A&A50 Alternative Set-Up

GERMANY   ( $ 31 )

Sea Zone 5 – 1 Cruiser, 1 Transport

Sea Zone 6 – 1 Battleship

Sea Zone 7 – 1 Submarine

Sea Zone 8 – 1 Submarine

Sea Zone 13 – 1 Destroyer, 1 Submarine, 1 Transport

Norway – 3 Infantry, 1 Fighter

Finland – 2 Infantry

North-western Europe – 2 Infantry, 1 Tank, 1 Fighter

France – 2 Infantry, 1 Fighter, 1 AA-Gun

Germany – 3 Infantry, 1 Artillery, 3 Tanks, 1 Fighter, 1 Bomber, 1 Factory, 1 AA-Gun

Poland – 4 Infantry, 1 Artillery, 3 Tanks, 1 Fighter

Czechoslovakia / Hungary – 2 Infantry, 1 Artillery

Bulgaria / Romania – 3 Infantry, 1 Artillery, 3 Tanks, 1 Fighter

Morocco / Algeria – 2 Infantry

Libya – 2 Infantry, 1 Artillery, 1 Tank

SOVIET UNION   ( $ 30 )

Sea Zone 4 – 1 Submarine

Karelia S.S.R – 4 Infantry, 1 Artillery, 1 Tank, 1 Factory, 1 AA-Gun

Archangel – 2 Infantry

Baltic States – 3 Infantry

Belorussia – 2 Infantry

Russia – 4 Infantry, 1 Artillery, 1 Tank, 1 Fighter, 1 Bomber, 1 Factory, 1 AA-Gun

Novosibirsk – 2 Infantry

East Poland – 3 Infantry

Eastern Ukraine – 2 Infantry

Ukraine – 2 Infantry

Caucasus – 4 Infantry, 1 Artillery, 1 Tank, 1 Factory, 1 AA-Gun

Kazakh S.S.R – 2 Infantry

Yukut S.S.R – 1 Infantry, 1 Artillery

Stanovoj Chrebet – 1 Infantry, 1 Artillery

Soviet Far East – 2 Infantry

Buryatia – 3 Infantry

UNITED KINGDOM   ( $ 43 )

Sea Zone 2 – 1 Battleship, 1 Cruiser, 1 Transport

Sea Zone 9 – 1 Destroyer, 1 Transport

Sea Zone 12 – 1 Aircraft Carrier / 2 Fighters, 1 Cruiser

Sea Zone 27 – 1 Transport

Sea Zone 35 – 1 Destroyer, 1 Transport

Sea Zone 41 – 1 Destroyer, 1 Transport

Eastern Canada – 2 Infantry, 1 Fighter

U.K – 3 Infantry, 1 Artillery, 1 Tank, 2 Fighters, 1 Bomber, 1 Factory, 1 AA-Gun

Egypt – 3 Infantry, 1 Artillery, 1 Tank, 1 Fighter

Trans-Jordan – 2 Infantry

Belgian Congo – 1 Infantry

Union of South Africa – 2 Infantry

India – 3 Infantry, 1 Artillery, 1 Fighter, 1 AA-Gun

Burma – 1 Infantry

Kwangtung – 1 Infantry

East Indies – 1 Infantry

Borneo – 1 Infantry

New Guinea – 1 Infantry

Australia – 3 Infantry, 1 Artillery, 1 AA-Gun

New Zealand – 1 Infantry

Western Canada – 1 Infantry

ITALY   ( $ 10 )

Sea Zone 14 – 1 Battleship, 1 Cruiser, 1 Destroyer, 1 Transport

Italy – 2 Infantry, 1 Artillery, 1 Tank, 1Fighter, 1 Bomber, 1 Factory, 1 AA-Gun

Balkans – 2 Infantry, 1 Tank

Libya – 2 Infantry

JAPAN   ( $ 17 )

Sea Zone 62 – 1 Battleship, 2 Transports

Sea Zone 61 – 1 Cruiser, 1 Destroyer, 1 Transport / 2 Infantry, 1 Transport / 2 Infantry

Sea Zone 36 – 1 Battle Ship, 1 Cruiser

Sea Zone 52 – 1 Aircraft Carrier / 2 Fighters, 1 Aircraft Carrier / 2 Fighters

Sea Zone 48 – 1 Submarine

Japan – 4 Infantry, 1 Artillery, 1 Tank, 1 Fighter, 1 Bomber, 1 Factory, 1 AA-Gun

Manchuria – 3 Infantry, 1 Artillery, 1 Fighter

Kiangsu – 2 Infantry, 1 Artillery

French Indo-China Thailand – 3 Infantry, 1 Artillery, 1 Fighter

Formosa – 1 Infantry

Okinawa – 1 Infantry

Iwo Jima – 1 Infantry

Caroline Islands – 1 Infantry

UNITED STATES   ( $ 40 )

Sea Zone 10 – 1 Destroyer, 1 Transport

Sea Zone 45 – 1 Submarine

Sea Zone 50 – 1 Destroyer, 1 Transport

Sea Zone 53 – 1 Battleship, 1 Cruiser

Sea Zone 54 – 1 Aircraft Carrier / 2 Fighters, 1 Destroyer

Sea Zone 56 – 1 Battleship, 1 Transport

Eastern U.S – 2 Infantry, 1 Artillery, 1 Tank, 1 Fighter, 1 Bomber, 1 Factory, 1 AA-Gun

Philippine Islands – 2 Infantry

Wake Islands – 1 Infantry

Hawaiian Islands – 2 Infantry, 1 Fighter

Midway – 1 Infantry

Alaska – 1 Infantry

Western U.S – 2 Infantry, 1 Fighter, 1 Bomber, 1 Factory, 1 AA-Gun

Central U.S – 1 Infantry

CHINA

Place 1 Infantry unit on each Chinese territory.

