Need some input on new unit att/def values

  • TripleA '12

    Hey guys,

    As FMG are soon going to be releasing their various Combat Units, I was wondering how players will be implementing the statistics of these land combat units in terms of: ATTACK, DEFEND, MOVE, COST, ABILITIES.

    So far I am thinking along the lines of…

    Infantry         1, 2, 1, 3, -

    Mot. Infantry  1, 2, 2, 4, -

    Mech. Infantry 1, 2, 2, 4, BLITZ with Tank

    Artillery          2, 2, 1, 4, BOOST Inf ATT

    Mech. Artillery 2, 2, 2, 5, BOOST Mech. Inf ATT?

    Tank              3, 3, 2, 6, BLITZ

    H. Tank             3, 4, 2, 7, BLITZ

    I think that the Infantry and Mot. Infantry are about right: Mot. Inf gets no Abilities but it gets 1 extra movement for that you pay 1 extra IPC cost. That seems sensible to me.

    I would sure appreciate any feedback here as I’m finding it hard to get the balance right. However, if this has already been covered in a previous post somewhere, please feel free to redirect me accordingly.

    Thanks very much


  • What is the point of motor infantry.


  • @Lozmoid:

    Mot. Infantry  1, 2, 2, 4, -

    Mech. Infantry 1, 2, 2, 4, BLITZ with Tank

    Artillery          2, 2, 1, 4, BOOST Inf ATT

    Mech. Artillery 2, 2, 2, 5, BOOST Mech. Inf ATT?

    Tank              3, 3, 2, 6, BLITZ

    H. Tank             3, 4, 2, 7, BLITZ

    I think that the Infantry and Mot. Infantry are about right: Mot. Inf gets no Abilities but it gets 1 extra movement for that you pay 1 extra IPC cost. That seems sensible to me.

    They both cost the same (4 IPCs) - one suggestion would be to increase the mech attack to 2 and the cost to 5. But then the mech would essentially be a light armor.

  • '14

    @Hobbes:

    @Lozmoid:

    Mot. Infantry  1, 2, 2, 4, -

    Mech. Infantry 1, 2, 2, 4, BLITZ with Tank

    Artillery          2, 2, 1, 4, BOOST Inf ATT

    Mech. Artillery 2, 2, 2, 5, BOOST Mech. Inf ATT?

    Tank              3, 3, 2, 6, BLITZ

    H. Tank             3, 4, 2, 7, BLITZ

    I think that the Infantry and Mot. Infantry are about right: Mot. Inf gets no Abilities but it gets 1 extra movement for that you pay 1 extra IPC cost. That seems sensible to me.

    They both cost the same (4 IPCs) - one suggestion would be to increase the mech attack to 2 and the cost to 5. But then the mech would essentially be a light armor.

    Mechs attack at a 1 but get a boost from mob aartillery and can blitz with tanks.


  • Motorized infantry could be 1 1 2 3 (weak but cheap and fast hit soaker).  Reconnaissance units?

  • Liaison TripleA '11 '10

    Motorized Infantry,  make them like regular infantry, but they can NON COMBAT 3.  IE, you are paying that $1 for a truck to send them to the FRONT lines.

    No blitzing.


  • With infantry and artillery moving 1 and armor & mech moving 2, Germany needs a lot of logistical forethought to avoid the expensive fast units getting too far ahead of the cheap slow units and being exposed to counterattack from cheap Russians.  Between the mechanized artillery and the motorized infantry, wouldn’t a lot of that be taken out of the game?  Would it make it too easy?


  • Tank, mech infantry and mot.infantry must have the option to retreat after round of combat.


  • Agreed also mech arty should get this.

  • TripleA '12

    Thanks for all the input so far guys, it is very much appreciated.

    One thing for sure is Mot. Infantry will NOT be getting the BLITZ ability, no way. So yes, they are a slightly more expensive Infantry unit for getting reinforcements to the front lines quickly. And myabe that’s enough? But should they get an ability of any kind? Perhaps something like:

    Tows Artillery: During your Noncombat Move phase, your Artillery and Motorised Infantry units that begin in the same territory and did not take part in Combat this turn, may be moved together up to two spaces, through friendly terrtories. Each Mot. Infantry unit must be matched one-for-one with an Artillery unit. Both units must arrive together in either the first or the second territory.

