Future expansions wish list

[djensen]

There was some discussion in another thread about other possible units for future sets. It seems we have some armchair WWII historians and also some with casual interest in WWII. In either case, post units that you would like to see in a future set and if you can, try to speculate it’s stats and abilities.

I think this could be a great discussion.

[General Di Caro]

No time to post stats now… but how about…

American .30 caliber machine gun team
More German Panzer Mark III’s and IV’s that were used in 1940 and 1941.
German MP-40 or MP-42 submachine gun.
American Thompson Submachine gun.

And how about some Artillery for goodness sakes?

American Howitzers and German .88’s with long ranges and devastating effects against infantry.

British Paratroopers.
British Commandos.

German Mountain Units… elite infantry.

And maybe some Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, or Indian units??  Thousands fought and died in the war.

[djensen]

I have a friend who would like som Hungarian units.

[POINTMAN]

2 words….Air Support…

Some stukas and 109…you could open a whole new type of game…image the battle of britain…that would be awesome.

[DFlynSqrl]

I think the 88 as a AT gun (as mentioned by General Di Caro) would be good.  It could basically have the same attack stats as a Tiger.  But a lot less defense.  As I think as a special it should be able to do something like automatic disruption for soldier units… everyone was scared of those 88’s.  They did take longer to deploy though so I wonder about if they would get to move in the game…
Attack:  12-Short, 15-Med., 12-Long
Def:  3/3

I think one that would help strengthen a French unit would be to add the SOMUA S-35.  It had really good armor and a 47mm gun if someone would like to figure attack stats on that.

[General Di Caro]

How about some conscientious observers?

None of those in the SS.

[General Di Caro]

U-S .30 caliber machine gun team:  versus infantry 9/8/7 with double shot and suppressive fire.

More German Panzer Mark III’s and IV’s that were used in 1940 and 1941.  These would have to be researched… depending on what kind of gun(s), armor and mobility each one had.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_armoured_fighting_vehicles_of_World_War_II#Panzerkampfwagen_IV

German MP-40 or MP-42 submachine gun.  Versus infantry 10/6 with limited range 2.

American Thompson Submachine gun.  Versus infantry 11/6 with limited range 2.  I’m just a guessin’ here.

American Howitzers and German .88’s with long ranges and devastating effects against infantry.

The German .88 was used for everything-- anti-tank guns, anti-personnel, anti-air.  This would be a very versatile unit.  It should have a range of at least 15 hexes or so.  And that begs the question of LOS with artillery.  Maybe an artillery spotter could go along with this piece for use against infantry at long ranges so as not to need LOS.  I have no idea what it’s attack values should be.

British Paratroopers.  Similar to U-S paratroopers.  Defense 5.

British Commandos.  Ability to blow up bridges and “hide” in cover like snipers.  Defense 5.  High close assault value and Hand to Hand

German Mountain Units… elite infantry.  Same as British commandos…  ?

And maybe some Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, or Indian units??  Thousands fought and died in the war.

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I favor the A-Bomb unit… Attack values versus infantry and tanks 1000/999/998.    :?

[Ubermarine]

How about some Commanders like Patton or Rommel

[Staff Sgt. Barnes]

throwing patton or rommel into the game would be cool, but they will never do it, at the best you can get a german commander called "feild Marshal’ and an american commander called “i dont know what to call patton other than patton, how about just 3 star general?”

[POINTMAN]

They’ll just call him “american Badass”…

His card have a new “grab 'em by the nose, and kick 'em in the ass” ability.

[General Di Caro]

A cool idea… such a commander could have excellent commander abilities… BUT when did a three star general or Field Marshal ever involve himself in such close, squad level combat?  I know Patton was gung-ho… but don’t know too much about him.

I doubt Rommel ever charged a hill with a few Mausers.

[POINTMAN]

I thought Rommel rode along in german armor?..or maybe that’s the way they portrayed him in old movies. Patton on his jeep would be pretty cool…Rommel in a Panther and Monty in a Humber or such…that would be cool…

Here’s another idea, how about fortified position? Pill boxes with MG42s which any soldier can enter and utilize…give the marines something to torch.

[Staff Sgt. Barnes]

oohh i like that, but they should be moveable, i wouldnt want to play with the same pill box or what ever in the same place. fox holes or trenchs would be cool to. to dig a fox hole you could say take one movement turn to do it, then your in it and it would take one movement turn to get out of it, something like that.

