Please forgive me if this has already been suggested.

I’m sure that since you all are playing Axis & Allies, then most - if not all - of you have heard of the most famous Avalon Hill Game: Diplomacy.

I have come up with a little variant of A&A that takes most of its variation from Diplomacy. Here are the rules:

1. Everyone for themself. No set Axis alliance, no set Allied alliance.

2. All of the pieces have the same cost and power as in the regular game.

3. No technology rolls.

4. All units start out in the same places that they would in the regular game.

5. All rules about IPC’s and land values stay the same.

6. All seazones are labeled and given names.

7. Each game phase opens with a diplomacy phase, where each of the players converse with one another about plans and make deals.

8. The game then proceeds to the writing orders phase. All units that are being bought are written down first, and then troop movement orders are written down.

9. Combat movement phase. All battles are resolved. The battles follow the same rules as in regular A&A (dice, unit power, etc.)
   –9A) A battle that was ordered by two different countries over the same border will involve only the units that were ordered into combat. Once one side wins the battle, then the remaining units combat the units within the territory they were originally planning to attack. (Example: Germany attacks with three infantry, one armor, and one fighter from Ukraine, leaving one armor behind, into Soviet-Held Caucasus. The Soviets attack from Caucasus with four infantry, leaving one infantry behind, into German-held Ukraine. Germany wins the battle but loses one infantry in the process. Germany then continues on to Caucasus to fight the one infantry with two infantry, one armor, and one fighter).
   –9B) When there is a border clash, the units from both (or more) sides, are all given their attacker combat values.
   –9C) If a country is attacking over two borders and into one territory, and a border clash comes about with one of the borders being crossed, then a border clash battle will ensue over that border, while the other border being crossed will fight the leftover units, if any. In other words, if Germany attacks Caucasus from Ukraine with Three infantry, one armor, and one fighter, and the USSR attacks Ukraine from Karelia with two infantry, an armor, and a fighter, and from the Caucasus with four infantry, leaving one left over, the USSR’s force from Karelia will fight the left over German tank in the Ukraine, while the Caucasus-Ukraine border clash will ensue as a normal border clash battle. If the USSR wins, then it moves however remaining units into Ukraine (to fight if the Karelian move into Ukraine didn’t succeed, and to just be moved into there without combat if the Karelian maneuver did succeed).

10. New units are placed (they must follow the rules of regular A&A: troops and the like may only be placed on territories with IC’s, ships/subs may only be placed on seazones next to IC’s, and IC’s MUST be placed on territories with an IPC value [for those of you who’ve read my house rules, I know this goes against them, but this is a different variation of the game altogether]).

11. Money is collected by each player the same way it would be collected in regular A&A.
    –11A) The capture of a capital follows the same rules as regular A&A: The one who lost their capital must give all of their money to the one who won their capital, and they may not collect income or build new units until their capital has been taken back (capitals may not be liberated).

12. The round starts again.

13. Whoever has a total national income of 55 or more by the end of any game round is the winner. Winner can also be decided upon by setting a time limit of how many turns there are to be played in a game and whoever has the highest (if not 55 or over) by the end of the time.

Well, there’s my variation! It’s a little bit lengthy, I know, but I think it’s good. What do you all think?

Also, I may not be online for the upcoming few days, so please be patient if you ask me something and you dont get a response within a day or two.

Thanks!

—Zax

“Not just in A&A, but in life in general. Compare the amount of coverage the Pacific gets compared to the Europe in terms of movies, media coverage, games, text, and the like. Interesting considering the war in the Pacific was much more intense.”

-TG Moses VI

Ah true. But you are thinking of it in the broad spectrum of the war in general. There are tons of movies out there about both theaters of war. The thing is, most movies about Europe cover the war there in general (not necessarily the entire war, but large chunks of it covering many battles). Movies about the Pacific usually focus on one or two, maybe three specific battles. Therefore, because Europe is given a wider span of battles, it always seems like the Pacific is left out, when in truth movies about the Pacific are a lot more specific to a certain battle or two.

Why yes, actually. When it gets to that point where normally it would be a ‘quarter given,’ whoever is about to lose generally moves all their pieces to their capital to have one (or more) last grandstand. This works especially well if the victim is an Axis player(which it usually is) simply because one of their teammates has already been knocked out and they really dont have a chance unless they all of a sudden start rolling successive ones every single die roll.

