 2 bonus rolls?
What if the air unit was a Tac or a Bomber?

If it was Moscow… or an NO territory I required, I might cap the fighter! :P

[radar231]

Sound good to me. I do like the idea of combine arms giving an extra die per combo. How about putting the inf or mech + arty + armor + plane for the combo ?

J. 8-)

[Imperious Leader]

All these extra dice just completely change the game. Large battles are gonna mess up the Soviets because they can’t really afford a “combined arms” thing.

The whole benefit should be one of movement: 2 movers paired with 1 movers in NCM at 1:1 basis should all move two.

Combat should be toned down to this: 1 air, 1 armor, 1 Inf/Art/Mech gets one re-roll if missed. Don’t add more dice, just take the dice you got and possible re-roll.

However, the movement won’t change the game too much, like this 3 or less thing.

Besides, that idea was submitted by Larry Harris like 3 years ago and people shot it down then too. He considered it before AAP40 came out.