Well when I floated the impassable Siberia idea, I was only taking myself half seriously, though the more a think on it the more attractive it’s becoming.
If re-drafting the map, it’s possible to draw the impassable Siberia space such that it extends to block any Mongolian bypass. Then having a Soviet production center wouldn’t do a whole lot for Japan, since even if they did mobilize units there, they would just have to back track them anyway. I think the most signicant thing about going with an impassable Siberia, is that it limits the usefulness of Japanese aircraft in the region (should that Russian production center fall), since they wouldn’t be able to fly over the tile to immediately crash the party in Europe.
I do like the idea of rail, but I think that falls more into the scope of an HR element than a map redesign. Although there is a kind of precedent here, with the Burma road being represented on the map. Right now it does seem a bit lonely all by itself. The only kink with transiberian rail, is that it should probably be complimented by Trans Europe rail, or Trans American rail, but I don’t know how ambitious YG is, if he wants to explore those kinds of options.
I also think having an impassable Ural range to develop a choke point would be cool. Perhaps there are other regions of the map that could receive this treatment as well? Then the impassables could be a sort of theme with the re-drafting. Right now China encompasses a rather large area without a whole lot of distinguishing features, maybe some impassable terrain would make it more interesting?
ps. how about something like this? …
You take Siberia, the Gobi Desert, the Altay Mountains, and turn them into terrain features to create a soviet far eastern pocket. This impassible tile would follow the basic contour of the current Yenisey territory (for Siberia), and then stretch down along the southern border of Mongolia (to form the Gobi desert) up to the territory called Central Mongolia. The Russian production tile here would likely be Yakut.
If desired, we could use those, along with the Urals, to create an additional central asian pocket. This one would roughly follow the western contour of the current Urals, and Novosibirsk territories down to Kazakhstan. The Russian production tile there could be Evenki. Then you’d have like a 3 tiered game for control of Eurasia, the Moscow/Europe pocket that focuses on Germany, the Central pocket that focuses on China, and the Far East pocket, each working more or less independently of each other. If you wanted you could run a rail graphic along those terrain features, and then say something like these associated production territories are meant to represent rail hubs. Gives a nod to the existence of the railroad, but eliminates the need to create new movement rules. Basically just using the terrain to create more permanent "speedbump-like’ divisions of the game board. I think it might be interesting.
I’d consider majors for the production along the hubs. Since those are immediately downgraded if captured, they’d be much more useful to Russia than they would be to Japan, which again seems to fit the theme.
I guess my thought above to the Caroline Islands have a 1 IPC value was more based on Iwo Jima having a 1 IPC value already on the map despite its zero resource value. Both are strategic and both are worthless when it comes to resources.
I decided to provide another post based on what was made earlier.
Changes to the Map:
USSR would begin with 41 IPCs.
Impassable Siberia, this would be East of the Urals territory up to West of Yakut, this also runs through part of Mongolia.
Yakut, Amur, and Novosibirsk worth 2 IPCs now, Yakut has a minor IC on it.
Impassable Gobi desert in China.
Some new Chinese territories, these new ones worth no IPCs.
Vyborg and Bessarabia worth 1 IPC, Soviets wanted these for a reason.
Novgorod worth 3 IPCs, Leningrad had as much Industrial potential as Moscow.
Create more distance between USA and Japan.
Add Azores Islands, as a Pro-Allies territory.
Eire is Strict Neutral and has 2 Infantry.
Remove North Italy-France border.
South Germany will border France, this removes North Italy-West Germany border.
Remove the territory borders within the Sahara, they caused some confusion.
West Indies is British controlled, but worth no IPCs, instead it is part of a UK-Eng National Objectives.
Hawaii worth 2 IPCs now, when USA goes to war, a Minor IC is placed there, otherwise under normal circumstances a Minor IC can’t be built there.
Manchuria and Jehol begin as originally Japanese territory, Chinese units may go there however.
Japan is divided into 2 territories, each worth 5.
Manchuria and Korea worth only 2 IPCs, to counter Japan’s gains.
India divided into 3 territories instead of 2, Calcutta territory worth 4 IPCs, other two worth 1 IPC.
Malaya worth 2 IPCs now to counter UK-Ind’s gains.
ANZAC being given some UK Islands in Pacific, to increase their importance.
Yugoslavia divided into two territories, Western half bordering South Germany, North Italy, Hungary, and Eastern half, Eastern half bordering Western half, Romania, Hungary, Albania, Bulgaria, and Greece, West worth 2 IPCs, East worth 1 IPC, West has 3 Infantry, East has 2 Infantry.
Greece no longer bordering Black Sea, Turkey borders Bulgaria.