Please forgive me if this has already been suggested.

I’m sure that since you all are playing Axis & Allies, then most - if not all - of you have heard of the most famous Avalon Hill Game: Diplomacy.

I have come up with a little variant of A&A that takes most of its variation from Diplomacy. Here are the rules:

1. Everyone for themself. No set Axis alliance, no set Allied alliance.

2. All of the pieces have the same cost and power as in the regular game.

3. No technology rolls.

4. All units start out in the same places that they would in the regular game.

5. All rules about IPC’s and land values stay the same.

6. All seazones are labeled and given names.

7. Each game phase opens with a diplomacy phase, where each of the players converse with one another about plans and make deals.

8. The game then proceeds to the writing orders phase. All units that are being bought are written down first, and then troop movement orders are written down.

9. Combat movement phase. All battles are resolved. The battles follow the same rules as in regular A&A (dice, unit power, etc.)
   –9A) A battle that was ordered by two different countries over the same border will involve only the units that were ordered into combat. Once one side wins the battle, then the remaining units combat the units within the territory they were originally planning to attack. (Example: Germany attacks with three infantry, one armor, and one fighter from Ukraine, leaving one armor behind, into Soviet-Held Caucasus. The Soviets attack from Caucasus with four infantry, leaving one infantry behind, into German-held Ukraine. Germany wins the battle but loses one infantry in the process. Germany then continues on to Caucasus to fight the one infantry with two infantry, one armor, and one fighter).
   –9B) When there is a border clash, the units from both (or more) sides, are all given their attacker combat values.
   –9C) If a country is attacking over two borders and into one territory, and a border clash comes about with one of the borders being crossed, then a border clash battle will ensue over that border, while the other border being crossed will fight the leftover units, if any. In other words, if Germany attacks Caucasus from Ukraine with Three infantry, one armor, and one fighter, and the USSR attacks Ukraine from Karelia with two infantry, an armor, and a fighter, and from the Caucasus with four infantry, leaving one left over, the USSR’s force from Karelia will fight the left over German tank in the Ukraine, while the Caucasus-Ukraine border clash will ensue as a normal border clash battle. If the USSR wins, then it moves however remaining units into Ukraine (to fight if the Karelian move into Ukraine didn’t succeed, and to just be moved into there without combat if the Karelian maneuver did succeed).

10. New units are placed (they must follow the rules of regular A&A: troops and the like may only be placed on territories with IC’s, ships/subs may only be placed on seazones next to IC’s, and IC’s MUST be placed on territories with an IPC value [for those of you who’ve read my house rules, I know this goes against them, but this is a different variation of the game altogether]).

11. Money is collected by each player the same way it would be collected in regular A&A.
    –11A) The capture of a capital follows the same rules as regular A&A: The one who lost their capital must give all of their money to the one who won their capital, and they may not collect income or build new units until their capital has been taken back (capitals may not be liberated).

12. The round starts again.

13. Whoever has a total national income of 55 or more by the end of any game round is the winner. Winner can also be decided upon by setting a time limit of how many turns there are to be played in a game and whoever has the highest (if not 55 or over) by the end of the time.

Well, there’s my variation! It’s a little bit lengthy, I know, but I think it’s good. What do you all think?

Also, I may not be online for the upcoming few days, so please be patient if you ask me something and you dont get a response within a day or two.

Thanks!

—Zax

If any of you all saw my previous post, then just skip to the last part of this one.

I was wondering if any of you out there play with house rules, and if so, what are they?

I have two house rules:

(1) AA Guns CAN be destroyed, but don’t have to in order to win a battle. (In other words, they are still only able to shoot at the planes at the beginning of each round, but if a player desperately wants to keep a territory or make it a tough victory for an opponent, they can sacrifice the AA gun to save another unit (or units) with a higher defense for another combat turn…Of course, if everything else on the defense is destroyed except for the AA Gun, then the attacker gets the territory as is the case with the regular rules…Also, AA Guns cannot be lost in a strategic bombing raid).

(2) IC’s can be built on ANY territory (with or without Production Points), just so long as that territory has been held by that player since the beginning of a turn.

