Hello. I don’t know if this is the right section please feel free to move the post if it is not.
So, long time no post here and there’s a reason for that. I got bored of playing A&A 2004 edition and miniatures.
So, recently saw the Europe and Pacific 1940 versions, felt like this game had changed enough to warrant me trying it again and so I bought both and played a game. Now, the problem with A&A is that even though it feels and looks like this sprawling epic game where you can re-enact WWII to some extent, it is a bit limited in what you can do successfully. And it all comes to show on Germany’s turn 1 in which Germany always sink the RN which is ridiculous.
And then, England has to sink the Italian navy in the med. And this feels fairly limiting. Yes you can do other things but the way the game is set up and the way the rules work, sinking those navies is the best move.
So, I came up with an idea to solve this which is replicating naval combat’s largest challenge:
To actually spot the enemy fleet.
Here’s how it works:
Basically, you need to roll a d6 to be able to engage an enemy ship and the difficulty of the roll, will be based on modifiers (from 1 to 5)
Here are the spotting modifiers:
Sea area adjacent to your territory, +1
Sea area adjacent to enemy territory, -1*
Naval units present, +1
Air units present, +1
Large enemy fleet (3 or more ships), +1
lone ship or just submarines, -1**
(minimum of 1)
I found this to make the game much more dynamic.
Example:
Instead of getting an automatic engagement, on turn one, Germany needs to roll spotting to detect the UK fleets.
To find the RN and in zone 111 it will need to roll the following:
enemy territory adjacent, -1
Air units, +1
Naval units, +1
Large fleet, +1
= 2
So, the German player has to roll a 2 or less to be able to engage in combat otherwise the forces never meet.
In zone 109 however:
Territory adjacent, +1
enemy territory adjacent, -1
Air units, +1
Naval units, +1
Large fleet, +1
= 3
Because the sea zone is adjacent to both territories, the German player only needs a 3 or lower. This usually leads to one of the fleets surviving early game which makes things more problematic for the Axis and create interesting conundrums for the German player as failure to engage might leave their own navy exposed to a spotting roll by the British and being sunk.
However, the Italian player also has a chance of keeping its battleship which allows the axis a much tighter grip in the med.
Now, if you noticed, I had a couple of Asterisks in the modifiers above. They are:
(*) if a fleet is comprised of just subs, they do not suffer this penalty/bonus
(**) If enemy player has one or more aircraft carriers in the zone, this bonus does not apply. THis is to simulate the role of CVEs in the Atlantic battle.
Now there is another change that is made to account for the Commerce raiders which is that cruisers, deal +1 (or +2 needs further testing) IC damage in their rolls. This makes Cruisers more efficient than subs however, easier to detect. This changes commerce raiding and Sea control completely making it more exciting.
A US player Detecting a single German Cruiser raiding zone 101 would have the following modifiers:
Sea zone adjacent, +1
Single ship, -1
naval units, +1
Air units, +1
= 2
So, the US player would have to roll a 2 or less to detect a single cruiser.
To detect one or two submarines:
Single ship, -1
naval units, +1
Air units, +1
= 1
However, if you add a third submarine the large fleet detection bonus applies making the detection value 2 making larger fleets of submarines more detectable.
And of course an aircraft carrier would make it even easier (they do not need aircraft on them)
This leads to some Graf Spee like chases in the Atlantic and makes commerce raiding annoying and dangerous at the same time. As a player using these resources you will be always hunted and if you are not detected the first time, you will want to the high Seas to evade since you increase their difficulty. However, over time, your ships will be hunted down. Aircraft carriers are a must since they help a lot. All of a sudden your sub and ships are a lot more visible and need to bugger off.
This also means that your naval units can cross an enemy fleet
–---------
A new mechanic I want to test to make things more interesting is at the beginning of the player’s phase if an enemy fleet is in the same space as yours, add a +1 to detection rolls if you don’t move. Meaning you are sharing a sea space with an enemy fleet and they already missed a detection roll the previous turn so next turn the net is closing on your ship or ships making it easier for them to detect you.
Example:
Germany has a U-boat on sea zone 119, Uk player moves a fleet there to try and find it:
Single ship, -1
Naval units, +1
Air Units, +1
Aircraft carrier, +1
= 2
Uk player fails.
Next turn German player wants to push his luck and keep the sub in that area so he places a +1 counter there. Next UK phase, the UK player will roll for detection again:
Single ship, -1
Naval units, +1
Air Units, +1
Aircraft carrier, +1
Counter, +1
= 3
So now, the sub has a 50% chance of being detected.
Another mechanic that I want to try is that I want capital ships (BB and CV) to take 2 turns to build AND can only be deployed in naval bases
Quick FAQ:
Q: Can ships move through enemy controlled Sea zones?
A: Yes but the player who controls that zone can decide if he wants to try and spot you. If the roll fails, you can keep moving unimpeded if succeeds, resolve combat and fleet stops.
Q: can subs be detected without a destroyer present?
A: Yes, but they can submerge after one round of combat if no destroyer present. Submarines up to the type XXI were really boats that could do a limited spell underwater not submarines as we have them now. So they spent most of their time on the surface, therefore, you can detect them and force one round of combat after which they submerge. They are hard buggers to detect though…
Now, I found these changes to breed new life into the game. For instance, Germany does not get both UK fleets and has to focus on 1 really or risk losing
its Baltic fleet however, commerce raiding is even more annoying and single cruisers can cause a lot of damage and force you to relocate your fleets to try and stop them.
I have other ideas for expansions that will use this excellent combat engine and give it a bit more depth making the final results more interesting and engaging.
I will make another post with a rough abstract of those ideas later on.
Let me know what you guys think.