Divide Turkey in two, Western half worth 2 IPCs, Eastern half worth 1 IPC, West has 5 Infantry, East has 3 Infantry.
Rio De Oro has 1 Infantry.
1 Mongolian territory is worth an IPC, 1 Mongolian territory is also removed.
Less South American territory, particularly the small ones, and some that are left over will be given 1 IPC on them, Argentina is Pro-Axis.
Add UK a territory to the Arabian penisula.
Make Sierra Leone a UK territory.
Divide Kazakhstan into 2 territory, the one closer to Moscow being worth 1 IPC, the other being 0.
North West Persia includes a bit more land of Northern Persia, also borders East Persia.
Shrink Scandinavia a bit so the main area of Europe can be increased in size more.
Include a Northern Tundra area for IPCs tracking.
Give Germany/Italy Wolfpack symbols on some Atlantic Sea Zones, make all symbols on Sea Zones more visible. Wolfpack provides 1 extra movement to Axis naval units within those Sea Zones, Germany and Italy share a maximum usage of 6.
Improve Colour coding for all land territories, with actual terrain in the background.
Make Germany Dark Grey again, ANZAC Brown, Italy White, USSR a bolder Red.
Have artwork on Sea Zones, but not the kind to interfere with Gameplay.
Capital territories have a larger control marker on them, approximately the same size as the Marker piece.
Add some more victory cities.
Rename many territories to simpler and more accurate names. Like Normandy Bordeaux to Normandy, Central United States to Louisiana Region, Eire to Ireland, Slovakia Hungary to Hungary, Volgograd to Volga Region, Manchuria to Manchukuo, Jehol to Menjiang.
As for the issue regarding 0 IPC Islands in the Pacific, it’s honestly more productive to just give better national objectives for them, perhaps something like 5 for one group in the north, and another 5 for one in the middle, national objectives also represent propaganda victories.
Regarding the whole Siberia thing, one of the basic problems with the OOB rules and the OOB map is that they don’t apply the concept of cost-benefit ratios to territorial conquests. Or at least not in a way that has much consistent connection with reality. Yes, I know that A&A is a simplified WWII-themed board game, not a realistic simulation of WWII, but my point isn’t that A&A isn’t sufficiently like WWII when it comes to terriorial conquests; my point is that it’s too much like Risk. In Risk, the world is divided into approximately 40 different territories which are more or less considered equivalent to each other in game value and in the ease with which armies can travel through them. Real-world economics and real-world topography are completely disregarded. Global 1940 isn’t quite that bad, but it comes dangerously close in its depiction of the eastern half of the Soviet Union: it ignores the fact that this area is enormous in size and harsh in its topography and its climate. I’d argue that the 1-IPC value of the territories in this area are actually too high rather than too low, given how barren and undeveloped they were at the time. Admiral Raymond Spruance, in a post-war interview, once said that all military operations are like going shopping, in that you have to ask yourself two questions: How much will this cost me, and how much is this worth to me? This is what I meant when I was talking about cost-benefit ratios. In real life, a Japanese conquest of the eastern Soviet Union would have had a terrible cost-benefit ratio: it would have required massive resources (which the Japanese didn’t have, given how tied up they were elsewhere) and it would have brought them few if any benefits. Global 1940 completely ignores this fact; indeed, the game actually makes it worthwhile for Japan to invade the USSR. Suspension of disbelief is fine within limits, but not when it starts bordering on suspension of rational thought. Short of a complete re-write of the game rules – which as I’ve said in another thread is something I’ll be doing for myself as a long-term project – my recommended solution to the Siberia problem would be to reduce to zero the IPC value of the non-coastal Russian territories on the Pacific half of the map, to help discourage Japan from invading them. Or make them impassable, as Black Elk suggested; that would be fine too.
I agree. In almost every case, the cost of occupying the territories on this map would far exceed any economic value that the occupation might recoup. Even territories with resources necessary to the war effort, such as oil, rubber etc would still need to be developed in the real world, before a Nation could bank it.
But the game inverts this completely, and the game being what it is, I don’t see how you really get around the problem without a complete ground-up redesign of how everything works.
This is part of the reason why I think it is just much simpler to let go of the conceptual framework that underlies the IPC, and instead regard it as an abstract “game point” because that’s how they function anyway. And it’s a lot easier to change the name/explanation to match the gameplay function, than it is to make the function fit the name.
I agree with CWO Marc’s suggestion that only Pacific board Russian coastal territories should have a 1 IPC value. The zero IPC territories could then be added to the two most important production regions of Russia, being the territory that Moscow is in, and Stalingrad. Stalingrad was a huge industrial area of the Soviet Union during WWII.
