I should also add that for a “bid”, we give the US “improved shipyards” and that seems to balance things out.

Yeah that makes sense

@doomer1940 I agree with you I’m working on fixing it

Research is super fun, but can seriously unbalance the game if a player gets lucky with their first couple rolls. Therefore, we play that the player chooses which tech to research, however better techs have a lower chance of being successfully researched.

The mechanism of researching is the same, you buy research tokens (dice rolls), roll for success, if none hit the tokens are banked for next turn and can roll again at no cost, if successful the tech is gained and the tokens are removed and must be rebought to do more research . The cost of each token (die roll) is increased to 8 IPC (normally is 5). But, tier 1 techs will be successfully researched with a roll of 3 or lower, tier 2 with roll of 2 or lower, and tier 3 with roll of 1:

(3/6 chance) 1. adv artillery, inc factory prod . || mech infantry, war bonds
(2/6 chance) 2. long-range aircraft, radar . . . . || paratroopers, rockets
(1/6 chance) 3. heavy bombers, super subs . . || jet fighters, improved shipyards

To balance out how multiple techs are gained, we separated complimentary tech into opposing groups to prevent them from easily being researched too quickly back-back and becoming OP. To research a tier 2 or 3 tech at least one tech from the tier below must be already obtained from WITHIN the branch. Note, the techs are separated into left and right branches.

So to get heavy bombers (left, tier 3), you could research adv artillery or factory prod (left, tier 1) then radar or long-range air (left, tier 2). Then, to get jet fighters (right, tier 3), you’d have to also research 2 corresponding lower tier techs in the right branch, because adv artillery/radar/etc. don’t count towards the necessary lower tier techs for the right branch.

Thoughts?

@Grinchveld Yeah, its all essentially the same thing just slightly different ways of presenting it. In my experience, most people hate fractions/decimals. My guess is 2 reasons: 1. they kind of appear less clean and more complex then integers, 2. many people really struggle with even simple fraction/decimal math.

These house rules are meant to make the game more realistic while staying as simple as possible.

Battleships cost 14 IPCs. They cost 1 IPC to repair.

Switzerland has an IPC value of 4.

The U.K. can only produce up to 4 units per turn in India. If India is captured by the Central Powers, the Central Powers cannot produce units there.

If a capital is captured, the IPCs are discarded and not taken by the capturing power.

Neutral territories that are not home territories still get units if invaded.

Sea units, except submarines, must end their movement when they enter a sea zone with enemy mines.

Units that retreat from a contested territory cannot move into another contested territory. They may move into any adjacent friendly territory.

There is a combat move and a non-combat move. During the combat move, units can move into neutral, contested, and enemy territories. The non-combat move comes after combat. During the non-combat move, units that did not move during the combat move and did not conduct combat can move into friendly territories. Land units can move an unlimited number of territories during the non-combat move within their original territories.

Optional Manpower Rule

Keep track of the infantry that are destroyed for each power. If a power has had 2x the number of their infantry destroyed as their starting IPC value (rounded up), they may only collect half of the total IPC value of their territories when they collect income (rounded up). If a power has had 4x the number of their infantry destroyed as their starting IPC value (rounded up), they may only collect the IPC value of their capital territory when they collect income.

War in the North
Part 2: Speeding up the Timeline

Operation Underbelly - Europe.png

This depiction assumes your 3 “flex” infantry were placed in Georgia.

I’ve been giving some more thought to the proposed attack on Norway (and into Sweden) and here’s what I’ve figured out:

This move likely won’t work if you have to counter-attack Greece on round 2 You need to place some “flex” infantry in Orel, on round 1 You need to be able to place 3 infantry in Poland on round 2 (thus speeding up the “Baltic Wall” tactic)

If you’re unable to do these things, then I would avoid this “accelerated” attack in the north. As you can see on the map, the proposed moves on round 1 leave you with 2 heavy tanks in Romania. These will be used as the main offensive units for this action, which is why the situation of a strong NATO landing into Greece on round 1 has the ability to derail this maneuver, as these tanks will be needed for that counter-attack instead.

On round 2, whatever infantry you gathered in Komi must move to Karelia to support the attack on Norway. This is why we need infantry in Orel on round 1, so that we can move them to Komi on round 2 (replacing those units moved up, for the attack.) Also on round 2, we’ll want to move our heavy tanks from Romania to Karelia; this culminates in an attack on Norway in round 3.

Technically, you can still counter-attack Greece, and then non-combat move to Poland, keeping your heavy tanks in range of Norway, but leaving them stranded there when they do attack. We want to set them up such that they can withdraw back to Karelia after taking Norway. On the other hand, if they can be provided with enough covering infantry in Norway, then they can attack Sweden on the following turn(s), and be repositioned to Karelia after, which would also be ideal.

