Ideas are abstract, raw and in their infancy, but here’s what I’ve got so far…
Multiple factories per territory:
No more major or minor ICs, there is just one factory…
Factory- unit profile:
Cost: 12 IPCs
A factory may produce up to 3 units each
All territories that had a minor IC in the setup will now have 1 factory
All territories that had a major IC in the setup will now have 4 factories
A territory must have a IPC value of 2 or greater to hold 1 new factory
A territory must have an IPC value of 3 or greater to hold 2 new factories (no original territory restriction)
A territory that held no factories in the setup may never hold more than 2 factories, and only 1 factory may be placed on on any given territory per turn.
Only islands with victory cities may hold a new factory (Manila and/or Honolulu)
Once a territory with multiple factories is captured, the total amount of factories must be reduced to one.
Strategic Bombing Raids:
-During a single round of air combat triggered by interceptors, each interceptor and escort will receive 1d@1, while each group of Strategic Bombers (including raids with just a single strategic bomber) will receive 1d@1 and each group of tactical bombers (including raids with just a single tactical bomber) will receive 1d@1.
-Once a single round of air combat is complete, Strategic and Tactical bombers are assigned targets (only strategic bombers may conduct SBRs on factories, tactical bombers and strategic bombers may bomb bases).
-After air combat, each facility will receive 1 AA shot each (1 per facility, not per air unit).
-To bomb a factory or a base, at least one air unit targeting the facility must roll a 3 or higher, if successful the facility is considered damaged and may not produce units until repaired.
-To mark a factory as damaged, place a red chip under the unit, or replace the gray chip representing a factory with a red.
-If a factory is bombed, it may not produce units until it is repaired (during the repair new units phase).
-It cost 5 IPCs to repair each damaged facility, once repaired… facilities will function as normal.
Example:
Air combat
Germany is bombing Moscow with 6 strategic bombers, 2 fighters, and 2 tactical bombers. Russia decides to intercept 5 fighters in defence of the Strategic bombing raid. During the single round air combat, Germany will receive 4d@1, and Russia will receive 5d@1.
Assigning targets
After losing 1 fighter in air combat, Germany now assigns targets for their bombers. They assign 2 strategic bombers per factory up to 2 different factories, and assigns 1 strategic bomber twice to 2 different factories (Moscow has 4 total). Germany than assigns 2 tactical bombers to the air base (an obvious milk run to boost their air combat odds).
Built in AA defence
Each facility will fire 1 AA shot @1, therefore, the air base gets 1d@1 against 2 tactical bombers, as well as 2 factories firing 1d@1 against 2 strategic bomber each, and 2 factories firing 1d@1 against 1 strategic bomber each. AA Guns shoot down 1 tactical bomber.
Damaging facilities
2 Strategic bombers on factory #1 roll a 1 and a 4 - that factory is now damaged
2 Strategic bombers on factory #2 roll a 2 and a 2 - that factory is not damaged
1 Strategic bomber on factory #3 rolls a 5 - that factory is now damaged
1 Strategic bomber on factory #4 rolls a 1 - that factory is not damaged
1 Tactical bomber on the air base rolls a 6 - the air base is now damaged
Assessing the damage
2 out of 4 factories and 1 air base are damaged, at this point Moscow can only produce 6 units, it will cost them 10 IPCs in order to produce 12 again, 5 IPCs more in order to use the air base as normal.
The upside:
Even though it cost 20 IPCs to repair all 4 factories if damaged, it only cost 5 IPCs in order to place 3 units (in contrast to 13 IPCs )
The United States can now place up to 6 units in Norway if they spend the 24 IPCs for 2 factories.
Factories on 2 Pacific islands could make for very compelling games.
Being able to place 12 units on territories that previously contained major IC will help Allies more than Axis.
This might be the most practical thing about all of the above…
-During a single round of air combat triggered by interceptors, each interceptor and escort will receive 1d@1, while each group of Strategic Bombers (including raids with just a single strategic bomber) will receive 1d@1 and each group of tactical bombers (including raids with just a single tactical bomber) will receive 1d@1.
