Axis and Allies 1914 FAQ/Question and Answer Thread

@ossel:

@vonLettowVorbeck1914:

@ossel:

Hey Krieg, I’m 90% sure on something, but I wanted to confirm:

Are units that move into an enemy tt to contest it required to enter combat? Or can you initially contest a tt without entering combat? I’m pretty sure according to the rules, the latter is true, because ‘combat occurs when …. you decide to commit your units to an attack.’

Thanks

The way I found it simplest to think of it is that if your movement changes the status of the territory from not contested to contested, you must attack. If it was already contested, you can choose. Haven’t yet got a one line mantra for this, but maybe someone has something to share. It’s a rule that I think is one of the easier ones to forget.

Where in the rules does it say this? Anyway, I’ll wait for the official answer.

Bottom of page 17 in the rules, first paragraph under “Phase 3: Conduct Combat”

VonLettowVorbeck1914 is correct.

@Flashman:

Am I correct that the sharing of the tt by the German and the Soviet negates the “contested” status between the German and the Brit, and that therefore the UK units may attack 1, 2 or all of the adjacent German controlled tts (2 of which are undefended)?

If I’m right, though, the British units who attack the German controlled Russian tts will survive and take control of the tt if they win, and even if the battle wipes out all units it renders the tt in effect an undefended neutral.

My assumption is that Commissars only come into operation in tts contested at the time of the revolution as stated, not thereafter.Â

All correct.

If you have a minute, Krieg, is the issue I bring up in reply 318 (Western allies pulling the rug out from the CP in Moscow merely by having 1 unit survive to Russia’s turn after Moscow is taken) something that you might be concerned about as being undesirable and/or against the spirit of the game/RR rules?

I’m just trying to get my head around the Rus Rev rules. Once the Rev happens you would need to look at each original Russian territory and determine its status. When I refer to allies I mean the other allies (not Russia).

You would need to look at each original Russian territory to determine:

1) Russian Controlled
Any territory that is Russian controlled would have only Russian units, or Russian & allied units, or only allied units, or no units at all (but not controlled by the CP). It would be off limits to both sides the rest of the game (no attacks). Any allied units that happen to be there would need to leave (or would be removed after their next respective turn). You may want to place a Russian inf in such a territory if it doesn’t have one just to remember it is Russian.

2) CP Controlled
Territories that are controlled by the CP basically become neutral territories controlled by the CP (no orig owner, Russia can’t reclaim them). The allies are allowed to enter/fight for them through out the rest of the game, and they would keep them if captured from the CP. They could obviously become contested, and whom ever controls it would collect income.

3) Shared Territory-Will have a Russian unit in it when said and done, you can’t fight in a shared territory, and no one collects income. As a shared territory the movement restriction of a contested territory don’t apply.

A) Any territory that is contested by the CP & Russia would now be a shared territory. The CP are still free to move in/out, but must leave an inf there the rest of the game. No allied units can enter these shared territories.

B) Any territory that is contested by the CP, Russia & the other allies are also considered to be shared. The allied units would need to leave (or would be removed after their next respective turn), and no allied units are allowed back in the rest of the game. The CP are still free to move in/out, but must leave an inf there the rest of the game.

C) Any territory that is contested by the CP and Allies (has no Russian units), would have a Russian inf placed there, and would be considered shared (same as above). The allied units would need to leave (or would be removed after their next respective turn), and no allied units are allowed back in the rest of the game. The CP are still free to move in/out, but must leave an inf there the rest of the game.

If anything the new definitions are even more bad news for the CPs, as it now means they have to leave a unit in each shared tt even though they collect no income from it, and the other Allies can now take over regions captured from CP control where previously they merely liberated them.

Can you jump your land units from your capital to your regional territories except colonies?

What is the meaning of: you can trace a line from your capital to all your regional territories except colonies?

@MEGAEINSTEIN:

Can you jump your land units from your capital to your regional territories except colonies?

What is the meaning of: you can trace a line from your capital to all your regional territories except colonies?

Land units can only move to adjacent territories.