    How about that? If this is too powerful, we will have to think of some other way to reduce them somehow. Perhaps Att 1, Def 1, Move 2, Cost 3, as suggested by Vance?

  • Customizer

    I am assuming for the Motorized Infantry you would be using the new Truck unit being put out by FMG, right?  I had a different idea for that unit:
    No attack or defense value, move 2 in Non-Combat move only and would be fairly cheap, perhaps 3 IPCs.  Ability would be to carry 2 infantry OR 1 infantry & 1 Artillery 2 spaces in Non-Combat move.  This way you could get infantry and artillery up to support your tanks and mechanized forces.  They would move back next turn and could bring more reinforcements the turn after that.  So to keep a continuous stream of inf/art reinforcements, you would have to have plenty of trucks going back and forth, thus the cheap price. 
    If a truck(s) are in a territory which is attacked and all your other combat units are killed and there are still enemy forces left, the trucks are destroyed (like transport ships in naval battles).


  • I really like knp7765’s idea about the truck being like a transport on land.  You would place trucks at the IC and at the front and shuck inf/inf or inf/art (a good german setup might be to have 5 trucks at Germany, 10 at E Poland and 5 at Bryansk).  So, the Germany player could spend money on logistics by buying trucks, or choose not to buy the trucks but ultimately lose expensive tanks because of poor logistics.  Also, even if the trucks attack and defend at 0, they could be used as cheap hit soakers.  I bet those would be a very popular unit to buy.

  • Liaison TripleA '11 '10

    We used to used the old transports from Classic as TRAINS.

    Like AA, you could capture them.

    They worked exactly like a transport, except on land, you could move in non combat, 3 inf, or 1 inf 1 art/arm/mec.

    These were alot of fun, especially, when you conquered your opponents! And made them your own.

    Cost was $6.

    There was an “optional” rule, that allowed them to attack a territory with all infantry loaded, it didn’t seem unbalanced,  but seemed unrealistic.

    Places where these can be abused, are particularily the eastern front… and China  Russia suffers, if the axis get wise with their logistics!


  • i think trains would be OP unless russia was made even larger, or else germany will buy a couple of these and  just ferie infantry and arty forward 3 times faster defeating russias logisitical advantage.

  • TripleA '12

    Okay, the Mot. Infantry unit is starting to take shape! Specifics: Att (0), Def (0), Move (2), Cost (?)

    To knp7765: Yes, I am thinking about making house rules for the Mot. Infantry unit because of the soon-to-be-arriving FMG pieces. I like the idea that it has no combat values of its own and is essentially treated as a ‘transport on land’. It does not make a territory ‘hostile’. In combat, all remaining defending Mot.Inf units would be destroyed when the last defending land or air units are destroyed; exactly like an actual Transport.

    Likewise, a lone Mot.Inf unit(s) may be attacked and destroyed by enemy air units without firing. They would still be treated as a valid target for air attack; if your Bomber attacks a territory with both a Mot.Inf and an Industrial Complex, you would have to choose between eliminating the truck or bombing the factory (you couldn’t do both).

    I think they should be destroyed instead of captured (as you could assume that they were in the process of retreating from the embattled territory when the combat broke out, and therefore overrun by enemy forces). However, you could make an exception to this: if any of your land units move into an enemy controlled but not occupied territory (during the Combat Move phase), and there is an enemy Mot.Inf unit(s) present, you should be able to capture it at the same time as you capture the territory (as you could assume that the Mot.Inf was not alerted to your armies’ advances). Remove the Mot.Inf unit from the territory and replace with one of your own Mot.Inf units. This will teach players NOT to leave their trucks un-defended!

