House Rules for Victory Cities

OMG these are 2 long posts… not for the faint of heart.

VC designation:

Every nation starts with 5 victory cities (VCs). Each VC is worth a certain number of victory city points (VCPs). Of the 5 VCs each nation starts out with, 1 is designated as a capital (worth 5 VCPs), 1 other is designated as a major VC (worth 3 VCPs), 2 others are designated as moderate VCs (worth 2 VCPs), and the last one is designated as a minor VC (worth 1 VCP).

Below is the list of VCs, followed by each one’s value in VCPs and the territory in which each is located. They are organized by nation.

Russia:
Moscow (5)–Russia
Stalingrad (3)–Caucasus
Leningrad (2)–Karelia
Novosibirsk (2)–Novosibirsk 
Vladivostok (1)–Buryatia

Germany:
Berlin (5)–Germany
Rome (3)–S. Europe
Paris (2)–W. Europe
Kiev (2)–Ukraine
Oslo (1)–Norway

UK:
London (5)–UK
Toronto (3)–E. Canada
Calcutta (2)–India
Sydney (2)–Australia
Cairo (1)—Anglo-Egypt

Japan:
Tokyo (5)—Japan
Changchun (3)–Manchuria
Shanghai (2)–Kwangtung
Singapore (2)–FIC
Manila (1)—Philippines

US:
Washington (5)–E. US
Los Angeles (3)–W. US
Chicago (2)–C. US
Chongqing (2)–China
Honolulu (1)–Hawaii

Note: The decisions to choose these cities with these respective VCPs were not based only on historical, military and economic importance, but also on strategic implications specific to this game (i.e. cities that would make the game more fun based on initial setup, map, other rules…). Feedback is welcome if anyone disagrees with any of these choices. These are not set in stone but IMO no 1 factor such as economic importance should set the VCs. Perhaps this can lead to an interesting discussion.

Objective:

Just like in the AAR box rules, players agree before the start of the game which set of victory conditions they will use.

Total Victory: The winning team is the first to control every territory by the end of any US player’s turn.

Major Victory: The Axis win if they control 40 VCPs at the end of any US player’s turn. Likewise, the Allies win if they control 50 VCPs at the end of any US player’s turn. (I feel these 2 numbers make a pretty balanced game. If you feel these 2 numbers give one side an advantage over the other please let me know.)

Minor Victory: Both sides bid the number of turns that they want the game to last if they are the Axis. The team that bids the higher number of turns gets to play as the Axis. The game will automatically end after the US player’s turn on the turn number that won the bid. The team controlling the higher number of VCPs at that time wins the game.

Reasons for the changes to the minor victory rules:

-Note that since there are an odd number of total VCPs available on the board, a minor victory game can never end in a tie.

-I think we can all agree (or at least most of us agree) that the Allies have the advantage to win a straight up game using only the box rules. This is evident in bidding games since the Axis almost always take the bid with a positive bid. I think most of us can also agree that the Axis is much more likely to be gobbling up VCs early in the game then the Allies. Taking these 2 ideas together means that even though the Axis start with fewer VCPs this total will probably go up in the early part of the game, but at some point later in the game the Axis will start to be pushed back and this total will to go back down. The longer the game lasts, the harder it is for the Axis to control a majority of the VCPs. This is why the higher bid for the number of turns in the game should go to the Axis. The challenge for the Axis won’t be to take a majority of the VCPs, but to take them and keep them until the turn number of their bid. (Alternatively, you could modify the minor victory conditions so that each side counts their total VCPs after EVERY US turn, instead of just for the last US turn. After each subsequent turn, add the new total VCPs to your total from all the previous turns. The winner is the side with the highest grand total at the end of the last US turn. Opinions on which minor victory conditions are better?)

-The bidding aspect should balance out the game a little more than it is in the box rules. If you feel one side had a huge advantage in a minor victory game maybe one side bid too high or too low.

-You have much more control in how long the game will last. If you want the game to end after a specific turn number, then just bid that number. This is key if you have a time commitment.

