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This article is more properly termed ‘Creating your own Axis and Allies map, nations and land territories.’ This article is on how to create your own individual and variable land territories. I base the following on a statistical analysis on the A & A Classic game and my design is independent of any other source.
If you examine the Classic map (or any of the other maps) you note the nations (what I call the major powers) and also the neutral or occupied nations (what I call ‘territories’). All these territories (land spaces) whether part of a player nation, or otherwise, have numerical PF values. When you statistically examine these values you are able to extrapolate some value ranges and, for the major powers, whether they may be single territory nations (island or land) or whether they are multiple territory land powers. All this can be randomized as follows using 3D6 dice. Hence we will begin;

Roll 3D6 for size of great power where; 3-11=single Territory Great Power (62.5%) or 12-18= Multiple Territory Great Power (37.5%)
a) If Single Territory roll 2D6 where; 2-5= Island Great Power (28%) or 6-12= Land Great Power (72%)
b) If Multiple Territory roll 2D6 where; 2=2 Territories (3%), 3-4= 3 Territories (13%), 5-6= 4 Territories (25%), 7-8= 5 Territories (31%), 9-10= 6 Territories (19%), 11=7 Territories (5%) & 18=8 territories (3%) I used Fra & Italy as single territory great powers plus the regular 5 player nations to give better percentages & I weighted the multiple territory great powers to not have too few or too many territories (as you may see).
** There is a range of PF values for the individual Great Powers. I made the range run from 8 to 13 ( a difference of 6).this is weighted, as well, to have most Great Powers to be the same (for balance purposes), hence; Roll 3D6 for the Production Factors (PFs) of your Great Power where; 3-4= 8PF (2%), 5-7= 9PF (14.5%), 8-10=10PF (33.5%), 11-13=11PF (33.5%), 14-16=12PF (14.5%) & 17-18= 13PF (2%).
A Single Territory Great Power is given the numerical PF value as indicated.
However, a Multiple Territory Great Power has all territories, except the first, initially assigned a PF value of 1. The first territory is always the territory with more PFs than any other. Then, for every territory initially at 1, a further 3D6 roll is made where the territory value changes as follows; 3-9 = 1PF (value remains as 1) (37.5%), 10-13= 2PF (46%) & 14-18= 3PF 16.5%). * This may increase the Multiple Territory Great Power PF total above 13 but in only rare instances of many territories and higher die rolls.
There are, therefore, three different types of Great Power, namely;
A) A Single Territory Island Great Power such as Japan or the United Kingdom
B) A Single Territory Land Great Power such as France, Germany or Italy
C) A Multiple Territory (Land) Great Power such as the Soviet Union or the United States
The next step in territory creation is to determine how many nearby ‘neutral’ territories will be somehow adjacent or 1 sea space away from your Great Power (if an island). Hence; Roll 3D6 to determine the number of nearby neutral territories where; 3= 1 territory (.5%), 4=2 territories (1.5%), 5=3 territories (3%), 6=4 territories (4.5%), 7-8= 5 territories (16.5%), 9-12= 6 territories (48%), 13-14=7 territories (16.5%), 15=8 territories (4.5%), 16=9 territories (3%) , 17=10 territories (1.5%) & 18=11 territories (.5%).
Next, one must randomly determine and in some manner, an orderly way, in what direction from your Great Power these neutral territories lie. Here there will be differing results so long as they are randomized without bias. Specifically, where one has an Island Single Territory Great Power the first random roll will determine in what direction the nearby neutral territory land mass will lie the requisite one sea zone away. The direction and what the arrangement of these neutral territories will be can be either a clump of territories rather round in shape or may be an extended chain of neutral territories (or some combination) all depending on the random dice rolling. After determining these neutral territory positions it is only necessary to determine the PF values of these neutral territories, as follows; Roll 3D6 to determine the PF value of each neutral territory where; 3-11= 1 PF (62.5%), 12-13= 2 PF (21%), 14-15= 3PF (11.5%), 16=4PF (3%), 17=5PF (1.5%) & 18= 6PF (.5%).
Following these steps above will result in a Unique Great Power and related nearby neutral territories all with specific PF values. This is just to create one of, at least, five Great Powers. As in the original A & A Classic map there will be at least one neutral continent similar to South America. One will also need to have several ‘large islands’ meaning other multiple territory islands and also some single neutral territory islands to fill in the map. All of these territories will use the #4) 3D6 roll listed above to determine their PFs.
Note that one must use the PF points total from an A & A map and extrapolate from this, normally, as if one had five players, hence one should have five real life players make up their own unique Great Power as illustrated above.
Also, one must make a map of sea zones and number these zones so that these new ‘lands’ may be randomly placed on a map. Sea spaces can be numbered sequentially. Furthermore, there is the matter of ‘names’ for land territories (land spaces). Some manner of logic should be used. I chose & my friends chose specific nationalities and then we used an atlas to randomly pick specific names (we used randomized atlas index entries). Using random alphabet letter generation also helps. Note one will have to create borders. Adhere to roughly equal sized areas (for ease of unit placement & room for same). Note this whole process of making new paper maps & of course a sea map board will take some time.
Although this suggested random map creation system seems difficult it is not if one has some guidelines to follow and one follows it to conclusion.
Lastly, you will have a unique A & A game map whatever A& A version you like playing and You and Your Gaming Friends will have their own ‘unique Great Power’.

@ army man

you could try some of the altrenate set ups. Also triplea has a game called napoleonic empires that is a FFA. It seems pretty popular

Many of the ideas in this thread are incorporated into my rules set.

