Why I think Aircraft need fixing
Introduction
In the beginning, 1981, there was Axis & Allies (Nova Games Edition). The granddaddy of all A&A.
Afterwords in 1984, there came A&A Classic, a global map (33x19 inches) with five playable nations; Germany, Japan, Soviets, UK, and USA. This game was inducted into Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame for and is considered a “game that have met or exceeded the highest standards of quality and play value and have been continuously in production for at least 10 years; i.e., classics”
Things where different in this long ago version:
But it was a much beloved game, and its core rules and design has been carried forward into the these later versions of A&A as well as GW36.
Let me make a point though;
Territories encompassed more landmass, Europe has 5 territories, and another 3 from Scandinavia. Soviets controlled 9 territories.
Also its important to know, Bombers and Fighters where introduced in A&A Classic, as well as much of what we know and love.
In A&A Classic, Fighters where the almost the same as in today’s A&A, their Attack was at 3 and Defense at 4, and they also moved 4 spaces. The only difference is that they cost 12 IPC’s.
Historically Aircraft where a formidable force, and their impact on a combat theater was huge.
I think Larry Harris tested it well when he came up with those values.
In A&A Classic there where Transports, Submarines, Battleships and Aircraft Carriers. That’s it that’s all the ship types they had.
The ships all moved 2 spaces, which was no big deal as the Atlantic was only three sea zones at its widest, and transports could come from the american east coast and drop off in France in one move.
http://axisallies.com/versions/classic/
All in all a good game. It set a standard for games of its type, and also set a precedent for the A&A games that came after.
The Precedent
Alright, lets dive deeper.
From A&A Classic to A&A G40, the map has gone from 5 territories in Europe (ignoring Scandinavia) to about 20 (depending on your definition of Europe) that’s a fourfold increase.
Aircraft have maintained the same attack and defense values, and their cost is reduced to 10.
So now, instead of that single Fighter unit covering the entirety of Italy and the Balkans, it covers only the upper half of the Italian boot, or Greece, or Albania. Essentially that same unit only covers 25% of what it used to cover.
That’s really not a big deal. But it means that it now doesn’t pay for such a valuable unit as a Fighter to hang out protecting Greece unless an attack is expected on Greece.
It makes more sense to fly that aircraft out to the eastern front, or if you are a Brit, you send the aircraft to Egypt or Gibraltar or heck, someplace where it does good.
So that solves that problem. Aircraft become a unit you use mostly aggressively, or you use it to protect a vital area that may be attacked or a fleet.
Its still the most powerful unit on the board.
But still, Aircraft got left behind when the world got bigger.
The Crux of the Matter
Everyone is different, and you have the right to do whatever you want to or are used to. If you are getting up there in wisdom and age and are content with the way things are, that totally within your right. Therefore this article isn’t really for you.
I’m relatively young, started playing A&A at 22ish and now I’m 29. I’m always bucking precedent and standard procedure and inventing my own thing.
The crux of the matter is; I didn’t like aircraft in G40 because I find it is silly.
GW36 did not change anything nearly as much as it was needed.
I realize its a game and its not a big deal, and ultimately it doesn’t matter in the slightest. But beyond that, lets get to the nitty-gritty.
What gets me is that aircraft became these units that where used primarily as “hot zone” units, basically you put them where it was hot, which is easy to do when they are used for attack, but on defense they suffer for it unless the attack is obvious.
Alternatively, players could just kept them back out of harm, for your next counter attack.
Each turn is supposed to be roughly 6 months. I realize the nature of the game doesn’t allow for real-time or simultaneous turns. That’s not my point, keep it turn based.
By nature aircraft are fluid and versatile. Even with hangers, staff, mechanics, pilots etc, aircraft by nature is fairly easy to disengage and re-engage opponents.
So if an aircraft unit is in Smolensk, and the neighboring territory is attacked by the enemies major offensive, wouldn’t the aircraft just flit over and join the defense? Especially over the span of 6 months? Even accounting for the idea that “a Game Round is 6 months, each nation is taking a section of that to do offensive and defensive moves, kinda simultaneously”, whatever that’s too meta complex for me.
Aircraft should be a bit like an umbrella held over the ground forces. If there is an airport base in Smolensk, why the heck not allow the aircraft to scramble? They do it over Sea Zones, why not Land Territories? This allows that umbrella to be held and allows the aircraft to actually function as defensive units more practically.
Well, you say “Jinx, fine, cool your jets, your idea took flight and airbases will now allow scrambling to sea and land.”
Well awesome, thanks.
That’s not really the point though. Its the whole scope and range of the thing.
So now Smolensk is attacked, and luckily Germany has some fighters there. But golly look at that. D-Day. No fighters in Europe.
I don’t like the look of that. I don’t like that Aircraft are represented as mega-units and everything else is smaller proportion.
With larger maps and more territories encompassing smaller geographical areas, certain units values need to change. From A&A Classic to A&A G40. Things changed.
Aircraft is the T-Rex of A&A G40, King of the Battlefield, huge, far-reaching, capable of bringing lots of power into a single battle, rare, and a dinosaur relic of the past.
Then GW36 lifted the idea of Aircraft from A&A, boosted it to fit a D12, brushed it off, tweaked it, and sent it into the Global War.
They had a chance to break the precedent, yet they did not.
So now we are stuck with a system that was playtested for A&A Classic, with 8 European territories, and we’ve fit it into GW36, with 48 European territories. We are solidly stuck because of precedent.
It was a fine idea for A&A Classic, but in A&A Classic southern Europe was 1 territory. Now we have 8 territories, with the same system barring cost.
How can that still be expected to work? Because we chose to accept it.
We don’t even accept that aircraft could scramble into adjacent land territories.
An aircraft in Scotland can cover the entire north sea, Iceland Sea and Celtic Sea, but heaven forbid an attack on Liverpool.
“Jinx, cool it, its just a game.” Yeah, I know. But we can make the game better cant we? That’s why we don’t play with our toes as much as when we where babies. We found better games.
Part 2.
We (my play group and I) didn’t like the fact that all the German Aircraft would be somewhere on the eastern front and leave not a single air unit in Europe. We didn’t like that fact that a Battle of Britain was a completely ludicrous idea, we wanted Air Warfare.
We wanted a fight for supremacy over Airzones in France or the English Channel, a fight separate from land or naval war. We wanted Air Warfare to be just as dynamic and interesting as ground combat. We didn’t want Air to be an expensive branch of the army or navy, being practically the best units on the board at the expense of all else.
So we designed something that made us happy and that wasn’t complex.
A few simple adjustment that broke us from the dinosaur and let us make aircraft less “King of Battle” to a role more historical and also much more enjoyable!
It creates a really cool dynamic that makes air so much more three dimensional.
Anyways Gents,
I know I wont convince anyone who hasn’t already had similar thoughts.
I encourage you to also keep exploring and thinking creatively. In your next game think about if you like big clumps of air wings jumping hot zones or if you’d like to see air units take on a more interesting, realistic and dynamic role.
Cheers all!
Jinx
