Targeted Tech?

FEEDBACK WELCOMED

Hello everyone. I’ve been lurking here for years and wanted to reach out and get some feedback from our house rules on new tech development house rules for use on our Anniversary map. We went out to solve 2 problems, 1) the randomness of tech breakthroughs and 2) the game changing ability of certain techs. We wanted a system where you picked what tech your research with some sort of progressive path to a breakthrough. We have 20 techs that can be researched (at 1 per turn) in 4 categories, land warfare, air warfare, naval warfare and “special”.

Most of the tech breakthroughs provide advantages only in the first round of combat and we think provide some flavour to the game but I wouldn’t mind getting some more eye on this to see if anything stands out as too powerful or not worth the 4 + IPC investment.

We’ve played 3 games now with the progressive research model and it’s been fun.

I should add that while we play on the Anniversary map (neither of us have room for Global unfortunately), we use the following rules from other games or house rules.

Tanks cost 6 IPC Industry have built in AAA AAA unit from 1942.2 SBR Escorts and Interception BB has built in AAA, rolls 1 dice at 1

Last note is we wanted to increase abilities without adding new units to the game. The map just gets too crowded once you start including new units.

Would welcome any thoughts you have. Thanks in advance!!

**** New Tech Research Rules ****

To make an investment in a technology, the player spends 4 IPC to start a project, limited to starting 1 project per turn, however doesn’t announce with projects they are starting, places a country roundle on the progress tracker starting at Phase 1. Players can only have 1 ongoing project per category (Land, Air, Naval, Special). During the research phase, the player rolls 1 free dice for each research project and may purchase as many additional dice rolls as they want for each of the research projects prior to rolling (see additional dice cost below). The player needs to roll the number on the progress chart and if achieved, the country roundle is placed in the “breakthrough” box. If roll is not successful, the country roundle is moved up one and each subsequent turn achieving a ‘breakthrough’ becomes easier. If the player gets to Phase 3 without achieving a breakthrough, the roundle is moved to the DELAYED box and the technology is achieved in the research phase of the next turn. Having a tech in DELAYED does not block a new project in the same category from being started.

While the progress of each step is announced, including a breakthrough, the player does not reveal the technology breakthrough until the technology is used. For tracking purposes, keep your breakthroughs in the “secret” box until it is used then move to “revealed’.

link text

Land Warfare

Heavy Tanks, tanks attack at 4 and target select land units on a roll of 1 during the first round of combat.

Heavy Tank Destroyers, tanks defend at 4 and target select land units on a roll of 1 during the first round of combat.

Mechanized Warfare, Inf/Art/AAA paired with tank move 2, Inf/Art can blitz with tank.

Advanced Artillery, infantry paired with artillery defend at 3 during the first round of combat.

Elite Infantry, attacking infantry roll 2 dice in the first round of combat. Only 1 roll gets the attack combined arms bonus when paired with artillery.

Air Warfare

Heavy Bombers, bombers add 3 IPC damage during strategic bombing raids. Heavy bombers hit by AAA fire are removed from play AFTER they roll for bombing damage.

Escort Fighters, fighter units starting in the same territory with a bomber may move up to 6 and escort the bomber to target during strategic bombing mission

Advanced Aircraft, land based fighters attack at 4 first round of combat. Land based fighter escorts/interceptors roll at 2 during air combat round of Strategic Bombing raid. Bombers roll 2 dice in the first round of combat, picking the best result.

Jet Fighters, defending land based fighters have a hit priority aircraft and roll 2 dice during the first round of combat and roll 2 dice at 2 to hit during Strategic Bombing phase.

Advanced Radar and ATC, Industrial complex AAA rolls hit on a 2 or less during Strategic Bombing. Up to 2 land based fighters may scramble from land territory to defend in land or sea combat in adjacent land or sea zones including strategic bombing (copied from Sired Blood’s rules)

Naval Warfare

Heavy Battleship, take 3 hits to sink, roll 2 dice first round of combat including shore bombardment. Considered fully operational with 1 hit, half attack/defend/AAA with 2 hits. Battleship AAA defences roll 2 dice.

Advanced Carrier, Carriers take 2 hits to sink & can carry 3 fighters. Carrier based fighters ‘target select’ naval or air units on a roll of 1 during naval combat.

Advanced Submarines, subs attack at 3 first round of combat, each sub in excess of enemy destroyers in a naval battle may sneak attack/submerge.

Heavy Transports, transports may now carry 3 units. If 3 units are carried, 1 must be an infantry.

Naval Logistics, all naval surface combat units (Battleships, Carriers, Cruisers, Destroyers) move 3.

