Real value of units

Heroic Leaders

Soviet Union
Vasily Zaytsev Soviet Sniper during the battle of Stalingrad killed 225 soldiers including 11 snipers. Pick one Russian soldier. If garrisoned in a region containing a city Vasily may roll to shoot an enemy in an adjacent region (hits on 2 or less). This takes his action for the turn and he may not participate in any other combat for the remainder of the round.

Germany
Hermann Balk German Tank Commander whose lone Panzer Division nearly destroyed the entire Soviet Fifth Tank Army in three weeks. Pick a German tank. For the duration of the game this unit has +1 to combat rolls against Soviet Tanks.
Dietrich Von Sauken Prussian Nobleman, a tough veteran of every WW1 front. Saluted Hitler with a classic bent arm, typically sporting a cavalry sword, facial wounds and monocle. Dietrich asserted his command in spite of vocal anti-Nazi views while instrumental in the Kursk, Barbarossa, Minsk, and Moscow offensives. Pick a soldier. This motorized unit fights has an increased movement to two. May retreat two spaces, but cannot blitz like tanks and must end in first enemy territory entered. VonSauken supports two soldiers acting as an artillery piece.
Hans Rudel German Aviator veteran of 2,530 ground attack missions, over 50 aerial victories and claimed to have destroyed over 800 enemy vehicles of all types. Deploy a plane in Germany, this unit takes two hits to defeat. However, Hans may not take a damage meant for ground units, only for another air unit. At the end of the round if Hans survives he is restored to full health if ending in a starting German controlled territory.

United Kingdom:
Robert Ryder British Sailor, commanded a force of small unprotected transport ships during the daring raid of St. Nazaire dry docks. Instead of withdrawing as commanded, Ryder strafed fire for an hour and fifteen minutes recovering as many wounded as possible. Pick a transport. 1 adjacent allied land unit may choose to retreat to Ryder’s ship instead of fighting in a battle if there is space. This action is determined by the British player before the battle. Additionally, in an amphibious assault retreat if there are not enough transport ships for the British player, they may overload this ship but it may only offload retreated units to friendly territories.
Charles Upham New Zealand Platoon Leader, awarded the Victoria Cross twice. An offensive tactical might fighting in Crete, Greece, and El Almein. Place a soldier in British controlled Balkans, TransJordan, or Egypt during the deployment phase. This unit negates German and Italian artillery to a 1 while participating in an offensive.

Japan
Tameichi Hara Destroyer Captain, Tameichi had the highest hit % of any destroyer in the war. Wrote the torpedo tactics for the Empire of Japan, a samurai descendent, and fierce drinker. Pick a destroyer. This is now commanded by Tameichi Hara and will re-roll missed dice once for that piece.

Italian Famous Maneuver
Charge of the Savoia Cavalleria Anachronistic Italian Cavalry charge. In 1942 the Piedmont Count Alessandro Cazzago led a mounted assault against soviet troops, capturing 600 killing 150 and wounding 300 more. Italian forces lost 32 and well over a 100 horses. The Count’s mount Albino lived as well as the heroic counterattack shocking the Eastern Front. Once per game, if Germans lose and retreat Italy may counterattack with tanks and troops from up to two spaces away. The first round of this counterattack applies losses without retaliation.

United States
Colonial Draft: Place one soldier in Puerto Rico (West Indies) and the Philippines
Native American Allies: Recruit an infantry in Central United States and Alaska

Soviet Union Famous Maneuver
Khalakin Ghol: Japan failed to take Mongolia buffered with Soviet assistance. 1 Russian troop placed in Mongolia with a value of 1 IPC. Only one soldier may garrison or attack Mongolia at any given time without air support. Only one offensive against this region may occur per round.
Far East Railway: Soviet Tanks move 3 spaces eastward.

Japan Famous Maneuver:
Kamikaze: Japan fighters can engage in combat without designating a place to land afterwards. If this choice is made in a sea space it is destroyed after two rounds of sustained combat. On land, if the space is captured on the offensive and the plane is forced to make a crash landing, roll a dice. If the dice is on an even number the plane did not survive the emergency landing and is destroyed.

Addressing the issue of unit size, individual pieces in Axis & Allies typically depict the Corps or Army level, as I understand it. However, there are a few deviations to depict smaller, independent commands, such as the two British infantry in Hong Kong and the French and British infantry scattered in West Africa south of the Sahara.

