AARe : Enhanced

[Guest]

Is there any reason to NOT pick Radar for the UK advantage?  It is absolutely brutal.  5 IPC unit, 8 IPC for techs, and a permanent bonus to anti-aircraft utilities.  That’s a 13 IPC worth alone, compare that to Royal Navy which gives you 10 IPC and no killer bonuses.

[axis_roll]

@Rakeman:

Is there any reason to NOT pick Radar for the UK advantage?  It is absolutely brutal.  5 IPC unit, 8 IPC for techs, and a permanent bonus to anti-aircraft utilities.  That’s a 13 IPC worth alone, compare that to Royal Navy which gives you 10 IPC and no killer bonuses.

Well for one thing, you can not pick NA’s only based on their IPC cost/savings.  If you did, you’d always pick the extra inf NAs (siberian conscripts, Atlantic wall, common wealth, pacific divisions).  In a typical Enhanced game of 10-12 rounds, these are worth $30-36 IPCs.

[Guest]

I know, it just appears that Radar gives you a powerful advantage PLUS free units/tech rolls.  Most techs give you an advantage, units, or tech rolls.  Of course, you know more than I do about Enhanced so if you say the NAs are balanced, I’ll take your word for it until play experience shows otherwise…  8-)

[axis_roll]

@Rakeman:

I know, it just appears that Radar gives you a powerful advantage PLUS free units/tech rolls.  Most techs give you an advantage, units, or tech rolls.  Of course, you know more than I do about Enhanced so if you say the NAs are balanced, I’ll take your word for it until play experience shows otherwise…  8-)

Radar is a commonly taken UK NA, part of the reason is because it’s a multi-use NA.

It can be helpful in more than one way:  Tech dollars can be for jet power (helpful for the defense-needing allies) or combined arms (offshores baby!) or super subs…(no so much).  Adding the aaa gun capability to the UK BB’s can be a huge factor in battle for the atlantic.

An extra AA gun is a bonus, not such a key component of the NA.  Can be useful in an Australian IC.

did I fail to mention the ability to shoot down planes @ 2!

Remember there are other very powerful UK NA’s too that must ‘balance’ to Radar:
Commonwealth
Royal Navy
Royal Air Force
Colonial Garrison

One I don’t see too much is UK Lend-Lease.

[Jennifer]

Did the rules change?  My handbook says the 8 IPC for Radar can only be applied to Combined Arms or Jet Fighters.  Honestly, I only take Radar because it makes attacking the English navy too costly for Germany.

[axis_roll]

@Cmdr:

Did the rules change?  My handbook says the 8 IPC for Radar can only be applied to Combined Arms or Jet Fighters.  Honestly, I only take Radar because it makes attacking the English navy too costly for Germany.

My mistake.  Only Jets or Combined Arms… not super subs too.

[Jennifer]

Let us pretend that Germany has Atlantic Wall and German 88s.  This gives them the ability to fire one shot at an allied fleet off the coast of W. Europe.

Let us also pretend that Germany has shot and hit the only carrier the allies have in that sea zone.

The question is:

Do the Allied Fighters in that Sea Zone still get to protect the fleet until the NCM portion of Germany’s turn

-or-

Do the Allied Fighters automatically move to England and cannot be used as defensive units any more?

[axis_roll]

@Cmdr:

Let us pretend that Germany has Atlantic Wall and German 88s.  This gives them the ability to fire one shot at an allied fleet off the coast of W. Europe.

Let us also pretend that Germany has shot and hit the only carrier the allies have in that sea zone.

The question is:

Do the Allied Fighters in that Sea Zone still get to protect the fleet until the NCM portion of Germany’s turn

-or-

Do the Allied Fighters automatically move to England and cannot be used as defensive units any more?

All battle is simultaneous.  This would be a sub sinking the carrier and other units attacking the loaded carrier at the same time:  the ftrs stay for the entire battle.

[Jennifer]

@axis_roll:

@Cmdr:

Let us pretend that Germany has Atlantic Wall and German 88s.  This gives them the ability to fire one shot at an allied fleet off the coast of W. Europe.

Let us also pretend that Germany has shot and hit the only carrier the allies have in that sea zone.

The question is:

Do the Allied Fighters in that Sea Zone still get to protect the fleet until the NCM portion of Germany’s turn

-or-

Do the Allied Fighters automatically move to England and cannot be used as defensive units any more?

All battle is simultaneous.  This would be a sub sinking the carrier and other units attacking the loaded carrier at the same time:  the ftrs stay for the entire battle.

Good to know.  Always worried about that, since Germany could use shoreside bombardment of the fleet to sink a carrier, then send Dive-Bombers in if the defending fighters were forced away.

[Zaitsev]

Hello.
Long Time Reader, 1st Time Poster.
Our Group of 3-4 play Enahnced for AAR maybe Once/per month.
We really enjoy these House Rules.  Lots of Strategy and differences in play.
Is there plans for Enhanced for AA50?
Thank y ou.

