Hi Barney,
4 IPCs for an Artillery unit like AAA seems intuitively more acceptable than 3 IPCs.
Did you modify the AAA unit in TripleA, so you get to defend preemptively against up to 2 planes and rolling @1 during reg combat phase?
In my last playtest, I considered AAA as a real defensive unit to purchase, since it does not have attack value. So, I boost regular defense to @ 2, same as Inf or Arty.
It is easier for casualty order of losses.
If you want to keep costlier for same defense, it goes: Inf (3), Arty or MI (4), then AAA (4).
However I played it with no preemptive fire.
Only in-built AAgun on IC were preemptive.
Still, it can be played with both preemptive fire @1 vs up to 2 planes and a reg defense @2, so defending player does not have to forsee if he is going to survive the present battle and keep a lame defense @1 while sacrificing better defense @2 of Inf and Arty or MI (same with bombers defending @1).
It makes sense that on defense you kind of protecting your assets of bombers and airfield. However, AAA were meant to be a purely defensive unit so, it is somewhat inconsistent from a gameplay POV to make AAA weaker than other units able to attack also.
IMO, besides in-built AAgun, attacking AAA and defense oriented AAA can be seen as two different approaches which can find some real historical basis on types of AAguns.
@CWO:
@Ichabod:
Anti-aircraft units are/were embedded with combat commands at varying levels and always go “forward” with the command they fall under during offensive operations. In the US Army today; Air Defense Artillery is mostly a Corp level asset in which various companies or battalions are attached to brigades or other commands as needed.
Just as a point of background (since I don’t have any particular preferences about the proposed HR itself), not all WWII AAA units were intended to be mobile support units for advancing ground forces. Some were, some weren’t. Speaking very generally, light WWII AAA weapons were sufficiently transportable that they could, in principle, alternate quickly between moving and shooting (or even do both simultaneously in the case of vehicle-mounted light autocannons or heavy machine guns). Heavy WWII AAA weapons could be towed to their place of operation, but then had to be set up before they could operate and could not move while doing so. The heavier the weapon, the more it tended to be used for the fixed defense of fixed installations (like cities and military bases), not for mobile battlefield support. Keep in mind that US Army practice today, 70 years after WWII, doesn’t provide an accurate picture of what US Army practice was during WWII, when armies were far less motorized (especially when you consider the situation of other WWII armies, which by and large were even less motorized than US forces).
So, for SS D12 game, it might be:
AAA
Att 1
Def 4
Move 1
Cost 4
Prior to general combat offense or defense, roll @1 (12 side dice) against up to 3 planes, 1 roll per plane max.