Colonies are geographically separated from your capital.  You have to pass through a sea zone or someone else’s territory to move from it to your capital.  Regional territories can be reached from your capital without passing through a sea zone or another power’s territory.

For example Morocco is a colony, Marseilles is a regional territory.

@vonLettowVorbeck1914:

If you have a minute, Krieg, is the issue I bring up in reply 318 (Western allies pulling the rug out from the CP in Moscow merely by having 1 unit survive to Russia’s turn after Moscow is taken) something that you might be concerned about as being undesirable and/or against the spirit of the game/RR rules?

At this point, I’m just about convinced that the Russian Revolution rules will be exploitable no matter what they say.  They’re optional - don’t use them them if you don’t like them.

@MEGAEINSTEIN:

Can you jump your land units from your capital to your regional territories except colonies?

No!

@MEGAEINSTEIN:

What is the meaning of: you can trace a line from your capital to all your regional territories except colonies?

What Texas Holders said.

@Krieghund:

@vonLettowVorbeck1914:

If you have a minute, Krieg, is the issue I bring up in reply 318 (Western allies pulling the rug out from the CP in Moscow merely by having 1 unit survive to Russia’s turn after Moscow is taken) something that you might be concerned about as being undesirable and/or against the spirit of the game/RR rules?

At this point, I’m just about convinced that the Russian Revolution rules will be exploitable no matter what they say.  They’re optional - don’t use them them if you don’t like them.

I realize the rule is optional, and I definitely appreciate all the effort you and Larry put forth to make games better once players post problems, but from a consumer’s perspective the Russian Revolution was a selling point  and it being optional does not seem to be a good reason to give up on it when it is shown to be subpar.

Do you think that making the RR count essentially as a non-Paris/London VC for the CP would eliminate most, if not all of the exploitation? The root of the problem is that in many cases the RR is GOOD for the Allies since it removes a VC from the possibility of the CP to capture, and all the reports I recall show Allied advantage anyways. Making it actually help towards CP victory will leave no doubt to the Allies that it is NOT something they want.

Another simple fix that might not go as far, but would still help, would be to remove the possibility of the Revolution as soon as a CP controls Moscow. Basically, if the CP take Moscow before the RR happens, the game continues as if there were no RR rules.

I support both those proposals:

Make a Revolutionary Moscow a completed Victory objective for the CPs;

Make a captured Moscow render the Revolution a dead letter.

In fact, only these make the Revolution occuring on the Russian turn make much sense; its a last chance for Russia to prevent an event that should never be a good thing for the Allies.

Question about Tanks:

If I attack with 1 Inf, 2 tanks and the defenders get 2 hits, do I:

1.  #1 Tank blocks a hit on the Inf; #2 Tank dies
2.  #1 Tank and #2 Tank block both hits

The way I understood tanks is that they do not cancel hits that got applied to units, they subtract from the total hits you have taken BEFORE hits are applied.

You don’t cancel a hit applied to a unit, you act as if that hit was never rolled. Read under step 4 on page 19.

Count defender hits.
Subtract the number of attacking tanks.
That’s how many hits you must apply.

@vonLettowVorbeck1914:

The way I understood tanks is that they do not cancel hits that got applied to units, they subtract from the total hits you have taken BEFORE hits are applied.

You don’t cancel a hit applied to a unit, you act as if that hit was never rolled. Read under step 4 on page 19.

Count defender hits.
Subtract the number of attacking tanks.
That’s how many hits you must apply.

Ok, I wasn’t sure if you could cancel more hits than you had non-tank units.  Sounds reasonable enough.  Thanks!

Germany attacks a territory where Britain and France are defending.

Britain has 1 infantry, 1 artillery.

France has 1 infantry, 1 artillery, and 1 fighter, which wins aerial supremacy.

Do all defending artillery (including UK’s) gain the bonus? Or just the French?

I’ve been hunting for this answer in the rulebook; if I’ve missed it there, could you give the page it’s on? Thanks in advance!

I want to know why the CPs have to keep a unit in shared Russian tts. This just about finished Austria in my game, since their main army was trapped in Moscow.