[axis_roll]

@Zaitsev:

Hello.
Long Time Reader, 1st Time Poster.
Our Group of 3-4 play Enahnced for AAR maybe Once/per month.
We really enjoy these House Rules.  Lots of Strategy and differences in play.
Is there plans for Enhanced for AA50?
Thank y ou.

Welcome and I am glad to hear that the rules are offering another gaming group such enjoyment.

About an Enhanced AA50 rules set… hard to say at this time as there are (from what we know about the game rules) different dynamics at play.  Some examples: There are no National Advantages but National Objectives.  Also, the weapons development mechanics have changed.

We need to get a good base of game playout under the complete set of proper rules that will identify AA50’s shortcomings (hopefully fewer than previous A&A versions).  It will be at that time when the impetus to fix the shortcomings will be measured (and acted upon if the need is great).

[Jennifer]

I like to use it to reimburse England for lost units going to Russia.

UK plunders 12 IPC in units from America.  USSR plunders 12 IPC in units from UK

England focuses their normal cash just as they normally would and America only needs to build the first half of the transport train.

[allies_fly]

@pagan:

.
United Kingdom Lend-Lease :  I’m surprised not more people use it , since you can play completely vanilla and be defensively strong. It’s one of those NAs that needs to be used against you before you can see how many applications it has
.

The problem is a good Axis player will demand more than mere vanilla moves from the allies for the allies to survive into mid/late game.

[Jennifer]

Honestly, i think Russian Rail allows Russia to pull some really dirty tricks early in the game with minimal risk to defensibility in AARe which is why I like it.

I never liked how in Classic and Revised Russia was a paper tiger.  It had some teeth but they quickly were negated by the Axis as they could never keep up.  With Russian Rail, you can really bring those infantry from the back up to bear in quick enough time to press your advantage and earn enough to keep Germany at bay until America and England could get up to speed.

[Guest]

Was it ever considered to make a rule simply stating that West Russia is considered a red territory, not gray, for all NA/capturing purposes?  I just think it’s kinda inconsistent that T-34s and Mobile Industry treat West Russia as a gray territory, while Railway and Winter treat West Russia as a red territory.

Also, with Kaitens, if you attack with 2 kaitians and are targeting an aircraft carrier, and get detected by 2 destroyers, and your first kaitian scores a hit, must your second also attack a destroyer, or can it simply target the carrier?

[axis_roll]

@Rakeman:

Was it ever considered to make a rule simply stating that West Russia is considered a red territory, not gray, for all NA/capturing purposes?  I just think it’s kinda inconsistent that T-34s and Mobile Industry treat West Russia as a gray territory, while Railway and Winter treat West Russia as a red territory.

The reason that West Russia is treated differently was to help balance the NA’s.  Making T-34s defend at a 4 in West Russia was deemed too strong.  I know discussions concluded that the counter attack portion of Russian Winter (inf attack @2 for one round) needed to have West Russia as a viable counter to make Russian Winter a stronger NA, on the same level as the other NA’s.  Railway was a weaker NA for the same reason (no Karelia to Caucasus connection).  Specific tweaks to NA’s were made, and the < unitended> result was the inconsistent treatment of West Russia.

Personally I never really thought this was a big deal.

@Rakeman:

Also, with Kaitens, if you attack with 2 kaitians and are targeting an aircraft carrier, and get detected by 2 destroyers, and your first kaitian scores a hit, must your second also attack a destroyer, or can it simply target the carrier?

@AARe:

-If “undetected”, Kaitens roll against their primary target first, and only move on to the secondary target (with a 2nd Kaiten) if the primary is destroyed.
-If “detected”, Kaitens must roll against an enemy DD first, and only move on to the primary target (with a 2nd Kaiten) if the DD is destroyed.

You can choose any ship after you sink the DD if you score two hits.  There has to be a chance to get around a 2 DD screening or Kaitens are then rendered pretty useless.

[Guest]

@axis_roll:

Personally I never really thought this was a big deal.

It’s not, especially if it balanced the NAs.  I’ve never picked Russian T-34s because I was afraid it would be too weak… perhaps I should try them out sometime.

[axis_roll]

@Rakeman:

@axis_roll:

Personally I never really thought this was a big deal.

It’s not, especially if it balanced the NAs.  I’ve never picked Russian T-34s because I was afraid it would be too weak… perhaps I should try them out sometime.

I look at T-34’s as $5 version of a ftr that has limited range but can take land.
Get a stack of those and you can bop back and forth between karelia and caucasus to hold as needed against the advancing axis.

[Guest]

That makes sense.  I think part of my problem is with the game itself, rather than Enhanced.  Moscow is so far east it’s not even close to historical.  It makes sense for “West Russia” to be German as, if the board was done right, west russia would have been pushed back a good distance west, making Moscow in between the caucus and archangel (which still wouldn’t be completely right I don’t think but a lot closer) and making the land on west russia reasonable to give to german hands at game start.  Oh well.

[swordsman3003]

Small question:

Under LHTR, or under AARe rules, can subs be taken as casualties in of air attacks?

Like if Germany builds nothing in the baltic on G1 and UK attacks with 2 fighters and 1 bomber, can the Germans choose to take the subs as casualties first? I tried to figure this out from reading the rules but I must have overlooked it.