The reason we want to complete the Baltic Wall early, is so that the Norway attack can coincide with our move out of West Germany and into Switzerland. This might not be a necessary move, so I’ll explain the thinking behind it. Essentially what we want to do is bait NATO into moving their navy into the Baltic Sea, as well as to land their bombers in Norway, so that we can trap the former and destroy the latter.

On round 2, we should be able to place 31 infantry; here’s how I would suggest spreading those around:

West Germany: 4 inf
Poland: 3 inf
[Balkans]: 4 inf
Karelia: 4 inf
Georgia: 3 inf
Kazakhstan: 2 inf
Turkmenistan: 2 inf
[Pakistan if controlled, otherwise Mongolia]: 1 inf
East Siberia: 4 inf
Kamchatka: 2 inf
North Korea: 2 inf

If we do this, and we move our infantry out of Orel on the same round, this leaves that territory undefended. Orel is in range of paratroopers from both France and the UK (where NATO bombers could reasonably expect to be stationed) but only if those bombers fly over the AA gun in Karelia, to land in Norway. This is an excellent situation for us, if we are in a position to attack Norway on round 3. If we keep our reserves nearby on round 2, then we are also well-positioned to counter-attack Orel, with infantry drawn from surrounding territories (primarily Georgia) and without needing to pull tanks away from our main frontline in Europe. Our heavy tanks in Romania (if not used against Greece or Yugoslavia) can also hit Orel on round 2, and end their movement in Karelia.

Now, if we abandon West Germany on round 3, that means NATO can capture the territory (thus re-opening the strait to them) on the same round. If this is done on the WE or UK turn, then potentially UK and US ships can move into the Baltic on the same round. If we retake West Germany in force on round 4, we can trap these ships in the Baltic Sea. As such, we want to be in a position to take Sweden, closing the trap for good, and allowing us to permanently withdraw from West Germany. To facilitate this, we’ll want to place heavy tanks in Karelia on round 3. The placement of these units will be covered by infantry placed in Orel on round 1, moving to Komi on round 2, and then Karelia on round 3. Our combined heavy tank force (potentially including Reserve Group C) can simply move through Norway, to attack Sweden as early as round 4; they can either stay put, or move to Norway on non-combat (if we can get enough infantry fodder to Norway at the same time.)

This means that deployment of heavy armor to East Siberia will be delay until round 4 or (I would recommend) round 5. Ultimately, South Korea is not much of a prize; we mainly want to concern ourselves with keeping North Korea under Soviet control. We also have to decide early on whether to commit our reserves to this northern initiative, so pay attention to the result of other battles, and be mindful of the global situation at all times; whichever reserves we commit to this plan will miss out on one (or both) of our attacks against India.

Reserve Group A can be move to Kazakhstan or Ukraine, and still effectively counter-attack Orel; it just depends if we want them to commit them long-term to Europe or to Asia. If they attack Orel from Ukraine, they can be moved to Karelia for a follow-up attack on Norway, if needed. Likewise, Reserve Group C can strafe India on round 2 (ending in Sinkiang) and still hit Orel on round 3, but with no movement left to reposition. Ultimately, it’s a matter of balancing out the amount of force to apply to each theatre, and where you want to commit your units long-term.

Back in the day, I had been reading up on all sorts of A&A stuff: some of the “limited” scenarios (where not all nations were used/played) on thrasher’s A&A site, as well as World at War and its use of an “impulse” turn for the Axis.

I kind of wanted to combine some of those ideas, with a setting earlier than Classic’s “Spring 1942” which Larry Harris described (in a video during the credits of Iron Blitz) as the “high-water mark of the Axis expansion.” My knowledge of WWII kind of suggested that the highest mark prior to that, would be 1941 – specifically when most of France’s colonies were still collaborationist, or had not yet been captured by the British, and when Italy still controlled east Africa.

I can recall sharing this with a friend back in 2007, so this sort of comes after the original Europe and Pacific games, but prior to Global. As you might guess, this kind of shared the mindset that would go on to create that game. Essentially, the game is broken into 3 theatres – one Axis power for each. If that Axis power is either defeated, or achieves their objectives, then their theatre merges with at least one other. (i.e. Italy must be defeated in Africa before the western Allies can start to attack Germany)

For simplicity, I kept the starting unit setup the same, with units changing nationality if their territory also changed. For balance, the Axis were given some early bonuses, and (also for historical reasoning) the USA and USSR both had restrictions in the first round. I also included some further clarification to the 2nd Edition rules, as well as some changes (such as adding some complexes, but all complexes being limited in the number of units they can produce.)

Anyways, I have most of the documentation saved, it probably just needs some updated formatting; I wanted to post here first, so as to gauge interest and see if I should go through with the process of cleaning up what I have.

Thanks for reading 🙂 hopefully there are some enthusiastic responses!

Updated. Simplified the rules more.