Fun Times with National Advantages

macphearsome

So this time we decided to play with some national advantages. We agreed that each side would pick one country and then roll to see which national advantage that country got.

Germany got “Fortress Europe” - any amphibious assault on a gray tile allows german defending infantry to hit on a 3 for the first round.

I was on the allies with my friend brendan, who loves aircraft carriers. I turned to him and said, I’m going to roll a five for you to get fast carriers. I rolled a five and his carriers were promoted to 3 movement per turn.

It was an incredibly fun game, with a strong allied victory. Despite a bad first turn by russia (my fault; I resigned my post immediately), Germany never capitalized. I decided to have some fun and buy a battleship on B1, which was designed to take pot shots at the german coastline. I ferried fighters into russia while the US upgraded to long range aircraft and decimated the Japanese transport stack with carrier groups.

Japan lost its position on the mainland due to some sneaky UK moves and combined pressure, eventually allowing Britain to build an IC in India. The German med fleet was destroyed by fighters, the baltic by battleships. I used UK to finally stop the trading of cauc while dropping blitz-blockers through europe with my northern fleet. Russia took some territory from Japan and started to turn he game around.

I think we played at least 7 turns before Germany resigned. One of our longer games.

My group hasn’t been convinced yet of the need for a german bid, but I think this game and the last couple will convince them of the allied advantage.

Amon-Sul

as for NAs

try them all 30 ehhe

and for bid

5-9 is optimal

Amon-Sul

@Amon:

as for NAs

try them all 30 ehhe

and for bid

5-9 is optimal

or even 10
…
so 7-8 would be median

77stranger77

The NA’s are really fun to play with. Amon and I have been playing a few games with all 30 LHTR 2.0 NA’s in play. My gut says that the Allies have the advantage when all the NA’s are in play because they have so many that work so well together - Joint-Strike/Marines for example. The Axis have some nice practical ones like Panzerblitz, Luftwaffe Divebombers, Atlantic Wall, Banzai!, and the two battleship NA’s.

Enigma Decoded allows the UK to retreat their tank and fighter in Egypt to T-J and allows a first turn attack on the German med fleet of 2 fighters, and a bomber. Alternatively, to protect the US Chinese Divisions, French Indochina can be attacked with 3 inf, 2 fighters(the one from T-J and z35). The Russian Railroad allows the Buryatia infantry to help defend Sinkiang on R2. With the starting infantry, the Chinese Divisions, possible T-34’s, and some British fighters, at times, the Allies are able to push forward to China.

Even in the Atlantic, fast carriers are better than I would have expected. Especially if America goes into the med - or in my current predicament, the IJN in the South Atlantic. War Economy has also been a real help since I use it at least once every turn. Mech Infantry is all around great. If Japan is playing passively against a Colonial Garrison in India, then the US units marching across Africa may be in time to support the factory.

macphearsome

Wow, 30 National advantages? We had actually joked around about how hard that would be to keep track of!

Has anybody tried using national advantages instead of a bid? I was talking to my teammates about that as well… maybe giving Germany and Japan each 2 national advantages (of their choice). Do you think that would be fair?

We tried another game, again with only 1 national advantage per team, and randomized for the country of that team’s choice. Germany got Panzerblitz and the US got Chinese Divisions (I admit I was disappointed: I really wanted island bases or mech infantry)

It was a very fun game. I was surprised by the usefulness of Chinese Divisions. Japan had difficulties putting pressure on the middle, even with its IC in Manchuria. For the most part the Japanese player tried attacking through the north to strip russia of her money, but Russia was in a good position. The Panzerblitz technology didn’t seem to improve the German player’s game. In fact, I was usually happy to see the stack of tanks retreat from the front lines, because it gave Russia a bit of early money. With the help of the UK air force and a distracting UK Navy (which the germans sent several bombing missions to sink repeatedly), Russia was in fact able to push into Germany as well as protect india and take FIC…

My scoreboard now lists 3 Allied victories and a draw. I will raise the issue of the bid with my team next week.

i rock

wow looks like your axis players are getting crushed.

macphearsome

@i:

wow looks like your axis players are getting crushed.

Yeah, it’s pretty crazy. It doesn’t help that all of us love playing as Germany, and we always try out new (and often very unsuccessful) strategies. :P

I just looked at the LHTR national advantages, and the upgrades for the japanese battleships is making my mouth water.

Imagine 2 japanese battleships that roll two dice each in the opening round of combat, and hit on fives for attack and defense. Holy Crap. I’d buy an extra battleship, for sure.

Has anybody ever tried converting national advantages into tech upgrades?

Amon-Sul

to Mac

the idea of giving axis a NA or 2 instead of bid really sounds interesting

but that would have to be the NA or 2 of their choice

but it would be good that you try a bid game

5-9
with median 7-8 would be ok

one further advice for balancing your game would be that you give the best player among you… or the best overall player( land fighter, economist, strategist-since germany requires all of that heavily) to play Germany

Amon-Sul

@macphearsome:

@i:

wow looks like your axis players are getting crushed.

Has anybody ever tried converting national advantages into tech upgrades?

how do you mean

77stranger77

@Amon:

@macphearsome:

@i:

wow looks like your axis players are getting crushed.

Has anybody ever tried converting national advantages into tech upgrades?

how do you mean

I think he means that for example, the USA could try to develop War Economy by paying 5 IPC’s per die and rolling a 6. Basically, replace the technologies with the different NA’s for each country.

i rock

i just looked at the rule book but theres no war economey advantage.