And the last part of my post:

What is your luckiest A&A story? In other words, a battle that should have been extremely costly but your opponent kept rolling fives and sixes, or a battle where you only had a bomber for defense against several higher-rating attacking units, and you kept rolling ones while they rolled too high, to the point where you still lost the battle, but at such a tremendous cost to your opponent, etc. Or even an entire game?

My luckiest A&A tale was when my opponent (playing Japan), who had just developed heavy bomber technology that very turn, did a strategic bombing raid against Soviet Far East where I had placed an IC and an AA (I was, of course, the USSR). He had five bombers, and this was just after I had just taken Germany, and I was not too happy about the prospect of losing most or even all of the money I had just won. (Ironically, things had been going pretty good for the Japanese Player…Every single island in the Pacific +Alaska+Western Canada was owned by him, and there was such a stalemate in the Asian continent that there were literally no more units left there, except for my IC and AA in Soviet Far East). Anyway, here he comes with five heavy bombers on a strategic bombing raid. So I do the AA roll first, and come up with FOUR successful rolls, so now he only has one heavy bomber left…He rolls a total of SIX, leaving me down six IPC’s, but him down four bombers. (On a side note, he went on to lose the game after several more turns…The USA player and UK Player did an island-hopping campaign in the Pacific and I liberated Asia).

Well, that’s my luckiest A&A story, what’s yours?

I must apologize but I have to bring up two things:

1. I meant to say build an aircraft carrier for the western USA T1 and a fighter for the eastern USA T1…I do not know why I said battleship…Probably just one of those things where if you have a word in your head, even if its not the one you mean, you say it anyway. My apologies.
2. OK This deserves a HUGE apology. Like most boardgames, when I play A&A with family/friends, there are house rules. There are mainly two: 1) AA guns CAN be destroyed, but don’t have to in order to decide a batte’s outcome, and, the relevant one as pertains to this situation: 2) You can build IC’s anywhere, so long as you owned the territory since the beginning of the turn. (The Carolines often become a favorite territory for Japan when I play with these house rules). Once again, I apologize for not explaining this earlier.

Here is a great Allied strategy that I’ve come up with:

USSR T1: Buy eight infantry. Take the fighter from Karelia and the sub from the Karelian seazone and have it attack the German sub and transport from the Germany sea zone. You should win. Retreat the sub into the UK sea zone and place the fighter in the Caucasus. Next, take all of your units from Karelia and the fighter from Moscow (Russia), and have it attack Finland-Norway. You should win. It will be a costly battle, but it shouldn’t matter since the transport in the German seazone should be taken out. Make the fighter land in Karelia, and place all 8 infantry you bought in Karelia as well.

G T1: They will most likely destroy the British fleet around UK proper and attack Caucasus/Karelia. If they take either one, just have Russia take it back on their next turn (the main goal for right now was to kick the Germans out of Finland-Norway).

UK T1: Build a fighter to place in UK proper and an IC to place in Gibraltar. Take the Battleship from the Gibraltar seazone and the sub from the Syria-Iraq seazone and have them attack the Battleship and transport in the Southern Europe seazone. really a 50/50 chance, so if you are playing conservatively, then don’t attack yet but move (in either case) the tank from E. Canada to UK proper. If Germany hasn’t destroyed your fleet around UK proper, then try to invade Western Europe…You will not win (most likely), but it will hurt the German forces a lot.

J T1: It only matters if they took Hawaii or not.

USA T1: Alright, here is where the fun truly starts. Build a battleship and a fighter. Transport two infantry from Eastern USA to Spain (yes, Spain - which is why you need the extra IPC’s, even though you’ll still have three left over). Land the bomber from East USA in Gibraltar. Try to take back Hawaii with everything you’ve got if the Japanese took it, and if not, move all of your naval units and one fighter from western USA there anyways. The goal for right now in the Pacific is to simply stalemate Japan.

Now Germay is in a rut, facing invasion from north, east, and west. Within the next two turns, Western Europe should fall to the Allies, as well as north Africa and the rest of the German fleet, while the USA continues to stalemate Japan in the Pacific. Once Germany has no more navy and has territory on the European continent itself, the UK and USSR can finish Germany off while the USA can switch its full attention to Japan. The main reason for taking Spain, once again, is for the USA to assist in an invasion of Western Europe. (obviously, on the next USA turn, more units would be transported there).

So, what do you guys think?