Axis & Allies Anniversary: Asian Chapters

I’m trying to end the China Free mod proyect. This issue has been in my mind various months, but is now when I want to end it finally. I have the time and I’m willing to end with AA50 before advancing to my mod ideas regarding AA40.

Also, I played a FTF game a couple of weeks ago with my group of pals. They were playing without me for many months (university had precedence for me), and they were playing 1942 scen without NOs because they noticed (as me) that Allies have no chance of winning in any other setup. They felt that it was a pity losing the NOs and also that China needed more punch to be fun. Experimental China rules were used in our group but they were a bit odd … my AABattlemap China Free mods were difficult to play with a real board, so that I have in mind now is create a China Free mod that can be easily played without having to change the board IPC values (or other things like that the Oregon territory of 0.2)

By luck, Mr. Harris made better rules for China in AAP40 (not perfect, but really better). The simplest way to add punch to China was using those rules in AA50. It’s very easy, can be done with the real board (and pieces), and it doesn’t need ICs or odd things like 0.1 and 0.2

Of course, more things are needed to balance the game. Something has to be done with the soviet-german front, with the annoying default japanese invasion of Siberia, with the almost irrelevant bristish resistance in Asia, with the infamous ACME wall and of course with the ignore-someone strats. So I decided make the China mod a general mod. Because of that, I’m naming it (provisionally) ‘Asian Chapters’ (like an old Europa Universalis 2 expansion), because Asia is the place where more changes are needed

Now, I’m doing a bit of brainstorming. I have a very clear idea of what things I’m going to do, but I welcome any suggestions (specially with the setup) and maybe even a bit of playtesting. Of course, a AABattlemap module is going to be released, even if we make a testing phase. So, let’s go with the ideas I have in mind (tell me what do you think):

General rules:

• SBRs will be conducted as in the optional AA50 rules that Mr. Harris released (with the fighters involved and such). However, these rules make SBRs irrelevant … let’s make SBRs a bit more appealing:

After the dogfight phase, the aa gun will roll 1 die for each surviving bomber (still hitting at 1s). However, the attacker can choose to lose fighters if some of them survived. Also, after the aa gun shoots, each surviving attacking fighter makes 1 damage point to the IC (let’s imagine that each fighter unit has some tactical bombers or such included)

So the idea is that the defender still can improve its defenses with fighters, but the attacker risks less money (valuable bombers) and makes a bit more of damage to the defender

• Axis win if

a) Japan has at least 6 VCs at end of USA’s turn
b) Germany + Italy have at least 7 VCs at end of USA’s turn

• Allies win if they have at least 13 VCs at end of USA’s turn

Europe:

• Dardaneles closed
• Karelia IC deleted and moved to Novosibirsk (this means that Germany has 1 IC less after round 2, and also is more historical because soviets moved the industry to east of Urals)

Both changes will aid USSR to survive a bit more … very needed because it was too easy for Germany to crush the soviets

China:

• Using AAP40 rules for China
• China plays after Italy and before USA
• Setup is the same that in China Free mod 0.2. (but there is not IC). Also, yun and nin back to their original value of 1 IPC
• China is allowed to move to any place. No limits of movement with one exception: China cannot enter at soviet controled territory (and USSR cannot enter at chinese territory). This will kill the ACME wall and also the undesirable effect of letting the chinamen escape to USSR when the ACME wall is deleted
• China should not start at war with Germany and Italy. I have to do something with this

USSR/Japan non agression pact:

• The breaker pays 15 IPCs to the bank unless it attacks a territory or SZ defended by multiple nations
• I want to link this with the deleting of the ACME wall … if the NAP ends, China can enter to USSR and viceversa. Also, if Germany or Italy attack China, the NAP should be voided, making a fully global war

UK in Asia:

• At first, I wanted to change the turn order. It’s too difficult without odd results, so I’ll let the same turn order. I’ll add a IC and 1 inf, 1 art to India. That should make India defensible but not unconquerable

The freaking Ignore-somebody strat:

• USA’s NO will be changed from ‘WUSA+CUSA+EUSA= 5 IPCs’ to ‘America free of Axis units+Hawaii+Midway = 10 IPCs’ (and when I say America, I mean America, not only the USA).

With the new VCs condition, a ignore Japan strat is impossible because of that Japan can simply hold in mainland Asia and take Hawaii and Australia to with. Also, losing a valuable USA NO will not aid to crush Germany sooner   :-D

A ignore Germany strat (with USA) will be also impossible. USSR still is weaker than Germany, UK will have to spend some money at India, and also there is a chance of Germany and Italy taking Calcutta before Moscow, thus reaching to 7 VCs (potentially, it could be even a chance of taking Ottawa, who knows). And USA will colect 53 IPCs, a amount of money that Japan can hold for many time, specially if China is quickly nullified and if the NAP is still in play

You have right about the SBRs, my solution is odd. Seems that an advanced SBR system is best suited for G40, so probably I’ll let the SBRs as in OOB AA50

I’ll continue this proyect. The definitive rules are:

Victory conditions:

• Axis win if

a) Japan has at least 6 VCs at end of USA’s turn
b) Germany + Italy have at least 7 VCs at end of USA’s turn

• Allies win if they have at least 13 VCs at end of USA’s turn

Tech:

• Use delayed tech as default (techs enter in play at the end of the turn of the power that discovered them)

NOs:

• NOs are mandatory

Europe:

• Dardaneles closed
• 1942 scenario: Karelia IC deleted and moved to Novosibirsk (at setup)
• 1941 scenario: you can move Karelia’s IC to Novo (1 time each game). Do it in deployment phase. You cannot deploy new units at kar or novo the turn that you move the IC

China:

• Using AAP40 rules for China
• China plays after Italy and before USA
• Setup is the same for both scenarios (use OOB 1942 for both)
• However, the chinese fighter is moved from Yunnan to Sikang and China gains 1 aa gun at Sikang
• China is allowed to move to any place. No limits of movement with one exception: China cannot enter at soviet controled territory (and USSR cannot enter at chinese territory)
• China doesn’t start at war with Germany and Italy. Germany or Italy can DOW China at pleasure, but China cannot DOW ger/ita unless that one of them DOWed first or that NAP is not active

UK

• Colonial garrison: you MUST deploy a free IC for UK round 1, as if you had purchased it. The free IC costs 0 IPCs
• 1941 only: add 1 uk inf to sum, bor, ngui and sol

USSR/Japan non agression pact:

• The breaker pays 15 IPCs to the bank unless it attacks a territory or SZ defended by multiple nations (that case, pay 0 IPCs). You can attack multinational SZs and ignore units belonging to a power that you’re not at war
• If the NAP ends, China can enter to USSR and viceversa. Also, if Germany or Italy attack China, the NAP should be voided, making a fully global war

This will be my last effort to balance AA50 (I’d like to play some games here and there). I’ll try to post the AABattlemap module soon. I want to end this before moving to my next proyects, a custom 1940 OOB module and some other module called ‘Spain, 1940’ …