House rules on technology my group came up with.

My group and I have done some thinking about technology and how it works in game and have come up with my groups own set of house rules and expansions for it.  The following has come after several discussions with those I play with weekly, however it has not yet been implemented or tested in our gaming sessions.  Any thoughts and comments or potential issues would be appreciated.  This was incorporated to give the lesser powers and pretty much anyone other than the Unites States a  chance of getting something useful during game play, and some tech have the potential to change the mechanic of a game.

We have added a few techs and modified slightly some of the existing techs.  This also incorporates some optional rules submitted to this board by others.  Most of these rules have been modified to better fit this system and in some cases other house rules.

Note:  These rules require that you have a means of designating and differentiating units from each other, we use different colored chips for that purpose.

There are three charts, the first two will be mostly familiar to everyone, the third is entirely new.  You also don’t get to choose which chart to use under these rules, you roll for it, 1-2 is chart 1, 3-4 is chart 2, and 5-6 is chart 3.  This roll is made for every technology you get individually.  Then you roll for that chart normally.  If you get a technology you already have you reroll for both chart and technology again.

This rule set also incorporates a modified research token system from AA50  Every five credits spent on research gains one research token.  You roll for every token at the same time, each technology won you remove three research tokens (or less if you don’t have enough, for instance if you only have one token you can only remove one token), the rest remain and can be added to in later turns as the player sees fit and can afford.

Chart 1:

1)  Advanced Artillery

No real change here.
This rule does include the optional Paratroopers, Marines and Amphibious Assault Vehicles.

2)  Rockets

No change here.

3)  Paratroopers/Air Transports

I wanted to put these with separate techs, however if I did that you could make paratroopers and have no way to use them.

Air Transports:
Cost:  7 IPCs.  Attack:  0.  Defense:  0.  Move:  6 (plus Airbase and Long Range Aircraft tech if owned).  Can transport 1 Infantry, Paratrooper, or Marine from one air base (yours or an allies) to another air base (yours or an allies) during the non-combat movement phase.  They cannot transport tanks, artillery, or mechanized infantry.  They can also air-drop one paratrooper into any other allied territory in the non-combat movement phase or enemy-controlled territory during the combat movement phase.

Paratrooper:
Paratroopers cost 4 IPCs.  They function as regular Infantry in all respects, except they may make air drops into territories.  When making an air drop into enemy territory, they attack with a 2 for the first round of battle.  If an AA gun is present in the territory they are air dropping into, the air transport that is carrying them must survive AA fire.  If not, the paratrooper is destroyed along with the air transport.  After the first round of combat the Paratroopers are used as regular Infantry.
NOTE:  It is undecided at this point if these will revert to regular infantry after first drop or if they can be used as paratroopers again.
NOTE:  Taken from Almashir’s thread and modified for use in this system

4)  Increased Factory Production

No change here.

5)  War Bonds

No change here.

6)  Improved Mechanized Infantry

No change here.

Chart 2:

1)  Super Submarines

No change here.

2)  Jet Fighters

No change here.

3)  Improved Shipyards

No real change here.
If you have light carriers they now cost 6.

4)  Radar

No change here.

5)  Long Range Aircraft

No real change here.
This rule does apply to Air Transports should you have that technology.

6)  Improved Bombing Sights

This is exactly the same as the Heavy Bombers technology, I simply think this name is a better fit for whats happening.

Chart 3:

1)  Heavily Armored Tanks

Tanks defend at 4 instead of 3

2)  Marines

Marines cost 4 IPCs.  They function as regular Infantry in all respects, except they attack with a 2 when making an amphibious landing on the first round of battle.
NOTE:  It is undecided at this point if these will revert to regular infantry after first user or if they can be used as marines again.
NOTE:  Taken from Almashir’s thread and modified for use in this system

3)  Amphibious Assault Vehicles

Amphibious Assault Vehicles cost 5 IPCs.  They function as regular Mechanized Infantry in all respects, except they attack with a 2 when making an amphibious landing on the first round of battle.
NOTE:  It is undecided at this point if these will revert to regular mechanized infantry after first user or if they can be used again.
NOTE:  Taken from Almashir’s thread and modified for use in this system

4)  Light Carrier

Light Carriers cost 7 IPCs.  They work like Aircraft Carriers but can hold only one plane.  The planes they carry are also limited to fighter aircraft.  They have no attack or defense value but can be used to take hits in combat.  They use the standard movement rates of all ships.

5)  Well organized Defense

Cost: 1 per land unit
For each land unit upgraded in a given area defense is increased by 1.  Infantry (including marines and paratroopers if you have them), mechanized infantry (including amphibious assault vehicles) and artillery defend at three, tanks defend at 4 (or 5 if you also have the heavy tanks technology).  When said units leave the area the bonus is lost.  If you wish the unit have the bonus again you must pay for it again.

In concept the use of this varies from area to area and would include multiple strategies to give the defenders a better chance.  These would include trench warfare, knowledge of terrain, extra training working together and in aforementioned environments, ect.  In the end whichever is used has the same game effect.

6)  Lend Lease

You may give lend-lease money to any allied player.  This takes place during your “purchase new units” phase.  Roll a die to determine if the money and materiel survived on a roll of 1, half of the money is lost (round fractions up).  On a roll of 2, one-third of the money is lost .  On a roll of 3-6, all money arrives safely.
NOTE:  Taken from Almashir’s thread and modified for use in this system

@Axisplaya:

Interesting house rules. I just got the feeling that if USA catch the Lend lease tech, the game is just over as there seem to be no limitation for the amount of money they can give to any player…

You bring a good point, unless the axis team had an exceptionally good opening strategy and some very good rolls of the dice they will have lost.  Unlimited resources to a country on the fringe of failure from the US could keep it alive potentially indefinitely…

How about not sending credits but units, the units cost 50% or more to produce (rounded up), and they are placed only on the other nations Major Industrial Complexes at that nations Mobilize New Units phase phase to simulate transport time.  Not sure if these should count towards overall factory production of the receiving nation or not as of yet…  If this still ends up being overpowering we can later put a limit on how many units can be sent, or their credit value.

I haven’t decided yet weather or not the nation with Lend Lease should be able to do this with units that the receiving nation cannot yet make, it would potentially give the receiving nation access to units they do not have the technology to produce.

Also if the Lend Lease nation has other tech advancements such as Heavy Armored Tanks or Improved Bombing Sights should the receiving country get those benefits on those specific units as well?

I must do some thinking on this…