• Larry has said that most of the Global techs will be reprints of Anniversary. Let’s go over what we know:

    1.1) Improved Artillery: I’ve never seen this in action in a game, but the ‘extended infantry support’ element seems pretty conceptually sloppy. Why not have artillery fire before all other units instead, with casualties unable to return fire (like the sub’s ‘first strike’ ability)? That, or some kind of ‘suppression’ ability (i.e.: on a successful roll, x# of enemy units cannot return fire this turn) would be preferable.

    1.2) Rockets: Again, uninspiring, but it’s been around so long it’s an institution. Why not have as many AA Guns as you like fire on any complex, but only take 1d6 x 0.5 as damage off of the factory for each of them (rounding up halves; with the possibility of the defender firing at 1 to prevent each of these if they have Radar)? At least that might give us a reason to buy more AAs in this brave new world wherein facilities have their own built-in AA defences :)

    1.3) Paratroopers: This one’s locked in, confirmed by LH himself, and has been discussed elsewhere. Seems like a well-executed and exciting development…

    1.4) Increased Factory Production: Huh Not sure this one’ll be around anymore. Will the +2 production bonus still be a welcome boost, when the rules surrounding Industrial Complexes have changed so drastically? I guess in some places, having 5 units instead of 3 might be crucial; and in some rare situations being able to build 12 units will be preferable to ‘only’ 10. This is a ‘wait and see’ spot in the tech lineup.

    1.5) War Bonds: This smelled of ‘tacked on at the last moment’. A 1d6 cash bonus each turn is not why any player invests in tech. You want your units on the board to become more effective; otherwise, you’ve wasted time and money. Best case scenario, you get your 5IPCs back at the end of the turn, but you probably should have spent that on a land unit instead of tying up money in this useless crapshoot. Hopefully this ‘tech’ will be cut to make space for something more interesting and rewarding.

    1.6) Mechanized Infantry: This is its own piece now, so this will need to be jettisoned. What will take its place? Speculations and house rule suggestions are welcome!

    2.1) Super Submarines: This was a boring tech to get in the original game, but they’ve pushed subs’ power level so hard now while cutting the price that this is actually pretty exciting. It’s the cheap naval equivalent of Heavy Bombers–especially given the new convoy disruption zones Smiley I’d like to see something more elegant and interesting rules-wise than a simple +1 buff to attack, but if it ain’t broke…

    2.2) Jet Fighters: We now have tactical bombers that attack on 4; so the excitement of having our fighters perform the same function for 1 IPC less (and unescorted) is fairly underwhelming. Either Jets should be given ‘first-strike’ (sub ability), or ‘targeting’ (the ability to choose the units it fires at), or they should be taken off the roster to make room for a more interesting tech.

    2.3) Improved Shipyards: Holy crap. Any tech that requires you to reference a freaking table every time you use it needs to be left on the cutting room floor. Unless it’s rules for nuclear bombs. In which case, cut this tech out and put ‘Nuclear Bombs’ in its place. Maybe The Bomb could be a simpler rule, too, like “All of your strategic bombers do 3d6 damage when conducting strategic bombing. If a facility attacked by your bombers would take more than its maximum # of damage counters, remove it from the board.” Tell me if that isn’t more exciting than discount battleships!

    2.4) Radar: Whatever. I’ve never seen anyone even remotely happy to roll this, but I guess that sometimes those darn planes need nerfing. Randomly. In a tech roll.

    2.5) Long-Range Aircraft: One again, the weight of history drags forward this institution. This one is pretty exciting; certainly game-changing, if not game-warping. One of the more hoped-for techs.

    2.6) Heavy Bombers: Remember the good old days when this meant 3 dice? And the kind of okay days when it meant 2 dice? Well, in these bad old days it means 2 rolls on 1 dice, keeping the best result. And that blows. Sure, people kept complaining about it being ‘unbalancing’, but really–it only rolled 2 dice on the attack, and defended on a 1; and it cost 12 IPCs! You needed to be rich to have a lot of them lying around, and even richer to have sufficient cannon fodder to protect them in combat, so they were a ‘win more’ tech… but at least they were fun. Now, Heavy Bombers will be about as boring to roll as Radar. Why not just give 'em a +1 buff on attacks? Now HB are yawn-inspiring rather than fear-inspiring. We need a new tech here, or a return of the 2d6 HB!! Heed my call!

    Okay, that’s just a beginning, to get the fire stoked. I really want to get all of you codebreakers in on this one… let me know how you think the tech tables will look when Global '40 is released. And of course, any insights from former or current playtesters will be more than welcome.   :-D


    Addendum:

    As I’ve said, we know that in the Global '40 game Air Bases will enable the paratrooper tech: Up to 2 infantry can be moved up to 3 spaces from any functional Air Base. For free. No bomber required! Niiice.

