N00b school: Pearl Heavy v. Pearl Light

In my group we generally skip the tech development. To my opinion too it is unbalancing the game for one player. It feels more like a fair fight to play without the tech development.

If you like playing with NAs and picking them to suit your strategy, give Axis and Allies Revised Enhanced (commonly abbreviated as AARe) a try. It uses National Advantages as an important part of core play, not just an optional rule. They’re considered well-balanced after several years of development and play-testing.

It appears I can’t post links, but you’ll find the sticky in the House Rules section on this forum.

Have fun.

it is well known that the expected value for damage on an SBR is 3.5 IPCs (given the bomber survives AA fire and given the territory is 6 IPCs or more).  there are a few posts taking a stab at the distribution for heavy bombers in LHTR, but no one has formulated it correctly.  the work below shows the average SBR damage is 5.472 IPCs per heavy bomber.

in LHTR, heavy bombers roll 2 dice, take the max, add one, limit to the territory value, and that’s the IPC damage inflicted.

let A and B be independent random variables corresponding to the two dice rolled.  they are distributed as:
P(A=a) ={ 1/6  a=1,2,3,4,5,6
        { 0    otherwise

P(B=b) ={ 1/6  b=1,2,3,4,5,6
        { 0    otherwise

let C be the derived random variable defined as:
C = max(A,B) + 1

Theorem: C is distributed as:
P(C=c) ={  1/36    c=2
        {  3/36    c=3
        {  5/36    c=4
        {  7/36    c=5
        {  9/36    c=6
        { 11/36    c=7
        { 0        otherwise

Proof:
note: <= is the less-than-or-equal-to operator
note: E is the summation operator
P( C<=c ) = P( max(A,B)+1 <= c )

6
      = E  P( max(A,b)+1 <= c | B=b ) P(B=b)
          b=1

6
      = E  P( max(A,b) <= c-1 ) P(B=b)
          b=1

c-1
      = 1/6 * E  P( A <= c-1 )      c<=7
                b=1

c-1 c-1
      = 1/6 * E  E  P(A=a)          c<=7
                b=1 a=1

c-1 c-1
      = 1/36 * E  E  1              c<=7
                  b=1 a=1

= 1/36 * (c-1)^2              c<=7

and
P(C=c) = P(C<=c) - P(C<=c-1)
      ={  1/36    c=2
        {  3/36    c=3
        {  5/36    c=4
        {  7/36    c=5
        {  9/36    c=6
        { 11/36    c=7
        { 0        otherwise

Analysis:
note: E is the expectation operator
so, if one were heavy SBR’ing a 7 (or more) territory, the expected damage is:
E© = 21/36 + 33/36 + 45/36 + 57/36 + 69/36 + 711/36 = 197/36 = 5.472 IPC

so is the extra ~2 IPC per bomber worth the investment?  i’d like to know what other analysts think now that i’ve quantified the difference.

If the attacker retreats and there is no more CV for the planes involved in the defense, all defending figs get one movement point to escape to friendly territory or SZ (if there is a carrier with capacity handy). Since Hawaii is US/Allied control, both the US fig and the Brit fig can land there.

The same would apply in any other cases - say germans attack allied fleet in north sea protected by US planes. If CV is sunk then germans retreat, US planes could escape to UK (or any other adjacent allied territory) on germany’s turn.

How does US counter Japan’s Pearl?

Simple answer:  KGF.

If you really want to go KJF, you either go Ssinkiang and Indian ICs, or you build Pacfleet on US1 threatening attack on Pearl US2 (Japan shouldn’t be strong enough to wipe out the US2 fleet), or you can try Alaska transport chain.  Buncha things you can do really.  I note you already mentioned the LRA option.

I think we could probably devote a whole board to the sub rules. I think in Classic (bot many games of Classic under the belt went to that backwards via Europe) subs could come into a zone, shoot, and leave without being shot at. Not sure on that though.

Our problem was we were not conducting opening fire every round that subs were still on the battle board. We would have opening shots then treat them just like any other naval units.

The sub rules are different in all four versions of the game with subs that much I’m very clear on. The sub rules for Revised I’m very clear on because I think they are the cleanest.

Thanks man - that does help!

Well Kaladesh, have you tried the opening fire variant yet? :D I find it balanced and use it every time!