G40 - Turn 0 - The Setup Round, aka "The Buildup"


  • This kind of goes with Black_Elk’s post on additional randomness.  But I wanted to make it a separate post to consolidate the ideas on this subject in one place.

    I’ve been kicking this around in my head for a while.  Would like any and all suggestions.  This could go with any version of A&A, but I would prefer to focus on G40 issues only.

    Turn 0 - Setup Round - Simulates what was happening prior to 1940  But most importantly, it adds randomness and dynamic setups to the game

    1. Include a TURN 0 - “The Setup Round” aka … “The Buildup”
    2. Have all the initial OOB set-up pieces for each country be placed in a tray instead of directly on the map.
    3. Major Industrial Complexes should be placed on the map in their OOB territories.
    4. All combat units, air bases, naval bases and minor industrial complexes are placed in a tray instead of their OOB setup positions on the map.
    5. Countries place unit(s) on the map per their turn order until all units are placed.
    6. Prior to placing their unit(s), each country first rolls one d6.  The country may place the number of units indicated by that roll.
    7. Keep going until all units are placed on the map.
    8. Land units may only be placed in countries’ originally controlled territories.  <–- That’s supposed to be an 8 … but “8 + ) = 8) apparently!”
    9. Sea Units must be placed in sea-zones adjacent to, or surrounding, a countries’ originally controlled territories

    Primary purpose of this would be to add new starts to the game and extend the game’s shelf-life.

    However, secondary purpose of this would be a very crude way to simulate what was happening prior to 1940.  … The “TURN 0” represents the buildups that were taking place prior to 1940.  Each country would have a chance to react to what the other countries are doing while placing and building-up their units on the map.  … again, this is a very CRUDE simulation of pre-1940’s politics and situations.  But it would be a way to have dynamic G40 setups without turning the game into Risk 2.0.

  • 2024 '22 '21 '19 '15 '14

    Oh cool, we’re back! For a few days there I wasn’t able to get the site up.

    I like the idea of a round 0 build up, but I think the implementation needs more work.

    The first issue I’m anticipating is just sheer amount of time it would take to go around the table piece for piece. Beyond that you also have the issue of players matching each other (out in the open) by choosing to place all their TUV in just a few hot spots, at the expense of everywhere else. And finally, without any limits or caps for individual territories or sea zones you will likely see a ton of front line units, placed just outside the range of any opening attacks.

    My suggestion would be to have more structure to the zero round, more rules defining where the units can be placed, or perhaps some kind of initiative role to determine the sequence in which they are placed.

    One approach might be to just scale back the number of units or ipcs that are included in this process. So instead of taking all the starting TUV and putting that in a tray, you might just use a portion of the total, or perhaps instead allow players to add some smaller amount of TUV on top of the normal starting totals. Not only would that make things faster, it would also provide some much needed structure to the set up process.

    Particularly with sea zones, instead of a race to be the first to occupy the contested ones (that border multiple originally controlled territories), you could restrict where naval units can be added to just those sea zones that already have a ship etc. Same deal with land.

    You might make it a secret placement only revealed after everyone has recorded all their placements. Or you could break it down by unit type, first bases then inf then tanks then fighters then ships etc.

    For ease of use, the more this zero round looked like a bid the easier it would be to implement. Although in this case it would be like a bid for all sides.

    Again I like the idea a lot, I just think it needs more polish.

Suggested Topics

  • 7
  • 8
  • 2
  • 11
  • 12
  • 4
  • 3
  • 4
Axis & Allies Boardgaming Custom Painted Miniatures

35

Online

17.0k

Users

39.2k

Topics

1.7m

Posts