Bombing by Average

This house rule was designed by myself independent of any other source and was made in the 1980s when I played A & A Classic and designed my own variant I term ‘Allies and Enemies’. The rule is as follows; During a develop weapons phase a player mat attempt to develop an atomic bomb. A player must pay 30 PFs for every die roll that is attempted. A roll of a 6 on a D6 roll gives the player nuclear capability (needless to say the die roll must be clearly random). Additionally, the second time (a subsequent turn) a player pays 30 PFs to attempt to develop an atomic bomb the die roll to be successful becomes a 5 or 6 on a D6 roll. For each subsequent attempt of 30 PFs the die roll to be successful decreases by one number so that on the sixth attempt research for an atomic bomb is automatically successful. On the turn that an Atomic bomb is successfully developed that player may buy them at the purchase units phase for 5 PFs for each Atomic Bomb. Atomic Bombs may only be delivered to the target space by Bomber aircraft ( 1 atomic bomb per bomber) or by a Rocket (if house rules allow). The effects of an Atomic Bomb are 1) destroys all units in the target space (either land or sea) and 2) permanently (for the rest of the game) reduces the PF value of the land space targeted by 1 PF (0 being the minimum value) for each Atomic bomb dropped.

This mechanics can also be applied to ABs as Carolina is suggesting:

Air and Naval base damage
@Carolina:

Great topic - hi-lights how A&A is a little too basic.  ie. not all hits should be equal - really, when would AAA blow every plane out of the sky?

I would propose to change the AAA rule for bases and industry that AAA does not kill but affects the accuracy of the attacker.  Defending installation rules a 1d6 and this is subtracted from the attacker’s roll.  
1d6-1 for fighters and tacB
1d6-2 for bombers
Roll an AAA dice for each attacking aircraft.

So if, as germany,after I capture Moscow which had 2 damaged ICs and 2 good ICs.Is the 1 IC that remains after capture a good 1 or a damaged one?
I can imagine Russia leaving a "scorched earth"or Germany being able to find enough infastructure for an operational minor IC remaining.

very true.

As A&A makes no rule for collapsed defenses,  an atomic bomb drop, under any other conditions, against an enemy of any potency, would still suffer teh same flak and interceptor attacks as any other strategic bombing.

I like it, but I think 10 turns is too late, as one side or the other will have achieved a clear victory by that point (even if the game isn’t over). I think mid-to-late game, maybe around turn 7 would be a better time to introduce the bomb. I also think that the bomb should cost 40 IPCs, must be carried in a strategic bomber, and can be shot down. Finally, I think the bomb should do max damage to all facilities, and if used to attack units, it should automatically wipe all of them out. The bombs should only be producible in a major IC.

Just make it a NO for the US that it needs a cumulative die roll to obtain nukes

Certain things have to happen in order for the US to roll “Atomic Dice”

Allied control of Rome
No Axis controlled territories in Africa
The Axis cannot control US originally controlled territories in the Pacific (Guam, Midway, Hawaii, Johnston, Line, Philippines, Aleutian)
The Axis cannot control UK originally controlled territories in Europe (London, Scotland, Iceland, Gibraltar)
Anzac has to have collected IPC that round

Before Germany goes in that round, the US gets to roll a die for each of the following:
US Control of Rome
US Control of Hawaii
US Control of Caroline Islands
US Control of Marianas
US Control of Iwo Jima
US Control of Okinawa
US Control of Marshall Islands
France collected IPC that round
Allied Control of Egypt

You have to roll something like six sixes in order to obtain an atomic bomb.  Thats six sixes cumulatively.  Alternately, you can make it a cumulative total so something like you have to roll something like a die total of 40-50 cumulatively on the die roll(s) over multiple rounds.

Each nuke thereafter costs the US 1/3 of its IPC to purchase it (so probably something like 25-30 IPC at this point in the game).

The Nuke works just like a SBR however it can only be on the Nation’s Capital (Tokyo / Berlin).  If the StratB’s with the Nuke(s) get to the roll dice phase for damage to the Major IC, then the attack is successful.

A successful attack means that nation does not collect IPC that round.

From the German perspective:

Germany rolls a single die every round for the following objectives:

German Control for each VC it controls

So G1 would see Germany likely roll die for Berlin, Warsaw and Paris.

Germany would also be able to roll die if it controls London, Egypt, Leningrad, Stalingrad, and/or Moscow which allows for Germany to go in any direction to obtain extra die rolls.

Germany scores half (rounded down) its total die roll if the Axis does not control Paris and Rome.

Germany has to obtain the same objective as the US to obtain an Atomic Bomb (six sixes or something like 50 total showing on the dice cumulatively through all rolls).

I believe this puts the Atomic Bomb in play for Germany around turn 7-8 if it never loses Paris and owns London.  However Germany could only really play that Atomic bomb against Moscow if it sealioned G3 as its pretty darned difficult for it to launch a SBR against the US.  In effect it penalizes Moscow for sitting back and really doing nothing instead of pushing back against the Germans.

I am gonna post a new version of mine using KISS. I think it is too complicated.

but i will do that in a new thread :-D

@Rakeman:

@Cmdr:

That is significantly better. (Allies can capture Kwangtung or Philippines easier.)

Though, I still think having it auto liberate after Russia’s turn is the best idea.  That way Japan would have to maintain pressure on W. USA too keep the VC.

Perhaps if USA loses money due to bombing, the VC is captured, but liberated automatically on Russia’s turn?  It would require pressure maintained, but not so much pressure that Japan needs to dedicate all of its money to bombing.

I think it would be okay as long as Japan has to successfully bomb W. USA each successive turn to maintain command over the Victory City there.

That way Japan can still screw up by sending one bomber and having it shot down, or America could get lucky and get 3 hits with it’s AA Gun against 3 bombers.