Axis & Allies Global 1940 House Rules Expansion

@crockett36
This seems interesting. I’ll try it out.

@SuperbattleshipYamato

Finished the first game:

2023-8-13-World-War-II-Global-1940-2nd-Edition.tsvg

The game was certainly unique and spiced up from the original rules. It’s quite biased towards the Axis, with the “cannot move into pro-Allied territories while the Soviets and/or the Americans are neutral” is crippling.

I definitely could’ve been more creative as Japan, but overall it was still a fun and unique game.

@andy-palmer

one HR we experimented with was “French Resistance”. During the French turn, you roll as if a submarine is potentially damaging each of the 3 French Factory territories held by the Axis (1, 2, 3 = the amount of damage. 4-6 is no result). This provides a reason for the Axis not to take the territories as soon as possible. If they do and they focus their money and attention elsewhere, the factories may have damage or be wrecked when its time for the Axis to start defending against invasion.

The rule was kind of hard to remember to roll every turn, and most of the time, it does very little damage overall.
But, it was part of a set of small changes intended to slow the Axis income but leave choice intact (they can still use their full money for units but if they do, they lose the chance to place units in such advantageous places).

Likewise, and on a different note, we added $1 to Sicily, corsica, crete, cyprus, malta, new guinea etc. to make those have some greater incentive to take them over than just having a new landing spot and denying the enemy one.

The map in playtest 9°

M0.Base1940v2.png
M1.OIL1940v2.jpg

Is it possible for this game to be set it up so that every country could fight on it’s on; with one country destroying everyone else as the only victory condition? Say, combine Italy and France (with Spain and Portugal?) and let them go first? Britain goes 2nd? And perhaps add about 1 guy to every Chinese territory? What would the outcome of THAT game look like?

The map is still a mess. MS Paint’s paintbrush option doesn’t appear to lay an even coat, so I can’t auto-fill within national borders, meaning that each country must be painted by hand. I’m trying to figure out if it would be wise to invest in a WaCom tablet for this kind of work and would greatly appreciate any suggestions from some of the community’s seasoned mapmakers.

I’ve calculated income (IPC values) for all the major and minor powers in the game at this point, so let’s shift gears tonight and take a look at how that breaks down, with some additional points of interest for each country. Here’s an early (albeit incomplete) preview.

Allied Powers

United Kingdom & Dominions: 54

Representing His Majesty’s possessions and Commonwealth allies west of Suez. The U.K. starts with sevenof the Empire’s eight battleships in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, and one of its two battlecruisers. The British also field a pair of fleet carriers, divided between either station.

British Far East Command: 50

All British Empire forces east of Suez, inclusive of Australia and New Zealand. There are 10 INF in greater India alone, and another 4 in Malaya or on Singapore at game start. By contrast, Australia and New Zealand are virtually defenseless. A battleship, battlecruiser, cruiser, and two destroyers comprise the Royal Navy presence here.

France: 37

France is a going concern in this game, with powerful armies concentrated along the Maginot Line, the Alpine Line on the Franco-Italian border, and in North Africa. The French Indochina garrison is also formidable, with 1 INF, 1 ARTY, and 1 FTR. Powerful squadrons of the French Navy, including 2 BB and 1 BC, are at Toulon and Mers el-Kébir. A cruiser lays at anchor off Indochina. A troop transport in the Indian Ocean carries 1 additional INF and 1 AAA.

United States of America: 130

The wealthiest nation on Earth, but humbled by the Depression. The United States Navy counts ten battleships and one fleet carrier.

Pro-Allied Minors

United Netherlands: 28

Anticipating war with Japan rather than Germany, the Dutch spent heavily on air and naval defenses in the Indies, where a BC and a SUB patrol, backed by a TAC. At game start, a Dutch FTR on Java is the closest possible air cover available for Malaya. A modest increase to the army began more recently, but there can be no illusions about what will happen if Europe falls into another war.

Communist Powers

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics: 57

An industrial behemoth, the Soviets are arrayed against the Germans in the west and the Japanese in the Far East. The massive Red Army fields 24 infantry in total.

Axis Powers

Japan: 35

In terms of capital ships, the Japanese operate three BB and one BC, as well as two fleet carriers.

Italy: 22

Still smarting over the abandonment of her Entente partners in the last war, Italy has renewed its membership in the Triple Alliance. The Italian army in North Africa, amounting to 2 INF, 1 ARTY, 1 armored car (AC), and 1 ARM, is a significant threat to French possessions there. The Italian Navy includes 1 BB and 1 fleet carrier. Italy’s mobilization factor of 11 INF is high for a country of her size; by way of comparison, the British Far East Command fields 17 INF at game start, spread across a far wider operational area.

