AA50 Optional rule question: Fighter interception SBR

[scampb]

@WOPR:

@Captain:

@WOPR:

You think so? The way I explained the logic is a little confusing maybe but my variation itself is not too far off the official rule. It just switches the order of the steps and adds one exception. Certainly it’s not as complex as China’s rules are and we can handle those.

That is exactly the point, ‘we can handle those’ because we are already familiar with the game as it is.  New comers to the game trying to decipher all the rules and exceptions could make it very stressful to learn.  Otional rule in the game for SBR is interceptor……attacking fighters do this, defending fighters do this, but if fighters don’t defend then they do this, bombers can’t do this…and so on and so on.  Larry has made the optional rule very easy to understand and implement.  You also have to remember that a power would have to leave fighters close enough to home in order to defend against the SBR.  This means they are not in a battle elsewhere.  It is not all bad.

Now that sounds better, and I could agree with that.

I agree, it’s not all bad. Like I said, I think the existing intercept rule is better than nothing. It can be better in terms of balance however.

Perhaps, simpler but slightly less balanced variation than the one I already proposed would be this: AA guns fire at both escorts and bombers if interceptors are sent up. If no interceptors are sent up, AA guns fire at bombers only. That’s the same as it is now only that AA guns don’t fire at escorts if the defender chooses not to send up interceptors.

[Bardoly]

Perhaps, simpler but slightly less balanced variation than the one I already proposed would be this: AA guns fire at both escorts and bombers if interceptors are sent up. If no interceptors are sent up, AA guns fire at bombers only. That’s the same as it is now only that AA guns don’t fire at escorts if the defender chooses not to send up interceptors.

I could go for that.

Here is another simple way to do this optional rule.

1. Attacker chooses escorting fighters.
2. Defending fighters add 1 die each to the aa fire.
3. Roll AA.
4. If any 1’s are rolled, then the hits are assigned to the escorting fighters (if any) instead of the bombers.
5. Surviving bombers then roll their SBR dice.

[axis_roll]

@allboxcars:

@creeping-deth87:

I’m confused… I’m new here, but in the A&A50 rule book there’s no mention of allowing you to use escorting fighters or to use fighters around your I.C. to defend against incoming bombers. It clearly just says ‘after resolving any anti-aircraft fire, surviving bombers each roll one die’.

It’s an Official optional rule.

You can find it here.

http://www.harrisgamedesign.com/bb2/viewtopic.php?t=1759

(and if that doesn’t post as a link, my apologies)

updating the link
http://harrisgamedesign.com/pdf/A&A_Anniversary_FAQ.pdf

[Lynxes]

You could also dictate that defending fighters are forced to intercept strategic bombardment. Avoiding this thing with AA-fire at fighters who don’t fight and also making the placement of defending fighters a bit more important, while at the same time speeding up play. Historically it would also make sense. It wasn’t as if Germany could ignore the Allied bombing campaign, German fighters were attacked on the ground by Allied air forces. You could also include the bombing of oil resources as something that makes ignoring strategic bombing impossible, the defender’s air force is just as targeted if their oil supplies are destroyed.

[WOPR]

After further consideration I no longer feel the fighter escort/interceptor rule needs any fine tuning. In my previous posts I expressed the view that the rule nerfed strategic bombing too much but I’ve since changed my mind. After all, bombing raids over inland German targets without escorts was near suicidal, especially during the daylight. It wasn’t until the Allies had deployed long range escort fighters and had outnumbered the defending Luftwaffe aircraft, that the Allies were able to conduct bombing missions without terrible loses. The same is true with the fighter escort/interceptor rule as it stands now and it should stay that way.