Can I add Artillery in A&A 1941 ?


  • Hello,
    do you think I could integrate the artillery unit into A&A 1941 without making the game unbalanced ?
    should I also integrate them in the initial game setup? (any set-up ideas?)
    Thank you (-:

  • '17 '16

    Here is an opening post talking about your topic (follow the quote link to read all the thread):
    @Black_Elk:

    These points all came up in my last game

    1. Aircraft are overpowered on this board. The distance between Berlin and Moscow, and sz 45 and Moscow, is 3 moves. Fighters can move 4, so they can defend one capital while threatening the other provided there is an adjacent space to land. USA fighters can defend Moscow while threatening Berlin. Japanese fighters can defend Berlin while threatening Moscow and so on. There is no anti-aircraft mechanism on this board, so fighters are only at risk in normal combat.

    2. Bombers? They can’t strat bomb, so the unit is already nerfed on this board and not really representative of the unit’s unique ability on all other boards. Their reach at 6 is even more significant, given the short distances and many shucks on this gamemap.

    3. The game suffers from the lack of artillery. Artillery would have made more sense than the bomber, if the goal was to keep the unit roster simple. Not having any unit between the 3 ipcs of inf, and the 6 ipcs of a tank leads to consistent infantry purchases. Since it is often impossible to spend the remainder on anything but inf, even when you start to grow. Which leads to the most basic point about 1941…

    4. Infantry walls! The lack of artillery, and the steep cost of tanks relative to the overall income/production of the gamemap means that this board reverts back to the most static form of Classic style gameplay. The dynamism introduced in Revised with the artillery unit is lost on this board. You are back to pushing stacks. Honestly, the board feels so much like classic. The only difference is that here, ships are even more expensive than they were in classic, relative to the overall cashflow. The battleship at 16 seems cheap, until you consider that this is now the equivalent of the entire US economy for 1 round. At least in classic they could afford 1 and still have some change left over for an infantry unit or two. Not so here.

    So basically, as an introduction to Axis and Allies, I’m not sure how I feel about it. I like aspects of this board, but I don’t see how it is particularly fast paced. The flow in Revised felt more dynamic than here, even with the short distances the game can last a number of rounds, where the stack push race just plays out in basically the same way it did in Classic, trying to gain that slight edge on inf fodder. I guess if the goal of the map is teach new players that basic mechanic, then it is a success. But A&A had come a long way from that in the last few iterations. So this feels like a step backwards.

    Has anyone else had this experience?
    Or has anyone tried playing this map with artillery included? To see if it changed things


  • Karvajo,

    Welcome to the A&A.org forums. You are in luck, I’ve already done the work to figure out how to add Arty to 1941. Allow me to regale you:

    While I’m no expert, if I were going to add artillery units from 40 or 42 to my copy of 41, this is how I would do it.

    First, use the pieces and rules from 42. Here are the stats for artillery:
    @Axis:

    Artillery
    Cost 4
    Attack 2*
    Defense 2
    Move 1

    • Supports Infantry: When an infantry attacks along with an artillery, the infantry’s attack increases to 2. Each infantry must be matched one-for-one with a supporting artillery unit. Artillery does not support infantry on defense.

    Also, note in the rules section for infantry:
    @Axis:

    Infantry
    Cost 3
    Attack 1 (2 when supported by artillery)*
    Defense 2
    Move 1

    • Supported by Artillery: When an infantry attacks along with an artillery, the infantry’s attack increases to 2. Each infantry must be matched one-for-one with a supporting artillery unit. If your infantry outnumber your artillery, the excess infantry units still have an attack of 1. For example, if you attack with two artillery and five infantry, two of your infantry have an attack of 2 and the rest have an attack of 1. Infantry are not supported by artillery on defense.

    Finally, I would change the initial setup for 1941 to reflect the presence of artillery in armies already on the board. I would think that changing every 3rd infantry in a territory to artillery would be a decent start. If I did that, I would change the setup in some territories and leave the rest alone. The changed territories would reflect the following setup:

    Russia: 4 infantry, 2 artillery, 1 tank, 1 fighter*
    Archangel: 2 infantry, 1 artillery
    Karelia: 2 infantry, 1 artillery
    Caucasus: 2 infantry, 1 artillery, 1 tank
    Siberia: 2 infantry, 1 artillery

    Germany: 2 infantry, 1 artillery, 1 fighter, 1 bomber
    Eastern Europe: 3 infantry, 1 artillery, 2 tanks
    Ukraine: 2 infantry, 1 artillery, 2 tanks
    West Russia: 2 infantry, 1 artillery

    Japan: 3 infantry, 1 artillery, 1 tank, 1 fighter, 1 bomber

    *Note that according to the FAQ put out after the game released, the territory labeled Russia should start with six infantry. If you haven’t read this FAQ, you should, as it made other changes to the setup of the board. If you swap every third infantry for an artillery, you would get four infantry and two artillery, as shown above.

    The FAQ for Axis & Allies 1941 can be found here: www.wizards.com/AvalonHill/rules/AA_1941_FAQ.pdf

    Also, this would mean that neither the UK nor the US would start with any artillery as their regular setup have no territories with three or more infantry. Either shrug your shoulders or change their setup as you feel appropriate, perhaps as follows:

    India: 1 infantry, 1 artillery, 1 fighter
    Eastern U.S.: 1 infantry, 1 artillery, 1 tank, 1 fighter, 1 bomber

    The above changes should integrate artillery into a game of 1941 fairly well. The Axis would swap 5 infantry for 5 artillery and the Allies would swap 6 or 8 (with optional UK and US artillery swapping) infantry for 6 or 8 (with optional UK and US artillery swapping) artillery for the setup of the game.

    My 2 IPC

    -M_R

    Source: (https://boardgamegeek.com/article/22682014#22682014) Still me, just the BGG me.

    -Midnight_Reaper

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