This had been contested with Russia when the Revolution occurred, but the army has only 1 infantry; hence none of its units can move out unless another army from Vienna can break through to Moscow to create a tunnel for them.

Please tell me this rule is going to be changed. At the very least, allow an army to voluntarily demote a unit to infantry before movement rather than being trapped forever.

@MistuhJay:

Germany attacks a territory where Britain and France are defending.

Britain has 1 infantry, 1 artillery.

France has 1 infantry, 1 artillery, and 1 fighter, which wins aerial supremacy.

Do all defending artillery (including UK’s) gain the bonus? Or just the French?

I’ve been hunting for this answer in the rulebook; if I’ve missed it there, could you give the page it’s on? Thanks in advance!

All of them are promoted.  I’ve added this to the clarifications on page 14 of this thread.

@Flashman:

I want to know why the CPs have to keep a unit in shared Russian tts. This just about finished Austria in my game, since their main army was trapped in Moscow.

This had been contested with Russia when the Revolution occurred, but the army has only 1 infantry; hence none of its units can move out unless another army from Vienna can break through to Moscow to create a tunnel for them.

Please tell me this rule is going to be changed. At the very least, allow an army to voluntarily demote a unit to infantry before movement rather than being trapped forever.

I haven’t really focused on that portion of the rule, could you clarify why this is a problem? Didn’t the CP already have infantry in the shared territories when the Revolution occurred? Is the problem that the infantry are killed by the other Allies?

I have a couple of things I found in the book that should be cleared up. I haven’t read this entire thread so I apologize if either of these have been answered.
From Page 15 of the rule book:
Regarding Land Units that begin the turn in a contested territory. The last sentence says “If they are moved by transport, they may also remain at sea”. Does this mean that land units in a contested territory can move ONTO transports? I didn’t think this was allowed. Or is this referring to contested sea zones?
If land units were already on a transport, then they wouldn’t be beginning the turn in a contested territory, right?
Please clarify this.

From Page 19 of the rule book:
Regarding Attacking tanks ability to absorb hits. The last sentence says “For each tank you have, you remove one die that scored a hit from your side of the battle board.” This is confusing because it sounds like you are removing one of YOUR hits. Your side of the battle board would be the Attacker side.
This should say “For each tank you have, you remove one die that scored a hit from the Defender side of the battle board.”

Austria had only ONE infantry in Moscow (shared), together with a fighter and a stack of artillery. The British in Sevastopol then captured Ukraine, cutting Austria off from any of its own controlled tts or units. Tartarstan was Turkish controlled.

Austria would, of course, like to attack the British in Ukraine, but as I understand it no Austrians can leave Moscow, because they MUST leave a unit behind (why?), which must be infantry; therefore it cannot move the other units out as they would have no infantry of their own in the destination tt.
Nor can they move to Tartarstan as the Turkish infantry do not fulfill the infantry requirement.

Or am I missing something here?

Perhaps I was just stupid to take infantry rather than artillery casualties, but the expectation at the time was either the capture of Moscow or reinforcement from Ukraine, so I simply overlooked the possibility of being cut-off. Being trapped in a useless tt seems a harsh penalty for this lack of prescience.

Would it break the game to allow Austria to demote an artillery?

@vonLettowVorbeck1914:

@Flashman:

I want to know why the CPs have to keep a unit in shared Russian tts. This just about finished Austria in my game, since their main army was trapped in Moscow.

This had been contested with Russia when the Revolution occurred, but the army has only 1 infantry; hence none of its units can move out unless another army from Vienna can break through to Moscow to create a tunnel for them.

Please tell me this rule is going to be changed. At the very least, allow an army to voluntarily demote a unit to infantry before movement rather than being trapped forever.

I haven’t really focused on that portion of the rule, could you clarify why this is a problem? Didn’t the CP already have infantry in the shared territories when the Revolution occurred? Is the problem that the infantry are killed by the other Allies?

Flashman, you could move all those figures to the next space, leaving that infantry behind. However, as soon as you do that one of them must be demoted immediately.

As far as I’m aware.