Trucks For U.K. and U.S.S.R, Japan

Great-looking overlays, and a good reflection of how WWII might have ended if the A-bomb hadn’t been used.  The Americans were planning to invade Japan in two stages, with Kyushu as the first stage (Operation Olympic) and Honshu as the second stage (Operation Coronet), and the Soviets had plans to invade Hokkaido.  Very nice work.

I’d rather have cheaper, defenseless transport planes myself.

I think that’s totally reasonable, Midnight_Reaper. You could introduce cheaper air transports into this roster without breaking anything important. My preference is for more expensive air transports because the extra price thematically represents (a) the up-front cost of developing the technology and tactics (nobody has to spend money on researching paratroopers for this roster), and (b) the relatively limited supply of air transport available during World War II. There’s a fun little article below about how most of the American Air Force’s transports were either hastily converted civilian planes, or wooden gliders manufactured in piano factories. If the Americans had to make do with makeshift equipment, you can only imagine what the Italians were using.

https://amcmuseum.org/history/world-war-ii-transport-and-troop-carrier/

Strategically, air transports provide a much deeper threat into enemy territory that requires a much larger garrison. E.g. if you put an assault boat in the English Channel, it threatens Normandy, Holland, Norway, Hanover, and Denmark. If you put an air transport in London, it threatens all of those plus Paris, Marseilles, Gibraltar, Morocco, Milan, Berlin, Poland, Finland, Austria, and Czechoslovakia. It’s not that I expect anyone to fly many air transports into a battle to use as fodder; it’s just that spending 12 bucks on one air transport can force your opponent to spend more than 12 bucks on extra defending infantry.

In terms of rules simplicity, I have tried to eliminate the concept of the “defenseless unit” from my unit roster. I find automatic combat losses to be something of a downer, and I’d rather use that spot in the rulebook for a more interesting rule.

All of that said, again, this is mostly personal preference – if you want a $9 defenseless air transport with 4 movement, that’s almost certainly fine.

@all-encompassing-goose Sounds good - hope you have lots of fun with it!

YG,

Could you please share with the community the Axis vs Allies win ratio when using your House Rules from your group? Obviously group dynamics effects game play, outcomes, and strategies. Currently on triplea live, it seems the allies are winning more lately and only with a small bid (being used against Japan now or no bid at all).

J1 attacks are failing more often now. And when doing a J1 attack, I’m more prevalent to stack FIC instead of concurrently hitting Yunnan. I run out of fodder too quick. I think the game has now gone full circle. Perhaps I’m way off? Anyways, the allies just shove everything. Japan may win a battle in one spot but they get overrun in the others.

My next table top G40 game won’t be until the 1st weekend of October (I’m jealous of you guys that have a G40 table top group). Â

Ichabod

@NilOGrav:

Big thanks for Young Grasshopper,

Played this last weekend in combination with the Halifax rules (option 2, the greater Commonwealth). Fantastic. We have added a ton of luxury materials (NO-cards, scoreboards, country sheets, , IPCs, tokens, etc) to help speed things up and are looking for a year now how to create a one day game w/o losing the characteristics.

This completely answered our questions! Congratulations on a job well done.

chrz Eppo

Thanks for the comments NiIOGrav, glad to help… I honestly think these VOs are a no brainer for those that want to sum things up in a 10 hour day. I will be releasing my new game accessory card deck soon, keep an eye out for my next “essential customizations” video.

Cheers.

I like it too.
As Japan I spend the whole game fearing being stabbed in the back by Russia and then having to turn my most mobile units around to deal with that backstabbing.
At the moment, with the Mongolia thing, I think Japan gets the worse deal of the two nations.

I like the idea of veteran infantry. I will always want the British SAS, US Marine Core, or Waffen SS fighting on my side (YES ALL OF THEM!). Also I’ve never like mechs. I think they should have just made trucks. A bit more complitcated but interesting.

oh wow. thats not how i played it. Otherwise Germany can build fighters and get all her planes instantly as jets?

thats really strong Tech….

Perhaps you can convert one fighter per turn or build a new fighter that will be a jet?