    And people have been clamouring for a ‘sub pen’ rule for some time. So, perhaps Global '40 will deliver a symmetrical advantage for Naval Bases? It could take the form of the following:

    Sub Pens: Friendly subs in Sea Zones adjacent to operational Naval Bases you control cannot be attacked.

    What this means is that the Allies will have to work together to get at the German U-Boats, and the Axis to get rid of UK subs. One power will have to strategically bomb the Naval Base (or take over the territory the Naval Base is located in), and the other power will have to follow through with a destroyer-enabled force to detect and dispatch the subs afterwards.

    This provides at least some motivation to strategically bomb naval bases (where before there was little to none), and gives a player on the defensive navally a chance to protect their investment and enable a counterattack.

    Of course this is only a speculation. Even if this doesn’t come to pass, it will probably end up being a house rule used by my gaming group.  :-)

    Let’s try to work out some other new techs to fill in more of those weak spots in the current line-up…


  • @i:

    sure help germany attack brit convoys!

    Just buy some destroyers.


  • I would rather see a naval base give a boost to attacking or defending rolls for nearby units to go along with the movement bonus.  IE like giving a sub that is going out to hit a lone destroyer a roll of 3 on the first round instead of 2.  Just a thought though, there is a lot to think about for giving a tech specific bonus to naval bases.


  • Xeno games World at War has sub pens.


  • I’ve heavily edited the first message in this thread. I would’ve put it on the Global '40 board but this hasn’t been created yet.  :mrgreen:


  • I would like to see “Fortified Defenses”- a “blockhouse” type rule

    something like- “all coastal and island territories get 1 extra shot at 2 or less for every 2 infantry that invades via an amphib assualt.”

    I like War Bonds but they need to be improved to 2d6 for cash.

    Rockets- keep the same but allow 2AA per territory.

    I agree with some of the other suggested changes as well.

    According to Larry, most of these will stay the same with some “tweeks”- hopefully the “tweeks” are nice improvements like the one he gave for paratroopers.  Mech Inf will definitely be gone.  So I proposed “Fortified Defenses” in its place.  The rest just need to be tweeked better.


  • @Make_It_Round:

    I’ve heavily edited the first message in this thread. I would’ve put it on the Global '40 board but this hasn’t been created yet.  :mrgreen:

    Do we need a moderator to do this?


  • Don’t need it till the AAE40 gets closer to release date.

  • Customizer

    rockets becomes useless as the game-board gets bigger.  the rockets in germany will no longer be able to hit the uk very soon.

    also, Heavy Bombers should be:
    roll 2 dice at 3 on offense, roll 1 die at 2 on defense, and during escort missions bombers fire one die at 1 if there are any interceptors present.  Strat bombing raids are the same as LHTR: roll 2 dice, pick best, add 1.  (this comes out to an average of 5.5 ipcs of damage each turn, which is much lower than the old 7.5 ipcs of damage when you don’t pick the best)

    this would be good because it is not as powerful as 2 dice at 4.  It also means that Low Luck players will get to basically attack at 6, so 1 definite hit per HB.

  • TripleA '12

    Maybe War Bonds could be something like: ‘roll two dice and keep the best result’ (just like the new Heavy Bombers).

    And how about something like ‘Improved ASDIC - your Destroyers are now 3/3 against enemy submarines’.(I am developing some new house rule technologies at the moment for an advanced Europe 1941 game I’m making)


  • 1.1  Yeah, improved arty should be better than the “match with two infantry” crap now.  I think the idea of artillery firing first like surprise submarine hits would be awesome, and more realistic, as WWI battles tended to show.  It would give people a reason to spend that extra ipc instead of cranking out all inf every turn.

    1.2  Rockets should be able to be improved upon, I like the idea of building AA guns to mass SBR on enemy factories.  Its a gamble, like everything else, but its still cheaper than building bombers, once the tech’s rolled.

    1.4  Jesus God, improved industry is a game breaker!  If the enemy is doing a SBR campaign they can lose the game.  The fact that it needs to be rolled helps somewhat.  Maybe remove the extra 2 production and only have the reduced cost to repair factories from the tech.  Or maybe go back to old school Revised A+A and reduce the cost of units overall by 1 IPC.

    1.5  I agree, anything but War Bonds would be useful.  Maybe add a Partisans or Liberated Nationalities or Resistance tech, and you get to produce 2 free infantry a turn in a territory you control of your choice.  They would be deployed like how China plays its turn or something.  Would be a meh power but at least useful.

    2.2  Jet fighters could be made to roll on a 4 for attack and a 5 for defense?  Maybe let them have a chance to intercept SBR bombers?