Additional Optional Rules:

Try using the above rules with or without these further modifications:

-Infantry are no longer built in ICs. ICs still build all non-infantry units just as before.

-Infantry units are assembled only in territories containing VCs. They are still purchased and mobilized at the same time as non-infantry units. In order to purchase and place any infantry in a VC, that VC must have been in your control at the start of your turn.

-For each of the 5 VCs that are originally owned by each nation, the maximum number of infantry that may be purchased and placed at the VC per turn is equal to the corresponding value of VCPs. The only exceptions to this are that a maximum of only 3 infantry per turn may be placed at the UK and US capitals and only 1 Japanese infantry per turn at each of the Japanese major and moderate VCs.

-For captured Allied VCs, the occupying Axis nation may purchase and place no infantry at a captured minor VC and 1 infantry per turn at all other captured VCs.

-For captured Axis VCs, the occupying Allied nation may purchase and place 1 infantry per turn at a captured minor VC and 2 infantry per turn at all other captured VCs.

-If any territory containing a VC is attacked before the defender’s first turn, then the defender of that VC gets to immediately purchase any number of infantry not exceeding more than the respective maximums outlined above and place them at that VC. These infantry units are purchased and placed just before the battle takes place. This rule applies only before the defender’s first turn.

-The cost of purchasing an IC now depends on the number of VCPs within the territory where it will be placed. Cost of IC = 15 – 3(# of VCPs within territory) Simply put, ICs cost 15 where there is no VC, 12 at a minor VC, 9 at a moderate VC and 6 at a major VC.

-The total IPC value of all non-infantry units placed per turn at any IC in a given territory may not exceed 4 times the IPC value of that territory.

I just wanted to point out why I reduced the cost of ICs (if anyone happened to be wondering). Since players don’t need ICs to build infantry, the cost of ICs should consequently go down. Also, now units placed at each IC is limited to 4 times the IPC value of the territory. This really restricts what you can purchase in territories worth only 3 IPCs. I feel this restriction makes the game more realistic. I also figured if a given territory can assemble and train more infantry than another territory than that given territory would also have a labor force, more materials, etc… that could more easily build an IC. That’s why I made the IC cost dependent on VCPs.

Sorry about all the added confusion regarding tweaking the maximum infantry limits per VC. Having a straight set of rules like “max number of infantry can’t exceed the number of VCPs” didn’t seem to make sense in all instances and would give Japan too much advantage on mainland Asia. I’d like to hear any ideas that would simplify these infantry limits per VC and yet still be sort of realistic to WWII.

Before people start bringing it up, I’ll say I’m sure many people won’t find my representation of infantry distribution that realistic but I’d like to point out that an infantry unit being placed in a certain territory represents several different hidden factors. In the case of UK being able to place at most 2 infantry per turn in Australia and Canada, the major factor represented here is the ability to assemble and recruit soldiers from these respective territories. In the case of Germany being able to place 1 infantry per turn in the Ukraine and Karelia (when Germany takes Karelia that is), the major factor is more along the lines of representing the quality of the German transportation infrastructure (e.g. railways) to quickly get a limited amount of units to the eastern front. Also, the ability for nations to place infantry at various VCs isn’t only for realism purposes, but also to introduce some interesting strategies. I hope that clears up some possible questions.

I thought about how I could reduce a lot of those exceptions to the basic rule that the max number of infantry placed per turn = number of VCPs. How about now the only exceptions are:

-UK and US can build no more than 3 infantry per turn in their capital VC (max reduced by 2).

-Japan can build no more than 1 infantry per turn in each of their major VC and moderate VCs (for example, if Japan wants to place 3 newly purchased infantry in mainland Asia on turn 1 Japan places 1 in each of their 3 mainland starting territories).

All right, I think I’ve finally come up with a satisfactory, simple way to define the maximum number of infantry that can be placed in a given territory. Let me know if this is better.