Special Tech

Improved Shipyards (standard rules)

Increase Factory Production, factories on territory IPC 2 or less produce 1 extra unit, factories on territory IPC 3 or more produce 2 extra units. Factories now cost 10.

War Economy, during the collect income phase, players get 1 additional IPC for each 10 IPC it has on the income tracker + results from IPC modifier roll below.

Roll 6 = 4 IPC
Roll 5 = 3 IPC
Roll 3-4 = 2 IPC
Roll 1-2 = 1 IPC

Full Mobilization, repair factory 1 IPC per 2 points of damage. At the start of the ‘Purchase Units’ phase, the player rolls 1d6. A roll of 1-4 grants 1 free infantry unit, roll of 5-6 grants 2 free infantry units. These units are placed during the ‘Mobilize New Units’ phase using standard placement rules.

Mass Production, players may purchase multiple units of the same type at a discount.

Tanks (6 IPC), purchase set of 3 tanks for 16 IPC (-2)
Artillery, purchase set of 3 artillery for 10 IPC (-2)
AAA Artillery, purchase set of 2 AAA guns for 8 IPC (-2)
Fighter, purchase 2 fighters 17, IPC (-3)
Bombers, purchase 2 bombers for 20 IPC (-4)

**** End ****

Why don’t you post the rules here for all other people to see and if they want ? Be easier.

CWO Marc I am not talking the Tech, but rather the availability of Sonar for ASW on ships designed for ASW and not the U boat threat but rather U boats attacking in unison.
Another factor with historically accurate concepts has to be playability without getting overly complicated.

IE German assault guns over tanks was lack of resources….and the availability of chassis from outdated tanks like the PZ ll and PZ 38t to create a need in Self propelled Artillery and Anti-Tank vehicles. I assure you that the Tanks were preferred over assault guns. This concept has morphed in house rules to what these assault guns were actually intended to do. A Panzer Division commander would rather be supplied Panthers over JagdPanthers

5. Atomic Bomb  rolleyes Really? The atomic bomb was only used once the US had practically won the war. It might have been drawn out, but they would have won. This is already represented by VCs. Once you capture enough VCs, you win. This would happen before and atomic bomb was developed.
In regards to game play, it seems lame. The cost seems to be too much merely to prevent one turn of production. I honestly think the whole idea should be scrapped.

The war would have gone on till 1946. The two bombs dropped changed that. japan figured it could get a negotiated peace if it soiled the beaches of Japan with American blood. The bombs changed that completely. It was also dropped to get political advantage over the Soviets who wanted spoils in Asia and to deny them the same. The bomb was the most important invention of the war and it above all other techs must be represented. Obviously, it would be had to obtain and require alot of research to have. The idea is also to have one tech that changes the game and makes it end. Some games require such an outcome because players sometimes never surrender and Atomic weaponry will finish the stalemate.

And that is exactly what it did.

In some games you can play and not obtain an outcome, while with this technology you are assured that the game will finish up soon. In most games that last of normal duration it wont be developed and thats the charm of it.

I am gonna post a new version of mine using KISS. I think it is too complicated.

but i will do that in a new thread :-D

@bugoo:

As far as tech goes I would propose a point system.  Assign a point value to each tech.  Purchase researchers as normal.  Roll as normal for research, but add up the total rolls and apply them toward the selected tech.  You could assign different researches to different techs, but cannot change the tech they work on once purchased.  Once point value is reached, tech is gained said researchers are lost.  For example.

As US I want heavy bombers eventually, they are worth 30 research, so on turn 1 I purchase one heavy bomber researcher.  I roll and get a 3.  Now I need 27 more research to get heavy bombers.  On turn 2 I decide I want super subs, and since that tech isn’t as powerful I only need 15 research to get them.  I purchase 2 researchers, both for the subs as I want to sink japan’s navy now.  I roll a 2 for my heavy bomber researcher, leaving 25 left, and then roll a 4 and a 5 for my subs, leaving 6 left and with any luck on turn 3 i’ll get my super subs.

This will allow you to slowly work at a tech, rush for it, and choose to go for the good but expensive techs, or take an easier, faster, tech, or all of the above.  Now all nations may buy a heavy bomber researcher turn 1, but hey there is nothing wrong with that!

Hello.  I am digging up this as the tech lovers/haters discussions have started to heat up.

I re-read your thoughts and am wondering if you ever did anything more with this idea of a tech pointing system.  Did you ever come up with point targets for each tech?

The neat thing about this is that it can be easily tweaked with out re-writing the whole process.

Or you could go one step further and adjust the targets by country too.  For example, make super subs very low (read affordable) for Russian super subs or something like that, or even harder for the wealthy countries (like extra points for USA for Long Range)

That is a pretty cool rule.

still a small AC Bomber could take out BB