[POINTMAN]

You could have both…the more permanent ones would have serious defense and could pack a punch at the expense of no mobility…while others could be re-positioned to strenghen the front lines…for that matter…terrain could be added. Barb wire defenses to impede infantry, mine fields, and even Hedgerows…

[General Di Caro]

All of these defensive structures can be incorporated in the game by giving units a cover roll bonus while they remain in certain predetermined hexes… For instance, on one of the North African scenarios on the Avalon Hill website allows all units to make cover by rolling a 3 or higher because they are dug-in.

This would be a simple way of adding a little depth without burdening the game with more rules and things to remember… as you know from playing the game, when a unit continues to makes cover rolls (which my usual opponent does at an alarmingly high rate) you can’t destroy the unit, no matter how much fire you direct at it.

You could even make a rule that is some cases a unit automatically makes it’s cover roll that ignores enemy units special abilities (like the Red Devil Captain’s ‘pinpointer’), unless attacked by a unit in the same hex, forcing the enemy to get close in to “root out” the entrenched units.  Once in the same hex, the defender would roll for cover as normal, with the -1 penalty because the attacking unit is in the same hex.

That would be simple to do.

[AgentOrange]

I like the idea of air units.  Maybe have different planes, and possibly ships too.  The ships would be a lot more involved, I know.  But, if you chose to use ships AND planes, then you could have map tiles that have one side that is land, and the other side be water.  A small-scale naval battle would be cool.

However, I also think there should be some tiles that have beachheads.  This way, you could have amphibious landings, sending troops into the beachhead hexes to assault enemy held land.  And with the addition of air units, you could use them to strike enemy positions.  (If this is the case, you might wanna include AA units or abiliities.)

[DFlynSqrl]

I don’t think you should get to move defensive positions like pill boxes.  The whole point is to position them at choke points to make life difficult for units going through there, or the other effect is to have the enemy avoid them all together.  The price you pay is that they have great defense but they can’t move.  If you want a moving pill box that would be called a tank….  I think a high front armor would be good, with the rear armor only attackable by enemy units in the same hex.  Flame throwers would still be able to destroy it with the 3 sixes rule too.

And speaking from experience, you would not be able to dig a foxhole of any worth in one turn.

[POINTMAN]

I dont see why ofrtifications would be such a bad idea…It would provide some interesting scenarios and strategies. It doesnt mean that everygame has to include them or that every players would be required to toss some into their army list; it would be a similar idea to Agent Orange’s beach heads…just provide some more options into the game.

Another suggestion one of my friends brought up is a little ‘outside the box’ for mini game but is still interesting. He thought adding other cards to game that arent unit stat cards. Now, he isnt referring building a Magic style deck of cards, but having a series of cards that can alter gameplay for all players…cards like weather conditions to represent the extreme cold of the eastern front of the sweltering heat of the burmese jungle. Other cards could disrupt players supply chain or even cards that impede units deploying on certain areas. I even thought you could have cards that could make it difficult for units to enter into villages because someone played and ‘efective propaganda’ card and the locals are causing problems…

While these events could be added as special rules for a particular scenario, he suggested them for the standard game. players could determine how many events they would play or wether they could be played all at once or one per turn…it’s a little unorthodox but could have some merit…since he is a big ccg player, I told him that it would interesting to make a few cards and see how it would work, so I’ll post some of them when we are finished with them on Photoshop.

[Staff Sgt. Barnes]

i wasnt saying that you should be able tomove pill boxes and such in the game, that wold make no sence. i was saying that they should be loose pices that you can put anywhere for each game, i just dont want it to be part of a map, something you cant change (if new maps ever vome out that is)

each hex is about 800 yards if i remember right, a solder can move 1 hex in the movement phase, so if a soilder can move 800 yards in one turn they should also be able to dig a fox hole of some worth, but ok fine, lets say it takes 2 movment turns to fully dig a fox hole, would that be ok.
i can also come from experince on this, trying to dig a good fox hole in lose sand is not easy. :x

[General Di Caro]

Each hex is 100 meters from side to side.

Re: air units.  How about once per game, you can call in an air strike to target a certain number of enemy units… like a strafing run by fighters or bombers dropping their payload on units.  There wouldn’t even have to be a piece for this… just a card with the fighter/bombers special abilities.

This attack would probably be devastating and ruin the game… artillery barrages I could deal with, but that also isn’t necessary.

This game is about using tactics of units you have on the map… it takes no tactical skill to fly an airplane over some units and blast them.