Rules for Russia, Germany and Japan:

For every originally owned VC that is ‘connected’ to that same nation’s capital, that nation may place any number of infantry there per turn up to the number of corresponding VCPs. A VC is connected to a capital VC if there exists any continuous line of friendly territories connecting the 2 VCs (note that SZ spaces are not territories and thus cannot be used to determine the continuous line of friendly territories… yes, that’s right, this means Tokyo on the island of Japan can never be connected to any other VC).

For every originally owned VC that is not connected to that same nation’s capital, at most only 1 infantry may be placed there per turn.

For every captured VC, either connected or not to that occupying nation’s capital, that nation may place any number of infantry there per turn up to 1/2 the number of corresponding VCPs (rounded down). For example, the maximum number of infantry that may be placed in a captured minor VC is 0, in a captured moderate or major VC is 1, and in a captured capital VC is 2.

Rules for the Western Allies (UK and US):

The rules are the same as those above pertaining to the other 3 nations except that every VC is automatically considered connected to the capital VC and at most only 3 infantry may be placed at the capital VC (instead of 5).

Opinions?

OK so i notice the allies need 11 more cities while the axis need 14 to win… Also, what was the direction of this idea? to balance victory conditions or to solve the “problem” of production limits on infantry buys? or was their some relationship between these two ideas that you felt needed to be addressed?

Allies need 11 VC points, and Axis 14 VC points. Since it’s easier for the Axis to capture VCs early on I decided to balance the difficulty out a bit by letting the Allies win a major victory with slightly fewer VCPs. I know it’s not that simple to determine a balanced set of major victory conditions. You really have to play it to see how balanced it is.

The infantry idea can be separated from the VCs, which is why I posted them in separate posts. However the 2 ideas are still related in that the VCPs of each VC define the number of infantry that can be placed there per turn.

I feel strongly that a new system for deciding how infantry can be placed is needed. My intentions with this infantry idea is to get a fairly simple system that allows a few infantry to be placed closer to the front lines so as to speed up the game. I felt that how I defined VCPs seemed to fit in well with what I wanted to do with infantry so I went with it. So the infantry placing rules need to:

a) allow only a few infantry to be placed in the front lines so nations will still have to place the bulk of their new infantry at home. If nation’s could build many infantry units on the front lines then this principle would end up dominating the game and I don’t want that either.

b) limit the number of infantry units that can be placed in any 1 territory. How many infantry are placed in Germany during initial setup, 3 I think? So if 3 is approx. proportional to the number of real infantry in Germany in early 1942, then does it make since that Germany can place about 3 times that many infantry in Germany every turn?! Since a turn represents several months or so, this is very unrealistic. I think it’s more realistic to make the limit in the capital at best 5. 5 is a good compromise between realism and congruity with the other rules Larry Harris and crew already came up with.

How would you change the limits I came with? Thinking in terms of mechanized infantry and the ability to quickly get infantry to the front lines as well as how many Canadian, Australian and Indian etc… infantry should be represented in the game, do you agree with these limits?

Infantry can be built in territories you allready own even if their is not complex limited by the value of the territory. So in France thats 6 infantry, in captured territories its 1/2 rounded down. So a 3 value territory can build one infantry. Factories only allow you to build “armor, ships and planes” at the limit of what is printed of the territory. I feel that is more simple allowing for your builds to get into the fight right away. Another example: germany can build 10 infantry and up to 10 other items of any type as long as they are not infantry class units ( mechanized or regular infantry).

I don’t understand the rule. Number of infantry=number of IPCs? That means Germany can place too many infantry on the eastern front. Russia now needs to take Ukraine to take the added pressure off of 3 German infantry placed there next turn. Even if Russia takes Ukraine, Germany is likely to be able to put 2 infantry in Belorussia, 3 in E. Europe and 3 in Balkans. Germany has bought so many infantry for those 3 territories that they will buy hardly any infantry to place in Germany, and that seems unrealistic. Also, Germany can place 2 infantry in Africa on G1. Why worry about transports? Moving on to the UK, UK can place literally a ton of infantry in Africa at the drop of a hat.

