A House Rule for A&A Europe

I had a few ideas on this too, since HBG and CCM 3D print various pieces:

light cruisers 2/3/2/10
heavy cruisers 4/3/2/14
light aircraft carriers: 1/2/2/12 one AC
tank destroyers: 3/2/2/5
med tank: 2/2/2/4
heavy tank: 4/3/2/8
self propelled artillery: 3/2/2/5 can blitz
medium bombers 3/1/4/10 can strat bomb

Feel free to add ideas, or comment / modify mine

Panzer Grenadiers: 3-2-2 costing 5 ipc. Germany can have no more than 6 of these at any time.

Super Battleships: 5-4-2 costing 24 ipc and takes 3 hits to sink. They fire preemptively each round (losses are applied and do not get a chance to return fire) Cannot be built until turn 3.

Heavy Carriers: 2-3-2 costing 18 ipc and takes 2 hits to sink. Three planes can be carried, and while damaged they cannot launch planes. Cannot be built until turn 3.

Q-ships: 1-1-2 costing 10, these are armed transports and can be used to take combat losses like any other warship. They carry the same cargo as regular Transports.

Optional starting Technologies: UK gets Radar, Germany and USSR gets Self Propelled Artillery, Germany starts with Mobile Warfare Doctrine, USA gets Naval Radar on turn 3.

I edited the Tacs in list.
Is there still a bid ?
BB & CR shore shot at 11 and 9 ?
How many table top games have you played ?

@SouthsideCH:

It seems every time we play there are certain things we just don’t understand. While we understand the rules sometimes they just do not seem rational.

Does anyone have house rules addressing the following?

Artillery supporting infantry during an amphibious assault.

If I move a sub or a destroyer-less navy into a convoy sea zone, forcing the enemy to submerge, why can they convoy me?

It does not make much sense that scramblers are defenders, especially in some cases involving tac bombers.

I get that Kamikaze attacks have to choose their target. But if I bring in 3 cruisers, 2 battleships and a carrier and they choose to hit the battleships, shouldn’t the cruisers get to bombard? They can’t take part in the defense against the Kamikaze.

Convoy Disruption seems easy. There are no ill effects to the disruptor. If you can intercept when facilities are being attacked it makes sense a navy in that sea zone should be able to do the same.

I would love to hear some input on these as well as any house rules ideas.

In terms of house rules, are you looking for balance or realism?

I always argue realism before balance so.

1:No, Artillery should not be able to support infantry during sea invasion, that’s why battleships should be used.

2:I argue they should. The sea territory is vase and submarines are loved during WWII because they are a pain to track down, they are basically the naval sniper.

3: I am not sure the exact issue. Fighters and Tacts can be used offensively and scramble protects your navy. I personally think all allied aircraft should scramble regardless of what nations navy is being attack as long as the nations allows it.

4: Kamikaze wings traditionally went after Battleships and Aircraft Carriers first because taking those out would give the IJN fairness as the IJN had a lot of smaller ships. I personally think Kamikaze wings should also be allowed to target transports.

5: So what’s the issue with Convoy Raids then? It makes you force yourself to deal with an enemy navy.

Thanks YG.  Please keep the ideas coming.  I’m grabbing bits and pieces and mashing it together with some of my own ideas to make a nice set of rules that works out for my group too.

http://www.harrisgamedesign.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=9531

Due to the nature of the game, that more often than not results in Germany and Japan playing two different games, I had an idea for an house rule to speed up a live game.

This idea requires quite few changes to the mechanics of the game, and requires at least 4 live players.

The turn order is:

Germany AND Japan
Russia
United States European Command AND United States Pacific Command
UK London AND Uk Pacific
Italy
France AND Australia

So basically, while Germany do G1, the Japanese players sets up J1 too.
USA is split in two nations, in the same manner that UK is, with two different economies.
The two USA commands are played by two different players, as the two UK economies are played by two different players.

So for example, let’s say we’re playing a game between LARRY, KRIEG, NOLL, OZTEA and KAUF.

