• @shadowguidex:

    Every nation had their elite or specialized troops. I’m totally against adding Marines. My experiences as a soldier in the Army also bias me since Marines are nothing special.

    I wish I could smite you, but that option was taken away by the mods one year ago. Fortunately you are allowed to change your opinion one time, and do the right thing, before I close this poll.

    On topic:
    You are correct, every nation had elite forces.

    US Marines was not some lame elite force, it was a million man army inside the army. And they had Landing Craft’s. As you propably should have figured, amphibious assaults do favor men that come with Landing Crafts. So basically the Marines unit is not superhumans, but plain infantry that happen to use Landing Crafts. Lets imagine you pay 3 IPC for the inf and the extra 1 IPC is for the Landing Craft. Happy now ? Only USA had this advantage during WWII. The other nations had to use canoes when they invaded some crap island.

  • Liaison TripleA '11 '10

    Actually, don’t lie Razor, you guys stole the landing craft technology from the Japs in the 30’s.

    Your own “Intelligence” department put the information, one of your guys on his own personal time studied whilst in china, in a folder labelled “The work of some wacko in south east asia”.

    I know the truth!

  • Liaison TripleA '11 '10

    For the record…

    While stationed as an observer in Shanghai during the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, Krulak took photographs with a telephoto lens of a ramp-bowed landing boat that the Japanese had been using. Recognizing the potential use of such a craft by the U.S. armed forces, Krulak sent details and photographs back to Washington, but discovered years later that they had been filed away as having come from “some nut out in China”.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_H._Krulak

    There are other sources as well.  PRE-Wikipedia.


  • There is no denying that marines did play a very important part in the PTO and it would be great to see them in as an option. I have never believed that out-right denying the player the option to do something was a good move for game design. However, Marines run into the problem with giving us the option of “you CAN buy marines and deploy them in huge stacks……buy WHY would you want to?” Marines are great in terms of flavor and for personal choice, however they die just as easy as Mech infantry, coast as much, defend as well, but have none of the extra movement that makes the mech worth the 4IPC coast. Also, the rules state that marines only attack on a 2 or less when conducting an amphibious assault meaning that if your fighting overland all you have are slightly discoloured and more expensive infantry, that die just as easy. So really, your paying the extra IPC for what works out to be a one trick poney. Not saying I dont like the idea, but I can see them leaving it out of the final product.

    Including Marines would also put the game on the slippery slope of “well if you are going to include elite troops for America, why not include them for everyone?”. Again, this isnt a bad idea in and of itself, however, it might add more complications to the game. You would need to come up with different special abalities depending on what each nation would have. Also, in regards to Germany, their elite unit would likely be the SS and I believe that including them in the game would add a rather dark element given the history of these formations and what some of them did in the actual war. It adds something to the game that is left out by leaving the infantry as just genaric troops.

    Again, I dont think its a bad idea as a house rule, or even an optional rule in the last offical rules update, I just dont think it should be a staple of the game

  • Customizer

    Everyone,

    Gargantua makes an excellent point concerning Victor Krulak’s inteligence,…But itonly concerned the forward bow ramp that was later employed on the modified designs of A.J. Higgins “Eureka” boats.  Higgins had been making his Eureka’s for many years before for the oil companies, hunters, and the US Corps of Engineers.  This ultimately lead to the famous LCVP “Higgins” boat.

    I’d recommend two good books on this subject:
    Krulak”, by Robert Coram and "Andrew Jackson Higgins and the Boats that Won World War II, by Jerry Strahan.  The book about Higgins tells of the battle that he, and later the Marines had to wage with the Navy itself to overcome their “politics”.  Great reading!
                                                                                      “Tall Paul”


  • Ok, so the USA had better landing craft.  But other nations had better equipment in other areas, too.  Why include something like this for only one nation?

    If we start making different units for different countries, then we’re making a fundamental change to A&A.  I’m not saying that it wouldn’t be good as a house rule or something, but it adds a lot of complexity to the game that really isn’t necessary.

  • '10

    The amtrac actually saw more and more use in the Pacific as the war went on. The Higgins had trouble getting stuck in the coral, and the amtrac offered exit in the rear of the vehicle instead of the door lowering in the front.

