War at Sea Rulebook Released

I just saw that WotC re-updated the revised rules, and released revised stat cards for all sets.

I applaud them, especially on the quick work to create the revised stats for Eastern Front.

Now onto the interesting part…

The must discussed new stacking rules have been tweaked!  If you overstack a unit, it receives a face-down hit marker at the end of the Move and/or Assualt phases.

You may not overstack a hex by more than one unit, uncluding during a move-through.  (This fixes the issue of, say, hitting a landmine and getting stuck in a hex that is already overstacked).

A ramification of this is, as I see it, a shift in balance from single Heavy tanks to more smaller tanks.

Mot

I certainly am not disagreeing with you on the historical concept and especially with the War at Sea where you can play with ships that actually represent ships that were in the fleet on a particular day.  There are however many books out there, written by dreamers and histoirians alike, that attempt to paint the “what if” scenarios just like we do with these games when we try to start within a historical context and then see how things turn out.

Therefore, if one wants to explore the idea of the Battle of the Atlantic with a German air carrier capability one will have to borrow a ship from some other nation to represent the concept that Admiral Raeder was successful in his fleet developments during the 1930s.

OMG!!  I cant wait for WaS to come out.  I love how the minis look.  It pwns!!

For those who are trying to combine the Land and Sea Axis & Allies Miniatures.  Go to http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=ah/aam/maps and download the June Map.  It contains a few pages that are JUST water.

Hope this helps

See here for rules/stats/etc: http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=8233.0

Any feedback is appreciated. The points are fairly arbitary; and will likely change at some time or another. For now it’s just for playtesting purposes.

I think I’ve fixed all the links now, let me know if any don’t work (although occassionaly it’s just because of freewebs being… well freewebs).

We recently had a 4 player game of Poland 1939; two players were Poland, one was Germany, and the last (myself) was Russia. The map was 4x4 with a large city in the central. Objective: Each City Hex is worth 1 point; 2 points to the Russians (due to their smaller force).

GERMAN FORCES, 300 Points
4x BMW R75
3x Light Mortar
9x Mauser
3x Me 110
4x Pz II C
4x Pz 38(t)
3x Sd Kdz 222
9x Sd Kfz 250
4x Sd Kfz 251
1x SS-HSF

POLISH FORCES, 300 Points
5x 37mm ATG
3x 40mm Bofors
6x BAR Gunner
2x Bold Captain
4x Vickers MG
9x Cavalrymen
12x Determined Infantrymen
12x Polish Mauser
3x Vickers Mk E
2x 7TPdw

RUSSIAN FORCES
3x BA-10M
2x BT-7
1x Commissar
1x Cossack Captain
4x Cossack Cavalrymen
3x DP-27
3x KMT MG
9x Mosin-Nagant
2x Soviet T-26
1x T-35
2x KMT Officers

Not quite as big as our usual battles, but we wanted something we could finish in one night.

Poland deployed first, with MGs and two 37mms pointing west, the rest pointing east. All three Vickers tanks were deployed east as well, along with a significant number of cavalry and infantry. I was starting to think the Polish might suspect a Russian attack…

With all their infantry mechanized, the Germans simply blitzed in; ignoring casualties and defencive-fire they just kept coming. On turn two the lead units were already outside the city, while back on my side the Polish were actually invading my maps! However I took only light loses and managed to push them back. The high speed of the BA-10Ms and BT-7s allowed a very mobile reserve.

My T-35 slowly trudged down the road, not even firing; I wanted to get it in or close to Poland ASAP.  I took very light casualties, though two of them included DP-27s. In return I managed to knock out all of his ATGs, damage one tank, and drive the other two off. His infantry were falling back as rapidly as possible to the city.

Back on the Western side, the German Panzer IIs had taken up firing position on the city and were hammering away at it; their 8 attacks devastating the infantry. The Pz 38(t)s, Polish Vickers, and Russian BT-7s/BA-10Ms began some sort of bizzare dance, with all sides taking pot shots at each other from long range.

The T-35 on the second last turn FINALLY gets to fire a shot; it singlehandedly shoots down an Me-110. The T-35 was actually quite useful, keeping enemy infantry and vehicles at bay since they couldn’t handle it’s firepower, allowing my infantry to move up fairly unimpeeded.

In the final rounds my fast tanks sped into the city preventing either of my opponents from capturing the locations and allowing me to squeak by with a win, though I would only call it a temporary and minor one.

All in all a very nice game, though the Germans seemed to have too much stuff for one player; we’re thinking maybe 30 units per player is the magic number.

France fought beside the Americans and Brits for the duration of the war. I can’t see them siding with the Soviets; at least not right away (perhaps the USSR eventually wins massive swaths of Europe, forcing the French, Romanians, and Polish to fight for them). If war broke out I don’t think the UK would stay as an intermediary for very long. Once France fell to the Soviets they’d see the Red Army as a threat.

The Free West: British, Australians, Canadians, Americans, Free French (DeGaulle quotes as sighing, “Here we so again!”)

The Red Army: Soviets, French, Polish, Romanians, Conscripted Germans/Looted German tanks

One of my favorite video games has alot to do with this. Freedom Fighters assumes that the Soviets actually dropped the first atomic bomb, on Berlin. Thus began the assimilation of all of Europe. Eventually the war reaches American shores.

-=Grim=-