I am just wondering if anyone invests in weapons developement? Which powers they choose to invest with, gradually one or two dice at a time, or all at once? Anyone bother at all outside of messing around after you clearly have the advantage?
“investing” in weapons development is a bad strategy. there are rare scenarios whereby it is a tactic, but is still an overall bad strategy.
it is a shame that techs were made so useless. rolling for tech is fun and can add variety to games but they have a high cost to reward ratio.
i agree with pgmatt. i really wish the game used the anniversary style tech tokens.
i had written up a long winded opus on why technology is a bad strategic investment a few years ago before any revisions were made to global40. the theory still holds true.
http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=20330.0
Our gang has a house rule, we use the tech tokens like AA50, then after you roll your 6 to get a tech, you can target the tech you want. Each turn you get one roll to see if you develope the tech or not. This way it is not as random, and it may still take some time to roll the one you are hoping to get.
Our gang has a house rule, we use the tech tokens like AA50, then after you roll your 6 to get a tech, you can target the tech you want. Each turn you get one roll to see if you develope the tech or not. This way it is not as random, and it may still take some time to roll the one you are hoping to get.
Dang that’s a good idea. We use the tech tokens but just to roll for the breakthrough. You have expanded it. I think it would be much better to keep your token and roll each turn for the tech you want rather than just rolling the one time and getting something that is next to useless to you.
The tech rule is kinda silly. I mean, if a country wants to improve the efficiency of its shipyars, it’s going to invest massively in improved shipyards. Why the hell would he suddenly out of nowhere develop a technology that would improve the range of it’s aircrafts?
IMO people should roll for breakthrough but call in advance which techs they are going for.
I’ve once played a variant of Axis and Allies (heavily modified game using a custom map but A&A units) that you had to pay for technologies. Each tech has it’s own price and usually a secondary technology that you could research after the first one. For example, you could develop long range fighters, then long-range bombers.
Say the long-range fighter tech costs 8 IPC. You have FIRST to spend those 8 IPCs, then you are allowed to spend 5 IPC to research it. You could also overspend by up to 2 IPC and get a +2 to roll your tech, so you could spend 10 IPC on long-range fighters, then buy a chance for 5 IPC and get the tech on a roll of 1, 2, 3.
in that game, people actually bought and researched tech. everything has it’s price, you know what you’re getting, but there’s always the chance that you don’t get the tech you want if you don’t roll it. You could also steal techs, but I forget the details.
I could see houseruling something like that
Would work where instead of rolling for a six, and them rolling again to see what tech you get…
You decide what tech you want and them roll for it,
Example if you want heavy bombers and roll a 5 you fail because you needed a six, but if you had been rolling for long range aircraft them the 5 would give you it
IMO people should roll for breakthrough but call in advance which techs they are going for.
That would be more realistic, plus save a step in the tech process. Instead of paying for dice/tokens, rolling for a 6, then rolling to see which tech you get, you simply pay for dice, call out the tech and roll however many dice you paid for. If you don’t get that number, then try again next round. If you do, then YAY!
Or, if you roll a 1 you get to choose anything from the first breakthrough chart, and if you roll a 2 you choose anything off of the second chart.
Maybe the answer is to simply reverse the order in which you roll for the research and development. At the start of your turn pick the chart you want, roll a die and see what technology breakthrough you will get if you invest.
IE, your scientists make you a proposal of what they intend to develop. Now once you know what you will get, you determine how many dice you want to roll to get that technology. If its something you don’t want or need, you don’t have to roll at all. If it’s something you really covet, then you can “invest” lots of dice into the roll to make the breakthrough more likely.
This does not change the overall chance to get anything, but no government would be wasting a large portion of its budget to have their scientist come up with Paratroopers, where as a proposal for Jets or Super Subs would likely see a considerable number of dice rolled.