I understand the desire to be able to build every type of unit, but I think that scarcity places correct emphasis on those troops’ elite status. The mobilization rule would be a quirk: the Legion has periodically fought on the mainland (as during WWI, for example). Its frequent foreign deployments are rather a reflection of the fact that the Legion’s peculiar non-national composition gives French politicians greater latitude to pursue foreign policy that has some blood cost.

I think that Frogmen should get to roll a d6 against every capital ship, hitting on a 2 or less. They should have no independent combat value because they operated as small units, not at the division level.

When it comes to Marine infantry, the question is whether you view naval units of any type as indicative of fleets (e.g., a Destroyer could stand in for a single capital ship), or whether you want them to represent actual unit types, in which case I don’t think a Cruiser or Battleship should be allowed to carry Marines. Historically speaking, Cruiser divisions sometimes fielded Marine and naval landing parties, but these comprised perhaps slightly over 100 men when multiple ships combined their detachments.

Think about whether you want to confer advantage to certain units only for certain rounds of combat. The difficulty of remembering when and how to roll for them can be partially mitigated by player aids.

One additional unit type for which HBG makes a piece is the Armored Car. This is especially good if you want to game out the inter-war period. I have developed rules allowing attackers to re-roll a die when an Armored Car is present in the attacking force. This is a play on their role as reconnaissance elements. Think about Cavalry, also. Perhaps Cavalry strike harder versus infantry when they outnumber defenders.

I’ve used cards to trigger the appearance of special units denoted by markers. They can also be used to grant nation-specific bonuses for a single round of play, etc. This works better on much larger maps with a game that is expected to go on a while, especially because the cards can be used as interrupts, which prevents players getting bored between turns.

And where is the escort carrier. The escort and the heavy cruiser?
I also had merchant marine and german raiders in my game….german player love that boat!

@knp7765:

Hey Yavid,
You mentioned a mechanized AA gun but we currently don’t have a piece to represent them. When AMERIKA comes out we will. At least for Germany, Japan and US.

Sorry guys I had to do without a computer for a few weeks (long story).

But yeah I thought around the time the announcement for '42.2 was made and that AAA units were going to be a thing HBG would start putting AAA units in there sets. I had visions of Bofors and Quad .50 running through my head. Axis and Allies Minis has alot of good ideas on what units to make for a mobile AA gun. Half-tracks carrying Quad .50 Wirbelwind tanks stuff like that. But it looks like either it wasn’t thought of or discounted. So painting some Amerika pieces seems like what going to be what I’m doing.

So when they get dropped in an area with 1 enemy infantry, how do they fight anybody?

Didn’t think of this happening. :| I guess you’d just have to have at least 1 defending unit fighting at any one time, regardless of the amount of paras.

Airborne can be considered “elite” troops however, but to mix them like this is not realistic.
Marines are special troops trained for sea invasions and are also “elite” but not in the same task as above.

I admit that realism is compromised here, but if elite infantry are allowed to fill all these roles, it will mean less unit types and therefore less compexity. Believe me when I say I’m still all for historical accuracy and realism, this is just my take on things.

This commander idea must be kept SIMPLE. As I have posted previously the commander should be tactical and have special abilities within the army he is in or the fleet. The best way is to have him with target ability for certain units. We have used the tactical bombers, the tanks, the battleships and the cruisers. Also the commander should have the retreat option when defending. This has worked well for our games. We have been giving three commanders to each major nation on the setup. Maybe four or five would work but we have never tried that many. My new Italian units will be here soon and they include commander units

I like the original idea.  However, I’d also raise the price of the Industrial Complex to 18 IPC. Maybe even as much as 20 IPC.  You’ll recoup that over the next few rounds from increased income from the territory, and you are, in effect, increasing the power of that Industrial Complex by a factorial.  Instead of 2 tanks, you can put out 3 tanks.  Instead of 3 infantry, you can put out 3 infantry and a fighter.  Etc.

And yes, this will most likely help Japan way more then any other nation.  Though, the S. African IC will be a lot more powerful now, if you go that route. mwuhahahaha

ok lets talk about it in the setup thread

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=8697.0

so far only change is FTR (fighter) on CV (aircraft carrier) is NAV (naval fighter)