National advantages. Each nation is unique. The Soviets receive more manpower points than any two other nations combined, allowing them to field substantially larger infantry forces than can any other nation. However, Soviet infantry receive a modest penalty to combat effectiveness.

Japan starts the game with a bonus to the effectiveness of its torpedo bombers, because Kates were very good planes. The Soviets’ Ilyushin Il-2 tech means its dive bombers are harder to shoot down than anyone else’s. The Germans are able to advance farther than any other nation in rocket and jet technology, though available British advances in jet technology are nothing to sneeze at!

Light and heavy tank. This rules set incorporates four different classes of tanks: light tanks, medium tanks, battle tanks, and heavy tanks. The game starts off with China unable to build tanks, Japan able to build light tanks, and the Soviets, Germans, British, and Americans able to build medium tanks. Soviet medium tanks are somewhat harder to kill than the others because they had the T-34. It is possible to upgrade the quality of one’s tanks over the course of the game. For example, a level 5 light tank has twice the firepower, and is twice as hard to kill, as a level 1 light tank.

Japan can upgrade its light tanks to medium tanks. The Soviets, British, and Americans can upgrade their medium tanks to battle tanks. The Germans can upgrade their medium tanks first to battle tanks, and then to heavy tanks. However, all this upgrading would require a substantial investment in scarce, valuable EUs. EUs can be used to research new technologies, to upgrade your nation’s income, to upgrade its rail network, or to build or upgrade minor production centers. The Japanese may want to stick with light tanks, the Soviets with medium tanks, and the Germans with battle tanks, in order to free up EUs for use elsewhere. (EUs cannot be used to directly purchase military units–that’s what production units are for!)

Terrain. This rules set’s terrain system is rather simple. Level 0 terrain means no defensive bonus, level 1 terrain means that for every ten hits the defender scores, a bonus hit is added. Terrain can be up to level 10.

Atomic bomb. EUs can be used to research nuclear technology. One your level of nuclear technology is sufficiently advanced, you can use EUs to build nuclear production facilities. Each such facility produces one nuclear bomb per turn. The United States can load its nuclear bombs onto strategic bombers, which must survive a dogfight for one round before they can deliver their lethal payload. Germany must also deliver its nuclear bombs in this manner–until, that is, it gets around to researching rockets level 15. At that point, it will be able to use ICBMs to deliver nuclear payloads to any target anywhere in the world. Fortunately for the Allies, Germany cannot research rockets level 15 until the 15th game round at the earliest. Even after Germany reaches this point, the Allies can always try to use strategic bombing raids to destroy Germany’s nuclear production facilities. Of course, by this point Germany’s jets will likely be very advanced, and equipped with air-to-air rockets. That will make strategic bombing raids against Germany difficult. On the other hand, the U.S.'s late game income is nearly double that of Germany.

I’m interested in feedback about this rules set. If you have any comments or suggestions about it, please post them here. Thanks.

Irock, Warrior, and Others,

As you may already know by now we are, as we speak, working on a new series of games as I just described below.  The (proposed) name is:

Expanded A&A-The Naval Series with the 1st game to be Coral Sea and The Solomons Campaign.

We’re investigating the possibility that you could play 2 or 3 COMPLETELY separate games on the same map(at DIFFERRENT times).  the Coral Sea naval-air battle, the huge Solomons Campaign, and maybe a Battle of the Bismark Sea scenario, too.

I’ve had so many players express their interest and approval in my stated goal for a game that would be designed based on a “Battle-Specific”(the Solomons Campaign) map, Enlarged to
G-40 size, and utilizing all the new units and their new capabilities.

I think that this would be nothing short of a revolution in our A&A gameplay.

Of course none of this would be the least bit possible without HBG and FMG making available all of the wonderful new units that they plan.  My hat’s off to them for their efforts here.

Tigerman, as an experienced “Map Master”, has agreed to do the map(Haleluyah!!!) which will take a bit of time as what we’re proposing is HUGE!  Not only in the amount of changes, new rules, and improvements(?) that we plan, but in shear SIZE as well.

Stay tuned to the various postings for updates.

And if this seems the least bit interesting to you, get INVOLVED and let us know YOUR ideas or opinions.  We will all benefit from having all ideas considerred.

We’ve started our own thread here in the Variants Section for this game called
Expanded A&A-The Naval Series    Coral Sea and The Solomons Campaign.
Stop in and check it out, ask questions, or offer suggestions anytime.

Like I Say,……What Do YA’LL Think???
                                                                                    “Tall Paul”

Holden how is your next map project coming along?

I recently got a copy of Conquest Gaming’s “A House Divided The Brothers War”.  It is an area movement game that uses miniatures and, because of the railroad movement in addition to regular movement, 6 distinct theaters (3 per side),general and event cards that modify the fighting troops abilities, is a very interesting game to play.  It is tough for the North to survive the opening rounds because of their relatively weak starting generals and troop levels, but because of the reinforcement advantage, if it can hang on the game becomes winable for it.  Another interesting and historical feature is that many of the South’s generals have good infantry, cavalry and artillery modifiers while many of the North’s generals are lesser, but all the main generals are represented so eventually the North draws Sherman, Sheridan, Thomas, Grant, etc. But, of course, the South continues to draw generals each turn so Longstreet, Stuart, Pemberton and Lee appear (Beauregard and Jackson start the game in play).  You have to provide your own pieces, the pieces from the Napoleon Risk will work, but I had enough pieces from Battle Cry to play the game.  The game is only $13 and with about $10 shipping is still are good buy for such an interesting game.

ok great.

oh.