AAA with Risk start up

Riles

Hey! I’ve been working on a version of AAA that changes the way the game is started, using Risk as an inspiration. I know there have been a few other threads on this, but I’m probably going to be playing this with my AAA crew in a week or so and want opinions on my version of this.

Combat, movement, unit cost etc. stays the same. The main purpose behind my rules was to keep the FEEL of AAA (having to make tough, intelligent, and strategic decisions), but change up how the game starts so that the predictability of how each regular game plays out can be avoided.

There are 8 countries to choose from:
1. US
2. UK
3. Germany
4. South Africa
5. Russia
6. India
7. Australia
8. Japan

The game will be played as 3v3. I haven’t decided exactly how and when to divide up what country goes on each team, but every game will have a different combination of countries.

After teams are chosen, an IC and AA gun are placed in each capitol. Each country picks 6 inf, and everyone goes in turn order (in the order shown above) and places an inf in a territory they want until they have picked 6 territories. Note: all territories cost 3 IPC. Islands that have no IPC value in the original game (except for Gibraltar) count as 3 IPC as well. I did this to give island nations more IPC to gather up. I changed all IPC values because some countries would have inherent advantages over others if I kept them (US would have 30+ IPC easy, while Africa would have about 8 ). Each playing team’s capitol is worth 10 IPCs. Thus each team starts with 28 IPCs, and most teams average about 30 -35 IPCS after a round or two, about what teams get in the original game. Some territories will be open and available after the initial round and may be captured simply by walking into them.

The rules for picking territories are:
1. It must either connect to your capitol or to a territory you have already chosen
2. If a country owns a territory that connects to another territory directly via a SZ, they may choose that territory (EX: Germany may pick Algeria if they own WEu, but India could not pick Borneo via Fr Indochina.
3. There are special rules for the island territories (UK, Aus, Japan). UK may pick Greenland and E Can. Aus and Japan may pick any Pacific islands, though they must start their picks close to their own country and work their way out.
4. If a country gets boxed in and is unable to pick new territories adjacent to their capitol or one of their territories, they may pick the territory of a country that is not being used (if Germany gets boxed in, and Australia is not in the game, Germ may pick a Pacific island.

After all territories are chosen, each team gets the following to place:
4 inf
2 arm
1 art
1 ftr
2 transports
1 cruiser

The infantry, tanks, and artillery can only be placed one per territory. This forces everyone to make strategic decisions about where their units are going, and prevents each team from stacking their armies up all in one territory or in choke points. The fighter may go anywhere (where it is placed is a good indication of where a country’s priorities are). The navy is placed off the coast of the capitol. Russia may place their navy either in SZ 16 or in the SZ where the Russian sub starts in the original game (Russia has no starting ability to build a navy, so I gave them a choice as to where their’s will go.

In addition, each country gets to choose 1 of the following as a bonus unit (same placement rules apply):
A fighter
A destroyer
A transport
This allows each country to pick something that pertains to their strategy. A nation anticipating a large naval conflict may want the destroyer, Australia may want the transport to increase the number of units it can get to the mainland. A fighter is useful to a largely land based country like Russia or Germany.

A couple of things i haven’t worked out…
1. How to end the game. Should a team win by owning a certain number of territories? By owning 2 of the enemy’s capitols?
2. I have been toying with an idea to allow a country to spend 3 IPCs per boat to re locate the starting location of their navy away from their capitol coast to a different friendly territory coast.
3. One thought I had after playing with my brother last night was getting rid of neutral countries. We had a lot of choke point battles (around China and Persia) that would have flowed more freely if there were no neutral territories. Also, South America would become a battle ground and that would be cool.

Thoughts? I’ve play tested this on my own once (playing each country on my own to see how the game flowed) and once with my brother. I enjoyed it and it really changed everything up, but still felt like Axis and Allies.

Sorry for the wall o text

knp7765

I’m curious as to which map you are using. It’s obviously not Global 1940 and I don’t think it’s the Anniversary map either.

Is it from Revised, 1942 or Classic?

Riles

I believe I am using Spring 1942. Good question haha

Hobbes

@Riles:

I believe I am using Spring 1942. Good question haha

There’s an FFA (Free For All) version of Revised/Spring 42 available on TripleA. It adds China to the 5 starting powers and each power has a defined setup at the beginning.
And there’s also another version called Battleship Row, IIRC, where the start positions are at Western Indies, UK, Madagascar and Japan.

You can either give players a full or limited set up at the beginning or just give each one a set amount of money before game starts. If the units are predetermined it speeds up the beginning, otherwise everyone will have to think a bit.
The decision to divide the territories between powers before game starts is new to me and interesting. Usually how I play is that start only with your capitol and have to conquer everything else (which is neutral and has usually 1 inf on it).
Victory is usually until there’s a clear winner.

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