    2.3  Yes, replace Improved Crapyards with something like NUCLEAR F**KING WEAPONS!!!  3 dice should be a minimum for attacking and bombing with them.  Still pretty unbalanced tech.  Maybe increase the cost of bombers by 3 once the tech is rolled, or every combat in which they are used requires 3 IPCs?  This is just to make sure there is a reason people roll tech dice every turn.

    2.6  Yeah, HBs need some love.  Maybe reduce actual bomber attacks to 2 after the first round of combat (of which they rolled at 4, since they’ve dropped all their bombs)?  Improved HBs get to continue rolling at 4 every round, due to increased bomb capacity?

    Meh, most of my suggestions suck.


  • Why not have something like “total war” move combat units when its not your turn?


  • Improved Artillery - In all honestey, I doubt this will change. Its an ok tech, its got its usefulness, but I dont expect it to change dramaticly. Most important it “works”. Its simple and intuitive, exactly what larry likes in his techs. A one or two sentince upgrade

    Rockets - Also, expect the same. Perhaps a range of 4 rather than 3, or a re-roll if you have multiple AA guns in range. That’d be fair I think.

    Paratroopers - I like what ive heard about it. Importantly will allies be able to use friendly airbases to paratroop if one or the other doesnt have the tech. And will an airbase be within 3 spaces of creete for germany to attack…historicaly.

    Improved Industry - The ability to repair at 1/2 price is neat, but the building of more units is almost useless. You cant get away with making all land units cheaper (if you make mech one less, no one would ever buy infantry) So perhaps it makes tanks, fighters, tactical bombers 1 IPC cheaper. And bombers 2 IPCs cheaper, but that might get out of hand.

    War Bonds - In this scale game, 1-6 IPCs isnt really a big deal. Id like to see warbonds taken out, but if it has to stay…perhaps 2 dice. Or you can loan money to a friendly power

    Mech infantry - Has been changed out, Heavy Armor in this spot? Or, maybe mech infantry stays and Infantry can pair with Mech infantry at 1:1 for a move of 2.

    Super subs - its actualy pretty broken, not by its self, but with 6 subs and 5 fighters and 2 bombers on the attack its super broken. Maybe make destroyers only able to cancel subs ablities at 1:1

    Jet Fighters - Another mystery here, with the Tactical bomber the possibilities for a 4/4/4 are not as open. Maybe hits from jet figters are assigned to enemy aircraft first if avalable. But THAT is monsterous

    Improved Shipyards - a throwback to the old increased production, Its neat, I like it, it makes boats slightly more acessable to a power.

    Radar - This is a crappy tech for half the powers, add “sonar” (Destroyers always fire with first strike at enemy subs) Or, and follow me here, powers with radar can scramble from any airbase, island or not, to any adjacent sea zone(s) involved in combat

    Long range - This gets complicated, now i think if you get +2 move you can bomb japan from western US and land in aleutian islands (i dont have the board in front of me) the tech has to be only +1, or maybe the scramble from any base idea

    Heavy Bombers - If they say its atomics, then make it a good atomic bomb rule, otherwise let h-bombers roll at 1 in interception


  • I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’ve always cringed at random tech getting. Sure scientists didn’t always know what they were getting, but they usually were close. They didn’t spend money researching proper parachute equipment and suddenly get rockets. I think that there should be some option of choosing techs. Either you get to flat out choose them, or you get to pick a list of top 6 and roll, or you get to pay like 2 extra ipcs or something to have a choice, not just the flat out two chart system of aa50, although i admit that that has been the best tech system yet. Thoughts?


  • @The:

    I respectfully disagree fullheartedly. You can’t simulate WW2 w/o techs. And may I ask why you feel this way?

    I feel that a poorer player can win simply because he is willing to gamble on getting an NA which will give him an advantage which came about by sheer luck of the dice rolls.


  • Sounds like how warfare breakthroughs actually happen. Sheer luck. They piled a bunch of scientists in a room and told them to make something. and thats how it really happens!


  • @Brain:

    @The:

    I respectfully disagree fullheartedly. You can’t simulate WW2 w/o techs. And may I ask why you feel this way?

    I feel that a poorer player can win simply because he is willing to gamble on getting an NA which will give him an advantage which came about by sheer luck of the dice rolls.

    Only a poor player will fall against that. Wise players will prevent losing to a luck shoot


  • much more fair and makes more sense, then you devloping jets all your fighters are automaticly upgrading to jets.


  • How about Radar: AAA defnd at two aircraft can attack subs w/o destroyer.
    replace mech infantry with Marines  non mech Infantry attack @ 2 during amphibious assaults can be combined with artillery.


  • @allboxcars:

    IMTO I think the techs that improve kit would be less unbalancing if they were new units rather than instant global upgrades.

    So if you develop jet fighters then your ICs can start cranking out that ultra-awesome FMG fighter you’re dying to put on the board.

    Otherwise, you’re still stuck with prop-driven air.

    What does IMTO mean?

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