National Advantage Cards for AA50

@barnee Thanks for the replies, the CIS ones sound good, and I like the idea of Gibraltar actually being important in 1914. I might also give the Spanish objectives in North Africa to motivate them to spread out a bit more. Not quite sure what to do with China yet, but they will probably be with the Central Powers (I know they weren’t historically, but it balances the game better). I’m thinking maybe I will give them IPCs for capturing Korea and parts of south Asia.

Based on your feedback, I’ve made a couple of tweaks to the variant. The most recent version is attached for play testing.

Changes from the original version are indicated by underscoring:

Revised Russian National Objectives

1. Spread of Communism: Bonus for Russian control of originally Axis/Pro-Axis territories is confined to mainland Europe (excluding Africa, Iraq, mid-east Islands, etc.).

2. Lend Lease: Russia receives +5 PUs, when at war with Germany/Italy, if at least one of three historical Lend-Lease lanes is “open” (i.e., the lane territory is friendly-controlled and there are no enemy warships in the corresponding sz). The Lend-Lease lanes are as follows:

a. Archangel, sz 125
b. Persia, sz 80
c. Siberia, sz 5

As in the original version of the NO, the presence of non-Russian allied units in originally Russian territory cancels out the objective.

(Hat tip to calvinhobbesliker and ItIsILeClercs for this change. I enjoyed reading up on the subject)

Other Allied National Objectives

1. Western Europe Beach Head: Allied control of at least two of the following gives USA +5 PUs if at war: Normandy, Holland, Western Germany, Denmark.

(Hat tip to The Hessian for this change)

2. Southern Europe Beach Head: Allied control of at least two of the following gives UK + 5 PUs: Southern France, Sicily, Sardinia, Greece.

3. Vital Forward Bases: Allied control of all of the following gives USA +5 PUs if at war: Wake Island, Midway, Caroline Islands, Marianas, Marshall Islands.

(Hat tip to Gencre for this change)

Air Raids

Fighters attack and defend at 2 during air raids. Strategic and tac bombers attack at 1.

Play-Testing

Over the last week, I had the chance to play test the variant a half-dozen times times, both as Allies and Axis. Some observations:

1. Axis players generally were more proactive in defending Western Europe against small-sale allied incursions.

2. In two games, Italy used its surving transport (after Taranto) to move defensive units to sicily and sardinia.

3. In all but one of the games, the changes to the Lend Lease objective effectively extended Russia’s +5 PU bonus until entry of allied units into Russia (usually by round 6 or 7). Mostly, no serious effort was made to contest the objective. However, in one game I was able to defeat it by getting a sub to sz 80 by round 4.

4. The 2 attack/defense value of fighters during air raids significantly reduced the frequency of unescorted bombing raids. Dark skies was not attempted in any of the games I played (whether due to the changes, or a coincidence, I don’t know).

5. The “Vital Forward Bases” objective encouraged “island-hopping,” as well as early naval engagement in the central-pacific, which was fun.

Thanks again for ur feedback guys. Am curious to hear your thoughts on the changes. Shoot me a message if you’d like to arrange a play test.

RegularkidG40BalanceVariantv5.tsvg

I’m sorry, 1942 is the edition I always play now and I had a brain cramp and thought they were priced at 16. It’s the price I think they should cost, but you’re absolutely right, they’re at 20 and so we never buy them!

I think these would work for mounting the P40 airbase and naval base tokens so you can actually pick them up…
http://boardgamebits.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_44_50&products_id=436

These rules use the OOB maps for AA50 and 42. They are current files.

I think you are still reading it wrong. According to the proposed system you get to pick the exact tech you want to roll for. Once you buy the researchers, it is only a matter of time before you get the tech (and only that tech). Due to the escalating nature of it, it should only take roughly 2-3 turns to get it. (1-2 for 3 or 4 dice) I honestly don’t mind playing with house rules. I am an avid fan of AARe and am not interested in competitive play using OOB rules or LHTR. I still like to play good people (I’d love to play AARe with axis roll or replay pagan sometime) I hope we can develop this rule set to get enough recognition to be generally accepted as more than one players house rule.

BTW anyone know what happened to pagan haven’t seen him since the WOTC board died?

Interesting addition of Communist Chinese forces.

@Flashman:

Remember too that the autumn rains bogged German tanks down in the mud, while the Russian tanks had wider tracks which coped much better with this.

Germany is hardly likely to blitz through Russia; perhaps tanks simply can’t move in winter (frozen fuel).

i think more of the autumn/spring rains that hurt the tanks and the winters that hurt the infantry.  certainly the fuel freezing was a winter thing, but the tanks could move at least when started, as compared to autumn when no one moved anywhere on the german side…