Erocco's Axis and Allies

[Erocco]

I’ve decided to create my own A&A game based on IL’s AA50AE map and DK’s Hybrid map.

I enjoy all versions of A&A but I feel (just like DK) a version between AA50AE and AAG40 is missing.

My rules are based 70% from AA1942.2 and AAG40, 20% from HBG’s Global War and 10% house rules. A lot of units have been added!! Game will be based on D12 system.

I am thinking of creating set-ups for 1939, 1940, 1941 and 1942. 1942 will be the first set up I will complete.

Here are some of the major changes I made on DK’s V1.2 map:

• Created Malay below French Indo-China and gave them 1 IPC
• Split Germany into Germany and West Germany. I figure if Italy and France are split
    into two territories why not Germany. Germany now produces 10 and W.Germany 6
• Reduced Russia to 10 IPC, Vologda and Tambov to 1
• Reduced Italy from 8 to 6, S. Italy from 4 to 3, Croatia from 4 to 3, Greece from 3 to
    2 to suit my game-play
• Moved Sicily closer to Italy and added Corsica
• Moved Crete closer to Greece
• Fixed the coast by Sydney
• Fixed some Chinese and Russian territory names
• Deleted some VC’s and added my own to match the AA50AE map VC’s
• Deleted the Russian port symbols and city names
• Deleted the Convoy symbols but might add them back in. I just have to think of a
    clever but simple way to use convoy raiding. Might use the GW 1939 rules which
    gives sea zones with convoy symbols an IPC value and if there are any enemy ships
    on the sea zone you just don’t get the IPC’s

Not sure why I can’t upload images so I posted hyperlinks of some sample work instead. More pictures, rules and progress updates will follow.

Japan Reference Card
https://ibb.co/bVNFoH
Map
https://ibb.co/gHmVNc

[Hambone]

I actually had  IL’s AA50AE  and DK’s Hybrid map printed and have played several game using DK’s rules & set up.  It would be great to see your version and different set ups.

I’ve used the D12 in HGB’s Global War and I’ll just say I’m not a fan of the D12.  It will be interesting to see how you incorporate into the game.

[barney]

Cool stuff Erocco ! Always nice to see another mod : )

I don’t quite remember how DK uses convoy zones, GW for that matter. I need to re explore those at some point in time as they both are cool.

I added convoy zones to the global map. Some are worth dough and some take it from land TTs. The enemy doesn’t get the cash for owning them, just kills the money. If you submerge you don’t affect it.

Have a Blockade Zone in the middle of the Atlantic that can blockade SZs that are worth dough.

Anyway, it all seems to work out to me. Have fun with your mod :)

[Argothair]

Some early thoughts on your mix of units:

1. Many of your units are quite similar to each other mechanically, especially on land. E.g., a tank destroyer is C5 A4 D4 M2, whereas a light tank is C5 A5 D4 M2 – do you really need two different units whose statistics are within one point of each other? Another example is Mech. Inf. (C4 A2 D4 M2) vs. Armored Cars (C4 A3 D3 M2). With d12 dice, these small differences will only matter once every 12 rolls. Consider whether your players will want to buy extra minis, carefully squint at the setup, etc., so that they can enjoy the result of these small differences.

2. Your naval structure looks very similar to OOB rules for Global 1940, but it’s widely agreed that cruisers are overpriced at 12 IPCs – do you disagree? Do you think players will purchase your cruisers, and, if so, why? Also, your light carriers look relatively inefficient – I could imagine Italy buying one to support operations in the Med, but otherwise you’re really not getting much bang for your buck – a light carrier plus a fighter combined only defend at 8 and cost 19 IPCs. For one more dollar you could get a battleship, which lets you defend at 8, gives you the ability to soak a free hit, and gives you a better bombard than the lone fighter.

3. It’s not obvious that the “choose your target” ability is very useful, because so many of the units are of roughly equal value. At sea, the carrier and battleships take two hits each, so it’s not clear that you want to target them unless they’re already wounded. On land, I guess it’s nice to kill a 6 IPC tank instead of a 3 IPC infantry, but if you’re choosing between a tank destroyer and an artillery piece, good luck figuring out which will hurt your opponent more. Most of the units have special abilities that are very situational.

4. How exactly do the coastal guns and fortifications work? I assume the coastal guns only score hits on a roll of 1? And I assume the fortifications don’t roll dice at all, but simply boost the defense of infantry? Do the fortifications still work when they’re partly damaged? Fully damaged? Is there any way to destroy or capture a fortification?

