Instead of bidding try this in your game

[TG Moses VI]

Here’s a list of rules I came up with instead of bidding

1. America gets no IPC or half IPC for the first round. Even though America had been gearing up for war since 1938, it was nowhere near the level of readiness for what lied ahead
2. Two hit battleships. Battleships could suck up A LOT of damage before being destroyed. You could also use 2 hit carriers though I think that it would benifit the Allies more.
3. Russia Restricted. Since this game takes place in Spring 1942, the dreadful winter climate of Russia is over and the Germans are once again able to resume the offensive. Plus Stalingrad might not even have occured (August 1942 - 2 February 1943), meaning that the Red Army might not be able to stage its massive counterttack.
4. Sub-subs. German subs were among the best in the war and the Japanese had those awesome torpedoes.
5. Rockets and Rockets. Germany gets rockets and better fighters on the third turn to represent breakthroughs in weapons development.
6. Spain Axis. Germany and Spain were very close to getting Spain to enter the war. Simply place 3 inf, 1 tank, 1 fighter in Spain and make it worth 3-6 IPCs.
7. AAE style strat. bombing. The German Luftwaffe delt heavy blows to the American and British bombers in the European Air war.
   Subs. Subs can choose to remain in their sub pens to escape Allied air attacks. Subs are treated if submerged and cannot attack for the turn they wish to be in “dock”

[kyrial]

5. Rockets and Rockets. Germany gets rockets and better fighters on the third turn to represent breakthroughs in weapons development.

Another possible option on this line is to give German tanks the ability to defend at 3 because traditionally German tanks had much better armour and could take hits that would have put US and UK tanks out of the picture. This also spices things up because it gives the Germans the possibility of invading knowing that tanks might make up some of the defensive force afterwards and not just be like INF on the defense.

Just throwing the idea on the table :D

[MistaBiggs]

I agree with this – and in fact, my group plays with this rule in our House Rules:

“Russian tanks – Cost 6 IPC, Attack at 3, and Defend at 3 (the Russian’s had the superior T-34 tank).”

[kyrial]

Yeah, that’s a good move too… I like that because it gives the Russians an incentive to get some tanks up and running as well (they’ll need them for any eventual offensives anyways) and especially to someone who is just learning to play Russia it’s nice to let them go on the attack every now and then (spoilers mostly) and this is an incentive to get the tanks up.

My only worry with any additional rules is to not get to the point where it’s over-specialised. You know, because the game itself is not (and this has been pointed out on the boards) an exact re-creation of WWII. A lot of the fun of the game is the sheer simplicity of the pieces as well as the stragegy in getting the maximum effectiveness out of each move.

But anyways none of the rules here do that… and it is sure that there need to be some rules to make the game more even.

[Guest]

Historiclly on trn1 Russia took ukraine SSR… I have never agreed with RR Your not playing WW2… Just making the axis look unreal, Superhuman etc.

[kyrial]

Historiclly on trn1 Russia took ukraine SSR… I have never agreed with RR Your not playing WW2… Just making the axis look unreal, Superhuman etc.

Well, historically that’s true… the real reason behind RR is simply to try and counter-balance the advantage the allies have over the axis in the game. I mean historically the Japanese didn’t take all of China or the Soviet Far East either.

RR is a suggestion, albeit one that has made its way into the mainstream, but you don’t have to play it. Some people play bids as a way to kind of even out the game.

It’s no fun to fight an uphill battle the whole game; the game should be more about strategy and seeing who can outmanouver the other side, taking into consideration a little bit of luck (the dice) which anyways represents the traditional “fog of war” affecting things.

Personally I don’t think RR makes the Axis look superhuman and I’ll be honest it’s still tough for the Axis to win if you just play RR.

[Guest]

@kyrial:

Historiclly on trn1 Russia took ukraine SSR… I have never agreed with RR Your not playing WW2… Just making the axis look unreal, Superhuman etc.

Well, historically that’s true… the real reason behind RR is simply to try and counter-balance the advantage the allies have over the axis in the game. I mean historically the Japanese didn’t take all of China or the Soviet Far East either.

RR is a suggestion, albeit one that has made its way into the mainstream, but you don’t have to play it. Some people play bids as a way to kind of even out the game.

It’s no fun to fight an uphill battle the whole game; the game should be more about strategy and seeing who can outmanouver the other side, taking into consideration a little bit of luck (the dice) which anyways represents the traditional “fog of war” affecting things.

Personally I don’t think RR makes the Axis look superhuman and I’ll be honest it’s still tough for the Axis to win if you just play RR.

It was actually nuetral with Russia (jp) until Aug 13 1945

[TG Moses VI]

The only problem I have with 3 hit ARM on defense is that it’s impossible for Dicey to do rolls.

[MistaBiggs]

@TG:

The only problem I have with 3 hit ARM on defense is that it’s impossible for Dicey to do rolls.

You can roll for the Russian tanks as a normal tank … look at what it rolled and if it was a 3 – make corrections on dicey before performing the next round. So it still works … you just got to manipulate it a little.

[TG Moses VI]

Yeah, I guess so.

[kyrial]

It was actually nuetral with Russia (jp) until Aug 13 1945

Yes, and at that point the Soviet’s decided to end the neutrality… coincidentally right before Japan was to surrender :roll:

On a side note, the Army of Manchuria was actually quite large… much larger than is represented in game. This army really never experienced defeat and so many of their soldiers were loathe to lay down arms at the end.

[TG Moses VI]

On a side note, the Army of Manchuria was actually quite large… much larger than is represented in game. This army really never experienced defeat and so many of their soldiers were loathe to lay down arms at the end.

Are you sure about that? The Russians really gave the Japanese a sound thrasing when they entered the war.

[kyrial]

Two corrections to the previous post by me:

#1 It was the Kwangtung Army, not the Army of Manchuria

#2 You’re right, TG Moses VI, the Soviets did thrash them about pretty well during the roughly 2 week of fighting. I think my problem was that I was accidentaly confusing the fact that until the Soviet invasion on 9th August, the Kwangtung Army was still a large force to be reckoned with and it is true that after the war the Japanese government had to issue special orders that basically made what was going to happen “not surrendering” so there would be no shame.

I looked up some statistics on it and found that the Japanese lost almost 600,000 prisoners plus 80,000 killed/wounded in almost 2 weeks. The Soviets lost 8,200 killed and like 20,000 wounded. Very good site on this is

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/1986/RMF.htm

Anyways my apologies to anyone I managed to confuse on this one. I’ll stick to mostly commenting on the European theatre from now on :oops:

[TG Moses VI]

Yeah, well that’s what you get when you face against Russian tanks and artillery. Poor Japs. :(

(though it is impressive when you look at what the Japanese still held after the war was over)