• Mech over Tac.

    Mech:
    Cheap and easy asset to the game. Good Balance of power and speed, also good to combine with arm.
    Easy to sacrifice and replace.
    I like the Tacbmbr, but when I have to choose one as casualty… :-(
    And most of the time I think twice about it to replace it.
    Late game with good advance I bring 'em in.

    Mech got my vote.


  • I voted Mech given their blitzkrieg fodder benefit.

    However, I am not sure I have yet made the best of TBs. I keep thinking there is some advantage I am routinely failing to grasp. Their inability to scramble / intercept is a significant disadvantage compared to fighters, so I feel they need more than the +1 attack when accompanied by fighters or tanks. What am I missing?

    Perhaps I need to make more of tactical bombing, which I have shied away from whenever there are fighters to intercept?

  • '15

    Tactical bombers can scramble. You’re mistaken.

    But you are right, they cannot intercept (meaning throwing 1’s at bombers and escorts in SBRs).

    They throw a 4 on attack, that’s the main draw, sure, but the also throwing a 3 on defense is the kicker. In the situation of the Germans marching to moscow with the Italians making airstrips for them each turn, the Russians could potentially gleefully counterattack 10 strat bombers sitting there on top of the German stack. 10 tac bombers, however… that’s a bit more of a beastly thing to consider.

    They can also bomb air bases and naval bases. You need two to have the same kind of security that you’d get with a strat bomber doing it, meaning twice as many chances to lose a plane, but it’s a very useful option to have at your disposal.

    I am very happy with tac bombers. Price per performance, I think they are an excellent addition to the game.

    Saying that, I voted for mechanized infantry. But this is a silly poll anyway, to try and compare the two.


  • Thx tes. I only yesterday discovered they could not intercept and extended that to scrambling. They still lose the scramble ability if the AB is bombed, which they cannot intercept. Still uncertain therefore.


  • Tactical bombing by themselves is a bit suboptimal, but you can bring them in with strat bombers so you can take AA casualties on tacs instead of strats.


  • It looks like Mech. is most people’s favorite so far and I see many good reasons why. :-D


  • I like the tac’s for naval purposes.  It is that little extra punch from a fully loaded carrier that can really make a difference.  The defense of coaurse, is reversed but a three and a four on attack and the same on defense seems a good ballanced flight deck.  For land battles, the tac is again a good choice because the punch is the same as a strat bomber but it’s defense is the same as a tank.  I have begun to use mech’s more as I have begun to play the axis more so I can appreciate both units.  I still favor the tac though.

  • '19 '17

    @calvinhobbesliker:

    Tactical bombing by themselves is a bit suboptimal, but you can bring them in with strat bombers so you can take AA casualties on tacs instead of strats.

    I assume you mean on bombing runs, and it doesn’t work like that (TripleA doesn’t handle it correctly). Each facility only shoots AA at the planes attacking it, so if you send 1 tac on the airbase and 2 strats on the industrial complex, your strat bombers are not more protected than if you sent them without the tactical bomber. The airbase will shoot once at the tac, and the factory will shoot twice at the strats.


  • @Adam514:

    @calvinhobbesliker:

    Tactical bombing by themselves is a bit suboptimal, but you can bring them in with strat bombers so you can take AA casualties on tacs instead of strats.

    I assume you mean on bombing runs, and it doesn’t work like that (TripleA doesn’t handle it correctly). Each facility only shoots AA at the planes attacking it, so if you send 1 tac on the airbase and 2 strats on the industrial complex, your strat bombers are not more protected than if you sent them without the tactical bomber. The airbase will shoot once at the tac, and the factory will shoot twice at the strats.

    Oh right, tac bombers can only bomb bases, right? I guess you don’t need to bring in too many bombers to disable a base, since it only needs 3 damage.


  • I am not sure I understood the question. is the question : would I rather play axis global without mechs or tacs for all players? or is it: if my side could only buy one of them; which would i buy.

    Bc, imo Mechs is the most important of those units for the axis. The allies probably would do fine with tac instead of mechs.


  • In an attempt to make the mec. a more appealing purchase, we have included a few house rules to enhance the mec.  It can tow one artillerty unit or cary one redular infintry unit.  We have also included transport trucks that can carry infintry.  This gives a fairly quick moving force.  The trucks and infintry are bullet catchers while the mec and artillery are able to hit a target in support of tanks.  This has helped the axis players alot but has also helped the UK as well.  The US, if making and African or Norwegian landing can benefit from this rule as well.  We’re still play testing this but we have found it an interesting twist to our purchases and stratagies.  Since I play the allies more than the axis, I end up with more tac bombers but I can see the benefits of the new mec abilities.


  • Yeah we play where mech can tow artillery also - good rule.


  • @Der:

    Yeah we play where mech can tow artillery also - good rule.

    Wouldnt that make the Tank redundant ?


  • @Der:

    Yeah we play where mech can tow artillery also - good rule.

    It also has a certain similarity to the rule in A&A Battle of the Bulge which allows truck units to transport artillery and/or troops (in addition to their ability to transport supplies).  And some of the “mech infantry” sculpts in Global actually do depict trucks rather than half-tracks.

    This fun little WWII-era video includes a few shots of jeeps towing artillery pieces…rather aggressively so in one particular scene:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auu7pQWODaI

  • '15

    @Narvik:

    @Der:

    Yeah we play where mech can tow artillery also - good rule.

    Wouldnt that make the Tank redundant ?

    That’s exactly what this does. You’d still want one or two tanks for blitzing, potentially, but otherwise tanks become inferior in every way to mech + art, apart from situations where you had limited production capacity (IE: a mIC) but needed maximum land-based strength in the extreme short term (IE: you are attacking something two spaces away next turn).

    48 IPCs:
    mech+art houserule: 24 blips, 12 hp
    tanks: 24 blips, 8 hp

    This is a bad houserule, and you should feel bad for using it.


  • @teslas:

    48 IPCs:
    mech+art houserule: 24 blips, 12 hp
    tanks: 24 blips, 8 hp

    What’s a blip?


  • Just their name for a pip, “a small but easily countable item, such as the dots on dice or symbols on playing cards”

    In A&A, a unit’s pip value is the highest number it can hit at, so an attacking inf would contribute 1 pip (2 if supported by art), defending inf would contribute 2, tanks 3 on either side, etc.


  • Hmmm…Well this is awkward - we never did the math there - I’ll have to fix that before next game night!

  • '15

    It’s always good to do the math. Always. This whole game boils down to math and positioning, with a bit of luck thrown in to make you hate yourself.

    I have seen my fair share of crazy houserules, some worse than the mech+art thing, but I will say that I am always in favor of finishing a game with the same rules as when it began.


  • @teslas:

    It’s always good to do the math. Always.

    What if 5 IPC tanks from Revised Edition were used with mech and towed artillery - would that restore balance?

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