• '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    The thought has occurred to me that perhaps we need to incorporate lines of supply?

    If, at the end of America’s turn, there are units completely cut off from their home capitol, they are considered lost and die off.

    To cut off an enemy unit you would have to control every sea and land zone the territory the unit is in connects too.

    For instance:  Belorussia.  To cut their lines of supply you, or your ally, must own Karelia, E. Europe, W. Russia and Ukraine.
    For instance:  Hawaii. To cut off their supplies you, or your ally, must have ships present in SZ’s 51, 57, 55, 53, 44, 45. (Note, just occupying the sea zone an island is in, such as Hawaii, would not be considered cutting supply lines.  Connective Sea Zones would only be sufficient if land routes or multiple sea zones border a territory.  IE: Japan has SZs 60 and 61, though Japan is a capitol and draws it’s own supply lines to itself!  IE W. Europe is connected to Germany, S. Europe, SZ 5, 6, 7, 13.  So occupations of SZ 5, 6, 7, 13; Germany and S. Europe would cut off W. Europe.))

    I might even consider going so far as to say the only Industrials in the game are the capitols.  :)


  • Exilent idea. But what if an IC  is sorounded? Like in AAE if Stalin/Leningrad, N Italy, ect? can you no longer produce there or what?


  • that is unrealestic. Germany would encircel a bunch of soviet units and they would either surrender or break out( and japan would never surrender if encircled BANZAI!!) . there is lways an option to break out. so i don’t really like this idea.

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    @Gewehr:

    Exilent idea. But what if an IC  is sorounded? Like in AAE if Stalin/Leningrad, N Italy, ect? can you no longer produce there or what?

    Presumably if Germany had the ability to break through to their own lines then they would.

    You would have to have W. Europe, SZ 5, S. Europe, Balkans and E. Europe so heavily stacked that Germany could not open up the path to the rest of their army somehow.  Kind of unrealistic to think there’s a large army out there so far away that the line of supply is too weak to reopen.

    I, honestly, think this would hit 2 or 3 units per game, tops.  But it would require you to be able to supply your advanced armies.

    And yes, Cyan.  If Germany encircled a bunch of soviet units, they would try to break out.  If they did, they would live.  If not, they would die.  Same with Japan.  That’s the point!

    Again, if a nation put 20 infantry, 10 tanks, 3 fighters and an AA gun in Belorussia, you’d have to have a very large army to surround them all to a level they cannot break out and re-establish lines of supply.

    Remember, just having a flag there isn’t enough to end the line of supply.  You’d actually have to have armies between him and ALL (yes, ALL) avenues possible back to their own capitol.  If there’s even one empty line anywhere, then that’s how they get their supplies. (Empty could be controlled but unoccupied, friendly, uncontrolled (aka sea zone with no ships in it) or your nation’s own land.)

    It’s gunna be EXTREMELY difficult to starve out units like this.  But the option being there could be fun!  Never know when Germany or Russia may get half a dozen units stuck too far from home. :P

    Also a good way to clear islands if Japan’s navy is sunk.  If Japan has a navy/air force then odds are you cannot possess all the sea zones neighboring the sea zone the island complex is in.


  • If an infantry costs 3 IPC then its upkeep would be negligible in IPC units.

    Regardless encirclement is probably more useful for more divided maps than AAR or AAE.
    Most territories in AAR or AAE has income.

    You could make surrounded IPC should not be able to produce much though. Say Germany and Japan blockades UK IC in India. Then the IC shouldn’t be able to produce more than its territory income, 3 IPC.


  • Mabye what it should be is japaneese units don’t count for this, and all others instead of just giving up, they should have their attake and defense values reduced. Ex: inf defend and attake on 1, art attake and defend on 1, can’t suport inf, arm attakes on 1 (no fuel) and defends on 2.

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    I have to admit, the idea does come from a game called Rise and Decline of the Third Reich which is played on a hex map.  There, however, you just had to separate them from a victory city by more then two units.  Otherwise, they had to have a literal chain of units running back to the VC to support them.

    That’s just not possible with our map.

    As for losing units to this, I don’t think you are really seeing how hard it would be to lose units due to cut supply lines.  Japan basically just has to draw a line to the water ANYWHERE on the map and, as long as Japan itself isn’t completely cut off (Allies own Manchuria, Buryatia, Sea Zones 59, 49, 58, 51, 57 and 62; then none of Japan’s armies are cut off.

