Hello everyone. I’m really happy I started to participate in this board. Already I’m going to implement my now HIGHLY REVISED 3-Turn playing system, the new Naval Air Strike and Navy Rules, and also Young Grasshopper’s High-Luck casualty system (the new version with BM’s 1, 2, 3, and 4 hit system) YG, if you like BM’s 1, 2, 3, 4 idea, you might want to consider updating your original post so everyone can easily see the system.
So, I hope my playing group isn’t overwhelmed with all the changes in our next game! But I think they will be pleasantly surprised. The ideas on this board are very sound indeed.
OK …. on to the topic …
I have never played G40 using the R&D chart. (in fact, the last time I played using R&D was with the original version waayyyy back in the late '80s … Heavy Bombers!) I think the OOB rules for this just put nations that are already winning into overdrive … it’s almost like a positive feedback loop.
I’ve read a lot of ideas here and have an idea for a House Rule proposal … but I want to just throw up some balloons and get some ideas first. So here goes without too much detail. These ideas would be for the basic mechanism for then creating an actual set of R&D upgrades around these mechanisms.
Upgraded Units Want them? … Well, build them.
I think any upgraded units should have to be purchased first. If Heavy Bombers are researched, GREAT! … But guess what? The “Heavy Bomber Fairy” is not going to suddenly appear and magically turn all of your existing Halifaxes into Lancasters. You need to build them first! The regular bombers should stay “as is” and any new bombers should be the new generation. The same applies to any other “upgraded” unit including subs, mobile artillery … or whatever other unit you want to include an R&D rule for. Maybe I haven’t looked deep enough into the board yet, but I haven’t seen this discussed before.
Researching Abilities - Non Random
I have seen this discussed quite often, and I think the Global War variant has something in place … but it looks complicated. Maybe that is good for Global War, but I like to think that G40 is slightly more abstracted and simplified than Global War.
It has always struck me as very “gamey” and anti-historical the way that R&D upgrades are granted in such a random manner. Why would Japan accidentally get a tank upgrade? Their scientist were more focused on the things that mattered (or in hindsight , SHOULD have mattered) to their national interests.
Therefore, I would like the mechanic to focus around a “Point System”. Each research item should be given a value. (Let’s say Mobile Artillery has an R&D value of 10) Then, a research dice is purchased for 5ipcs. You roll it. And you advance that number towards the Mobile Artillery upgrade.
I’ve seen discussions and variants of this. Where a “1” is total fail. And a “6” is automatically granted. … But I would like to discuss a method that is both very simple and more realistic.
So in summary, I’m hoping to not discuss the exact list of varios upgrades and techs that should be available. Rather, I would like to come up first with a good system of researching new technologies and upgrades. It should be simple, yet realistic and balanced. Once we have a mechanism, it would be cool to come up with a set of techs and upgrades based on this mechanism.