Yes, I understood what you were saying, Mantlefan. It makes sense in certain aspects, but I feel given just how expensive it is to buy tech dice (32 IPC for the first 4, 48 for the first 6 with a maximum of 6 dice per turn) that countriest who cannot save their cash may not be able to participate in getting technologies. Pretty much the only way smaller countries have to get technologies (mostly India and Australia, but I’ve seen Japan get crushed under the jack-boot of American imperialism as well) is the free dice system. If they cannot save enough to get that one free die, they might not be able to get any technologies.
Perhaps, and I cannot read your mind, but perhaps you forgot that the price of extra dice was pretty hefty under the new system? To put it mildly, it would take 50-67% of Germany’s income just to buy a set of dice to augment their free ones.
Here’s a counter proposal we never considered. Stick with 2 charts but have one be the “free dice chart” and the other a “dice only chart” where the free dice chart only has half the abilities of the other. So if you rolled your free dice and got #3 then you would only get Paratrooper’s technology, not the Heavy Bombers. If you purchased dice and got #3 then you would get both Paratroopers and Heavy Bombers.
For table top play you throw red dice for purchased tech and white dice for free tech and there you go. For online you just have two command lines. On the battleboards (I call all the boards battleboards, not just the actual battleboard) just go with Chart #1 is free and Chart #2 is paid. You can never get the “free” technology with “paid” dice. Not that you would want too. Same for the reverse.
(quoted the rule below, so you don’t have to go back and find it.)
- Improved Bomber Technology (Combine the following):
- Paratroopers (2 infantry)
- Heavy Bombers (2d6)