Type 2 Ka-Mi Amphibious Tank

Well, it is an collectible miniatures game so you’re going to have a few junk pieces. I might be good for scenario play.

i was in the amphibious assault vehicles section in the marines, those things have a good reason for being there. The stat card is wrong any ways, this thing carried troops, something like 6 i think. But one of the greatest reasons for having this thing was supplies. this thing could get you supplies no matter where you were in a hurry. i know that doesn’t mean much in this game, but in real combat, it dose.

The real useless piece is the tankette.  You don’t really need reconnaissance in a game where you can see all the enemy pieces.

Well, so far, even with set II, I think the Japanese are a little bit weaker because of one big reason. They have nothing really strong. Yes, they can have hordes and hordes of units but when they are match with one big adversary unit, say the Easy Eight or even a single KV-1, they just don’t have what it takes to take it out. As well, their different bonus in forest hexes aren’t that useful because there isn’t enough forest hexes in all the tiles so far.

What’s bad is that I have zons of Japanese and I would like to try to play only with them, but I’m always afraid that because of the lack of punch they have, my adversary will field a huge tank unit and litteraly destroy me while I stand still unable to do anything against him.

Anyways, I think you’re right when you say that the Amphibious tank and the tankette are bad. I’m talking in a game terms way, not historically.

That’s my 2 cents.

@General:

The real useless piece is the tankette.  You don’t really need reconnaissance in a game where you can see all the enemy pieces.

this is where house rules come in, i think we should all attempt to make a house rule that allows us to hide our units, and too only reveil them to the enemy when they are in line of sight. if we each come up with an idea we could take the best parts of all of them and combine it for one good “hide” rule. or am i alone in thinking that would be a good idea?

Personally, I’m truly not against home rules, but I think it’s dangerous because, if you make one house rule, than another, than another and so on…you just kill the fact that this game is fun because it’s simple. I’ve been playing many war games and what’s so fun about this one is that you can just play a game in 30 minutes.
But in another way, it’s true house rule rock, 'cause you make the game your own.
In regards of the rule for hide, I think it could be really easy to handle. With mini map of the real map, you write down were your hiding units are and when an ennemy pass at “x” hexes of your own hex, you’re discovered or something like that. That could be great and enhance the strategic aspect a lot, but games would take a little bit longer to be played.

I think “house rules” as listed on many of these chat boards re: all the Axis and Allies games are mostly stupid.  You can’t expect total realism from a board game that uses dice to resolve everything.  And you also lose some of the playability when you burden the game with too many rules.  That was the problem with the old Avalon Hill games, the old tile games.  Every time I made a move I had to consult the rule book to see what the heck I was doing.

On the other hand, I have used house rules from time to time… just to tweak things a bit.  One of my “house rules” actually became a rule change. (but not because of me).

In Axis and Allies Europe, I changed the destroyer shore bombardment to 2 or less, down from 3 or less.  This rule was actually written into the Axis and Allies Pacific rulebook and I believe the revised Europe rules.  Beforehand, my opponent never invaded Normandy.  He just used destroyers to blast my German infantry divisions at 3 or less.

I also contemplated allowing defending infantry to hit at 3 or less in amphibious assaults, which was also made an optional rule in Axis and Allies revised.

I think a hide rule in Axis and Allies Miniatures would bog down the game.  You actually have some secrecy already, because you don’t know what army your opponent is going to have as you select your own units.

Now, another point.  World War II would have been a lot less bloody had the warring powers used dice to decide battles instead of real bullets.  For instance, Rommel and Montgomery would meet at the center of the battlefield and throw dice on a small table… never mind…

@General:

Now, another point.  World War II would have been a lot less bloody had the warring powers used dice to decide battles instead of real bullets.  For instance, Rommel and Montgomery would meet at the center of the battlefield and throw dice on a small table…… never mind…

yeah but patton would have thrown the dice in rommels face and shot him in the confussion :lol:

the hide rule, i think would be better suited for senerio play, if its just a point game then dont bother, it would add time to an otherwise quick game.

Not sure what to say here but I like house rules as appropriate.

