Bombers transporting infantry

@Valladares
There’s been a lot of discussion on CAs. Two of the more popular opinions seem to be letting them transport 1 Marine/Elite type unit for amphibious attack. The other is giving it some sort of AA capability.

As far as Mech, their mobility is their worth imo. Combine them with Bombers for striking power and they can be quite effective. Some countries will use them more than others. Germany and JPN and UK coming up out of Africa probably the most. I tend to not as much with USA as I like Inf/Arty to establish a beachhead in Western Europe. Then some speed units out of the factories, especially if I’m in Norway. I don’t usually go into Africa with them, but you’d want speed there too imo.

It’s nice to have a small mechanized force with Russia if you can afford it. Just having the threat of a Quick Reaction Force can limit some moves by the enemy. Or at least make them think about it.

Usually like a 2:1 ratio with Armor. Especially Germany. Not sure how others do it. I should probably study some more games others have played. It seems I always get sidetracked doing other stuff though :)

@Imperious:

An 8 IPC air transport carrying a unit 6 spaces is worth far more than a sea transport. You all need to increase the cost to 12

I am only charging 10 IPCs for Fighters, I don’t see charging more than that for planes that can neither attack or defend. But I do agree that fast moving reinforcements are very useful. So, let’s make them 10 IPCs units as well for now.

To re-cap what I am going with for my rule set from all that has been discussed in this thread:

Paratroopers
Unit Name    IPC Cost ATK DEF MOVE Notes
Paratroopers      4      1*  2    1    Noted by Country Marker or an Airborne disc beneath an Infantry.

Paratroopers attack increases to 2 when doing an Airborne Assault. In every round of combat where Paratroopers have done an Airborne Assault, the first offensive casualty of the round must be a Paratrooper.

Cargo Planes
Unit Name    IPC Cost ATK DEF MOVE Notes
Air Transport    10      0    0    6    Noted by Country Marker or an Airborne disc beneath Fighter or Bomber. Can carry one Infantry or Paratroopers unit. May be used to help a Paratroopers unit perform an Airborne Assault.

Paratroopers - The “Poor Bloody Infantry”, now with wings. Can be noted by Country Marker disc or an HBG Airborne marker beneath an Infantry. Paratroopers attack increases to 2 when doing an Airborne Assault OR when combined with Artillery. Combining both bonuses is not allowed.

Air Transport - A grouping of the humble cargo aircraft, this unit has 3x the speed and 1/3 the capacity of regular Transports. Can be noted by Country Marker disc or an HBG Airborne marker beneath Fighter or Bomber. Used to help Paratroopers conduct Airborne Assaults. Except for satisfying hits from AAA, Air Transports can not be taken as casualties in either Attack or Defense and are simply all destroyed if they are the last units present in a defending territory.

For context, in my rule set Transports cost 8 IPCs, have a defense of 1 and a move of 2, and can carry 3 Infantry or 1 (Armor or AAA) and 1 Infantry.

Airborne Assault - During the Combat Movement phase, a power may declare an Airborne Assault. The territory to be attacked by the Airborne Assault must be within the range of at least one of that power’s Air Transports. (Air Transports must end their movement at a friendly territory, no different from any other Combat Movement by an aircraft unit.) Additionally, the territory receiving the Airborne Assault must be no further away than two (ground and/or sea) territories with friendly ground units.
    The Air Transports conducting an Airborne Assault are subject to AAA fire, as per normal rules. If the Air Transport is successful at arriving over the drop zone, (i.e. is not shot down by anti-aircraft fire) then the attacking unit adds a +1 to its attack roll for the duration of that battle. The Air Transport can not be taken as a casualty to satisfy a Land Combat hit taken while fighting the Airborne Assault.
    In every round of combat where Paratroopers have done an Airborne Assault, the first offensive casualty of the round must be a Paratrooper. This is a self-limiting system. Paratroopers keep their attack of 2 for conducting an Airborne Assault for the duration of the Airborne Assault, but are only guaranteed to be around for a number of rounds equal to the number of Paratroopers in the attack.

-Midnight_Reaper

I use a bit different set up in my games. Bombers do well at strategic bombing while still keeping other options.

inf 1/2/1 3Pu AA
art 2/2/1 4Pu AA +1 attack bonus to infantry
arm 3/3/2 5Pu AA blitz

fig 2/2/4 5Pu 2 air at 3 air def
bom 2/1/6 6Pu 2 air at, strategic bomber

sub 2/1/2 4Pu
tra 0/0/0 5Pu
des 2/2/2 6Pu
cru 3/3/2 9Pu AA bombard 3
car 1/2/2 12Pu AA
b.s 4/4/2 16Pu AA bombard 4 2HP

trench 0/1/0 3Pu 2HP, repair, only one can be placed per territory per round.

We play with as a separate step not involving any units - it is just a die roll.

Strategic Bombing:

The K. u. K. Luftfahrtruppen, Deutsche Luftstreitkrafte, Group de Bombardment, Royal Naval Air Service, and Corpo Aeronautico Militare all participated in strategic bombing raids on the enemy during WW1.  
Procedure:  
1. At the beginning of each player’s turn, A-H, Germany, France, Britain, and Italy can roll 1 die to determine if they cause IPC loss to the enemy.  
2. A roll of 1 is a hit (Germany to France or Britain, AH to Italy, Italy to AH, and France and Britain to Germany), a roll of 2 thru 5 is a miss, and a roll of 6 is a miss and causes damage by your strategic campaign to be reduced by 1 for the remainder of the war.  
3. For a hit, roll another die for damage.  A 1, 2, or 3, and that is the IPC loss, a 4, 5, or 6 is 0 IPC loss.  The damage is assessed against the IPC count for the next turn. (If neutral Italy rule in use for turn 1, a hit by A-H will also cause Italy to enter the war.)
4. Damaged bombing capability (roll of 6 in step 2), can be repaired by spending 1 IPC per damage.

No problem, perhaps the thread was moved, because it was viewed more than a 100 times but not answered yet by anyone.

It was a little bit strange to me when I had a look at the original forum this morning. At first sight I thought, the thread was deleted - with no comment. Well, weird, but finally I found the post here. Thank you for your answer!

@Der:

Yeah I guess I should have stuck with the more generic term “troopship” - although the Lusitania was a liner that went down. All ships were vulnerable at certain places and times.

Lusitania, a civilian ship, was sunk in 1915.
Struck by one torpedo, it exploded and sunk because there was ammunitions on board.
Also, it was slow because half engines were temporarily not operational due to a coal shortage.

Not a good case for fast, military, troopship.

SS Athenia was sunk in 1939.
It was the  beginning of WW2.
It was not equipped then and speed was only 15 knots.
But still, a U-boat U-30 was able to sink her.

I am gonna post a new version of mine using KISS. I think it is too complicated.

but i will do that in a new thread :-D

remember the 4X rule in these places and also the variations on costs for infantry depending on VC.

1.  Is there a limit as to the number of infantry that can be built at VCs?

yes of course, the 4x rule…

2.  If China is incapable of replacing American aircraft or building armor, why are they given a factory in the game?  In reality, China had only the capability to build infantry - which was poorly trained and equipt.  The presence of a factory in the game allows for China to build any type of unit.

4x rule allows them to only build artillery or infantry ( or mech)

As infantry are built at victory cities, I propose removing the factory from China.

but what about artillery? China had artillery and they are but an army of misfits w/o them