POW Rules

[Gargantua]

If you are incredibly SADISTIC, you can choose to surrender units WITHOUT rolling, these units then become POW’s.

There may be some rare-occassions where this could cause more difficulty for the enemy.

MORE OPTIONAL RULES
For every capital ship that rolls a 6 on it’s defence, during the round that it is destroyed, receive a POW.

[captainhook]

I like these POW rules.

I think that once the territory containing the POW is liberated/captured half the POWs are freed, and can be replaced by infantry units.

Also, I think that POWs should be placed on a territory adjacent to the one in which they are captured. That has two reasons.  First it is more accurate, in the sense that prisoners don’t teleport. Second, it is more fun since it would allow the other power a better chance at liberating the POWs before they reach a heavily guarded enemy capital.

Optional Rule:
This is not very ethical, but it is pretty historically accurate: Japan can decide to execute prisoners.

[CWO Marc]

@Gargantua:

-For every 3 POW units you have, recieve 1 IPC of slave labour per turn.

Using POWs as slave labour is prohibited under the Geneva Conventions, so this is a rule that might only work to the advantage of the Axis Powers.  Japan used POWs as slave labour for such projects as the Bridge over the River Kwai.  Germany made creative deals with Vichy France to return x numbers of French POWs to France in exchange for y numbers of “volunteer” French workers coming to Germany; I can’t recall what the x-to-y ratio was, but it was a large number of workers for every POW.

[Gargantua]

The Russians did not abide by the Geneva convention.

And The Germans were put into forced labour by the Americans.

Good ideas though guys.  I like your thoughts hook.  My only fear was however, that in areas where “smaller” battles occur, like dead zones,  you’re going to have these displaced POW’s that NEVER seem to go away.

I suppose we could add,  “A POW can move in NCM, in the same turn it has been captured”

[Gargantua]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forced_labor_of_Germans_after_World_War_II

For reference,  even though that only lists FORCED labour as afte the war… it was going on DURING the war, and in the same capacity, that they were still POW’s in 1948, doing forced labour, thus Geneva convention broken.

[Gargantua]

Hmm…

I’ve been considering how to alter the rules, to allow for attackers to be taken POW aswell.  It only makes sense right?

If we used the same concept.  for every 6 rolled, in the round that the unit is destroyed,  each side allocates their POW’s on the battle board.  Then the winner of the battle takes all the POW’s in the end, liberating/accepting his own, whilst imprisoning his opponents.

Thus, if they win,  they keep what they’ve capture,  and MAYBE get 1 or 2 of their own infantry back.

If you retreat, of course, your POW’s are abandoned?  Makes sense right?

This will make ridiculously LARGE battles entertaining :D, simulating the displacement of men at war, status, re-equipping/reorganizing of units hastily, all out of remnant/liberated forces.  I LIKE IT!

The game mechanic involves a bit of luck, but shouldn’t imbalance anything.  However it begs the question,  what do we do in situations where your enemy has only captured 1 of your attacking units and you win the battle?  Is that unit destroyed? do you keep your own POW in circulation until you can match him up with other POW’s of your own?  Thus recreating an infantry unit? Either way, Interesting…

[CWO Marc]

For the slave labour which a player gets by capturing POWs, you might want to add a factor which, for each batch of prisonners taken, causes their numbers to decrease gradually as they die from malnutrition, illness, overwork, exposure, poor sanitation, harsh discipline, reprisal executions and other forms of bad treatment.  These things affect long-term workforce productivity, to put it mildly.

[techroll42]

Sounds cool but could the liberation rules be clarified?

And also, SBR’ing POW’s wouldn’t make sense as it’s attacking your own men and that would definitely not happen.

[Guppers]

@Gargantua:

There need to be POW rules for Axis and Allies!

-POW’s can be targetted by SBR, they do not have built in AA support,

how do you sleep at night…

Also you mentioned an enemy choosing to give POWs in battle, this makes it less of a consequence of the dice and perhaps a viable strategy.  If that’s the case then the other power should have the option of executing POW.  And idk much about WWII history so if someone says “the allies are the good guys” i’d say “war is war play to win”

[Gargantua]

I sleep at night by winning the war :D

I’ll go through all the rules, and everyones posts again, and revise everything later today in the top post!