    And how about this for the special ability:

    Carry Land Units: During your Noncombat Move phase, your Motorised Infantry units may carry your land units, provided that none of those units moved in your Combat Move phase (either the Mot.Inf OR its cargo). The cargo capacity may be either:

    Two Infantry or
    One Infantry & One Artillery or
    One Infantry & One AA Gun

    Your Mot.Inf units must begin their Noncombat Move in the same territory as their cargo and must not have taken part in Combat this turn. Both the Mot.Inf and their cargo must be moved together up to two spaces through friendly terrtories, and must arrive together in either the first or the second territory.

    How does that all sound? Thank you again for all your input. If we’re all good for the above then I guess we need to fix a price tag to ‘em. I think the minimum should be 4 IPCs. Okay, it’s cheap but these are very useful if incredibly weak units. Transports do pretty much the same thing (albeit they can carry your allies’ units) and they currently cost 7. So I’m thinking possibly 5 IPCs for this unit…

    Over to you!


  • Yeah 5 sounds like a good price.  These would be extremely useful so if the price were too low people would just buy all trucks, artillery and infantry and never bother with tanks and mechs.  Its also nice if you can keep the truck rules as close as possible to the rules for sea transports because the game really doesn’t need to be any more complicated than it already is.


  • So would the Trucks be a different unit from Motorized Infantry?  There is an armoured car in the axis minor set that might be good for Motorized Infantry and there’s a truck in the new German units set.

  • TripleA '12

    Vance, I am trying to come up with some house rules for the new Motorised Infantry unit being supplied by FMG (it is just a truck). The FMG Armoured Car unit will, I guess, represent the Mechanised Infantry.

  • Customizer

    @knp7765:

    I am assuming for the Motorized Infantry you would be using the new Truck unit being put out by FMG, right?  I had a different idea for that unit:
    No attack or defense value, move 2 in Non-Combat move only and would be fairly cheap, perhaps 3 IPCs.  Ability would be to carry 2 infantry OR 1 infantry & 1 Artillery 2 spaces in Non-Combat move.  This way you could get infantry and artillery up to support your tanks and mechanized forces.  They would move back next turn and could bring more reinforcements the turn after that.  So to keep a continuous stream of inf/art reinforcements, you would have to have plenty of trucks going back and forth, thus the cheap price. 
    If a truck(s) are in a territory which is attacked and all your other combat units are killed and there are still enemy forces left, the trucks are destroyed (like transport ships in naval battles).

    Ohhh hey.  I like this, nice one KNP.


  • @Lozmoid:

    ATTACK, DEFEND, MOVE, COST, ABILITIES.

    Infantry         1, 2, 1, 3, -

    Mot. Infantry  1, 2, 2, 4, -

    Mech. Infantry 1, 2, 2, 4, BLITZ with Tank

    Artillery          2, 2, 1, 4, BOOST Inf ATT

    Mech. Artillery 2, 2, 2, 5, BOOST Mech. Inf ATT?

    Tank              3, 3, 2, 6, BLITZ

    H. Tank             3, 4, 2, 7, BLITZ

    As a standard rule all types of artillery should boost all types of infantry. If a turn was one day, then maybe selfpropelled artillery could only support mech infantry, but since a turn is 3 months, I think you have time to combine leg moved units with motorized units in joint operations. Also I think KISS rules is better for playability.

    I think Self propelled artillery should be an offensive weapon, and since motorized artillery usually was 150 mm + versus towed usually between 70 mm to 100 mm, they should get higher attack value.
    Self propelled artillery 3, 2, 2, 6 and boost matching inf to a 3.

    I dont think heavy tanks did any blitzing, and they should not move 2 spaces, since they had poor mobility.
    Heavy tank 4, 4, 1, 8 and no blitzing

    If we have both motorized and mech inf, they should be
    Motorized inf 1, 2, 2, 4
    Mechanized inf 2, 2, 2, 5 and blitz together with tanks

    If the combat rules should be close to reality, then infantry should boost artillery, or artillery should have low value when fighting solo. Artillery barrage and suppressive indirect fire was easy to protect against for dug-in infantry, and was only lethal when followed up by charging infantry or tanks.

    Artillery 1, 2, 1, 4 and boost to attack at 2 whit a matching infantry
    Infantry 1, 2, 1, 3 and boost to attack at 2 with a matching artillery
    Maybe not good playability ?

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