• 2024 '22 '21 '19 '15 '14

    Or the Battle bonus

    This is the simplest mechanic that my friends and I use to introduce money into an A&A game. It can work essentially the same the way on any board.

    **Rule: 1 ipc awarded for a successful combat to take a territory. Any time a territory is captured, whether a walk in or after a victorious battle, the attacker claims 1 buck from the bank. This bonus applies to all territories on the gamemap (whether the territory is being conquered for the first time, or liberated, the bonus is always +1) interpreted as spoils, exploitation, or the strategic or morale bonus that accrues to the victor nation upon winning a battle.

    The +1 ipc is awarded immediately after the combat concludes.**

    The basic effects of this rule are:
    First, gives all territories an effective cash value (even territories valued at zero during normal income collection).
    Second, encourages trading and attack fanning, or launching multiple attacks (over the single stack push) since. the more the more attacks you run, the more potential battle bonus bucks you could collect. This does not totally shut down the advantage of stacks (since nothing ever does) but it does provide an incentive for players to run attacks each round, and to encourage piece/territory trading over deadzones and stack drives. The bonus is comparatively small but consistent and ongoing, and it makes each battle and territory that much more important.

    The advantage of separating out the bonus into the combat phase, as a distinct Battle bonus, is that the money is introduced without complicating the counting (either for income or production.) The bonus is the same for all players and universal, thus very easy to remember and implement. If you win and take a territory you get +1 ipc for doing so, if you fail to take land or lose the fight you don’t receive a Battle bonus.


  • I assume this only applies to land battles and not naval battles?

    Does this up the aggressiveness of players?

  • 2024 '22 '21 '19 '15 '14

    Yes as of now this only applies to land battles, because in most A&A games there is no strong mechanism for control of sea zones. Basically because of how subs and transports now work, it is possible for the enemy to still be inside a sz under your control after the combat phase concludes, and there aren’t enough control markers in the box to place them in all sea zones. But this rule could potentially be adapted to encourage the naval game, if you had enough chips and the desire to figure out how you wanted to handle “control” of sz.

    For now though, with the land battles, the rule has the following gameplay effects:

    It encourages attack fanning, the attacking of multiple territories during a turn, as opposed to the stack push you have more reason to send the units forward even if likely to take more losses because the +1 bonus is a driver.

    Encourages the attack and capture of low or no value territories, since the bonus applies equally to all land territories on the game map.

    It provides a slight disincentive for what might be called the narrow “stafe” where at the last minute the attacker decides to just “go for it” because the +1 ipc is a draw.

    Slightly encourages or at least provides an incentive for the continuous push or spread of infantry, rather than the defensive grind and fortification, which leads to somewhat faster game resolution.

    In terms of overall balance, because the Axis generally start in expansion mode, they generally receive the stronger battle bonus early, whereas Allies tend to get more out of it in the later rounds (once they’ve positioned themselves for Amphibious and reconquest). This fits reasonably well with the general model that has Axis pushing early, to try and hit the crescendo, before the pendulum swings the other direction and Allies start mounting more attacks each round.

  • Sponsor

    I like it, I would even add that the attacker must pay $1 to the bank if they decide to retreat from a land battle.

  • 2024 '22 '21 '19 '15 '14

    Do or die?  :-D haha

    I guess it’d be rather like Classic then, where you had to save to invade neutrals, except in this case you’d be saving ipcs to have the option to retreat! Might be fun. I could see a way that might be worked in if the players were agreeable.

    As for the standard bonus, depending on which board you wanted to try it on, the influx of cash can definitely make purchasing strategy more interesting out of the second round and on. I’ve tried it on Revised, 41, 42.2, AA50 etc as my most basic cash bonus and people seem to enjoy it. Makes the land grab and combats just that much more intense, since you always have the bonus buck in the back of your mind

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