    I guess, to alleviate your fears, we could change it so you could draw supplies from yourself or an allied capitol.  But honestly, I don’t think that would come into play too much either.  Since, if you can draw Japanese supplies from Germany, then you can also get them from SZ 5 or SZ 16 or SZ 35, etc since you have to be linked to German territories.  That means the allies would have to take and hold 8 Territories/Sea Zones to cut you off from Japan, and that’s not going to be easy either unless Japan pulls their navy away or loses it. (And if you lost your navy, I don’t think you’re in any position to take Russia and probably have your fighters close to home so America and England cannot just encircle your capitol.)

    Note, I’ve already removed the possibility of a 1 or 2 sea zone hold from killing off units on an island group.  You cannot just invade SZ 47 and kill the defenders in New Guinea.  You have to have physical ships in every sea zone connected to SZ 47 and not lose them to the defender in a counter attack.


  • People are always looking to bring a new level of realism to A&A and though I think that’s fine and fun you are just better off playing another WW2 game the covers the amount of detail you are looking for.

    Having said that, If you include supply for A&A, I would suggest reducing the attack and defence of the units that are cut off by one. Or in the case of attacking infantry, 2inf equal 1 attack dice.


  • @Mr:

    People are always looking to bring a new level of realism to A&A and though I think that’s fine and fun you are just better off playing another WW2 game the covers the amount of detail you are looking for.

    Excellent point.  Sometimes you just can’t turn checkers into chess, not mater how hard you pretend or manipulate the rules.

    so instead of mangling Checkers … just play Chess!

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    You realize this is in the HOUSE RULES section right?  The section dedicated completely to mangling and distorting the rules in an effort to liven up or improve the game?

    If you want to play “vanilla” then by all means do so. :P  As for me, I like a little Rocky Road sometimes!


  • @Cmdr:

    You realize this is in the HOUSE RULES section right?  The section dedicated completely to mangling and distorting the rules in an effort to liven up or improve the game?

    If you want to play “vanilla” then by all means do so. :P  As for me, I like a little Rocky Road sometimes!

    touché !

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    Anyway, I capitulate that maps with more territories work better for this, but I think Revised might just be broken down enough that this could work.  It’s incredibly hard to lock a unit away from his or her supplies, mind you.  Thus, this would be akin to the American Victory Conditions of Victory Cities (hard to do, but if America can manage to get the last VC needed just before the end of his or her turn, they win, no matter what the board looks like.)

    So, this would be REALLY hard to do, but it COULD win the game for you.


  • Territories are too large to play isolation rules from classic wargames… however, the idea of placement on non-contiguously connected territory’s should impose some penalty for costs. If a player builds a factory in a conquered territory i suspect the costs indirectly go up to place these units including the newly built factory, but this would also be added with rules allowing for placement of infantry in any territory with some restrictions. AS far as any ‘concept of supply’ perhaps you could impose a -1 combat modifier for surrounded units in small islands or those ‘city’ territories on the AAE/ AAP map.

    This would certainly not turn the game into Chess from Checkers.

    But then again many more pertinent ideas from AAR should be fixed including the broken concept of defender retreats which don’t even exist making for crazy strategies from the realistic standpoint. At least Checkers admits its abstracted. AAR is a simulation after all and it DOES tend to simulate how WW2 was fought.


  • AAE and mabye AAP could work for this idea though.


  • If you want to play “vanilla” then by all means do so.  As for me, I like a little Rocky Road sometimes!

    Making Rocky Road out of vanilla ice cream means you have to buy chocolate ice cream and marshmellows too, when you could just buy a brand of Rocky Road ice cream.


  • The rocky road version of Axis and Allies does not yet exist. It may be around in a primitive form ( i have spent at least 8 years trying various systems to enrich it) but perfection has not yet arrived. Right now only vanilla is offered and its boring for the most part.

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    @Mr:

    If you want to play “vanilla” then by all means do so.  As for me, I like a little Rocky Road sometimes!

    Making Rocky Road out of vanilla ice cream means you have to buy chocolate ice cream and marshmellows too, when you could just buy a brand of Rocky Road ice cream.

    That assumes someone around you is selling Rocky Road though.  (Besides, I like pee–-kans in my ice cream.)

    Anyway, I’d love to see an option for defender retreat.  I’ll start a thread!

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