Here are some reasons and examples why it should either be harder to travel through Russia and or less of an incentive using the 0 IPC per territory method.
1. I think Moscow often falls too easily. This may help add some balance to the game.
2. Eastern Russia was too undeveloped that it would be virtually impossible to maintain an Army on campaign and transverse the wilderness to the point it can reach European Russia. It’s too much like the board game Risk where every territory is the same. The Russian Siberian forces were in garrisons near a railhead and not on campaign. Once Germany crossed into Russia proper, the road system became inadequate for it’s supply. A German Army Corp required 10 roads alone for it’s supply system. Yet once they got into Russia proper, they were reduced to 1 road per Corp. Think about that for a second. This is European Russia, not the eastern territories which were simply wilderness and a few sporadic villages along the trans-Siberian railway stops. That’s why a lot of German Soldiers didn’t get their winter clothing issue on time during the winter of 1941-1942. CDR’s valued the constant supply of fuel and ammunition over clothing on their 1 road. I understand the logistics requirements as I’m an Army Logistics Officer. In our operations in Iraq, we had to push a certain amount of supplies north from Kuwait or daily combat operations would be halted. Simple as that. The basic mechanics of fighting today as well as the basic equipment of today are not a whole lot different. The M1 Garand rifle was a semi-auto rifle that in a properly trained infantry unit would be almost as good a tool as an M16 fired semi-auto (full auto is the for the movies). Yes, there are drones and jets instead of airplanes, but a tank is still a tank. Yes, a modern tank is stronger and shoots farther, but they still eat up a lot of fuel (more now days actually). I don’t believe a modern day army could conventionally fight it’s way across Russian pacific to European Russian using strictly conventional means and sustain itself let alone resource stretched Japan in WWII.
3. Changing the IPC value of Russian Pac board non-coastal territories, may give more incentive for Japan to invest in going after islands of strategic value making for more naval play…perhaps.
The basic mechanics of fighting today as well as the basic equipment of today are not a whole lot different.
Yes, modern warfare – and WWII certainly qualifies as such – is very logistics-heavy. One of the reasons the Allies won WWII was that they had both a better capability for logistics than Germany did, and a better understanding of its importance than Japan did. Japan in particular was oddly nonchalant – and sometimes downright careless – about the subject; they seemed to feel that superior military skill and a strong warrior ethic were more important than material resources. On the plus side, Japan servicemen were able to function in more austere conditions than their US counterparts were used to; on the minus side, they were simply unable to match some of the things that the Americans were able to accomplish with the staggering resources that they devoted to the Pacific War. I’ve seen footage of the beaches on Pacific islands right after the Americans have captured them, showing mountains of supplies that were simply abandoned there as soon as the fighting stopped because it would have been too much trouble to re-load them on landing barges for use in a later campaign. If I remember correctly, every American serviceman in combat at the front in the Pacific Theatre of Operations was supported by several dozen individuals working in logistics and service units. There are some specific figures for the ETO in this study…
http://usacac.army.mil/cac2/cgsc/carl/download/csipubs/mcgrath_op23.pdf
…which says that a US infantry division in the European Theatre of Operations in 1945 had 14% of its elements devoted to logistics, versus 68% devoted to combat and 18% to headquarters and administation. The logistics element for a US armoured division at the time was even higher (unsurprisingly, in view of the higher demands for things like fuel and spare parts): 21% logistics, 58% combat, and 21% HQ/admin. And the highest logistics figure of all was for the the ETO as a whole: 45%, as opposed to 39% for combat and 16% for HQ/admin.
CWO Marc,
Thanks for posting that link. I downloaded the report and will definitely check it out.
For reading on German warfare, I suggest trying Dr. Robert Citino. He’s one of the leading experts on German warfare from WWII today. He focuses on the actual operations. My wife bought me his book series. Very fascinating. Read the first called “The German Way of War,” and now on the second of his 3 book series. His descriptions on the logistics challenges that the German Herr faced in Russia 1941 and 1942 versus the western allies in 1940 are significant. Leads even more credence to the point of changing the board to make it less feasible or cost effective for Japan to invade Russia.
For a taste, try watching one his lectures during a lunch break. His lectures are a very less detailed summary of his books. He’s a frequent guest at the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center as well as the Army War College.
Thanks Ichabod, I’ll have a look at that video link. He sounds like an interesting fellow.
Combine Venezuela/Colombia/Ecuador, Chile/Bolivia/Peru, and Argentina/Paraguay/Uruguay together. No need to change IPC values.
From a playability standpoint it makes no sense to have 9 little countries across the continent.
I play it like this and things can get interesting.
