The British Empire

There should be factories in this game. Think about it. Did every German soldier suddenly appear out of Berlin? This would be my rule every home territory has the ability to produce units. Some less than others. Major or minor factories. If that factory is taken by your opponent it is lost for good. The invader can’t use it and if it is taken back it is no longer there. This rule would show how every corner of the homeland was a mobilization site for that country. Wow I came up with that in 40 seconds I am shocked something like this has not been implemented in these games.

A note to my last post would be only in your homeland region. Germany can’t pump out units in Africa unless they buy a complex there.

@Flashman:

Looks like Canada starts with 6 inf and 2 art, and a cruiser and transport off-shore.

The German report suggested that Germany cannot place new colonial infantry in Africa, so why should this be different for Britain?

You know how I feel about Larry’s obsession with capitals, but this is the rule for the powers described so far so it looks hard and fast. One you use up your colonial troops they’re gone.

In Larry’s Defense… if the allies had captured Berlin, the Central Powers would have surrendered.

I like playing the UK and to me it’s much cooler and historical if you have build troops all over the Empire. I’ve always been a fan of separate builds in India/ANZAC/Canada. If it was up to me they would all have a separate incomes that had to be built there. Fortunately as A&A has evolved Larry has moved toward this idea except for Canada. Larry almost takes us there with separate roundels and it’s own factories, but leaves it short with no separate income so in the end it’s not usually worth it to build there. Maybe one day…haha

@Admiral_Thrawn:

I like playing the UK and to me it’s much cooler and historical if you have build troops all over the Empire. I’ve always been a fan of separate builds in India/ANZAC/Canada. If it was up to me they would all have a separate incomes that had to be built there. Fortunately as A&A has evolved Larry has moved toward this idea except for Canada. Larry almost takes us there with separate roundels and it’s own factories, but leaves it short with no separate income so in the end it’s not usually worth it to build there. Maybe one day…hahaÂ

Me too! We have sometimes had house rules for Canada and even for South africa. I think that when playing Britain you get nicve feeling that you have to use your limited resources to hold on your territories against armies that usually outnumber you two to one.

In my defence, the Germans in fact surrendered long before the Allies reached Berlin, or even crossed the German border.

My policy is clear: Canada and Australia should have limited industry and be able to produce tanks, maybe destroyers.

Other colonies should be infantry only. India made a vast contribution in front line infantry and cavalry, but did no possess the industry needed to produce aircraft and battleships. This is why there should be an entirely separate process for “building” infantry.
I’m thinking about a “draft” system, limiting the number of infantry you can place, and the tts you can place them in, to a number based on the actual available manpower. These units, if you decide to buy them (you can pass, but lose the draft) must be placed in their home tts.

Even Russia started running out of men by 1916, so its just not realistic to allow players to build unlimited numbers of infantry cannon fodder. Indeed most powers by 1917 had evolved tactics based on more and heavier artillery precisely because they couldn’t replace their infantry losses.

The only variable would be UK and USA, who start with no conscription and can decide to introduce it, bringing manpower levels up to those of the continental powers, but at a cost in national morale.

@Gargantua:

@Flashman:

Looks like Canada starts with 6 inf and 2 art, and a cruiser and transport off-shore.

The German report suggested that Germany cannot place new colonial infantry in Africa, so why should this be different for Britain?

You know how I feel about Larry’s obsession with capitals, but this is the rule for the powers described so far so it looks hard and fast. One you use up your colonial troops they’re gone.

In Larry’s Defense… if the allies had captured Berlin, the Central Powers would have surrendered.

Trying to put this in the outline of a rule:

Purchased infantry can be placed in any tt with an IPC value that a power controlled at the start of the game. This does not include “Allied” tts, for example Belgium raises its army when activated and this is its limit.*

These tts can be divided into “Home” tts and “Dominions & Colonies”. In most cases it will be obvious which tt belongs in which category; essentially home tts are those contiguous with the capitals, plus Corsica, Sicily, Sardinia & Ireland (probably; though Britain never introduced conscription in Ireland, there were plenty of Irish volunteers). There may be one or two quibbles here; Finland and Central Asia (i.e. Kazakhstan) were exempt from Russian conscription, we might consider these as Russian colonies.

Everything else we’ll deal with as colonies.

Limitations:

You cannot place units in tts occupied by the enemy (or contested?)

Placements in Home tts must be even; that is you cannot place 2 units in one tt and none in another.
(note: perhaps the 4 islands I listed should be treated as colonies for this reason - players might otherwise be forced to build up stacks on islands which they cannot transport to the battlegrounds).

Placement in colonies is optional, but you can never place more than 1 unit per turn in each colony, you can never place more units per turn in colonies than in home tts, and you may not place more than 3 total units in all colonies in any one turn.

*Or should it be? Since Belgium in effect becomes a part of France, why not allow it to be treated as such for infantry recruitment, subject to the limitation listed above?

That is, Belgium is treated as part of France, Congo as a French colony.

Serbia and Romania are treated as Russian home tt as long as they are contiguous with Russia, otherwise as colonies. That is, if the CPs capture Romania, a free Serbia is reduced to Russian colonial status. Perhaps this should even apply to original home tts that become cut off from direct contact to the capital through home tts.

Bulgaria is treated as Turksih home tt

Activated Albania is an Italian colony

Arabia becomes a British colony

Mexico a German colony  :wink:

Portugal is an odd case out - probably make it a French colony as per Contiguous rule.

Otherwise, this seems to work out pretty well.

Did you misunderstand how I was outlining a production rule:

You can build one infantry in any ORIGINAL territory that has an IPC value of 2 or more
You have to build everything else at your capital. (in the case of boats, any territory adjacent to your capital)

The 2 IPC rule would depend on how many areas and where they are located. I prefer 1 IPC and an additional cost of 1-2 IPC for the infantry. The logistics of raising faraway units should not be the same.

This thread disappoints me, here I was expecting the British AAR  :-(

The one exception I might make to colonial builds being infantry only would be that Canada can build one transport. This would count as 2 towards the colonial maximum of 3 for that turn.
Perhaps, though, that must mean bringing Canada into the “even builds” rule; so that if the UK wants to build more than 4 infantry on a turn one of them must be in Canada.
It seems a fair way of representing British dependency on Trans-Atlantic shipping.