China produces 2 Infantry units every round provided that China holds at least 1 Chinese territory.

The U.S player may move Chinese units during their turn and place new Chinese units on any territory China owns.

The above list may become our “house set-up rule” between my friends and I so if anyone has time to look at it and tell us about any problems you see…… That would be really helpfull.
Thank you.

@Cmdr:

I dunno if Germany warrants a battleship, especially in SZ 6.  If they are getting one, it should be in SZ 5 I think.

Just a thought.  Anyway, I’ve been working on my own house rules, something completely original and it’s got some starting unit set up alterations as well (since there are some glaring deficiencies in the original set up from my perspective including, among other things, the inability of Germany to follow up on Round 2 to support their round 1 actions.)

I am a big WW2 buff and it has always bothered me from A&A Classic to A&A50 that the German Battleship Bizmarck was not represented. The story about Bizmarck (the battleship in SZ6) breaking out into the Atlantic through the Noregian forge and than engaging the H.M.S Hood (the battleship in SZ2) is the greatest story of the war. The Atlantic theater should look the same after Germany’s turn anyway, it will just take bigger and longer sea battles in R1. So it is more of an historical placement than a strategical one (I’m so suprised the designers didn’t account for the Bizmarck this time around) Thank you for the imput and I do agree that 1941 and 42 both have serious problems…… With our set-up I’m worried about imbalances between nations. Do you have you’re own set-up you could share?

@Imperious:

Why did you make this set up anyway? Is it for a different period your covering? or you are trying to go for Realistic?

We as a group are trying to go for fun (and maybe a little historical reality). We want certian aspects of the war represented in our set-up regardless of when they exactly happened like the Bizmarck and Hood battle, German U-boats praying on allied shipping lanes, Rommel in Africa, U-81 sinking the Ark Royal aircraft carrier just east of Gibralter and of course the raid on Pearl Harbour where there should be at least 1 American Battleship.

We like that the game begins with extra elements such as a German Battleship, a British aircraft carrier, a Russian and Italian bomber and American battleships. The British fleet is still vulnerable to a compleate wipe out (as ussual) however, a German Submarine might survive this round 1 battle which would be fine given their historic presence in the Atlantic. We are not 100% going for historic acuracy as much as we are trying to include all the great stories of the war into our set-up without worrying about perfection. We think the nations are ballanced give or take a cruiser here or there but we don’t want a player to feel defeated before they even get a turn playing a certain side.

I understand that 1 Battleship in history dose not nor should it represent 1 plastic piece in the game. There was alot of thought and play testing by the designers who carfully ballanced history with game play however, Our group is under the opinion that it is more fun to have a Battleship and lose it in the first battle than to never have a Battleship at all.

@Cmdr:

If we give Germany a BB, I think it should be in SZ 5 (playability wise) and England should get +1 BB +2 CA to bring their fleet up to date power wise. (Bismark took out some UK BBs, but the Bismark was also lost, if we revive the Bismark, it’s only fair to revive the British ships too.)

Using our set-up above, do you think the British should get more starting boats?

@Imperious:

Classic and Revised both include the Bismark though.  It’s stationed in the Central Med, but it’s represented.

I too think the set up should be changed to a scenario where all players have somewhat a complete army

for the Germans this would be the BB, and perhaps another bomber

For Italy its one more DD

For Russia definatly they need the 2 fighters and 1 bomber and some tanks

for Japan i think they are ok

USA is ok except perhaps one more ship

UK needs another BB and another CA or perhaps a carrier

but everything needs to be balanced.

Well our set-up addresses everything you listed so maybe we are on the right track after all…. as for being balanced only time will tell but I think it is important not to keep making changes. Make house rules to best improve the quality of the game and than force players to deal with the challenges those new rules bring. That being said we have made 1 change already… instead of adding a British boat we have taken away 1 German Submarine. I have already modified the list above.

As for German boats in the Med… When the British sunk the French fleet, didn’t Germany salvage anything after they occupied France?

Imperious Leader…. could you build my alternative set-up on your board and tell me if there are any game balance problems you can see?

Thank you very much…. We will be playing our new set-up tommorow so I will let you know how that goes as well.

We played our alternative set-up today and it went very well.

Germany did not hit the British aircraft carrier with everything they could so after some bad dice rolls and a late retreat from the Germany, the UK was left with 2 fighters that flew to Gibralter and later sunk the Italian destroyer. A better battle from the Germans would have balanced the Atlantic but the 2 British fighters didn’t cause too much damage in the long run.

In a strange twist the German player decided to lose the battleship as a casualty in SZ2 and instead kept the 2 submarines (which stayed in the Atlantic for 3 rounds harassing the British and American efforts),

Japan was as strong as ever but the US was not far behind with the starting battleship in SZ56 and it wasn’t a problem as far as balance. The pearl harbour ships were destroyed without shooting down a single plane but the Japanese submarine was sunk.

If there was one negative, it may have been how easily the Germans invaded Russia with below average dice rolls so we are considering adding 1 Russian infantry in East Poland.

@Imperious:

ok ill make you guys a deal…

I will make a setup file using your ideas

You guys then work on 1943 scenario, but you have to come up with something special:

1. knowing the axis will lose the question is some minor modification of the Victory conditions, also some of the technologies should be on and favor the axis but appeal to historical realism as well as balance. The purpose of 1943 was to make a shorter game played in a few hours… so keep that in mind.

2. some other rules may be necessary.

So…. you want us to create a new set-up reflecting 1943 with a few rule changes naturally creating a shorter game?

I will put it across the group and see what they think (I believe they would welcome the challenge) but it will take us about a week or two to do it properly.