empireman and I were disusing what a modern version of A&A would be like. Today warfare is very different from the days of World War II, but if the major powers of the world went to war what would it look like? could it be a fun A&A variant? I just wanted to put these ideas out and see if anyone thinks they are interesting.
2015: Due to inflation or a US default on its debt obligation, the American dollar ceases to be used as a reserve currency by Russia, China, and Brazil. Americans are enraged by their decreasing living standards, foreigners are blamed, violence ensues!
Revisionist Powers: Russia, China, Brazil
Allied Powers: American Empire, India, Japan
Map: A&A:1942 size map, with more of an emphasis on Asia, and cut through the Atlantic instead of North American.
I am really interested in opinions of what units would be available in this game, since there are so many different kinds of modern weapons. Particularly, I am interested in representing cyber-warfare and other unconventional warfare methods.
Unit Types
Naval: No Battleships, subs and AC have conventional and nuclear-powered versions, for simplicity all surface warfare ships are classified as destroyers.
Aircraft Carrier
Attack: 0
Defense: 3
Move: 2, Nuclear-Powered:3
Cost: 16, Nuclear-Powered:20
Special: 2 hits, can carry 2 fighters or drones
Subs
Attack: 3
Defense: 1
Move: 2, Nuclear-Powered:3
Cost: 8, Nuclear-Powered:10
Special: Stealth, first strike, can carry and launch one cruise missile.
Destroyer
Attack: 2
Defense: 2
Cost: 8
Special: Anti-sub, AAA
Transport
Attack: 0
Defense: 0
Move: 2
Cost: 8
Special: Transport
Air: I’m unsure which air units to represent since they’re are so many types.
Long-Range Bomber
Attack:4
Defense:1
Move: 10
Cost: 15
Special: SBR
Fighter
Attack: 3
Defense: 3
Move: 4
Cost: 10
Drones
Attack: 2
Defense: 1
Move: 6
Cost: 6
Air Transport
Attack:0
Defense: 0
Move: 5
Cost: 9
Special:Transport, may land in territory just captured, cannot attack into territory if it is transporting a tank.
Attack Helicopter
Attack: 3
Defense: 2
Move: 3
Cost: 8
Special: can land in territory just captured
Intercontinental and Intermediate range missiles
Attack: 4
Defense: 0
Move: 1
Cost: 20 and 10.
Special: Range 8 and 4, SBR, one time use, cannot be intercepted, can choose target.
Land: I kept land units simple because I feel modern warfare would be too fast paced for land unit to make a difference and since they are pretty much the same from WWII.
Infantry
Attack: 1
Defense: 2
Move: 1
Cost: 3
Tanks
Attack: 3
Defense: 3
Move: 2
Cost: 6
SAM sites
Attack:0
Defense:2
Move: 1
Cost: 10
Special: AAA
Hackers
Attack: 0
Defense: 0
Move: 2
Cost 10
Special: ?can SBR anything from anywhere?,lol idk?
Hack Communications: Choose one enemy unit within three spaces, on a roll of one you can move it in your combat phase and it may participate in any resulting combat against its own side.(edit)
WMD
Bio Weapon
Cost: 20, only one can be built per game.
Special: only one bio weapon can be built per game. In the place production phase if any player has built a bio weapon they can place it anywhere on the map. They then choose between three options, add three bio counters to the territory the bio weapon is currently in, add 2 bio counters to any adjacent territories, or add one bio counter to any territory four spaces away. Where ever the last bio counter was placed is where the bio weapon is moved. The turn after the bio weapon has been placed the opposing side gets to choose how the bio counters are spread and this alternates until all land territories are filled with bio counters. A territory is filled with bio counters when the number of bio counters equals the IPC value of that territory. Each bio counter reduces the IPC value of that territory by one.
What do people think? feel free to criticize.
A few initial thoughts:
Revisionist Powers: Russia, China, Brazil
Allied Powers: American Empire, India, Japan
Map: A&A:1942 size map, with more of an emphasis on Asia, and cut through the Atlantic instead of North American. <<
I think the main thing to flesh out in your scenario is precisely where the main battlegrounds are, and why the combatants are fighting over those particular areas. This in turn would help explain why those particular groups of nations are on the two opposing sides. Sub-nuclear warfare is ultimately about controlling land territory, which is in turn motivated by specific reasons for Nation X to want to acquire Territory Y (historical claims; valuable resources, etc.), so those territorial and political objectives would need to be well defined. Remember that in WWII, many nations were involved but the primary battlefields were more limited in scope.