If you were going to use a rule like this I would have it so number of infantry=number of IPCs-1. This would not nearly be as exploitable while still being a simple modification.

by ‘occupied’, do you mean captured? captured territory=1/2 rounded down and originally occupied territory=same as IPC value, right? This would mean UK could put 1 infantry in every African territory they occupied at the start of that turn. That’s big, too big!

IMHO if you really want to define infantry placement limits by IPCs instead of VCPs then do infantry limit=IPCs-1 for originally occupied territories and infantry limit=1/2 rounded down for captured territories. Even more realistic for captured territories would be 1/2 rounded down for captured non-capitals and a limit of 3 infantry for captured capitals.

originally owned soviet territories can be IPCs-1 like all other originally owned territories and it will be good.

I simplified down the infantry placing limits a lot. Look at the changes in the 2nd post in this thread. Opinions?

All of your questions make total sense. When I made all those rules I thought there would be some questions about them. I feel that they are needed to avoid any possible exploitations in the rule as well as increase the realism of the game. Let me know, everyone, if you feel different about it and why.

The only exceptions to this are that a maximum of only 3 infantry per turn may be placed at the UK and US capitals and only 1 Japanese infantry per turn at each of the Japanese major and moderate VCs.

Why only 3 in the capitals?Â

If Western Allies can build only 3 in each capital per turn, it will do 2 things: 1) it will slow down D-day a little, thus helping the Axis (improves game balance). 2) it will restrict the Western Allies to spend more on heavy priced units (enhances realistism).

As for the first (game balance), the Allied assault won’t be slowed that much, but it will require more planning on the Allies part. The US can supplement infantry placed in the capital by placing a couple in C. US too and moving them over next turn. The Allies might end up being slowed down 1 turn extra.

Let me add that infantry are too powerful in the game! Fodder is such an integral part of the game that if you want to find the easiest and simplest way to handicap someone I believe you should restrict his infantry purchasing ability. Infantry placed in the western capitals usual go on to assist in D-day. Added restrictions in these capitals will balance out D-day better than it’s already represented in the game.

The 3 infantry limit will also emphasize a little bit better how many more men the Germans and Russians had over the Western Allies.

Why only 1 Japanese infantry per mainland Asian territory?

Otherwise Japan could build 7 inf per turn without needing any transports. That’s too powerful. I want to speed up the game by allowing German and Russian troops the ability to be more quickly placed on the front lines, not by making it even easier for Japan to take over Asia. First, moving men through Asia is a lot harder than through Europe. Second, Japan can beat up on China too much already. I want the Second Sino-Japanese War to be represented a little more accurately in difficulty for Japan. With these new rules, Japan can start out building 3 infantry in mainland Asia compared to 4 for the Western Allies. That’s pretty even, but slightly favoring the Allies more than it is with the out of box rules. That’s good. Sure, this favors the Allies which is at first thought bad, but the reduced infantry placing limits for the Western Allies coupled with the ability for infantry to be placed directly on the front lines (which arguably helps Germany the most… 2 in Ukraine, 1 in Karelia with Russia only able to put 3 in Caucasus) more than compansates for this. The result is a simple change can give an overall advantage to the Axis while enhancing the realism globally on all fronts.

-For captured Allied VCs, the occupying Axis nation may purchase and place no infantry at a captured minor VC and 1 infantry per turn at all other captured VCs.

-For captured Axis VCs, the occupying Allied nation may purchase and place 1 infantry per turn at a captured minor VC and 2 infantry per turn at all other captured VCs.

The Axis are more likely to take over VCs (at least early on). I don’t want there to be an avalanche effect when these VCs go down early. Thinking of realism and game balance again, I don’t want Japan to be able to build 2 infantry in China when it falls. My god, that’s like a free IC! I want China to hold out a little longer for a nice compromise between realism and game balance, but when it falls I don’t want Japan to run over Russia that easy.

In fact, if you look at every instance on the board, you’ll see that 1 infantry for all non-minor captured Axis VCs is the most realistic representation.