Pro-Allied Minors

Polish Commonwealth: 11

In this timeline, a client state of Germany. Considering the weight of Soviet metal arrayed on its eastern border, the Poles are likely to serve as the doormat over which its neighbors stomp with reckless abandon.

Siam 2

A client state of Japan. Poised to invade French Indochina at game start with a formidable army of 3 INF, 1 ARM, and 1 FTR. The Siamese navy is a destroyer, standing in for the pair of coast defense ships it operated historically.

@Imperious:

OK.
Cruisers when they shoot and roll a 1 can force the defender to remove a plane
Cruisers move 3 spaces even if they didn’t come out of port.
Now they are worth the extra 2 IPC.

@Young:

@variance:

Another idea has been that each cruiser would only fire an AA shot at 1 attacking plane.

This is better than 3 shots per ship IMO.

So our Cruisers combine those ideas and get:
1-An attack and a defense @3 + 1 bombard @3,
2-A first round AA @1 against 1 attacking aircraft,
3-Cruisers when they shoot, either on attack or defense, and roll a 1 can force the attacker/defender to remove a plane.

In the game I played, the AA has more of a psychological impact than a real effect.
Indeed, it never destroyed any aircraft. And thus, neither by the AA and even by the “1” roll which force the defender to destroy an aircraft.

But UK bought 3 cruisers, instead of any BB, against German Luftwaffe.

Thanks everybody, those suggestions makes cruiser a more interesting unit that worth buying.

However, it can be a real nuisance for Germany but it may also help protect the Baltic fleet against UK aircrafts: at least, it slightly upgrade the Baltic fleet to better defend against attacking UK planes.

Axis and Allies D12 system rules:
The purpose of this is to integrate the new pieces from HBG as well as new sculpts from AA41 and AA42.2.  The goal is to fit all the pieces creating unique values into Axis and Allies games.
I had considered using different unit values by nation, but this proved too difficult. The utility of using D12 allows many new units each having unique characteristics.

Note most OOB units are double attack and defensive values: (Attack-Defense-Movement-Cost)

Infantry: 2-4-1-3
Artillery: 4-4-1-4
Mechanized Infantry:
Armor: 6-6-2-6
(Note: these are considered mid-war tank design and can’t be built till turn 3)
Fighter: 6-8-4-10
Tactical Bomber: 6-6-4-11
Strategic Bomber: 8-2-6-12
Battleship: 8-8-2-20
Cruiser: 6-6-2-12
Destroyer: 4-4-2-8
Submarine: 4-2-2-6
Carrier: 0-2-2-16
Transport: 0-0-2-7

New WOTC sculpts:
Note: These cannot be built as early as turn 3

LAND:
Heavy Artillery: These are a 6-4-1-5 unit and have a special feature. If they roll a one result in combat, the defender must select an air or non-infantry land unit as a combat loss.
Late War Tanks: These are 8-8-2-8 units and can blitz like other tanks. In all other respects these perform as tanks. These tanks can be built as early as turn 6.

SEA:
Battle-cruisers:  These are 7-6-2-16 units and like Battleships they take two hits. They also bombard at 3.
Super Carriers:  These are 2-4-2-18 units that carry 3 planes. They also take two hits, but the first hit does not affect their ability to launch or land fighters.
Destroyer Escorts: These are specialized units to protect convoys. They have a movement of 3 spaces or four if leaving a naval base. These are 4-2-3-10 units and have the same abilities as a destroyer, except as long as you have at least one Destroyer escort, all transports in the same sea zone as the destroyer escort defend at 1.
Heavy Transport: These perform just like Transports, except they carry three Infantry or two armor type units. These are 0-0-2-12 units.
Advanced Submarine Design:  These are 4-2-2-8 units and have special abilities. They can avoid combat with destroyers or destroyer escorts at a 1:1 basis. If you got for example 2 of these subs and you enter a sea zone with 1 destroyer escort or destroyer, they can avoid combat and  pass thru into the next sea zone. If for example you have 2 of these units and get attacked by at least 3 destroyers, combat is performed in the normal fashion. If at any time the destroyer count is equal to the submarine count, the advanced submarines can submerge immediately.

AIR:
Medium Bomber: These are 6-2-6-9 units and have a number of new features. They can  perform SBR like any other Bomber, but are the only units that can  pick up Paratroopers
Advanced Fighter design:  These are 8-8-4-14 units. The key feature is their ability to be used somewhat differently in SBR. In these actions they get a +1 in combat as escorts or as interceptors.