I am really interested in opinions of what units would be available in this game, since there are so many different kinds of modern weapons. Particularly, I am interested in representing cyber-warfare and other unconventional warfare methods. <<
The unconventional weapons and methods would be aimed primarily at destroying the vitally important electrical and electronic infrastructure of the enemy. Computer hacking is one obvious application, but there are lots of others. For example: as I recall, during the early hours of Gulf War II, American planes dropped carbon-fiber threads across Iraqi power lines in order to short out the electrical grid. Electromagnetic pulse weapons (one example being nuclear bombs detonated at an ideal altitude) can also be used to fry electronics over a large area. Anti-satellite weapons (missiles and possibly lasers) would be used to target enemy satellites, especially spy satellites, communications satellites and GPS satellites, in a further blow to his military infrastructure.
Speaking of anti-electronics weapons, here’s a new one that is much neater than nuclear-generated EMPs:
A recent weapons flight test in the Utah desert may change future warfare after the missile successfully defeated electronic targets with little to no collateral damage.
Boeing and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Directed Energy Directorate, Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., successfully tested the Counter-electronics High-powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP) during a flight over the Utah Test and Training Range.
CHAMP, which renders electronic targets useless, is a non-kinetic alternative to traditional explosive weapons that use the energy of motion to defeat a target.
During the test, the CHAMP missile navigated a pre-programmed flight plan and emitted bursts of high-powered energy, effectively knocking out the target’s data and electronic subsystems. CHAMP allows for selective high-frequency radio wave strikes against numerous targets during a single mission.
“This technology marks a new era in modern-day warfare,” said Keith Coleman, CHAMP program manager for Boeing Phantom Works. “In the near future, this technology may be used to render an enemy’s electronic and data systems useless even before the first troops or aircraft arrive.”
http://www.boeing.com/Features/2012/10/bds_champ_10_22_12.html
That CHAMP missile is pretty bad ass, how do you think it could be represented in A&A? maybe as a counter to SAM sites or Hackers? Also do you have any ideas for satellite rules?
BTW new Hacker ability
Hack Communications: Hackers can roll to see if they can move enemy units, possibly getting them to participate in an attack on their own forces
As for motivation for the war starting, I imagine the two sides are fighting over the domination of fuel resources in Asia and Africa, debts owed, as well as to distract their citizens from economic troubles at home. It probably starts with some incident in the Persian Gulf. I’ll work on the story after I do some more research, any ideas?
Here are some ideas on the starting IPC values for each power
China: 40
United States: 30
Russia: 20
India: 20
Japan: 20
Brazil: 10
China start with lots of infantry, the US dominates in naval and air power. Why does China have a larger economy than the US? because in real life it does, and more so by 2015. The US economy is based on services, consumption and debt( with much of that consumption and debt made possible by China). That type of economy would collapse during wartime and have difficulty replacing losses.
I don’t have any particular ideas about how specific weapons could be represented by units and rules in the game, but here are some thoughts about the general scenario. As I mentioned before, I think it would be important to have plausible and well-defined theaters of operations, to avoid creating a game like Risk in which every continent is fighting every other continent. A related issue is how to handle the US and Brazil, which are across the ocean from the other four powers. So here’s one possible solution. The scenario might represent a situation in which three regional wars (or the threats of imminent wars) merge into a single conflict, much as the Sino-Japanese War that began in 1937 and the European War that began in 1939 merged with the Pacific War that started in 1941, with the world dividing into two blocks of alliances. In your game, the three regional wars could be:
China vs. Japan. The initial conflict here could be in the East China Sea and South China Sea areas (there are currently tensions in that area over territorial claims), and you could throw into the mix a second Korean War (China supporting North Korea and Japan supporting South Korea), plus a Communist Chinese vs. Nationalist Chinese conflict involving Taiwan. A nice explosive mixture, in my opinion.
Russia vs. India. The initial conflict here could be triggered by a crisis involving Pakistan and India (both nuclear powers, both with territorial disputes aganst the other) over a volatile region like Kashmir, with additional destabilization provided by civil war in Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran. Russia’s basic aim here could be to acquire Pakistan, which would give Russia something it has never had but which I think it’s sometimes dreamed about: ports and naval bases on the Arabian Sea, which isn’t that far away from Russia’s southern border. The involvement of Iran and Iraq would allow the further expansion of the conflict (and of the economic aims of the two sides) to include other oil-rich (and strategically critical) states like Saudi Arabia.
Brazil vs. US. This part of the scenario would require more development than the other two, but I imagine it might revolve around control of the Panama Canal and the Caribbean Area for some reason or other. I don’t know much about Latin America, so I can’t think of any obvious motivations, but someone who knows the region better could undoubtedly provide plausible economic, political and military objectives.
As these regional wars (or as the prospects of these imminent wars) develop, there could emerge a China/Russia/Brazil alliance and a Japan/India/US alliance, in order to link the three conflicts. The signing of these alliances could, in fact, be the starting point of the game.
