Industrial Complexes should help with Tech

FEEDBACK WELCOMED

Hello everyone. I’ve been lurking here for years and wanted to reach out and get some feedback from our house rules on new tech development house rules for use on our Anniversary map. We went out to solve 2 problems, 1) the randomness of tech breakthroughs and 2) the game changing ability of certain techs. We wanted a system where you picked what tech your research with some sort of progressive path to a breakthrough. We have 20 techs that can be researched (at 1 per turn) in 4 categories, land warfare, air warfare, naval warfare and “special”.

Most of the tech breakthroughs provide advantages only in the first round of combat and we think provide some flavour to the game but I wouldn’t mind getting some more eye on this to see if anything stands out as too powerful or not worth the 4 + IPC investment.

We’ve played 3 games now with the progressive research model and it’s been fun.

I should add that while we play on the Anniversary map (neither of us have room for Global unfortunately), we use the following rules from other games or house rules.

Tanks cost 6 IPC Industry have built in AAA AAA unit from 1942.2 SBR Escorts and Interception BB has built in AAA, rolls 1 dice at 1

Last note is we wanted to increase abilities without adding new units to the game. The map just gets too crowded once you start including new units.

Would welcome any thoughts you have. Thanks in advance!!

**** New Tech Research Rules ****

To make an investment in a technology, the player spends 4 IPC to start a project, limited to starting 1 project per turn, however doesn’t announce with projects they are starting, places a country roundle on the progress tracker starting at Phase 1. Players can only have 1 ongoing project per category (Land, Air, Naval, Special). During the research phase, the player rolls 1 free dice for each research project and may purchase as many additional dice rolls as they want for each of the research projects prior to rolling (see additional dice cost below). The player needs to roll the number on the progress chart and if achieved, the country roundle is placed in the “breakthrough” box. If roll is not successful, the country roundle is moved up one and each subsequent turn achieving a ‘breakthrough’ becomes easier. If the player gets to Phase 3 without achieving a breakthrough, the roundle is moved to the DELAYED box and the technology is achieved in the research phase of the next turn. Having a tech in DELAYED does not block a new project in the same category from being started.

While the progress of each step is announced, including a breakthrough, the player does not reveal the technology breakthrough until the technology is used. For tracking purposes, keep your breakthroughs in the “secret” box until it is used then move to “revealed’.

link text

Land Warfare

Heavy Tanks, tanks attack at 4 and target select land units on a roll of 1 during the first round of combat.

Heavy Tank Destroyers, tanks defend at 4 and target select land units on a roll of 1 during the first round of combat.

Mechanized Warfare, Inf/Art/AAA paired with tank move 2, Inf/Art can blitz with tank.

Advanced Artillery, infantry paired with artillery defend at 3 during the first round of combat.

Elite Infantry, attacking infantry roll 2 dice in the first round of combat. Only 1 roll gets the attack combined arms bonus when paired with artillery.

Air Warfare

Heavy Bombers, bombers add 3 IPC damage during strategic bombing raids. Heavy bombers hit by AAA fire are removed from play AFTER they roll for bombing damage.

Escort Fighters, fighter units starting in the same territory with a bomber may move up to 6 and escort the bomber to target during strategic bombing mission

Advanced Aircraft, land based fighters attack at 4 first round of combat. Land based fighter escorts/interceptors roll at 2 during air combat round of Strategic Bombing raid. Bombers roll 2 dice in the first round of combat, picking the best result.

Jet Fighters, defending land based fighters have a hit priority aircraft and roll 2 dice during the first round of combat and roll 2 dice at 2 to hit during Strategic Bombing phase.

Advanced Radar and ATC, Industrial complex AAA rolls hit on a 2 or less during Strategic Bombing. Up to 2 land based fighters may scramble from land territory to defend in land or sea combat in adjacent land or sea zones including strategic bombing (copied from Sired Blood’s rules)

Naval Warfare

Heavy Battleship, take 3 hits to sink, roll 2 dice first round of combat including shore bombardment. Considered fully operational with 1 hit, half attack/defend/AAA with 2 hits. Battleship AAA defences roll 2 dice.

Advanced Carrier, Carriers take 2 hits to sink & can carry 3 fighters. Carrier based fighters ‘target select’ naval or air units on a roll of 1 during naval combat.

Advanced Submarines, subs attack at 3 first round of combat, each sub in excess of enemy destroyers in a naval battle may sneak attack/submerge.

Heavy Transports, transports may now carry 3 units. If 3 units are carried, 1 must be an infantry.

Naval Logistics, all naval surface combat units (Battleships, Carriers, Cruisers, Destroyers) move 3.

Special Tech

Improved Shipyards (standard rules)

Increase Factory Production, factories on territory IPC 2 or less produce 1 extra unit, factories on territory IPC 3 or more produce 2 extra units. Factories now cost 10.

War Economy, during the collect income phase, players get 1 additional IPC for each 10 IPC it has on the income tracker + results from IPC modifier roll below.

Roll 6 = 4 IPC
Roll 5 = 3 IPC
Roll 3-4 = 2 IPC
Roll 1-2 = 1 IPC

Full Mobilization, repair factory 1 IPC per 2 points of damage. At the start of the ‘Purchase Units’ phase, the player rolls 1d6. A roll of 1-4 grants 1 free infantry unit, roll of 5-6 grants 2 free infantry units. These units are placed during the ‘Mobilize New Units’ phase using standard placement rules.

Mass Production, players may purchase multiple units of the same type at a discount.