As for the Allied VCs, the major factor for this decision is realism. I have them able to place 1 more infantry in each VC because most of these swing Axis VCs rose up to more significantly help fight against the Axis when they were freed. France? Italy? Ukraine? Freed Chinese provinces? But does this realism throw off the game balance? Not really. Remember that the Allies need to take over the VC and hold it for 1 turn first. This means that the Axis were pushed back 2 turns ago. 2 turns after the Axis get pushed back the game is just about over anyway, and besides, 1 extra infantry is not that big an advantage especially since the Allies can’t consolidate these extra infantry for a compound fodder effect (that’s what you really have to look out for!).

-If any territory containing a VC is attacked before the defender’s first turn, then the defender of that VC gets to immediately purchase any number of infantry not exceeding more than the respective maximums outlined above and place them at that VC. These infantry units are purchased and placed just before the battle takes place. This rule applies only before the defender’s first turn.

Remember it’s only before the 1st turn, so it applies to Germany attacking Cairo, but not Leningrad (Russia already had their 1st turn by the time Germany moves). It applies to Japan attacking China, but not Buryatia or India (yeah, like Japan can ever attack India turn 1 anyway! :lol:) So, it only applies to Egypt and China. Both these places held out pretty well against the Axis! How are they falling in turn 1?! I think a good balance between what actually happened and what needs to happen in the game for balance purposes is to give these VCs a little boost if they are attacked on turn 1. As for extending the game, I don’t think that’s necessarily true. Any VC that can be attacked on turn 1 will be certainly captured by turn 2-3. Resistance is pretty futile for these VCs! :evil: Also, this rule acts as a deterrent against Russia attacking Ukraine, Norway or Manchuria and UK attacking FIC, Kwangtung or Philippines on turn 1. This is pretty big for the Axis.

-The total IPC value of all non-infantry units placed per turn at any IC in a given territory may not exceed 4 times the IPC value of that territory.

+++ again what is this rule fixing? and how?

I don’t want India building 3 armor units, or even worse yet, an armada that could rival a Japanese battleship. Isn’t it more realistic to have territories worth 3 IPCs to be restricted to either 3 rtl or 1 rtl and 1 armor, or 2 armor, or 1 non-capital ship, or a fighter? More realistic for territories worth only 2 IPCs to only make either 2 rtl or 1 armor or 1 transport or sub? Now the high priced units have to be built in the capitals (or S. Europe and W. US) where they should be built! Now we’re talking realism with a very simple modification! That’s what I like to see.

I’d be happy to work on producing some organized ruleset, but I’m not quite following what your proposition is exactly. Is this a different project than the one you’re working on at Larry’s site? When it’s finished will it just be posted in this forum for the public to access just like the AARe edition in the AH forum? If so, then won’t you need to also post your map for the public to print out anyway?

I’ve been thinking about tweaking the cost of IC equation from

Cost of IC=15-3*(VCP value of territory) to Cost of IC=15-(VCP value of territory)*(IPC value of territory)

and also adding these rules:

-ICs that were present at the start of the game are permanent (i.e. ICs that were never purchased can never be destroyed).

-Purchased ICs can be destroyed at the defender’s discretion when the attacker wins the battle over that territory.

-An IC can only be placed in a territory that was in your possession at the start of your turn. Non-infantry units may only be placed at an IC that was there at the start of your turn. (this means once you take over a territory you have to wait 1 turn to build an IC and yet another turn to build units).

How does this change things from the old equation? Now it only costs 3 IPCs instead of 9 for Germany to build a W. Europe IC. Wow that’s cheap…I think an IC frequently placed there would have cool implications or strategy. ICs in China and Australia now cost 11 instead of 9. An IC in Egypt costs 13 instead of 12. You get the point. All likely IC placements for the Axis either cost the same as before or less. All likely IC placements for the Allies either cost the same as before or more. This slight change would then balance the game a little better (if people think the Allies have the advantage with the old IC rules I proposed).

Does anyone plan on using any of these rules soon? I’d love to hear how they play out. I think people will be pleasantly surprised.