Blockhouse Talk 101

here we go, one + karma to you zooooma for your blockhouse idea.

Blockhouse: cost 1 IPC, move 0, def 0, att 0

This Blockhouse represent force protection. You spend 1 IPC in concrete just to protect your men and weapons. I totally love it.

Agreed, great idea!

So this unit can be purchased and placed on any territory?

I can see many uses for it, mainly cannon fodder!

@Adlertag:

here we go, one + karma to you zooooma for your blockhouse idea.

Blockhouse: cost 1 IPC, move 0, def 0, att 0

This Blockhouse represent force protection. You spend 1 IPC in concrete just to protect your men and weapons. I totally love it.

It is too cheap . It does not model the cost of what its said to represent. Hitler could not afford to build his Atlantic Wall. It took years to get ready even if he did. The french spend an incredible amount of money on the Maginot line fortifications. The rule makes these things seem like you can just “whip the thing together in minutes”

The idea needs to do the following:

1. have more than one tier in order to allow for different types of defenses….all under the same idea
2. effect or be effected by the number of Infantry AND Artillery
3. have a special rule for sea invasions as opposed to adjacent land combat
4. reflect the fact that its costly and can potentially cause your opponent huge problems…modeling the psychological effect of buying it and the fear of attacking it.
5. contain a counter unit ( antidote)

A) two tiers 6 IPC each- ( modeling both light and heavy defenses…e.g. Maginot and pillboxes all in the same rule
B) Each INF and ART defending adds to its potency
C) Sea Invasions it fires preemptively after SB, Land attacks +1 to each INf and Art on defense
D) Cost 12 IPC and only works in the first round. This can be a boom or bust which is the factor in warfare.
E) Airborne landed can hit each tier on a roll of 1 in the first round ( performed right after SB, but before Fortification defense rolls

@cannon:

Agreed, great idea!

So this unit can be purchased and placed on any territory?

I can see many uses for it, mainly cannon fodder!

@Adlertag:

here we go, one + karma to you zooooma for your blockhouse idea.

Blockhouse: cost 1 IPC, move 0, def 0, att 0

This Blockhouse represent force protection. You spend 1 IPC in concrete just to protect your men and weapons. I totally love it.

Terrible idea, for $6 you get an infantry that takes 4 hits to kill.

It’s the land battleship!!!  :-D

@Brain:

@cannon:

Agreed, great idea!

So this unit can be purchased and placed on any territory?

I can see many uses for it, mainly cannon fodder!

@Adlertag:

here we go, one + karma to you zooooma for your blockhouse idea.

Blockhouse: cost 1 IPC, move 0, def 0, att 0

This Blockhouse represent force protection. You spend 1 IPC in concrete just to protect your men and weapons. I totally love it.

Terrible idea, for $6 you get an infantry that takes 4 hits to kill.

For the same price as the $24 battleship, you could buy one $3 infantry and twenty-one $1 blockhouses and in effect have a 22 hit infantry piece. You would never be able to conquer that territory.

You would never be able to conquer that territory.

yep exactly. Next idea.

Hey didn’t Larry say that blockhouses are not going to be in the game?

That’s the rumor.

Thank goodness. People didnt actually BUILD those things during the war…its innacurate and more importantly ruins game balance…makes it too WWI

But that’s the point of the BB vs Carrier with 2 fighters. The carrier force should be better in some situations and in the game most people buy the Carriers because they already know they can use the planes they have and make this a better buy. But in some situations like small islands such as Malta and Gibraltar you need something like this. Japan made a living at taking islands and turning them into hollowed out mountains of places to hide. These Blockhouses represent all the various fortifications that may or may not be viable depending on the situation. Also, the game is supposed to model things like Maginot and since this will be totally ignored these games will have Germans pour right across the border like nothing existed with no provision to make it somewhat realistic. I don’t even use the term “blockhouse” except as a convenience. To me  it represents field fortifications ( trenches, pill box, gun emplacements, walls, fortified zone, defensive zone, whatever). I think the game deserves something to represent these types of defenses, just like the AA gun is represented. Both are viable. If the game has no provision for anything of this type, its lacking in major characteristic of this warfare.

IL You are right, however I dont think they should be able to be BUILT. Just destroyed. It took the japanese a long time and a lot of people to hollow out mountains, and turn them into fortresses. Compared to the amount of time it takes to destroy them. The maginoit line took years to build up, and it took a signifigant amount of the french military to uphold it. I agree there should be natural defenses, but I think it would complicate gameplay, and it wouldnt make much sense, the amount of time it takes to train infantry is much shorter (and cheaper) than it takes to build a fortress. (but I can be wrong I have been wrong before). I think it should be natural defenses, not something you can just build in a turn. For a relatively low amount of IPC. Remember IPC isnt “money” per se, its man hours spent on whatever is being built. If they can be “built” (blockhouses) I think it should cost 15 IPC for three turns. To discourage players from doing something that in reality….wouldnt have ben done.

so at roughly 6 months per turn, the Japanese need only hold an island for 1 turn, then they can build a blockhouse and place it on the next turn.  Territories owned at the beginning of the game can purchase blockhouses Turn 2 and place them on Turn 3.  That can cover the time aspect.

ok thats fine, but 15 bucks for getting a 2 or less for free is too much. The AA gun does a 1 for 6 IPC and they can hit planes, so a two should be 12 IPC.

@idk_iam_swiss:

IL You are right, however I dont think they should be able to be BUILT. Just destroyed. It took the japanese a long time and a lot of people to hollow out mountains, and turn them into fortresses. Compared to the amount of time it takes to destroy them. The maginoit line took years to build up, and it took a signifigant amount of the french military to uphold it. I agree there should be natural defenses, but I think it would complicate gameplay, and it wouldnt make much sense, the amount of time it takes to train infantry is much shorter (and cheaper) than it takes to build a fortress. (but I can be wrong I have been wrong before). I think it should be natural defenses, not something you can just build in a turn. For a relatively low amount of IPC. Remember IPC isnt “money” per se, its man hours spent on whatever is being built. If they can be “built” (blockhouses) I think it should cost 15 IPC for three turns. To discourage players from doing something that in reality….wouldnt have ben done.

It takes a long time to build production factories as well, but I guess that you have no problem with the rules for these.

how bout keep it at 12 ipc

first turn pay 4 IPC, get Blockhouse next turn but it only gives a free 2 or less for defending artillery
Pay another 4 IPC wait next turn get both Art and Inf a free 2 or less in opening phase

4 turns to get total benefit.

that sounds fair.

I still think for gameplay’s sake to make it a one turn build. And just have it as a bonus for defending infantry and artillery, like +1 defense for up to two units per blockhouse. Heck even call the unit entrenchment, and possibly to make it even more risky is if a unit becomes entrenched it cannot move any more. Or it takes a move for the unit to “un-entrench” first, then be able to move and attack. To make it easy, just add in a colored chip to put under units that are entrenched, make the cost like 5 IPC’s for two units and if they move they would have to rebuy the entrenchment bonus again if they wanted to entrench. It makes it to where we won’t see entrenchment spammers who think that an entrenched army can just jump up and move the next day like it is nothing. Just look at WWI, armies moved at a crawl because it is so hard to advance and retreat once you have dug in, it destroys morale and destroys the environment too. Dirt and rain don’t mix too well for trucks and men.

Cool idea as well. When the game comes out I suspect there are going to be a plethera of awesome house rules.

Okay how about this, Blockhouses raise the defense for all infantry and artillery +1 for the first round of combat only. I believe this is realistic because after initial round of combat the defensive positions are given away and thus targeted in the following rounds giving up any advatage they may have provided initially.