77stranger77

@macphearsome:

The Panzerblitz technology didn’t seem to improve the German player’s game.

I really like Panzerblitz. The main purpose is that the tanks can act as fighters to trade territories. As long as Germany uses overkill, they should be able to trade Ukraine and Belo with inf and tanks(which retreat to EE), while their fighters and a few inf will pound Karelia. This way, all the German fighters can stay on WE to keep the Allies on their toes in the Atlantic in the early rounds. The more fighters on WE, the more infantry go east.

Africa is a nice place for Panzerblitz since it basically extends a tank’s range to 3. Blitz IEA, FEq, and return to Egypt with the same tank.

If Germany holds West Russia and the Allies land a few guys in Karelia, then tanks on Germany can help take Karelia and move to West Russia in NCM.

77stranger77

@i:

i just looked at the rule book but theres no war economey advantage.

Try LHTR 2.0. There are a few rule changes that fix SBR rules because of how powerful US Heavies are and they also changed the NA’s. Superfortresses were scrapped for War Economy(cheaper ships/planes by one). http://www.axisandallies.org/files/AAR_LHTR_v2.0.pdf

macphearsome

@Amon:

@macphearsome:

@i:

wow looks like your axis players are getting crushed.

Has anybody ever tried converting national advantages into tech upgrades?

how do you mean

I mean, take some of the national advantages and make them available as tech rolls. For example, let anybody roll for upgrading battleships, or AA guns, etc etc

Or maybe, make a couple of unique techs that only a specific country can roll for. For example, UK can roll to upgrade AA, or Germany can roll for panzerblitz, or US can roll for fast carriers.

Food for thought I guess.

In any case, I’m going to propose to play as the Axis next time, with two National Advantages of my choice. If they accept that proposal, I will use the two japanese battleship upgrades and sail around in the pacific until germany gets invaded :P

Amon-Sul

@Fleetwood:

@macphearsome:

The Panzerblitz technology didn’t seem to improve the German player’s game.

I really like Panzerblitz. The main purpose is that the tanks can act as fighters to trade territories. As long as Germany uses overkill, they should be able to trade Ukraine and Belo with inf and tanks(which retreat to EE), while their fighters and a few inf will pound Karelia. This way, all the German fighters can stay on WE to keep the Allies on their toes in the Atlantic in the early rounds. The more fighters on WE, the more infantry go east.

Africa is a nice place for Panzerblitz since it basically extends a tank’s range to 3. Blitz IEA, FEq, and return to Egypt with the same tank.

If Germany holds West Russia and the Allies land a few guys in Karelia, then tanks on Germany can help take Karelia and move to West Russia in NCM.

Panzerblitz are very cool

i personally liked Fortress Europe in the the older LHTR version

that how Germany had great inf, art, ten

Amon-Sul

@i:

@Amon:

Panzerblitz are very cool

i personally liked Fortress Europe in the the older LHTR version

that how Germany had great inf, art, ten

what do you mean by ten?

tenks hehe ;)

Amon-Sul

@Amon:

@i:

@Amon:

Panzerblitz are very cool

i personally liked Fortress Europe in the the older LHTR version

that how Germany had great inf, art, ten

what do you mean by ten?

tenks hehe ;)

tan would be gramatically beter

77stranger77

@macphearsome:

In any case, I’m going to propose to play as the Axis next time, with two National Advantages of my choice. If they accept that proposal, I will use the two japanese battleship upgrades and sail around in the pacific until germany gets invaded :P

If you get to pick, maybe take the Naval Night Fighting(2 dice first cycle). Atlantic Wall would probably be better than Most Powerful Battleships. All infantry defending on 3 first cycle in WE, SE, Germany, and EE against UK/US amphibious assaults would be very powerful. Germany is just about ALWAYS attacked by sea and is bound to have tons of infantry by that time.

macphearsome

@Fleetwood:

@macphearsome:

In any case, I’m going to propose to play as the Axis next time, with two National Advantages of my choice. If they accept that proposal, I will use the two japanese battleship upgrades and sail around in the pacific until germany gets invaded :P

If you get to pick, maybe take the Naval Night Fighting(2 dice first cycle). Atlantic Wall would probably be better than Most Powerful Battleships. All infantry defending on 3 first cycle in WE, SE, Germany, and EE against UK/US amphibious assaults would be very powerful. Germany is just about ALWAYS attacked by sea and is bound to have tons of infantry by that time.

Yeah, that was what germany got in the first game we tried with national advantages. It was useful but I found it was easy to work around by shipping guys through karelia, and landing fighters in russia.

Does the naval night-fighting count for shore bombard?

Amon-Sul

@macphearsome:

@Fleetwood:

@macphearsome:

In any case, I’m going to propose to play as the Axis next time, with two National Advantages of my choice. If they accept that proposal, I will use the two japanese battleship upgrades and sail around in the pacific until germany gets invaded :P

If you get to pick, maybe take the Naval Night Fighting(2 dice first cycle). Atlantic Wall would probably be better than Most Powerful Battleships. All infantry defending on 3 first cycle in WE, SE, Germany, and EE against UK/US amphibious assaults would be very powerful. Germany is just about ALWAYS attacked by sea and is bound to have tons of infantry by that time.

Does the naval night-fighting count for shore bombard?

No.

Fun Times with National Advantages

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