[MacNaughton]

Any nation should be allowed to execute POWs at the time they are captured or in the future on their turn. This only makes sense as I’m sure I won’t always have spare infantry to guard prisoners. Also, if I see that my prison area is going to be conquered/liberated, I won’t want those POWs being reassembled into my enemy’s army. Lastly, I’m sure the threat of executing POWs would come in handy during a face-to-face game.

The advantage of SBRing POWs is that you are destroying your enemy’s slave camps even at the expense of killing your own countrymen? Am I right about your thinking here?

[Gargantua]

That’s exactly correct.

Bombing civilians should be an optional rule - also included in this package.  You can send your bomber to any territory, bomb it’s civilians/infrastructure, to prevent tanks blitzing through the territory until the end of your NEXT turn. :D

Dresden Style…

[Guest]

POWs may be killed at any time by the power who has taken them prisoner.

[Gargantua]

I agree, they can be killed at anytime.

HOWEVER, it takes resources and time to kill prisoners,  thus the rule should be that you can only -eliminate- them during your purchase new units phase,  OR kill them in battle, if you dedicate units to the task, on a 1 to 1 ratio.

So if you attack my 3 infantry defending 2 POW’s,  to SAVE the prisoners,  instead of rolling dice against you, I can choose on a 1 to 1 basis, to -eliminate- POW’s.

[Guest]

can’t you just starve them to death?

[Gargantua]

Well that has to be considered, and I think we’ve already discussed a place for “maintenance” of POW’s.  You know, whether some escape, or starve, or worse…  I don’t want  to make the rules too complex though!

[Guppers]

we should probably add food rules for the rest of the units too, more realism.  Also pooping rules

[MacNaughton]

@Gargantua:

or add them to the defence of the closest true Neutral land connected territory.

-If there are MORE escaped POW units in a true neutral territory than it’s home guard, the escaped POW’s can attempt to overthrow the government, and make it a PRO Neutral for their side, if they FAIL, it becomes a PRO Neutral for the other side.

Feel free to improve upon these, or add your own comments?!?!?!

This part doesn’t seem to go along with the way true neutrals are treated throughout the game. While I really like the idea of swaying true neutrals toward my side without having to conquer them, letting POWs enter true neutrals doesn’t fit the rest of the game. I’d love for there to be a retooling of true neutrals so that they could be swayed peacefully into joining the war on either side, but I don’t think runaway POWs is the answer.

Now, if allied POWs escape Japan’s control and Mongolia is the only non-hostile territory within 5 spaces, I understand the realism of the POWs running to Mongolia. Perhaps once there the allied power can pay the Mongolians (the bank) to transport the POWs to an allied territory– say 1 IPC per unit per 3 spaces of movement.
Since Mongolia will treat Axis or Allied powers this way, it keeps them a true neutral. They are merely returning people to their own powers and being repaid for the inconvenience.

With such a rule, it would be interesting to see a power attack a true neutral for the purpose of recovering POWs.

[Gargantua]

Great Thought McNaughton!

[Gargantua]

Just had another one boys.

You know all those times you screw up, and move a unit to the wrong place, or FORGOT something?  And ask to adjust it during your opponents turn?

You may Torture prisoners for ‘information’. The information you forgot, which moved your pieces to the wrong spots.

Thus the new rule:
-IF you ask your opponent to allow you to correct a move, EXECUTE a POW.  If your buddy lets you move, because it’s an obvious mistake, great.  If not, you tortured and executed the prisoners for NOTHING.  - 1 morality point.

OPTIONAL
-As soon as your opponet has planned his combat move and asked for scramble orders, you may do the following.
*Choose an amount of enemy prisoners (From the power who’s turn it is) to be executed and tortured for applicable battlefield information, roll 1d6 for each prisoner.  For every 1 you score, you may move a ground unit, 1 space away from battle.