Heroes house rule

@skhande2

I my view, tanks, artillery, and infantry units don’t just represent those things, but rather their units. Most tank, artillery, and infantry units during World War 2 contained some organic AA guns. While there are obviously differences in the size of divisions between the powers (Soviet divisions and corps were smaller than Western ones, one reason they were able to rack up such large numbers), I think a unit represents X number of soldiers, tanks, AA guns, etc. (while actual AA gun units are for dedicated anti-aircraft units which exist semi-independently of other divisions).

I’ve heard suggestions of giving artillery anti-tank capabilities, similar to anti-aircraft artillery in Global 1940 (North Africa’s anti-tank gun piece has something similar too). I think different win rates between different units is mostly represented well (as I hope I’ve somewhat demonstrated above).

@barnee
Thanks for the feedback. Currently we do not have a printed technology sheet. We just write the name of the technologies on flash cards and place a national control markers and chips to keep track of progress.

As for them being too involved, for a first-time player we disagree. We played with a couple people that had never played Axis and Allies, but after a single game of G40 (keep in mind this already entails 8+ hours of practice) and they were all ready to implement our house rules on the next game.

Our house rules started as a question of how can we re-work the existing research rules to encourage the use of all out of box units.
It was never our goal to have unique technologies/units for each nation. The work done by @The-Captain and company is more complex than what we attempted to do, so kudos to them as it looks like they did a terrific job developing their house rule expansion. We should give their rules a try one day.

IMO, it’s not great UI to hide it down there. :wink:

I have posted many ideas on house rules, some good, some not so. But, at a minimum, do this…

Setup: Add 1 GE CA in SZ26 - represents German presence in Indian Ocean. Setup: Add 1 GE AR in GEA - represents gun boats on Lake Tanganyika (can also add rule this unit cannot move). Setup: Change GE AR in SWA to IN. Setup: Add 1 GE IN in KAM. Setup: Add 1 FR IN in FEA. Setup: Add 1 GE SS in SZ18 - represents German presence in Mediterranean. Setup: Change 1 OE CA to TR in SZ20. Setup: Change 1 RU CA to SS in SZ21. Setup: Change UK TR to SS in SZ2. Switzerland is impassable. Mobilization territories: Following can mobilize max of 2 x IPC value, plus restrictions. Bombay: Min. build 1 unit; Cannot build ships or tanks. Munich: Infantry, artillery only. Ottawa: Min. build 1 unit; Cannot build warships. Tatarstan: Infantry, artillery only. Marseilles: No restrictions. Mines vs. Transports: Allow mine hits to absorbed by loss of a load.

Good action 304

Der Kuenstler’s tech system has some similarities.

http://www.mediafire.com/view/o9z748zex278sfr/xsrules-6.2_ed.pdf

DK’s Hybrid Axis and Allies Map and Rules

Also Gargantua had a Research Facility. Similar to your setup.

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=22164.0

At one time I had a triplea mod that was based on these ideas. Sadly I don’t have it anymore due to a pc meltdown. Hopefully I’ll do it again eventually. I made the research facilities like factories where you could bomb/ them as well. Don’t remember if that’s how Gargantua did it too or not.

Anyway you have some really cool ideas here 304. Some of it might be a little too far removed for basic A&A play. As you say, more Risk like. Still sounds like fun. I’ll have to go through it in more detail. Maybe incorporate some of your techs into the house rule mod. : )

Thanks for posting this

Hmmm, How do I alter the topic title? It says 1942 as the year - that was a mistake - the darn thing took so long to type.

I made a small but significant modification (written red) in the first post about Subs vs Battleship in 1942 version to increase balance toward the new Subs and for historical reason.

Battleship in G40 and 1942 seems the same at first glance but are far more potent in 1942:
BB A4D4M2C20, takes 2 hits, can bombard @4.

In 1942, Battleship unit recover from damage after any attacking player’s turn. So, in a whole 5 players turn. They could recover up to 4 times from a battle.
The owning Axis player’s attack turn and the 3 Allied attack turns.

In G40, BB can only be repaired once in a whole turn, at the beginning of the owning player’s turn. In addition, you need to move it near a Naval Base before it can be repaired in another turn. So, in this case, it becomes fully operational only 2 turns after being damage.

Compared to the 1942 BB immediate recovery in any Sea-Zone.
G40 BB is clearly a much weaker unit.

By the way, that’s another reason why I consider that BB cost for G40E should be put at 18 IPCs when Cruiser is put at 10 IPCs.

In addition, all BattleCalc simulations show clearly that a balance battle between BB, CA, DD imply this ratio: 1 BB vs 1 CA+1 DD

Yes, I am quite insane  :-D

As for how I got it all to fit, I typed it into a Word document, and then copied and pasted.

I plan to playtest these rules and modify them as needed.  I was trying for as much historical accuracy as I could with the starting forces, while making the minimum number of changes to the official rules.  I got the idea from World in Flames, which is a great game, but, practically speaking, unplayable.  Even if you read and understand all the rules, finding one or more opponents who also have read and understand the rules is pretty much impossible.  You can, however, play Axis and Allies while you’re drunk (Been there.  Done that.  Got the T-shirt.)  But I like the idea of having the same basic problems, options, starting forces, and deployments the real military and political leaders of the time had to face.

Now, I’ll admit that the Vichy France rules are a bit more detailed than most A&A players prefer, and I understand why the game disigners decided to just leave them out.  But, if I was going to give the French a realistic starting fleet, I had to have the Vichy option to keep the combined French and British fleets from blowing the Italians out of the water on turn one.  It also gives the Allies the same uncertainty about what the Vichy French forces would do if their territories were invaded.  Historically, it was a major concern for the British.  Remember that they actually bombed the Vichy French fleet in port in North Africa, killing, IIRC, a couple of thousand French sailers , because they were afraid of having it fall into Axis hands.