Tanks (6 IPC), purchase set of 3 tanks for 16 IPC (-2)
Artillery, purchase set of 3 artillery for 10 IPC (-2)
AAA Artillery, purchase set of 2 AAA guns for 8 IPC (-2)
Fighter, purchase 2 fighters 17, IPC (-3)
Bombers, purchase 2 bombers for 20 IPC (-4)

**** End ****

Thanks! I mostly agree with your comment about per-dice research efficiency; the only reason I didn’t include additional penalties for triple-stacking your scientists is for the sake of simplicity. If you want to play with a -3 penalty, or (even better) a -4 penalty that rounds up to a -3 penalty if you roll three 1’s, then go right ahead!

Giving each Axis nation 3 tokens and each Allied nation 2 tokens tends to give the Axis an early edge in research (they will manage their first couple of breakthroughs earlier than the Allies will), but then the Allies will start to catch up and then overtake the Axis later in the war, because the Axis scientists (on average) will be more “crowded” and will take more stacking penalties.

You could bump Radar to 14 pts. or even to 16 pts. if you really want to, but there are limited opportunities to make full use of the potential synergy. E.g., suppose Germany is using a “Dark Skies” approach to ward off Allied fleets with its enormous Nazi bomber squadrons. Britain might want both Radar and Anti-Aircraft Cruisers to help protect its fleet. Russia, on the other hand, only needs Radar – they’re not going to build any cruisers. Similarly, Russia doesn’t have much use for Jet Fighters, since if it’s suffering from a strategic bombing campaign, it won’t be able to afford much in the way of extra fighters. There’s also the concern that “Heavy Bombers” has always been an overpowered technology in every version of Axis & Allies that had tech. I tried to err in the opposite direction by making the anti-aircraft techs roughly as powerful as the aircraft-enhancement techs!

There is an “Improved Artillery” tech in some of the OOB versions of Axis & Allies, and I’ve never seen anyone buy it, except maybe Russia, who really does have to count every dollar and might not be able to afford enough artillery to fully power its infantry stacks. It is really challenging to fully exploit the advantage of 2:1 artillery support is that it’s really hard to maintain the desired ratio. E.g. if I have a stack of 10 infantry and 5 artillery, then after one round of combat, I probably have something like 2 infantry and 5 artillery, and the extra artillery support becomes moot. It stays moot on defense, too, when those artillery try to hold the ground they just captured. But if I have a stack of 20 infantry and 5 artillery instead, then my army is hugely inefficient – even with 2:1 artillery support, I’m only generating 40 pips of punch on 25 units, so I’m going to give you multiple rounds of combat in which to score hits and wear down my army.

You get the same problem in reverse if you want to only boost the artillery’s native attack power. With a stack of, e.g., 8 infantry and 3 artillery, the tech would only give you +3 pips of punch – it’s just not very exciting. You could try attacking with a stack of all artillery, e.g., 10 artillery for $40, but that just seems weird and un-thematic.

Anyway, let me know if you try out the rules, with or without some modifications! I’d be curious to see how they work in live play. I’m defending my rules so you have the benefit of my opinions, but they’re just opinions, and ultimately the house rules are there for everyone to enjoy however they like…if you think you’ll have more fun tweaking the costs or nerfing a couple of the techs, then go with what seems fun! :-)

Triple A gives you a little eye candy when you get certain techs.

Super subs - white stripes on the noses Jets - nation specific jet sculpts Radar - radar symbols by all facilities and AAA guns LRA - white stripes on the wings Heavy bombers - nation specific sculpts for tactical bombers (who knows why), and SOME nations have changed strat bomber sculpts.  All have 2 little bomb icons by the strat bombers Rockets - rocket symbol at each air base Increased production - fancy IC sculpts for all nations

If you don’t want to see all these upgrades at once, then don’t download and look at this file.

If you would like to see all the cool possibilities in Triple A for hitting different techs with different nations, you can just use the edit function to add a technology to a power.

Or, you can save all the clicking since I’ve done it for you, and just download this file.

Enjoy
All teched up.tsvg

@AlphaKappa:

As the title says, one of my friends who I play Global 1940 with gets frustrated when his perfectly-orchestrated strategy falls apart due to bad luck (and to be fair, he can often be a pretty unlucky roller).

If his strategy is so perfectly orchestrated. why can’t he win with poor dice rolls?.. I mean it’s not like he’s only rolling 5’s and 6’s. I’ve been playing A&A since 93, and I can tell you that dice rolling is about attitude. In the past, I would throw my dice across the room and curse with an unsportsmanlike temper… needless to say, my attitude about luck has matured with an enlightened perspective. I now see bad luck as a challenge rather than a handicap.

Do you mean the Risk cities?

You can get them here:

Risk Replacement Parts

They are with the blue pieces

@dpdlc:

I never understood, how researching a technology would instantly upgrade your units for 0 cost. While doctrines is a change in tactical thinking, using units differently. You don’t actually have to build anything or upgrade anything, but the techniques in battle change and represent a learning experience.

In real life:

Germany focus on armored manuver warfare, to encircle their enemies.
France focused on static defenses.

US focused heavily on heavy bombers and daylight raids.
While Brittain focused on night bombers.

Russia focused on heavy preliminary artillery bombardment, for battles.
while the US had artillery available quickly to lower lever units. (“RADIO”)

Japan developed the expertise and techniques for night battles.

I think these things add a  little bit to flavor in the game.

Hi dpdlc,

What you’re describing sounds like the National Advantages available in A&A Revised.  These were nation specific advantages that reflected certain tactics, special units, or strategies used by the different A&A nations.

It’s a shame they took these out of AA50 because you are absolutely correct, when balanced appropriately, they can add tremendous flavor to a game (check out AAR: Enhanced which uses a much more balanced set of national advantages compared to AAR OOTB)

That is a pretty cool rule.

It all seems pretty fair to me except for maybe the Russian industrial technology. However, I’m not sure.