Here’s an idea I came up with when playing with my buddy. It works for most of the recent World theater games (the Axis advantage boards, AA50 and later.)
For each game round, each player/nation receives a number of IPCs in bonus income equivalent to the number of the current game round.
Example:
Round 1. +1 ipc
Round 2. +2 ipcs
Round 3. +3 ipcs
Round 4. +4 ipcs
Round 5. +5 ipcs
and so on
…
Round 10. +10 ipcs
…
Round 13. +13 ipcs
You get the idea.
Each player nation that can collect income receives this bonus every round.
The Rule has several functions…
It aids in tracking the current game round. The number of rounds you’ve been playing is the number of extra ipcs you receive at the end of the collect income phase.
It serves as a game resolution mechanism. As the game progresses and the bonus increases, more attack power becomes available at purchase for the current player.
It can be used as a way to balance the game by sides. Since most of the recent Axis advantage boards include more total Allied nations than Axis nations, the total economic advantage over time would tilt in favor of the Allies. Helping to balance those boards back in the Allied direction, but doing this only slowly over the coarse of the entire game.
It introduces novelty to the purchasing phase, allowing different options each game round than would be available under the OOB standards.
The idea came to us, when comparing the A&A endgame to the endgame in Risk (under an ascending bonus for the card trade.)
We thought that playing A&A with a similar sort of Ascending bonus might be fun. It also occurred to us that in a face to face game, sometimes it is easy to lose track of time and progress many rounds at a go, which sometimes lead to the question “Damn its late, how many rounds have we been playing anyway?!” haha
:-D
This rules provides a ready answer, since all players will eagerly attend to their bonus IPCs. In the 5 man games, Russia especially will have a reason to get excited, since they usually start the turn order. In AA50 1941 or Global, it will be the German player who starts out the income bonus, and sets the pace.
In each game, the purchasing variety is opened up over OOB conditions, and will continue to open up over the course of play, with the advantage over time accruing to the nations that have strong positions in the turn order. The bonus allows for more big ticket buys, especially after the 6th round when the bonus can be used for an extra tank or sub, and after the 10th round when aircraft become available as bonus purchase options. For each round, starting from the first, new purchase options are available to every nation, as they now puzzle out how to best put their extra 1 ipc. During the second round, each nation has an extra remainder of 2 ipcs. In the third round each nation receives 3, the equivalent of an extra infantry unit in bonus ipcs! And so on.
This rule keeps all player nations engaged, and any nation that can survive into the endgame will become rather more effective. For example if a weaker nation can simply survive, eventually they will have enough cash to throw around in bonus IPCs, to remain an annoyance for their enemies. On the other hand, stronger nations will be even stronger over time! As their base advantages are slowly augmented by the ascending bonus.
The side with the positional edge, has a much stronger incentive to push forward and be aggressive early, since each turn/round that elapses brings the bonus up and makes the stakes even higher for the underdog.
Any thoughts?
