(Anniversary-1941) Chicago rules - National Advantages

Anyone playing anniversary with modern rules and/or units from 1942.2 or G40??
Any tips for balancing the game and/or changing the initial setup??

I’m excited to see the game being re-released but I like the modern rules for AA guns and tanks too much to go back I think, and I’m sure adding the units from G40 would be cool too.

@SS-GEN
Your welcome :)

Thanks, we might give it a go not to change anything.

Off topic: I’ve thought about Europe 1940, but it’s so many rules and exceptions. I’d rather underwhelm than overwhelm them  :-) If they like Spring '42, they can always ‘upgrade’ to Global/Europe 1940 later on. If they think Spring 42 is too complicated, then the game series just isn’t for them. If they think it’s too simple, I can spring my Global-1940-monstersized-board-trap  :lol: I just want them to have a good time, get used to the flow of the game and see what happens.

just some suggestions, but maybe the rule should say, that you can only non combat move through a narrow strait if both adjacent territories are not hostile. They can be friendly, neutral or yours, but they can not be hostile.

Now, if one or both adjacent territories are hostile, you must combat move through that narrow strait.

I dont know exactly how this should be played out, but I believe the owner of the hostile territory should be able to scramble fighters, and the attacker can of course use his fighters as escort, just like in the real war Channel Dash. Maybe even a minefield rule, but 2 or less as hits are too much, maybe each 1 is a hit, same as AA fire. We could even use some modified rules from A&A Guadalcanal and let Artillery units on land act as coastal guns and fire at the ships. The only drawback would be like you want to cross the English Channel, but Germany has stacked like 20 Artillery units in Normandy, or something.

I had to rewrite it.  Oh well, I made it more brief.

I have seen many Axis won games where the Axis won by the skin-of-their-teeth. If those games went on a couple of more rounds, it would have surely turned into an Allied victory.
For example, I have seen this happen: Germany takes over Russia gaining Leningrad, Stalingrad and Moscow. They already have Berlin, Warsaw and Paris, plus Italy has Rome. There is 7 of the 8 VCs they need to win on the Europe board.
While Germany was fighting in Russia and Italy was dealing with the British in the Med, the US fleet stomps the Japanese fleet and has them cornered on Japan. The US also builds up a HUGE invasion force in the Atlantic. They move it to SZ 91 off of Gibraltar. That same turn, Italy finally manages to grab Cairo from the Brits –- VC #8 — and puts a single destroyer blocker in SZ 92.
See, the Allies are screwed. That big US invasion force could easily take Rome, but the US fleet has to stop in SZ 92 to smash that 1 Italian destroyer. Therefore they can’t get to Rome, or Cairo. From SZ 91, even with the Gibraltar Naval Base, there is no other European VC that is under Axis control that they can get to. They could invade W. Germany, but while that would hurt the German effort, there is no VC there. Both Berlin and Paris are 1 more turn away. At the beginning of Italy’s turn, the Axis win.
Berlin, Rome and Paris could all be totally undefended, but since the Axis captured their 8th VC and held it for one full round, they win. In a way, this kind of sucks but that’s the rules. I guess it is designed to make the Allied players think harder about their defence of VCs. Perhaps go all out on that critical 8th VC to keep it from the Axis an any cost, whether it be Cairo, Moscow or even London.

@Imperious:

you AARHE reader you. :-D

I am now - I took those from the LHTR 2.0 - but I’ve just seen you’ve done loads of National Advantages for all the countries, so I feel like I’m at a rules buffet now!

Excellent - there are some really good ones in there. I like the Amerika bomber!

Your Italian ones are good - I like how the obvious ones people first think of are the Gustav Line and mountain terrain - it was always a problem for me that it was easy to do in Axis and Allies what it was not easy to do historically - get to Germany through italy.

For Japan I’ve got one new one which is ‘elite naval air’ - I like how in some Pacific wargames the Japanese start with amazing units, which are non replaceable - representing their elite air arm. I use the red A&A Pacific Japanese fighters for these and give them a 4/4 rating. My rule is that fighters that start on carriers are ‘elite’ they are non replaceable.

This rule is linked to the Kamikaze rule in that, once all elite air units have been destoryed - the Japanese may then convert one normal fighter to 2 kamikaze planes - these have no attack value and can only move 2 - but their ability is they work like an AA gun for ships, so it’s basically the AAR national advantage.

But it makes use of the red Japanese planes I have… I use the red infantry to denote those that are ‘dug’ in on islands.

Your Iwoa ships are good - the US did put lots of AA defence on their ships.

Ok - great stuff, and plenty of food for thought!

Very interesting, Switch, especially with the German player’s option for sub placement.  I’m anxious to hear of any test games results. :-D