G40 Strategic Advantages - Delta

[Young Grasshopper]

@CWO:

Okay, thanks, I see now what the the “Uncle Sam” title refers to.  If the title had been “Uncle Sam Wants You” (a common shorthand for the famous poster that shows a picture of a pointing Uncle Sam above the words “I want YOU for the U.S. Army”) I would immediately have thought of the poster and understood the recruitment concept.  So instead of the original “Uncle Sam” title and the new “Recruitment Campaign” title (which I think works nicely, by the way), one option for splitting the difference would be to use the title “Uncle Sam Wants You” (which would work equally well in my opinion).

Thanks also for the information about the Russian factories.  As you say, a rule devised by Larry carries inherent weight (even if it’s a bit perplexing in terms of its historical parallels), so that’s as good a reason as any to use the concept.

Understood, I think I’ll settle for “Uncle Sam Campaign” and see how it feels for a while… do you think that you might play these advantages in a future game?

[CWO Marc]

@Young:

do you think that you might play these advantages in a future game?

I might – they sound both practicable and interesting.  I’m currently not gaming, however, because I’m dealing with some fairly serious stuff in real life that will be taking up a lot of my attention for an undetermined amount of time.  So I’ll have to limit myself to just commenting on your strategic advantages project from the sidelines without giving them an actual try myself.

[Young Grasshopper]

@CWO:

@Young:

do you think that you might play these advantages in a future game?

I might – they sound both practicable and interesting.  I’m currently not gaming, however, because I’m dealing with some fairly serious stuff in real life that will be taking up a lot of my attention for an undetermined amount of time.  So I’ll have to limit myself to just commenting on your strategic advantages project from the sidelines without giving them an actual try myself.

Good luck with that, hopefully it doesn’t take up to much of your year, (and apologies if there is some unintended insensitivity in saying that) because I would very much like to meet you at the FMGC in Oshawa this fall.

[toblerone77]

@Young:

@toblerone77:

Just a suggestion YG. You could restrict Super fortresses to the Pacific Theater since Around the Clock Bombing is already restricted to London if you wanted to keep that SA.

Thanks for the suggestion Tob, but that’s tough to accept historically after watching “Memphis Belle” like 10 times  :|

Well if we base it on that, the Memphis Belle was a Boeing B-17 “Flying Fortress” used mostly in Europe. The Boeing B-29 “Super Fortress” was used exclusively in the Pacific.

LOL I’m just giving you a hard time YG.

[toblerone77]

Maybe another suggestion YG. I hope I’m not being a pain. Is maybe title “Dug-in Defenders” as “Code of Bushido”

[toblerone77]

Another idea YG.

I know you’ve made printed cards before. If you printed these out and color-coded them, you could allow the cards to be shuffled but still pulled in order of rounds.

So if for instance you and your group decided to change things up from a more strategic method of choice to one of chance, you could simply shuffle, then sort by color, and then have the players draw their card. I don’t know how much luck your group likes, but I see this as maybe something fun after you have played through a few games where players can choose their SAs.

[Young Grasshopper]

@toblerone77:

Maybe another suggestion YG. I hope I’m not being a pain. Is maybe title “Dug-in Defenders” as “Code of Bushido”

I like that a lot, I’m also looking for a good title to replace the Russian SA “Tank Production”.

[Young Grasshopper]

@toblerone77:

@Young:

@toblerone77:

Just a suggestion YG. You could restrict Super fortresses to the Pacific Theater since Around the Clock Bombing is already restricted to London if you wanted to keep that SA.

Thanks for the suggestion Tob, but that’s tough to accept historically after watching “Memphis Belle” like 10 times :|

Well if we base it on that, the Memphis Belle was a Boeing B-17 “Flying Fortress” used mostly in Europe. The Boeing B-29 “Super Fortress” was used exclusively in the Pacific.

LOL I’m just giving you a hard time YG.

I just renamed the advantage “Boeing Fortresses”… great ideas come from you giving me a hard time, please keep it up (lol).

[Young Grasshopper]

@toblerone77:

Another idea YG.

I know you’ve made printed cards before. If you printed these out and color-coded them, you could allow the cards to be shuffled but still pulled in order of rounds.

So if for instance you and your group decided to change things up from a more strategic method of choice to one of chance, you could simply shuffle, then sort by color, and then have the players draw their card. I don’t know how much luck your group likes, but I see this as maybe something fun after you have played through a few games where players can choose their SAs.

My group can be a little traditional and they don’t like many house rules constantly coming in and out of our games, that’s why I like to flesh them out here before getting my fellow players to commit, besides, I don’t want them to feel like they’re getting the kitchen sink thrown at them. Playing a handful of games using these Strategic Advantages will be plenty enough for now, but I like what you’re suggesting, especially if we’re feeling wild and crazy for one game  :evil:

I know that you know where I’m headed with this project, just because you understand my perpetual need to customize  :wink:… I’m planning on designing an entire card deck not only for these Strategic Advantages, but also my “Strategic Objectives” house rule which is my attempt to revamp the whole National Objectives system. Plenty of ideas still yet to refine, and I will no doubt need help with that when the time comes. I’ll also need some talanted customizers for those who wish to help design the card deck  8-)

[Young Grasshopper]

The mass production content of this wiki link explains both Russian Advantages quite nicely.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-34#Mass_production

[toblerone77]

@Young:

@toblerone77:

Maybe another suggestion YG. I hope I’m not being a pain. Is maybe title “Dug-in Defenders” as “Code of Bushido”

I like that a lot, I’m also looking for a good title to replace the Russian SA “Tank Production”.

How about “Hammer, Sickle, and Stalin’s Steel” or “Hammer, Sickle, and Steel” for Armor Production and “Mother Russia’s Forge” “Forge of the Motherland” or “Forge of Mother Russia” for mobile industry.

