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:
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
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
Europe:
Both changes will aid USSR to survive a bit more … very needed because it was too easy for Germany to crush the soviets
China:
USSR/Japan non agression pact:
UK in Asia:
The freaking Ignore-somebody strat:
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
I really love these ideas. I have followed your previous China Mods but always thought the changes were too radical. This one seems great. My only complaint in this one is the SBR rules still seem a bit odd. I agree with making them more beneficial to the attacker, but your solution needs a bit more work. I think causing more damage per bomber may be the way to go, like a +1 or +2 IPC per bomber that survives.
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:
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
Tech:
NOs:
Europe:
China:
UK
USSR/Japan non agression pact:
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’ …
