So because we don’t always have a weekend to play G40 I have been working on beefing up 42.2 with WD. I have to say the ideas from GH, YG and DK on incorporating WD in a manner that does not require significant IPC’s and off the charts luck are very intriguing and thoughtful. Obviously some if not many of these concepts used in G40 will not transfer to 42.2. I liked GH idea of placing research tokens around the board, this is something that I believe can be accomplished. The question is how to incorporate a second research token (or some other type of requirement) as there are no victory objectives per se in 42.2. I had a thought to randomly scatter research tokens around the IPC board requiring a country to actually land on that IPC value. This way you will have to be thinking about how many you need to land on that IPC value exactly. I would like to hear from players that have incorporated different concepts to bring WD into play on 42.2. I know in the past whether or not there was WD in a game it was hardly ever used as the cost and luck to obtain was prohibitive. Thanks in advance. I would also like to say that I am very impressed and humbled at the incredible amount of imagination and passion for this game that I see from players on this forum and in youtube. Ladies and Gentlemen keep it up!!!
all good points, there are tons of ideas about this in the House rules forum for all versions, tons…
I think the overarching problem is that any kind of research R&D special powers type stuff is either overpowered, too specific to be useful to all teams, or worthless. In order to balance out which ones you get, they turn to our old buddy d6, so that the one you get will fall into one of those 3 categories depending on who you are, so heavy bombers or nuke or whatever going to Russia isn’t all that great, its all dependent on luck.
There are also tons of ideas in the new variants of risk, (and axa etc.) that involve what you’re suggesting, that power ups are on the board, or are cards, or bonus units…the variation is endless. Just my opinion is that G40 Balanced Mod shows that you can add National Objectives to the game in a much more modular and balanced way to address problems you see or to make the game play more varied.
Thanks taamvan, Great point - I definitely do not want to over engineer the process, which I have a tendency to do. My thought was to still have the option of chance and after getting the necessary research, which I feel should be the most difficult part. A player would still have to roll our friend d6 to see what they get in tier 1 or tier 2. Using cards sound interesting? Is there a youtube or discussion thread about cards? This is why this forum is spectacular as it generates ideas and concepts. Thanks again!!!
What does WD mean?
Weapons Development
all good points, there are tons of ideas about this in the House rules forum for all versions, tons…
I think the overarching problem is that any kind of research R&D special powers type stuff is either overpowered, too specific to be useful to all teams, or worthless. In order to balance out which ones you get, they turn to our old buddy d6, so that the one you get will fall into one of those 3 categories depending on who you are, so heavy bombers or nuke or whatever going to Russia isn’t all that great, its all dependent on luck.
There are also tons of ideas in the new variants of risk, (and axa etc.) that involve what you’re suggesting, that power ups are on the board, or are cards, or bonus units…the variation is endless. Just my opinion is that G40 Balanced Mod shows that you can add National Objectives to the game in a much more modular and balanced way to address problems you see or to make the game play more varied.
I have in my game a tech chart of 10 techs you can roll for after u roll a d6 break thru. Then u roll a d10 die and get the tech u rolled on dice. Like taamvan said it changes up game. You can buy a tech token for 5 icps. Also each country gets to draw a event card at the start of each turn for each country. In all the event card decks for ea country there is 2 get a free tech token cards and 1 card saying roll a d10 for a free tech. Once u get a tech you do lose all tech tokens. But as taamvan has said not every tech is good for you.
Also I have NA charts where at start of game the 6 countries get to roll 2 d6 die and what you roll is what 2 NA you get for the whole game.
If you want the pics of charts are in the Globsl War thread under 40 41 2nd edition post at top of page. Other wise I can post pics here if you want to see them.
You could use some of these ideas and try in your game. You could only give 1 NA for ea country too.
Yes Dorowar my token system works really well. It adds a mission based element to the game that probably can’t be duplicated with any other type of house rule. It is such a game changer that you don’t need to put in a bunch of other house rules. Rolling the D6 first and then choosing the chart takes more chance out of WD than you might think and everyone should give that a try no matter how they play R&D. My guess is your play group will want to adopt that for sure.
I don’t know if you’ve ever played the 1914 Tournament Rules, but they have something there that is a specified threshold for each nation that puts them in economic collapse. Perhaps an idea for you might be to determine an IPC level for each nation that must be met in order to develop weapons in lieu of NO’s. That is kind of the same thing as what I do - force a nation to be worthy of developing a weapon. That combined with your research token and some cash and you start rolling for a weapon.
Whatever you decide to do let us know how it works. Some of the best ideas are the ones we get from others here.