Just some ideas.

[Young Grasshopper]

@toblerone77:

@Young:

@toblerone77:

Maybe another suggestion YG. I hope I’m not being a pain. Is maybe title “Dug-in Defenders” as “Code of Bushido”

I like that a lot, I’m also looking for a good title to replace the Russian SA “Tank Production”.

How about “Hammer, Sickle, and Stalin’s Steel” or “Hammer, Sickle, and Steel” for Armor Production and “Mother Russia’s Forge” “Forge of the Motherland” or “Forge of Mother Russia” for mobile industry.

Just some ideas.

I prefer them a tad shorter and more related to the Advantage… like “Stalin’s Steel”, but even that doesn’t encompass the 10s of thousands of tanks forged by women and children who died working merciless double shifts in the Urals tank factories!!!

…sorry, I got a little emotional after reading that wiki link, but I digress  :cry:

[toblerone77]

No problem YG. I tried doing some titles in Russian but the words in Russian through the eyes of someone who speaks English they didn’t seem very romantic LOL. Kraznyy Bronya is Red Armor if you want to give that a try.

[Young Grasshopper]

@toblerone77:

No problem YG. I tried doing some titles in Russian but the words in Russian through the eyes of someone who speaks English they didn’t seem very romantic LOL. Kraznyy Bronya is Red Armor if you want to give that a try.

Red Armor is as romantic as you can get, but it’s not the tanks themselves that deserve the spotlight, but rather the numbers that were produced.

I’ve been doing a little research on the 50 thousand + tanks that Russia produced between 1941-45, in particular factory N:185 which made around 30,000 of them… and one term keeps coming up for the city of Chelyabinsk, where Factory N:185 was relocated “Tankograd”, and I also realized that the advantage is all wrong to represent this, so I’ve modified the “Tank Production” SA.

[toblerone77]

@Young:

@toblerone77:

No problem YG. I tried doing some titles in Russian but the words in Russian through the eyes of someone who speaks English they didn’t seem very romantic LOL. Kraznyy Bronya is Red Armor if you want to give that a try.

Red Armor is as romantic as you can get, but it’s not the tanks themselves that deserve the spotlight, but rather the numbers that were produced.

I’ve been doing a little research on the 50 thousand + tanks that Russia produced between 1941-45, in particular factory N:185 which made around 30,000 of them… and one term keeps coming up for the city of Chelyabinsk, where Factory N:185 was relocated “Tankograd”, and I also realized that the advantage is all wrong to represent this, so I’ve modified the “Tank Production” SA.

That’s pretty good. I might make one suggestion for “Mobile Factories” as “Great Patriotic War”

[Young Grasshopper]

@toblerone77:

@Young:

@toblerone77:

No problem YG. I tried doing some titles in Russian but the words in Russian through the eyes of someone who speaks English they didn’t seem very romantic LOL. Kraznyy Bronya is Red Armor if you want to give that a try.

Red Armor is as romantic as you can get, but it’s not the tanks themselves that deserve the spotlight, but rather the numbers that were produced.

I’ve been doing a little research on the 50 thousand + tanks that Russia produced between 1941-45, in particular factory N:185 which made around 30,000 of them… and one term keeps coming up for the city of Chelyabinsk, where Factory N:185 was relocated “Tankograd”, and I also realized that the advantage is all wrong to represent this, so I’ve modified the “Tank Production” SA.

That’s pretty good. I might make one suggestion for “Mobile Factories” as “Great Patriotic War”

Actually, the same factory that produced so many tanks is also one of the few factories that took on the massive task to mobilize and relocate to the east. It seems to me that “Tankograd” encompasses both advantages historically, so I’ve replaced “mobile industry” for another original revised national advantage called “Trans-Siberian Railway”. Checkout post #1 for the edit.

[toblerone77]

Well this is a cool project YG. I think it really appeals to a broad spectrum of A&A players. It’s HRs but it doesn’t get too crazy (like me) and has direct relations or relates in provenance to things we’ve seen within the series. These are complex enough to woo veterans but are simple enough that newer players can easily apply them. Good work +1.

[Young Grasshopper]

@toblerone77:

Well this is a cool project YG. I think it really appeals to a broad spectrum of A&A players. It’s HRs but it doesn’t get too crazy (like me) and has direct relations or relates in provenance to things we’ve seen within the series. These are complex enough to woo veterans but are simple enough that newer players can easily apply them. Good work +1.

That +1 means a lot to me Toblerone… thank you.

[knp7765]

This is looking better and better YG. I like that the small countries can get in on the action.

The Trans-Siberian railway advantage will be really good for Russia to stop a Japanese advance. One problem I have always found with Russia is that once the 18 troops out east are destroyed by Japan or withdrawn by Russia, especially once Germany starts it’s attack on Russia, there is nothing to stop Japan from gobbling up all those eastern territories. Sure they are only 1 IPC each, but that lost income can really count when Germany is knocking at Moscow’s door. And it’s really infuriating when Japan does this with a single tank.

[CWO Marc]

@Young:

I prefer them a tad shorter and more related to the Advantage… like “Stalin’s Steel”, but even that doesn’t encompass the 10s of thousands of tanks forged by women and children who died working merciless double shifts in the Urals tank factories!!!

Here are a few suggestions.  One approach would be to allude to the appeal that was made to the patriotism of the Russian people (through such means as propaganda) to induce them to work harder.  Possible phrases to express this would include “Propaganda Campaign”, “Patriotism Campaign”, “For the Motherland”, “All for Russia” and “All for the Front” (the latter being an actual Soviet slogan).  Another approach would be use the phrases “Command Economy” or “Five-Year Plan” to evoke the peculiatities of the Soviet economic system.