Blockhouses, bunkers, Atlantic wall fortifications

@Imperious-Leader I live in central Missouri… I’m just going to a gaming con in Tulsa in February

Hello,

I have just started to play the BBR version just within the last weekend and we were able to get a few games in over the weekend. We are pretty experienced in the Axis & Allies universe as we have played on and off since the mid 80s…(yes, I am almost 60).

We did have a question about Casablanca as far as the Italian NO. Does it need to be occupied to for the Italians to receive the bonus or is just Morocco?

There is a New Version of Over The Top available on triplea now.

Lots of Fun

:)

Part Five:

Errata & Optional Rules: Discussion

Upon reviewing the rules a bit, naturally the ones that stick out and cause problems are the ones that don’t pertain to RISK’s core combat mechanics.

Indonesia

Let’s say the USSR attacks the Arab League: Indonesia is supposed to stay neutral in this case, but can NATO still influence them, somehow? Does WE have to be the one to do it, or could it be UK? The ‘quick and dirty’ solution would just be to reverse the rule treating Indonesia as a separate entity, and say that the territory sides with NATO, if the Arab League is attacked by the USSR. Since they are aligned with WE, their troops should be replaced with WE (blue) troops, if/when this happens.

An obvious optional rule in this situation might be that Arab League territories join WE but Indonesia joins the UK; chalk this up to representing Singapore, Malaya, etc. or just with the continent of Australia being aligned with UK, in this game.

The alternate solution is to clarify the rule to be “an attack on Indonesia is not treated as an attack on the Arab League, but an attack on the Arab League DOES count as an attack on Indonesia.” I think this probably most closely reflects the intention of the mechanics.

Possibly a better (albeit more complicated) solution would be to allow NATO to use their influence roll towards their affiliated neutral alliance OR towards Indonesia. If they successfully influence Indonesia, they would replace Indonesia’s troops with their own. This treats Indonesia more like a “minor neutral” such as they would be in E&W; the reason I don’t like this is that it creates a new set of rules around a single territory, instead of just conforming to the existing/general rules.

Since the USSR has the option to ATTACK Indonesia, they can always gain the territory that way; this rule would simply address the fact that NATO does not have such a mechanism to gain the territory.
I should probably mention in this space that allowing NATO to use its influence roll to gain Indonesia, would allow for the possibility of the US gaining the territory. This would be an interesting wrinkle, as I’ve often said that in classic E&W the US needs to be able to gain Thailand in the event that the USSR goes nuclear; this would sort of serve to simulate that scenario, of the US needing to use its influence to try and gain a base of operations on mainland Eurasia.

Influence

Since the opening-game balance is presupposed around the OAS being at +1 to US and China being at +1 to the USSR, the obvious optional rule to include would be one not allowing diplomacy until the 2nd round of play. This would reflect the mechanical realities in E&W, of everybody starting the game with no spies in play (barring the USSR spending their “round zero” mobilization cash on spies.)

The rule limiting NATO to influencing only their affiliated neutral could also be changed… Although it might have to be limited to “once you’re already receiving +2 from them” to prevent dogpiling.
The intention of the limitation is to keep the game simple and fast; it’s also meant to avoid some of the pitfalls of E&W’s system, whereby there’s really only one correct choice, so just hammer that option as early and often as possible.

Nukes vs. Capitols

An interesting thing with the mechanic of nuclear weapons being added to a RISK game, is that it creates the possibility of a territory being cleared of armies. Since armies are used to denote territory ownership (serving the function performed by control markers, in A&A-type games) it stands to reason that a territory with no armies on it is controlled by no one. But what if the territory has a capitol on it?

This is an interesting thing, because the existence of a capitol implies ownership of the territory, corresponding to a specific faction, without there being troops in the territory (i.e. which would be the normal way to denote ownership of the territory.)

Obviously, a territory with a city but no armies is not controlled by anyone; this makes targeting cities with nukes more appealing, since it doubles the loss in “income” – similar to how targeting Industrial Complexes with nukes in E&W effectively doubles the reduction in infantry production, on that territory.

So the questions seem to be:

Can you place troops on your capitol, if there are currently no troops there? Do you get credit for “controlling” your capitol, if there are no troops in its territory? Does your capitol allow you to get credit for “controlling” the territory it resides in (including the bonus for a city)?

I think my answers to these would be: yes, maybe, and no (respectively.)

If a nuke wipes all of the armies off of a territory without a capitol, my general assumption was that this works the same as if a nuke in E&W reduced the IPC value of the territory to zero – meaning it cannot produce any infantry. The question then is, do capitols provide some immunity to this? Does not providing this immunity make nuking capitols (exclusively) too powerful in the overall meta? Again, these would have to be born out with more playtesting.

Updated Rail Depot.  House rules below
Rail allows each nation to extend the
movement of their ground units each turn.  Each
nation may move up to 2 ground units from one
rail station to another during the non-combat
movement phase.  There is no limit to the distance these units may travel, only number of units allowed to use the rail.  An uninterrupted line of
controlled territories must connect rail stations. 
Only units that have not moved during any other
phase may use rail.  Units may not move prior to,
or after using rail.  For gaming purposes a nation
may only use rail stations and railroad they
control.
Rail stations may be built in any territory
controlled for at least 1 round. It is not required
for these units to be built in factory locations.  As
the non-combat movement phase precedes the
place units phase, newly purchased rail stations
and railroad markers may not be used the same
turn they are purchased.
Rail stations and railroad may be captured by enemy nations.  Players must maintain control
of captured rail for one full turn before they are
allowed to use them.  Players may destroy their
own rail stations and railroad, however this must
be done during the controlling players turn. 
Players may attempt to destroy enemy rail stationswith strategic bombing.  Apply same rules for
strategic bombing.
Note:  Rail movement may not cross the Suez Can

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I think you are making Block Houses too strong; all infantry defend @ 4? That’s too high. It should be a 3.
Also, if you use the HBG Marines and attack with a flamethrower unit, that should negate the block house advantage.

Imperious Leader, thank you for the info. I will keep an eye on HBC and purchase the game when published.