I have labored in the past thinking of ways to fix the Research & Development phase. My ideas have ranged from ridiculously complex and elaborate to outright stupid, however, my final draft is both simple and balanced. The following house rule has been rigorously play tested, and none of the original technologies have been modified. This rule is balanced enough to bring the R&D phase into your games more often, while simple enough to get your fellow players to approve it.
Grasshopper’s Tech Rule
When an eligible nation chooses to enter the Research phase by purchasing 1 or more research dice, they will receive 1 bonus roll for free. Therefore…
_- if you buy 1 dice for $5, you will get 2 dice for a chance to roll a 6
if you buy 2 dice for $10, you will get 3 dice for a chance to roll a 6
if you buy 3 dice for $15, you will get 4 dice for a chance to roll a 6 etc…_
If a 6 was rolled during the research phase, you must then choose a technology chart to roll on during the development phase. However, after you have chosen a technology chart, and before you make a development roll, you may choose one technology that you will be immune from. For example…
- America chooses to make their development roll using technology chart #2, and decides to be immune from Radar (technology #4). Therefore, if a 4 is rolled, the player for America must try again until they get a result other than 4.
This process is reset after each game round allowing players to choose different charts and immune technologies with each R&D phase.