5. Your factories produce income when they’re not damaged, which gives players an incentive to send a ‘harassment’ bomber to annoy every opposing factory. The first bomber targeting a major factory is much more valuable than the second bomber. You don’t really have a ‘harassment’ bomber available, though – the smallest aircraft that can do a strategic bombing raid is the Medium Bomber, which costs 12 IPCs. How do you want this to work? Does a factory still produce bonus income if you repair it at the start of your turn, or do you only collect the bonus income when you start your turn with a damage-free factory? Do you want players to be able to easily disrupt each other’s factories, or is the extra income meant to be a more-or-less permanent bonus?

[Erocco]

Thanks for the comments and support guys!  :-D

Thank you for your feedback Argothair! It’s always good to have experienced players providing constructive opinions. I always find that when people create mods and house rules will always tend to think of their game play liking first and think of the community second. I hope after reviews and game testing I will have a satisfactory product that will be liked at least by my game group.

@Argothair:

Some early thoughts on your mix of units:

1. Many of your units are quite similar to each other mechanically, especially on land. E.g., a tank destroyer is C5 A4 D4 M2, whereas a light tank is C5 A5 D4 M2 – do you really need two different units whose statistics are within one point of each other? Another example is Mech. Inf. (C4 A2 D4 M2) vs. Armored Cars (C4 A3 D3 M2). With d12 dice, these small differences will only matter once every 12 rolls. Consider whether your players will want to buy extra minis, carefully squint at the setup, etc., so that they can enjoy the result of these small differences.

I though of this long and hard. I love to have a choice of many different types of units for every situation. I own most of the HBG sculpts so I figured why not.

Light tanks hit chance is 8.3% more than a tank destroyer but at the same time a tank destroyer has armor selection at 2 or less (16.7% hit chance). If you were Russia and Germany is coming at you with 10 tanks, as a defender of mother Russia would you throw in the mix a couple of tank destroyers or light tanks? In the same token been in the offensive with Italy or Germany attacking Russia I would rather build light tanks than tank destroyers to attack. Same goes with m. infantry and armored cars. Bear in mind I just finished creating the Technologies that can be researched. The same Technology will benefit one type of unit like armored cars and another like m. infantry completely different.

2. Your naval structure looks very similar to OOB rules for Global 1940, but it’s widely agreed that cruisers are overpriced at 12 IPCs – do you disagree? Do you think players will purchase your cruisers, and, if so, why? Also, your light carriers look relatively inefficient – I could imagine Italy buying one to support operations in the Med, but otherwise you’re really not getting much bang for your buck – a light carrier plus a fighter combined only defend at 8 and cost 19 IPCs. For one more dollar you could get a battleship, which lets you defend at 8, gives you the ability to soak a free hit, and gives you a better bombard than the lone fighter.

100% agree with the cruisers. I might increase their attack and defense to 7 or give cruisers and battleships AA capabilities. Haven’t decided yet… As for light carriers + a fighter = two hit points, just like a battleship. Making the light carriers cost 8 will make the air craft carriers obsolete costing 16.

3. It’s not obvious that the “choose your target” ability is very useful, because so many of the units are of roughly equal value. At sea, the carrier and battleships take two hits each, so it’s not clear that you want to target them unless they’re already wounded. On land, I guess it’s nice to kill a 6 IPC tank instead of a 3 IPC infantry, but if you’re choosing between a tank destroyer and an artillery piece, good luck figuring out which will hurt your opponent more. Most of the units have special abilities that are very situational.

Not many unit types have target selection. In fact the only two that have this capability is a tank destroyer and the tactical bomber. So not too many dilemmas of what to purchase. As an example if I am USA and fighting Japan in the Pacific I will prefer TB;s over medium bombers. At the same time if I am UK I would rather build more medium bombers than TB’s.

4. How exactly do the coastal guns and fortifications work? I assume the coastal guns only score hits on a roll of 1? And I assume the fortifications don’t roll dice at all, but simply boost the defense of infantry? Do the fortifications still work when they’re partly damaged? Fully damaged? Is there any way to destroy or capture a fortification?

Coastal guns work just like anti-aircraft guns. Here is the updated description on the reference chart’s that I made few days ago: ‘Roll 1 die for each (max 3) attacking sea unit including transports on a 2 or less (first round only)’

Here is the updated description on the reference chart’s for the fortifications: ‘+1 defense of up to 5 infantry (every round of combat). Can take up to 10 damage. For every 2 damage support 1 less unit (round up)’ I thought that wasn’t good enough so I also gave them a defending value of 6 that fires every round.

