but as far as applying all of those details to the game of A&A, I think its all way too much detail.
Yea +1 for attack and defense and AA immune is WAY too complicated and dramatic a shift from +1 defense. Your right.
In fact Jets don’t need to be in the game . Its too complicated.
The more streamlined a game is, generally speaking, usually determines how long it will take to play that game and to some degree determines how “simple” of a game it is.
And to facilitate this the game only needs infantry units, one plane unit, and one naval unit to keep things as reductionistic as possible and preserve the elegant math of the game.
Unless I’m over looking something, since A&A only uses one d6 and no charts or bonuses to represent the “capabilities” of each piece and since there is only so much “detail” that can be put into a single six sided die, A&A is not THAT detailed of a game.
They do have games like flames of war that use D6 and have 200+ pages of rules the dice has nothing to do with detail limitations and to make that jump in reasoning is premature.
I also think it is real important to keep the basics of gaming in mind when talking about the “historical accuracy” of A&A.
Keep in mind AA is a game based on History its not chutes and ladders. It has to have some degree of veracity in dealing with the second world war as a light wargame. This includes historical reverent points in its design as AA50 seems to have. If Larry did as you asked everybody would start out with exactly the same number of pieces like risk or stratego because that’s balanced. A historical game has give and take because it has to measure up to the reality of the times because its modeling history. If it had no revelance to the war WW2 was fought these games would not have lasted this long.
For instance, if a fighter was to have its attack increased to a 4 as a jet fig, the same as a bombers standard attack, one might jump to the conclusion that it is just a cheap bomber.
Jet fighters represent Jet technology, which includes bombers. The Germans had jet bombers (AR-234). To allow them a +1 on attack makes them active technology so you can buy them to attack enemy planes etc, while to allow only a defensive benefit makes it a passive value and this does not bring enough ‘juice’ to the fun factor.
Who is gonna spend and try to get a 1/36 chance of getting a +1 on defense for a few fighters? The money can be spent on other things, only proving that its a useless technology. It has to have enough juice not only historically but in terms of mechanics to make the investment worthwhile. As its currently written its not doing that under the AA50 system.
And when you take into account that for 30 IPC, 2 bombers would be able to attack with 2 4s, but for 30 IPC, 3 jet figs would get you 3 attacks of 4, we all know when you compare those items 3 jet figs on the attack is a bigger “bang for the buck” to have than 2 bombers on the attack. (Jet Figs sure look like a “cheap bomber” to me).
Bombers dont require technology to get the 4 attack rating. Also jets cant SBR, so bombers have a step up on this as well. Lastly, to get to the point of even having jet technology means the game is near its conclusion ( for the most part) and future “jet” purchases VS. bombers would have small impact.
Lastly, Technology is an optional rule to allow for more historically based results and modeling of actual WW2 weapons that could have turned the war. If you look it up its a common conception that if Hitler had the ME-262 in say 1943 the allied bombing campaign over Germany would have been a bust. Its basically a fact and the game should represent that reality. Especially considering its 1/36 chance of getting something.
AA guns need to be removed from the game. Factories and certain territories need built in air defense, because a flak battery does not represent the same equivalence in the game as a piece does. A piece is an army of say 100,000 men and flak artillery is a field of fixed air defenses. AA is the only game that raises flak artillery to the level of a ‘piece’ and considering its a light wargame that’s a surprising conclusion.