If your scientist come to you with the idea for Rockets, now you have to decide will you put a lot into this development this turn (die roll)? if you do and still don’t get it you could bust your budget or if you pass (don’t pay for a die roll) next turn you will likely not have the opportunity again.
After all, you don’t go out and spend money on lottery tickets not knowing how much the jackpot is worth. With this method you will see more technology attempts since you will know what your going to get!
What U think?
Kim
Very innovative idea, Kim
I like it better than “targeted tech”, i.e. picking whatever one you want and trying to roll a 6 ala Revised edition
One side effect… Your method entices powers to gamble more money on average, I would think. I think it would make luck even greater in tech rolls, because you’ll more often have powers rolling multiple dice. Also, you will probably have more tech in your games, which will make them more volatile, but maybe this is what you want.
By the way, paratroopers ROCK
Hey KimRYoung,
We have been using your suggestion for tech in the last couple of our games and it works fantastic. We haven’t tried it in Global 40 yet, we played a couple of games of Anniversary so there was just the 6 countries. In the first game, everybody had some tech. Even Russia and Italy each had one.
In the second game, Germany ended up with 4, Japan and USA each had 3 and Britain had 1. Russia was taken out too early to get any and even though Italy did pretty well, they kept rolling stuff they didn’t want to invest in or when they did, they just couldn’t get a 6. Poor luck.
It’s so cool seeing what you might get then deciding whether or not to invest. Much better than the old way. Thanks for the great idea.
I find the fact that paratroopers must be researched very silly
They should have been incorporated directly into the game
@Uncrustable:
I find the fact that paratroopers must be researched very silly
They should have been incorporated directly into the game
TOTALLY agree with you on that one. As a tech, I think it’s a very weak one and I would never invest in that one. Instead, I think paratroopers should be a type of elite infantry unit, sort of like the Marines in the original A&A Pacific. They would cost 4 IPCs with the ability to fly from air bases up to 3 spaces to a battle. Of course, they would also be subject to AA fire if there is an AA gun in that territory. Maybe they also could attack @ 2 for the first round of combat to represent the surprise of troops landing behind the front lines.
I have been toying with allowing some tech advantages at the start (Like each country gets one tech)
Super Subs for Germany, Radar for UK, that kind of thing.
Funny, I toyed with the same. Precedent being optional rules “Axis Advantage” from classic. Of course, axis have the advantage in this game already, but it would make sense.
The questions I had were: Does China, France and ANZAC get techs? What techs do you give Japan, China, France and ANZAC?"
I would say:
US: Improved Shipyards (cause that’s pretty much how we won, we outspent everyone and flooded the battlefield - unless my Russian history is really THAT bad!)
UK / ANZAC / France: Radar
Germany: Jet Power OR (big or there) Super Submarines.
Russia: Improved Artillery?
Japan: No freakin clue. Maybe LRA? Not that they need MORE range on their planes!
China: nothing, they already get to exist.
Russia: Improved Artillery?
Japan: No freakin clue. Maybe LRA? Not that they need MORE range on their planes!
Russian artillery was notoriously inferior to their western allies, it only was effective due to the massive numbers employed in massed barrages. Probably a better choice would be Improved Mech to represent Soviet Tankodesantniki.
Japan actually was the nation to develop “Super Subs”. Unfortunately the Japanese Super Subs didn’t work like the super subs in the game since they carried 3 aircraft and and were designed to surface launch planes to attack targets on land. They were the largest subs made prior to nuclear subs though.
Kim
I was thinking of advanced artillery (for the Russians) being more IEDs, massed cannon fie, etc. I wasn’t thinking accuracy. Since Advanced artillery supports 2 infantry units, I was kinda going “okay, so twice as many.” I could be wrong, I honestly and truly believe that tech was thrown in “at the last minute” without much thought or concern for how it would function. Why? War bonds and if that isn’t enough said think about it! How useless were war bonds before? How utterly useless are they now? What would it take to “fix” them? doubling the dice would be enough really, at least to put them back on par with the increased map size. Just a thought.