Coastal guns and fortifications are destroyed when captured. They cannot be taken as casualties (unlike AA guns)

5. Your factories produce income when they’re not damaged, which gives players an incentive to send a ‘harassment’ bomber to annoy every opposing factory. The first bomber targeting a major factory is much more valuable than the second bomber. You don’t really have a ‘harassment’ bomber available, though – the smallest aircraft that can do a strategic bombing raid is the Medium Bomber, which costs 12 IPCs. How do you want this to work? Does a factory still produce bonus income if you repair it at the start of your turn, or do you only collect the bonus income when you start your turn with a damage-free factory? Do you want players to be able to easily disrupt each other’s factories, or is the extra income meant to be a more-or-less permanent bonus?

Very observant Argothair. Repairing of the facilities is done at the beginning of the turn. Collecting IPC’s happens at the end of the turn. This means if you want to collect bonus income you must repair your factories. I introduced the bonus income factory feature as I thought facility bombing doesn’t occur as often as I would like in the other A&A games. Also if you bomb a factory in A&A and you roll a low number it doesn’t really change anything as what’s the difference if a factory can produce max 10 units or 9 or 8. I am hoping this will make players think bombing actually hurts more than just factories producing less units

[CWO Marc]

@Erocco:

@Argothair:

Some early thoughts on your mix of units:

1. Many of your units are quite similar to each other mechanically, especially on land. E.g., a tank destroyer is C5 A4 D4 M2, whereas a light tank is C5 A5 D4 M2 – do you really need two different units whose statistics are within one point of each other? Another example is Mech. Inf. (C4 A2 D4 M2) vs. Armored Cars (C4 A3 D3 M2). With d12 dice, these small differences will only matter once every 12 rolls. Consider whether your players will want to buy extra minis, carefully squint at the setup, etc., so that they can enjoy the result of these small differences.

I though of this long and hard. I love to have a choice of many different types of units for every situation. I own most of the HBG sculpts so I figured why not.

Just a comment on a possible middle ground between two valid points: your valid point that having special extra units is fun and interesting, and Argothair’s point that having too many special units – some of them having only minor differences between them – complicates things excessively.  A possible way to split the difference is to have a rule saying that, out of the full range of available special extra units, each power is only allowed to buy X types per game (say, for example, 2 types).  This helps to keep things manageable, because each player only needs to remember the specifications for a very limited number of extra types, not for dozens of them.  It doesn’t restrict game-to-game variety because, from game to game, the various players won’t necessarily buy the same special units.

An additional concept to consider would be to have certain types of special units only be available to certain powers, rather than to everyone.  This could result in interesting situations in which the opposing forces can never be precisely matched in composition…and it would also have a historical basis, because in WWII not all powers fielded every type of weapon.

[Erocco]

@CWO:

@Erocco:

@Argothair:

Some early thoughts on your mix of units:

1. Many of your units are quite similar to each other mechanically, especially on land. E.g., a tank destroyer is C5 A4 D4 M2, whereas a light tank is C5 A5 D4 M2 – do you really need two different units whose statistics are within one point of each other? Another example is Mech. Inf. (C4 A2 D4 M2) vs. Armored Cars (C4 A3 D3 M2). With d12 dice, these small differences will only matter once every 12 rolls. Consider whether your players will want to buy extra minis, carefully squint at the setup, etc., so that they can enjoy the result of these small differences.

I though of this long and hard. I love to have a choice of many different types of units for every situation. I own most of the HBG sculpts so I figured why not.

Just a comment on a possible middle ground between two valid points: your valid point that having special extra units is fun and interesting, and Argothair’s point that having too many special units – some of them having only minor differences between them – complicates things excessively.  A possible way to split the difference is to have a rule saying that, out of the full range of available special extra units, each power is only allowed to buy X types per game (say, for example, 2 types).  This helps to keep things manageable, because each player only needs to remember the specifications for a very limited number of extra types, not for dozens of them.  It doesn’t restrict game-to-game variety because, from game to game, the various players won’t necessarily buy the same special units.

An additional concept to consider would be to have certain types of special units only be available to certain powers, rather than to everyone.  This could result in interesting situations in which the opposing forces can never be precisely matched in composition…and it would also have a historical basis, because in WWII not all powers fielded every type of weapon.

I should start posting some of the work completed to date because that’s exactly what I’ve done. Every Nation has 2 specific units with the exception of Italy which they have one (ideas for a second unit are welcome) and depending on the unit you can only build 1 or 2 per turn. So anything you suggesting CWO Marc has been implemented.