This post is to discuss Anti-Aircraft Artillery (AAA) and their use in the game, with some insights from the new North Africa game.
Introduction
One of my main squabbles with AAA is that they are almost always one-and-done units, and generally considered overpriced for the value they provide. I have purchased a couple across all my games of PTV, but they can be useful deterrents against the infantry & plane trading meta of almost every Axis & Allies game.
There was some discussion recently on the boards here about changing the cost of AAA to 4. I think this would be a good start, and certainly might see some more purchases than at the current price point of 5. However, I think there are problems with the unit beyond its cost.
Problems & Goals
AAA have an (in my opinion) overly emphasized luck component as they throw many dice but at the lowest odds. This makes them a prime candidate for unbelievable streaks of good and bad luck–I recall a game where a significant battle was decided almost before round 1 with 5 AAA hits out of 6; another game I was spectating recently had something like -5.00 Hits for Allied AAA by round 4.
Further reducing their utility, AAA are typically immediately picked as casualties since they cannot continue to defend; generally, the only time it is optimal to not select AAA as first casualties are in cases where there is a strafe attack on the territory before the hammer falls.
Also, as AAA for defending infrastructure is modeled as part of those facilities, it is not being affected by changes to this unit.
In combat, AAA could and would be used against ground targets, especially vehicles. The infamous FlaK 88 and the US 90mm gun M3 were both examples of this dual-role capability.
Therefore, I believe a redesign should achieve these goals:
AAA should continue to fire at aircraft until lost as a casualty.
If aircraft are not available as targets, AAA changes to ground fire.
If an area is saturated with AAA defense, it should not be wasted if the enemy only has a single unit for air support. If anything, it should all but guarantee a much higher casualty rate for that materiel.
Lessons from North Africa
In my limited experience playing Axis & Allies: North Africa, AAA are great purchases. A couple reasons why:
They only cost 3 in that game and they roll Air Defense at a 2 on a D10 - about 20% better odds than 1 on a D6. They still get the first-strike ability that immediately removes selected air units from the battle, and roll up to three dice each. The higher defense value makes attacking a position defended by AAA even riskier if using aircraft, and the Stacking Limit in North Africa often makes supplementing attacks with aircraft crucial.
For comparison, the odds of getting at least one hit in Global with a single AAA against 3 aircraft is 42.13%. In North Africa, it is 48.8%. Odds for two hits is 7.4% and 10.4% respectively, a very meaningful difference as well.
Another concept introduced, is the Targeted Fire ability for Anti-Tank Guns and German Bombers. These units force the opponent to take tanks as casualties in the case of an Anti-Tank Gun hit, and for the German Bombers, the German player gets to select their choice of land or sea unit. I believe BBR, a tournament version of Global many are probably familiar with, has something similar to this. Anti-Tank Guns only receive Targeted Attack for the first round of combat, while the Bombers ability is always in effect.
Re-Design Thoughts
These are our goals:
AAA should continue to fire at aircraft until lost as a casualty.
If aircraft are not available as targets, AAA changes to ground fire.
If an area is saturated with AAA defense, it should not be wasted if the enemy only has a single unit for air support. If anything, it should all but guarantee a much higher casualty rate for that materiel.
Proposed Changes:
Add Targeted Fire (Aircraft) to AAA.
Rather than a separate phase occurring before the regular Combat rounds, AAA rolls on the defender’s turn—after the Attacker has rolled, and Defender selected their casualties. Using the Targeted Fire ability, any hits scored by AAA (these dice need to be rolled separately as long as there are valid targets!) must be assigned to Attacking aircraft. Even better, I believe this handles all three goals in a neat package. It is just as easy as the original rule to understand and play with, and also intuitive; perhaps more intuitive than the original rule.
New AAA Unit (using language from the A&A:NA rulebook)
An example of what the stats might look like. I picked 4 for cost as a discussion point:
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Targeted Fire - Aircraft: Anti-Aircraft Artillery may target aircraft with their fire, so they must be rolled separately from other units. For each die that scores a hit, the firing player has the option of requiring the opposing player to choose any of their aircraft as the casualty.
Cannot Attack: Units with this characteristic cannot move in the Combat Move phase.
In summary, I think a re-design of AAA has the potential to be a great change for the game. Playing with the special Targeting rules in North Africa are a lot of fun and make the German 88s & Stukas fearsome units for the British to grapple with. I think some of these new ideas have the potential to be adapted to our beloved variants and improve them for the years to come.
Also - I have not tried coding combat round/dice rolling phases in TripleA so I am not sure how much work this would be to implement in a test environment. If someone knows how to make the AAA guns roll separately kind of like subs, but without the immediate destruction, please reply/DM!