  • '10

    I like the idea of Marines.  But why not make them just like the Japanese Kamikaze Rule?  Instead of being “Special Units” the USA gets a number of Amphibian Assaults that can be DECLARED as Marine assaults.  The landing infantry get a first combat round advantage.


  • @Razor:

    US Marines was not some lame elite force, it was a million man army inside the army. And they had Landing Craft’s. As you propably should have figured, amphibious assaults do favor men that come with Landing Crafts. So basically the Marines unit is not superhumans, but plain infantry that happen to use Landing Crafts. Lets imagine you pay 3 IPC for the inf and the extra 1 IPC is for the Landing Craft. Happy now ? Only USA had this advantage during WWII. The other nations had to use canoes when they invaded some crap island.

    WHOOO HOOO!  preps desk, fills pen ink, polishes apple, sharpens the chalk…to throw at you

    gotta love statements like, ‘only USA had landing craft during ww2.’  short, sweet, definitive…and wrong.  Any idea who the Ami’s got the idea for landing craft with a front drop down ramp?  Any idea what other nation was invested heavily in amphib invasions?   Thats right we got our landing craft design from the Japanese!   They got the same deal going.

    ***EDIT:
    Gah, Garg beat me to it!  Dang it man!


  • If you amphibiously invade an island with 1 infantry/1 artillery per transport you can call them “Army”; if you use 1 infantry/1 armor you can call them “Marines”.  Problem solved.

  • Liaison TripleA '11 '10

    I like it Lego Vance!


  • Hmmm… What’s the whole point?

    Just buy an artillery for 4IPC and it will attack at ALL time with 2.

    Why would anyone even bother to buy Marine?


  • @MightyPol:

    Hmmm… What’s the whole point?

    Just buy an artillery for 4IPC and it will attack at ALL time with 2.

    Why would anyone even bother to buy Marine?

    I guess the marine would be able to fill the infantry slot on a transport, so that another non-infantry unit could be used.


  • Lego man is shooting an MG42 machine gun


  • I never liked the idea of armor or artillery being good at amphibious assaults. I think only marine units should get to attack on a 2 during amphibious assaults and everything else is a 1. Since this would make it very hard to land troops maybe BBs and CAs could fire every round during an amphibious assault to return the balance, but make the amphibious assaults rely more on naval/marine units instead of land units.

  • Liaison TripleA '11 '10

    The bottom line is, that these kinds of units are COOL.

    That’s why people want them instituted in the game.

    That’s why the waffen SS should be instituted.

    You can by infantry, or you can buy Waffen SS troops at $4. They attack at 2 when paired with artillery, OR tanks, OR mechanized. :D  or something else? lol I don’t know.


  • Waffen SS should be a tank unit. The most famous veteran German forces are armored divisions that where Waffen SS. The infantry divisions were not the heavy hitters, though they did have a number of these as well.


  • US Marines and German SS are both very good ideas.  For UK, I propose that any infantry units mobilized in Canada should have an attack of 2.


  • If you are going to go this route, then you need a special unit for every nation. However IL makes a good point, it dosnt need to be an infantry unit. That would really open up the possibilities you could have a special artillery unit that represents the massive Soviet concentrations of artillery during the war that can support 3 infantry and call it the guards artillery. You could give the Japanese a special amphibious tank thats gets a bouns when it attacks in an amphibious assaults but maybe make it defend on a 2 instead of a 3 to represent the SNLF (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Special_Naval_Landing_Forces). Britian is a bit more difficult because they have so many options! You could give them a specail cruiser that takes 2 hits to kill to represent the duribility of the Royal Navy, you could give them a special fighter that when fighting over england and the channel attacks on a 3 to represent the spitfire or a special infantry to represent the myrdrid number of elite formations from around the empire. Though I wonder what you would use for the Italians, ANZACs or even the Chinese?


  • @Imperious:

    Waffen SS should be a tank unit. The most famous veteran German forces are armored divisions that where Waffen SS. The infantry divisions were not the heavy hitters, though they did have a number of these as well.

    We cant have SS units, the game would be banned in all of Europe and Larry would propably go to jail next time he visited Europe. Sorry, but Europe is not the home of the free and brave, its a land of censorship actually. Draw a cartoon and name it mohammad and you go to jail for offending religion.

    What we can have is a Elite unit that is paratrooper, marine and ranger all in one. Propably wont happen.  :-(

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