There has been talk from players about how you could house rule tech trees, but I think that would be too confusing to ever implement anywhere with any seriousness other than just a play at home group. I think it is better to pair technologies up like War Bonds + Rockets. Heavy Bombers + Paratroopers. Not to mention you go down to 1 tree and since techs are doubled the cost of getting them is better, in my mind. I mean the above are SUGGESTIONS not like “I want to do it THIS way.”
My list would have some differences.
Germany: Â Improved mech. Â When I think of early war Germany, it’s film of mechanized forces moving into Poland. Â Jets were a late war development and the sub campaign was more a function of tactics than technology.
Russia: Â Improved Industry. Â Any nation that is pumping tanks out of the Stalingrad factories as the Germans are invading can really keep it going.
Japan: None
USA: Â Heavy Bombers. Â I think ship yards and improved factory production are both good choices, but both are too big of an advantage for the US to start with.
China: Â None
UK: Â Warbonds. The UK understood “total war” sooner than anyone else IMO. Â I appreciate Radar as the sentimental favorite, but reject it because I’m not comfortable with invalidating Sealion and India Crush in one blow.
Italy: Â Improved Shipyards. Â The Italian Navy was huge compared to the total output of the nation itself. Â They probably bankrupted themselves to do it, but hey, they built the ships somehow.
ANZAK: Â None
French: Â None
Can’t Japan get something? I feel like Heavy bombers are awesome, and UK getting 3.5 that he can spend on either side of the board is really powerful. Russia’s tech is pretty nice for the start, and makes strategic bombing a lot less effective. Germany’s tech is perfect for him, since my Germany normally buys mostly mech anyways after turn 2. Italy’s tech I feel is helpful, but might make him build too many ships and not enough ground, though I do like how that matches historically how Italy acted. The problem here is Japan isn’t getting any help, and on the pacific side UK got help and US got a lot of help with heavy bombers. Not sure what tech you could give Japan, or you could just take away US’s heavy bombers and give him paratroopers.
Personally, I think Japan should get either long range aircraft or improved shipyards. They are both good techs for Japan and either is matched by the USA’s heavy bombers.
Also, as for the improved shipyards, there’s no reason Japan and Italy couldn’t have the same tech. In fact, I wouldn’t think it was a problem for more than one country to have any of the techs.
As for ANZAC, perhaps they could also have UK’s tech of War Bonds. Actually, that one is a “take it or leave it” thing for me.
theROCmonster,
NO, don’t take heavy bombers away from the US. If anyone deserves that tech, it would be the US. And certainly don’t replace it with paratroopers. For one thing, that is the big SUCK of all the techs. Next to worthless as far as I’m concerned. Secondly, it really shouldn’t be a tech. It should be more of an elite infantry unit and incorporated into game play for all nations. Give it a cost of 4 IPCs and use the rules governing paratroopers.
In my game group, we have been wanting to replace that tech with something more “techy” and useful. We just haven’t taken the time to come up with one yet because we don’t really use tech that often. Although that may change with a new method of developing tech. Each player picks the chart to develop, rolls to see which tech they can possibly get, THEN decide whether or not and how much to invest in a tech roll that round. If you get a 6, you get the tech you rolled for. If not, your research failed and you try again next turn. We’ve already tried it on a couple of games of Anniversary and it was great. Can’t wait to try it on Global 40.
The problem with the US and Japan is how many technologies fit for them to start with.
Japan could start with Jets using Pearl Harbor for Justification
America could star with Radar using Pearl Harbor for Justification
Japan AND America could start with shipyards using the battle in the pacific for justification.
Just to select two examples (first showing different techs second showing same tech.) There are more examples of course!
Jets for Pearl Harbor?? Japan had pretty much all of their available carrier based aircraft for the assault and of course had the element of surprise, but there were zero jets involved at Pearl…
