Hi Trout,
Concerning Weapons Developement (aka Technological Breakthrough), we considered several options during the developement of the G40 HRE.
These were some of our considerations:
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Each dice roll costs 10 IPC. For each “6” you get a Technological Breakthrough. For each Technological Breakthrough roll one dice to determine which unit or rule your Nation gets.
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Same as above - but Weapons Developement may not begin until Early 1943.
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Same as above (1 + 2) but each dice roll costs 5 IPC.
To simplify the issue concerning Weapons Developement rules we just kept them as they are in the OOB - but Weapons Developement cannot begin until Early 1943.
The reason is that according to History, by Early 1943 all major Powers - especially Germany, United States and the Soviet Union - went All In with Weapons Developement in order to get the Upper Hand.
Instead of changing the OOB Weapons Developement rules further, we decided to give each Nation access to the weapons that they already developed and produced during the War.
In the G40 HRE these weapons are now purchasable for the Nation that produced them - and in the numbers that they were produced (as Historically accurate as game play allows).
The Historical Timeline is (as Historically accurate as game play allows) kept in the G40 HRE concerning these specialized weapons that each Nation can purchase.
Our game experience shows that most players do not use the Weapons Developement.
The explanations might be:
- The IPC are more needed for units production rather than research.
- Since most Nations can purchase specialized units - such as Super Heavy Battleship units, Heavy Bomber units, German U-Boat units & Wolf Pack rule etc. the OOB Weapons Developement are redundant.
- Winning Conditions: the G40 HRE Winning Conditions are more flexible than the OOB version - hence the absence of interest in Weapons Developement.