[House Rules] A question and opinion


  • Turn 1 Italy activates Bulgaria with 1 Infantry and Bulgaria is now Italian, can the tank move through on to Romania since Bulgaria is now Italian? I say yes

    Community opinion wanted, Do youse prefer bids or house rules? I hate the bid and won’t play it. House rules are so much more intriguing. So many historical options. Why ruin a game with a bid and dump all the bid into the Mediterranean and ruin a fun battle for the Med. Yeah I think we all know against an experienced Axis player it’s a tough mountain to climb. It baffles me that people play bids but allow the BS where Italy can opens for the Germans and Germans move in and collect their NO for that turn because they are not at war. That is the definition of oxymoron…lol

    Moderator’s edit: Added tag [House Rules] to title.


  • Afraid not. To do that, Bulgaria needs to be friendly at the beginning of Italy’s turn and it is not.

    If you can find a HR which works for balance, then play that way. We use bids here on  the forum, as it works. 
    One way, would be to give Russia amd America another easily attainable 5 or 10 IPCs a turn, when at war, to help . I habe played games like that. Otherwise, try eliminating 4 Air from Japan amd giving the US  the second Battleship , it so obviously had in 1940.


  • When it comes to game balance, bids address the issue by trying to compensate for it (in order words, by focusing on the symptoms) and house rules address the issue by trying to fix the underlying problem (in other words, by focussing on the cause).  It’s roughly the difference between taking a pill and undergoing surgery.  The bid method has the advantage of being simple and of not requiring the players to learn different rules, so it’s quick and it’s readily acceptable by many players.  House rules require more work, both when it comes to create them and when it comes to use them, so there’s more resistance to their acceptance than with bids.  House rules also tend to be more personalized, so they seem to have more of a niche market than bids do.


  • Rules state you can’t blitz a neutral, right?

  • '21 '20 '19 '18 '17 '16

    You cannot blitz a friendly neutral. Germany cannot blitz Bulgaria in non-combat and move it’s tank back to Romania. Using blitz isn’t quite accurate though, since moving into a friendly neutral is a non-combat movement and blitz is a combat thing.

    A true neutral or pro-other-side neutral CAN be blitzed, provided the territory has no troops defending it. These must be attacked during combat movement.

    Marsh

  • Liaison TripleA '11 '10

    @Leatherneckinlv:

    Turn 1 Italy activates Bulgaria with 1 Infantry and Bulgaria is now Italian, can the tank move through on to Romania since Bulgaria is now Italian? I say yes

    Community opinion wanted, Do youse prefer bids or house rules? I hate the bid and won’t play it. House rules are so much more intriguing. So many historical options. Why ruin a game with a bid and dump all the bid into the Mediterranean and ruin a fun battle for the Med. Yeah I think we all know against an experienced Axis player it’s a tough mountain to climb. It baffles me that people play bids but allow the BS where Italy can opens for the Germans and Germans move in and collect their NO for that turn because they are not at war. That is the definition of oxymoron…lol

    Play a game with No bids, only 1 small change - let Russia move first!

    #1 the Game will go faster as G and J can go simultaneous

    #2 russia going first gives it a 1 turn build/move advantage.  It also

    #3 it stops the Italian can open; which is the most damaging and gimmicky balance issue of the OOB game.

    #4 historically, Russia always went first in A&A games! ;)

  • '14 Customizer

    @Gargantua:

    @Leatherneckinlv:

    Turn 1 Italy activates Bulgaria with 1 Infantry and Bulgaria is now Italian, can the tank move through on to Romania since Bulgaria is now Italian? I say yes

    Community opinion wanted, Do youse prefer bids or house rules? I hate the bid and won’t play it. House rules are so much more intriguing. So many historical options. Why ruin a game with a bid and dump all the bid into the Mediterranean and ruin a fun battle for the Med. Yeah I think we all know against an experienced Axis player it’s a tough mountain to climb. It baffles me that people play bids but allow the BS where Italy can opens for the Germans and Germans move in and collect their NO for that turn because they are not at war. That is the definition of oxymoron…lol

    Play a game with No bids, only 1 small change - let Russia move first!

    #1 the Game will go faster as G and J can go simultaneous

    #2 russia going first gives it a 1 turn build/move advantage.  It also

    #3 it stops the Italian can open; which is the most damaging and gimmicky balance issue of the OOB game.

    #4 historically, Russia always went first in A&A games! ;)

    Or make it like 1942… Put Germany between China and UK’s turn.  If your going to remove Italy as a can-opener you have to consider the double attack of USA/UK as well.  I think the 1942 turn order resolves this issue by just changing Germany’s turn order.

  • '19 '17 '16

    Most league games have gone to Balanced Mod with small Axis bids rather than large Allied bids, so if you don’t like the bid, you can use that.

    Balanced Mod rules:
    https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=37883.0


  • I have always enjoyed the feeling of games played with bids compared to Bal Mod.  China is a bit strange in Bal Mod: an American fighter squadron strafes your Japanese soldier and a Chinese soldier pops up.  That makes it virtually impossible to consider the Axis conquering mainland Asia.


  • To Gargantua

    I dabbled with turn order before but I have a pretty fun house rules with added NO’s and national abilities that made things a ton of fun. Also each nation has special units.

    There is also added political situations that makes South America (US benefits), Turkey and Spain playable and could align either way.


  • GAR

    You mentioned Russia going first awhile ago. Have you played some games yet ? How did that work out .


  • My turn order

    Italy
    France
    Germany
    Russia
    US
    Japan
    UK E
    China
    UK P
    Anzac/Dutch

    UK P, Anzac and the Dutch are actually FEC with combined income and yes there is a token Dutch force in the DEI

    Turkey played by either UK or Italy
    Spain played by either Germany or US

    Vichy rule in effect

  • '19 '17 '16

    @Arthur:

    I have always enjoyed the feeling of games played with bids compared to Bal Mod.  China is a bit strange in Bal Mod: an American fighter squadron strafes your Japanese soldier and a Chinese soldier pops up.  That makes it virtually impossible to consider the Axis conquering mainland Asia.

    I completely agree. However, I do like having a bit of extra money for the USSR and the SBR rules.

    In BM it seems as though Allies are waiting for the Axis to make a mistake so they can win.

    From BM3.4 you can turn off the guerrilla fighter rule and several others if you want to so that specific issue doesn’t come up. IF you can find someone who wants to play that way.

  • '21 '20 '19 '18 '17 '16

    I also like the idea of turn order adjustments being the primary balancer, but unless that is adopted for Global V3 by Wizards/Hasbro it’s still house rules.

    Marsh

  • '21 '20 '19 '18 '17 '16

    I should add that I WOULD play a version that rearranges the turn order in the interest of seeing the effects on balance, as long as it otherwise stuck with out of the box rules and NOs.

    Marsh


  • @Leatherneckinlv:

    My turn order

    Italy
    France
    Germany
    Russia
    US
    Japan
    UK E
    China
    UK P
    Anzac/Dutch

    UK P, Anzac and the Dutch are actually FEC with combined income and yes there is a token Dutch force in the DEI

    Turkey played by either UK or Italy
    Spain played by either Germany or US

    Vichy rule in effect

    France before Germany make the Allies even more stronger as France can defend against both countries and the only good Axis plan that I can see is make Italy launch a suicide invasion against France to bring their units down and hope the French don’t buy straight up infantry and hope Germany is able to beat them.

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