@Otto_Skorzeny:

Well, so far, even with set II, I think the Japanese are a little bit weaker because of one big reason. They have nothing really strong. Yes, they can have hordes and hordes of units but when they are match with one big adversary unit, say the Easy Eight or even a single KV-1, they just don’t have what it takes to take it out. As well, their different bonus in forest hexes aren’t that useful because there isn’t enough forest hexes in all the tiles so far.

The Japanese have the Ho-Ni which can contend with Shermans and their only 12 pts. After Set II has been out for a while, get a bunch of those and you can have a light tank that packs a punch. The Japanese will be best in scenario play preferably 1942 against the US.

In tournament mode the Ho-Ni is a great piece for the Axis. It’s a light tank that can really pack a punch. Take your big tank and two of these and your opponent might be in trouble.

I haven’t used the Japanese yet, but it seems to me that the special Bonzai charge can easily be stopped by defensive fire of soldiers.  It’s great against tanks, but doesn’t seem to help in an area where one would most need it.

The funny thing about the amphibious tank, although I don’t really plan to use it too much, it seems really popular when I show my collection to my friends.  They always pick it up and say, “Now this looks so cool”, etc…

I don’t think your enemy should get defensi-fire against banzai charge because defensive-fire occurs during movement phase, not assault phase.

Defensive fire may occur anytime when a unit moves from one hex adjacent to an enemy unit to another hex adjcanent to that same unit… I think that is stated pretty clearly in the rules.

I second that.

Well, I played US vs Japanese 150 pt. game this morning with a friend.  I wanted to field a total Japanese Army.  I have everything but the Type I Ho-Ni.  2 of these were the Ka-Mi Amphib Tanks.

It pretty much consisted of my whole army being annilated by 2 Shermans and an Easy Eight.  Neither of the Ka-Mi’s lasted to round 4.  I was pretty disappointed with the Japanese army as a whole.  Even the Sniper could do little more than keep a soldier unit suppressed with it’s 5 dice attack.  I’m hoping Set III will beef them up a little bit.

Interesting tactic, my friend used 3 BAR’s.  Since the unit attacked by the BAR can’t make an attack that turn, he managed to keep 3 of my Anti-Tank Guns basically out of the fight while he maneuvered his Shermans.  So Jeeps can transport other good things besides Bazooka’s. 

Seems like the Japanese aren’t so tough.

Well… during the war, the Japanese suffered much much greater casualty totals than the U-S Marines who were charged with eliminating them from the tiny Pacific atolls where they had entrenched themselves.  A recent History Channel special on Guadalcanal and Tarawa illustrated this… as the entire Japanese defense forces were wiped out through overwhelming U-S numbers, fire power (naval bombardments… whew…), and a refusal to surrender alive.  I believe just about all 15,000 Japanese soldiers on Guadalcanal were killed after months of terrible fighting.

The going there for the U-S Marines was especially instructive but very tough, despite the victories.  1000 Marines were killed during the first 4 days at Tarawa.

These kind of battles can’t really be reproduced in this game… there are no jungles of dense hex-to-hex foliage… and the biggest reason is… there are no entrenchments or defensive positions factored into the game.  Yes there is cover… but it’s not quite the same.

As we all know… an assault on a well dug in enemy who has the high ground could result in very heavy casualties for the attacker…

Just some thoughts… We woudl all love to be able to really recreate the conditions… but we are at the mercy of hexes and dice.

@DFlynSqrl:

Well, I played US vs Japanese 150 pt. game this morning with a friend.  I wanted to field a total Japanese Army.  I have everything but the Type I Ho-Ni.  2 of these were the Ka-Mi Amphib Tanks.

The Ho-Ni should be able to threat the Shermans. In fact they are so cheap, points-wise, that if you have enough of them, you can really threaten a US team.

Japan needs the Ho-Ni. But it’s going to be hard to get enough of these for cheap $$ until the next set comes out and by then it may not be an issue.

In tournament mode, a Ho-Ni on your Axis army is going to be well worth it’s point value.

After reviewing defensive fire rules… since each enemy unit (unless otherwise stated) can make only one defensive fire attack per phase, there is a good chance some of your banzai charging Japanese infantry will get through without opening themselves up to defensive fire.  For istance, if you rush two infantry into a hex containing one enemy unit, you are guaranteed one will get through to Banzai!!

That is really a great special ability.

I believe the Wermacht Oberleutnant can send his men into such a frenzy, also.