@Young:
This might be the most practical thing about all of the above…
-During a single round of air combat triggered by interceptors, each interceptor and escort will receive 1d@1, while each group of Strategic Bombers (including raids with just a single strategic bomber) will receive 1d@1 and each group of tactical bombers (including raids with just a single tactical bomber) will receive 1d@1.
I believe it can work with actual SBR rules mechanics.
StB damage D6+2, TcB damage D6, IC’s AA def @1 for each bomber.
I made calc for STBs attacking at zero and damage D6+3 while TcB and Fg kept @1.
The odds were similar to OOB with less destructive power over interceptors.
Giving a single @1 per bomber group type is near zero (and this little additional to damage D6+2/ StB can compensate for D6+3) and makes swarm of bombers less OP to allow interception with a few Fighters.
This isolated element worth a try.
Nice idea.
@Young:
2 Tactical bomber on the air base rolls a 6 - the air base is now damaged
I think you meant to write “1 Tactical Bomber on the air base rolls a 6”, unless you meant to include the one bomber that was shot down.
I think I like this system a lot more than OOB, as it doesn’t guarantee damage to factories (although admittedly, you’d need to pretty bad luck to fail to do any damage with 12 bombers), and it prevents a massive bomber stack from annihilating interceptors by restricting the fire to one die per group.
One potential suggestion would be to change the result needed to damage a factory to 4 or lower rather than 3 or higher, to keep with the normal combat mechanics of rolling low to hit. It also mimics the Bomber attack value, so it’d be even easier to remember.
@Young:
2 Tactical bomber on the air base rolls a 6 - the air base is now damaged
I think you meant to write “1 Tactical Bomber on the air base rolls a 6”, unless you meant to include the one bomber that was shot down.
I think I like this system a lot more than OOB, as it doesn’t guarantee damage to factories (although admittedly, you’d need to pretty bad luck to fail to do any damage with 12 bombers), and it prevents a massive bomber stack from annihilating interceptors by restricting the fire to one die per group.
One potential suggestion would be to change the result needed to damage a factory to 4 or lower rather than 3 or higher, to keep with the normal combat mechanics of rolling low to hit. It also mimics the Bomber attack value, so it’d be even easier to remember.
Thanks, I have adjusted the error, as far as the roll to damage… I mimicked it in the same vain as convoy disruptions, and in oob players rolling to damage have always prayed for high numbers on the dice. Thanks for the input.
This is pretty interesting. I like the part about multiple factories (minor ICs) on a territory, it will give you that mid level IC feel the game is missing when you have 2 factories on the same territory. India, N Italy, maybe Rome and Berlin for example could start with 2 factories? I think the rest of the capitols/majors could start with 3 factories, and get to build a bonus 10th unit if there is no damage to any factory. The four factories replacing most starting major is also worth looking into though for extra builds, and/or targets.
Would it be practical to have a factory cost 10 IPCs and only produce 2 units? Maybe have the territory value dictate how many factories a territory could have? Any original capital territory could hold up to 5 factories if original owner is in control (thinking Moscow here), and is reduced to 3 factories when captured. Could even go further and say any captured factory produces half the units for the enemy (each captured factory would produce only 1 unit). Same for building a factory on a territory that isn’t your original territory (US could build 3 factories on Norway, but only produce 1 unit each). How many factories for each starting capital/major at set-up TBD?
With so many factories in one territory you could consider giving S bmrs 2 SBR dice. They could be used on the same facility, or split up and hit two different targets in the same territory (but would face both AA guns if you split). The thought here is that one S bmr represents multiple bmr squadrons.
Anyway I like they way this is going
Thanks Wild Bill, to be honest I haven’t put anymore thought into this since I wrote it… anyway, thanks for your comments and interest.
So if, as germany,after I capture Moscow which had 2 damaged ICs and 2 good ICs.Is the 1 IC that remains after capture a good 1 or a damaged one?
I can imagine Russia leaving a "scorched earth"or Germany being able to find enough infastructure for an operational minor IC remaining.
