We have used a couple rules for dug-out hills that provide +1 cover to all units in that hex from forward attacks (open back defensive position pretty much).  However, I was just reading the ‘official’ boards, and someone suggested ‘camoflage’ as a seperate ‘buy’.

So, pillboxes grant +1 cover to soldiers.  Pillboxes in a cover granting terrain could add an additional +1.  Camoflage (bought at 3 points) can add +1 to cover for all units in ‘that’ hex until they move; they can not be fired at from medium or long range.  I had thought about saying it should be 4 points as it is powerful…  So, here are my final thoughts:

Pillbox: +1 Cover (soldiers only)
Pillbox in a ‘cover’ terrain hex: +2 Cover
Camoflage: 4 points / must be used in a hex granting cover or with a fortification that grants cover / +1 Cover to any unit until it moves / can not be fired at from medium or long range / Can not stack with a pillbox already in cover/ must be used in a hex granting cover or with a fortification that grants cover

Traps:
Like minefields, I believe that some traps should be ‘secretly deployed’.  I also feel that these traps (like mines) should be able to be ‘deployed’ at the end of any player’s movement phase, or the beginning of any player’s assault phase (something I will try in some games this weekend).  So, Tank Traps and Barbed Wire - pay double the cost and use the same rules as a Minefield for deployment.

Unless you’re carrying something equally heavy on the armored side, bring none at all!  I agree with the others that stated this…  If he has nothing to do but intimidate with his big bad tank, who’ll be lauging then?  Jeeps and Flamethrowers (as stated) work great at 8pts a set.  The US mortars are actually my favorite unit (and I just designed a 200 pt army that will not move the entire game based around them!  bwahahha).  However, a P-38G Lightning would take care of some of the infantry for you quickly (and if you’re using the 81mm Mortars, that’s a LOT of infantry gone in the first turn).

Royal Engineers on Jeeps also work well… as they can’t get rid of them ALL!  Another thought would be to put a RE or Flamer in an Easy Eight (but then you’re trying to match his armor instead of out-smarting it).  If done properly, M5 Halftracks and flamethrowers can work as well (more than one preferred, but that gets costly).

You just have to accept that whatever you throw at it has a good chance of dying…  Outsmart him, outnumber him… he can be beaten!

‘We’ have been talking about that here some (my ‘group’ and I), and I agree that SA2 is a bit much for an aircraft (look at the cost).  However, I think that it and other aircraft (of the same size, type, role, etc.) should have an additional ‘hit’ on them.  So, instead of being disrupted or destroyed, they’re now disrupted, damaged, then destroyed.

And, there are ‘salvo’ rules floating around the net somewhere that seem to work well for rockets, and I think they could be slightly modified to work for carpet bombing.  As it is, a bomb could work really well if they had to be placed on that hex (but automatically added 4 hexes to the distance of the aircraft; for non anti-air units shooting at it; as to represent the relative distance that it is ‘up’).  I also like the bombardment and blast ideas as well (check back after it has been used AGAINST me!).  I don’t think that it should have any AI/AT rating for ground units (only the bombing run ability), but have an AI (Still having the Anti-air ability so it needs 5+ to hit; inaccurate) rating against other aircraft.

As for the cost however, I think that is a bit shy of what I’d see it being.  It would be a very powerful unit (10 dice, plus bombard and blast!), so the cost should reflect that.  Perhaps around 30 points would better reflect a unit of this magnitude.  A unit that can be brought in each turn, is hard to kill, and will very likely kill whatever it is aiming to kill (or at least have a high probability to do so with blast, bombard, and 10 dice).

This all simplifies it so that the unit now has one function, albeit a powerful one, to decimate a hex!  Heck, to balance the inacurate a bit more, you could say that it has 12 dice (the cost easily justifies that or 14 dice against everything).  But, once it is damaged, it will be VERY hard to do anything further with that unit… perhaps having it out for a turn per hit (optional ‘out’ time for repairs) could allow it to come back in ‘clean’…  again, that is something that would obviously make the unit more valuable (read: expensive).

So:

Cost: 28

6/6

A

Bombing Run: Once per turn the Lancaster may make an attack against the hex that it is in or one of the forward adjacent hexes.  This attack has 10 dice.  This attack uses the Bombardment and Blast rules as well.

Inaccurate: Minus one on attack dice

Anti-Air: This unit uses it’s AI rating to attack other aircraft as normal, but may not use that rating to attack anything but aircraft.  This unit also ignores the penalty for attacking aircraft.

Heavy Aircraft: This aircraft unit has an additional ‘hit’ before being destroyed.

AI 8/6/-
AT -/-/-

Another idea is to only keep one of your cards in a binder… keep that one (also still in the sleeve) set organized in card pages.  This way, when you’re building an army for a game, you don’t have to thumb through your ten Shermans.  ;)

And I also use tackle-boxes.  If you’re THAT big of an A&A minis player, you could go out and get a bigger tackle box with multiple trays (and a place on the top to keep your card boxes, tiles, dice-bag, etc.  (about $30-50 at wal-mart)  Another alternative is a big ‘tool box’.  I got a plastic one from Wal Mart (I’m pretty sure… might’ve been a Military Exchange) for $20 on sale and then bought a bunch of trays to put in it (it can hold about eight trays).  Plano would be my suggestion for ‘normal’ tackleboxes (as they’re well priced, are durable… and that’s mostly what I’ve bought for my hobbies).  The backpack is something like a soft-pack that GW makes for Warhammer minis… but it is $100…

Stanley Mobile Work Center (on EBay)
Tackle-box Backpack
Plano Tacklebox

I also recently cut my ‘standard’ maps in half and put them in page protectors.  They’re pretty flat now, and aside the extra minute set-up time, I have no qualms with it!  It doesn’t work with the beach promo map (exactly), so I haven’t done that yet; and probably won’t.

So, I hope this helps someone!  :D