That sounds good, but it got me thinking: If Russia invades Pakistan to have a warm water port, why wouldn’t India side with Russia?
What if this variant was three sided. Russia, India vs China, Brazil vs United States, Japan?
That sounds good, but it got me thinking: If Russia invades Pakistan to have a warm water port, why wouldn’t India side with Russia?
Good question. Here are some possible answers.
The launching point for a Russian overland invasion of Pakistan would presumably be the general area of the former Soviet republics of Turkmensitan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. From that area, there would essentially be three possible routes into Pakistan: east, central and west (all three of which are explained in detail below).
The option to use the east route would be based on your scenario of Russia and China being on the same side. The extremely difficult terrain of the Himalayas leaves open very few eastern avenues for an invasion of Pakistan by Russia. The only practical one (as far as I can see) would involve Russia sending its forces south along the Pamir Highway to Murghab, located in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region of Tajikistan. From there, the Russians would travel east through the Kulma Pass, on the border between Tajikistan and the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of China, enter the Karakoram Highway, then follow it south into Pakistan towards Islamabad. If China and Russia are allies, the transit through Chinese territory would not be a problem. As for India’s involvement, note that the Karakoram Highway traverses Gilgit–Baltistan, which is part of the disputed Kashmir region over which Pakistan and India have been in conflict since 1947. So one could imagine the following situation. Let’s assume that Russia’s decision to conquer Pakistan was motivated (in part) by perceived weakness of Pakistan after a medium-sized regional war between Pakistan and India allows India to seize control of the entire disputed Kashmir region. India might not appreciate Russia traversing the Karakoram Highway through Gilgit–Baltistan (which would at that point be Indian rather than Pakistani territory). India would probably also think that having Russia as its new western neighbor would be even more dangerous than having Pakistan as its old western neighbor (Russia being a much more powerful state with far more nuclear weapons), especially now that Russia (in the game scenario) had engaged on a policy of military territorial conquest. So India would probably want to intervene while Russia was still in the precarious position of sending its invasion forces through the bottleneck of the Himalayas – not just to keep the Russians out of Pakistan but possibly to try to take over the rest Pakistan itself (to finish the job started in Kashmir). So this part of the game might actually involve a three-sided war (India, Russia and Pakistan all fighting each other), with Pakistan treated (for gaming purposes) as a secondary power, perhaps controlled in the same way as neutrals or China are controlled in A&A.
The central route would involve Russia striking south through Afghanistan. Russia would almost certainly reject that option: Russia was humiliated during its decade-long occupation of Afghanistan, and would want to avoid any repetition of that experience. Furthermore, the terrain of Afghanistan is only marginally better than the eastern route into Pakistan: a western spur of the Himalayas runs almost completely across the country, and the few roads traversing it offer excellent ambush points by hostile locals (called defilades in military terms).
The western route would involve striking south from Turkmenistan into Iran, travelling to a point below Zahedan (thus clearing Afghanistan’s southwest border), then swinging eastward and entering Pakistan from its western border. This route, although it’s mountainous, has the advantage of being far less rugged than the eastern and central invasion routes; its disadvantage is that it’s much longer and that Islamabad would be reached at the end of the offensive rather than at the beginning. Here too, India would want to keep the Russians out of Pakistan so as not to end up with Russia as its new western neighbor. India might also have some kind of objection to Russia’s violation of Iranian territory; for example, India might have some kind of alliance with Iran built around a conflict between Iran and Pakistan over the Baluchistan area.
Sounds Good!
And how about 1942 2nd ed sized board?
I have some ideas:
Change Brazil to Revisionist American States(RAS) (Cuba, Mexico, Brazil, and Venuzeala(?))
New Nations:
Iran:
With a strong alliance with China, and lots of trade deals, when china went to war Iran cut off all oil trade with all nations besides China, RAS, and Russia. Then joined the war.
(Low Navy, Medium Army, Medium Air force)
The Commonwealth
Due to the NATO and EU ending, the UK needed some Allies, because it to was slowing falling apart. In 2013 it made a alliance with S. Africa and Australia forming the “Commonwealth”. When in 2015 WW3 started it quickly joined the allies.
(Medium Navy, Low Army, High Air force)
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Colors:
Iran-Light Grey
China-Red
Russia-Brown
RAS-Blue
USA-Dark Green
Commonwealth-Tan
Japan-Orange
India-Lime Green
With the new nations there will be more fighting in the middle east (will be interesting) and Some minor battles in the baltic.
Maybe even a Chinese/Iran invasion of S. Africa!
I think I might make a G40 variant of this
What about Oil rules? By then oil will be scarce!
