Anniversary Tech House Rules

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    Thinking, we have two tech charts now, but some techs can be REALLY over powering if you get them too early and some can be REALLY useless if you get them too late and they don’t fit into your current strategy.

    So, why not break them up so you cannot get certain ones until later into the game (which would also be a bit more realistic I think.)

    Just as an example:

    At the start of the game you can get:  Rockets (Rockets have been around since forever, this tech just increases the range, realistic that you could have them in 1941), War Bonds (just selling bonds, bonds had been sold for centuries), Mechanized Infantry (just redesigning your tanks to pull carts that carry soldiers, carts have been around for millenia), Radar (America had radar in December of 1941, so it’s realistic to have it at the start of the game), Destroyer Bombard (again, your cruisers and battleships are already doing it) and Jet Fighters (Germany had really good fighters early in the war anyway.)

    As far as playability, none of those six techs, early in the game, would make the game drastically harder for your opponent to win.  Radar, of course, might discourage some early SBR runs, but that’s not a huge deal since in the early part of the game, you only have one or two (or none) bombers anyway.  War Bonds are just Anti-Rockets so the two cancel each other out.  Mechanized Infantry can be a boon, but you still are low on infantry and armor anyway early on.

    To clarify, I am considering the first 6 rounds of the game to be “early” and that the above technologies should be considered to be all on one chart during that time. (Rocket = 1; War Bonds = 2; Radar = 3; Jet Fighters = 4; Destroyer Bombard = 5; Mechanized Infantry = 6)

    After the 6th round is complete (that is Germany Round 7) the other technologies become available. (Paratroopers, Long Range Aircraft, Heavy Bombers, Super Submarines, Advanced Artillery and Improved Shipyards.)

    The last six imply improvements to equipment and tactics made from evaluating experiences in the battlefield.  Before 6 rounds are up, you shouldnt have too many “experiences” for your soldiers, leaders and scientists to draw on, right?  And playability wise, some of these technologies, if gotten early in the game, can be a game ender.

    For instance:  1941 America gets Heavy Bombers round 1.  That can pretty much end the game for Germany and Italy.  Or Japan gets Long Range Aircraft which can end the game for America (since America would basically be forced into going into the Atlantic, Japan would be free to soak up the National Objectives and deny America two of their National Objectives.  This being because the 3 aircraft carriers would effectively allow the Japanese fighters the range of the entire ocean while allowing them to still assist in deep country attacks in China/Russia.)

    Just some examples.

    What do you guys think?  I could switch a couple here and there if you think they are in the wrong category.  It was just an example after all.


  • I would say switch paratroopers and advanced artillery with rockets and jet fighters, Also in AA50 destroyers are never allowed to bombard and you are missing the increased factory production tech.

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    My justification of the Paratroopers is two fold:

    Historically, to my knowledge, we were not dropping paratroopers from 1939-1943, I believe they started in 1943-1945, right?  So that would be mid to end game.

    Game Play:  It is too beneficial for a nation to get paratroopers really early.  Many players completely under-estimate the awesome power of the paratrooper in anniversary. (i’d trade paratroopers for heavy bombers in most games!)

    The advanced artillery I could see swapping with rockets. (Jets were invented by Germany at the end of the war, again, it is an historical thing to keep them for later.)


  • Paratroopers were dropped by Germany in May 1940
    Dec 1941 Japanese dropped them on many islands in south east Asia
    Soviets dropped them in Early 1942 as part of their counteroffensive
    Germany dropped a huge load of them on Crete in 1941

    They were used all throughout the war.

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    Okay, I stand corrected then, on the historical aspect of keeping them until mid-late game.

    I still feel, however, from a playability stand point, that the tech is too powerful to unleash in the very early stages of the game.  Perhaps more powerful, but at least as powerful, as unleashing heavy bombers really early in a game.


  • you have to build bombers to carry paratroopers and you only carry one of them and that can only be dropped 2 spaces away from friendly forces. The bomber commitment alone precludes the issue of “flying shock armies from buck rogers”.  Unfortunately some feel that you should be able to build and use them w/o bombers and i know 100% that this is a broken game, however, the OOB is somewhat balanced.

    but if you feel its not balanced you can impose a “training cost” of 1 or more IPC every time you drop airborne, paid to model training of these elite specialists. Also, limit the build of one airborne per turn ( example: if you build 3 bombers in a turn you only can use 1 additional airborne drop the turn following placement and 1 each following turn for the next 3 turns)

    This would preclude the really stupid and impossible idea of Germany building lots of bombers and thinking they will have an immediate Sealion because they didn’t buy anything for 5 turns and all of a sudden spurged on bombers as some kind of trick.

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