LARRY plays GERMANY and ITALY.
KRIEG plays SOVIET RUSSIA
NOLL plays JAPAN
OZTEA plays USA EUROPEAN COMMAND, UK LONDON, FRANCE
KAUF plays USA PACIFIC COMMAND, CHINA, UK PACIFIC, ANZAC

During turn1 Larry sets up G1, meanwhile Noll sets up J1.
When both players are done, Krieg plays R1.
After Krieg is done with R1, Oztea and Kauf plays an independant game, they both go from USA to UK turn independently. Kauf plays also ANZAC.
At this point Larry plays Italy.
Then Oztea plays France and a new turn starts.

In order to make this work, these house rules have to be implemented:

USA economies is split, but not on a map basis.
European USA command has 20 IPCs income prior to war.
Pacific USA command has 32 IPCs income prior to war.

The regular NO are discarded, instead you get a war bonus economy like in the original game.

After war is declared:
European USA command has +10 IPCs income (30 Total).
Pacific USA command has +20 IPCs income (52 Total).

During NON-COM if USA wishes to do so, he can move units from EURO to PACIFIC map and vice-versa. These units will be in control of the other USA command starting from next turn.

Same rules apply to UK.

The special case of Russia: In order to avoid annoying Russian can-openers due to the turn order change, there’s a change on the relation between Japan and Russia:

Russia and Japan may NOT declare war between each others unless one of these criteria are fulfilled:

If there are less than 18 infantries split between the Russian Pacific territories of Amur, Sakha, Yakut, Siberia, Soviet Far East, Japan can declare war on Russia anytime.

If Russia production is 50 or more IPCs, Russia can declare war on Japan anytime.

If Berlin is in Allies hands, Russia can declare war on Japan anytime.

i like the idea of tanks the 4/4 tanks can be like tigers

Remove heavy bombers technology and do the following

Replace Heavy Bomber tech with Atom Bomb /  One successful Strategic Bombing attack per turn destroys everything in enemy province.

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Additional Ally advantages

Superfortress / USA starts with bombers (B-29 superfortress) that move at 8 spaces and have an attack value of 5. (only 1 roll per bomber)

Marines / USA player can designate all Infantry units (beginning of the turn) in one amphibious assault as Marines. Attack at 1-2. (artillery does not increase attack value)

Home Guard / UK player Infantry on the United Kingdom territory defend at 1-3.

Industry Movement / Soviet player may move one of his Industrial Complex units each turn at a rate of 1 movement point. (cannot move and produce on the same turn)

USSR economic penalty / (ally disadvantage) Allied forces occupied in the USSR or occupying USSR Territories prevents USSR from collecting IPCs from these territories. The reasoning behind this is the cost of feeding and caring for the foreign forces and also the cost of countering the anti-Communist political propaganda that these forces would introduce to the Soviet populace.

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Additional Axis Advatages

Kamikaze / Japan player may move one Ftr per turn its full movement allowance and attacks at 1-4. Whether it survived the attack or not it is eliminated after the battle.

Panzerkorps / German player may designate one of his armour as SS Panzerkorps during each of his player-turns. May designate any Armour as SS at beginning of the turn. Attacks at 1-4 and defends at 1-5.

U-Boats / Germany builds these subs at 6 IPCs, but must be deployed in the Submarine Pens. Encourages Germany to expand its Navy

Submarine Pens / The territory of Germany has a built in Sub Pen. The Sub Pen works by giving shelter from air attack to Subs in the Baltic Sea Zone. New U-boats must be placed here.

Kiel Kanal / With this variant Germany can still move ships from the Baltic to the Atlantic to avoid the North Sea and UK waters. Must control Western Europe. Germany navy can avoid sea zone surrounding the UK. The Kanal counts as 1 movemnt space. And Axis must control Germany and Western Europe to use it.

Just like actual war, USA will be encourage to spend money to research A-Bomb tech and drop them over Japan with its superior bombers, or possibly Germany.