Balancing Cruiser (CL) and Battleship (BB) units with other A&A units

@baron-Münchhausen Well its to make the things Germany needs to do well-- without a disaster to have a good game. The margins are tight in sz 7, also to avoid piling on decisively in Egypt.

Regarding Sealion G2: Some guy says buy 2 CA and 2 AP and have the Medd BB attack the UK CA with 1 AP landing 1 Inf in Gibraltar. Landing 3-4 Tanks, 3-4 Men, 5 planes, and 3 CS SBs VS> UK builds of 7 inf, 1 fighter plus landing US bomber and all UK planes and 1 UK tank… I will try it 3 times in practice games, but i doubt it.

I posted this in another forum, perhaps this might be a better place to generate some interest.

I believe it would be much more efficient to have sub forums here by A&A version.

It can be hard to wade thru all the house rules in this forum when I might be looking for something specific to A&A pacific or AA50….

True there are no victory conditions at all. Ultimately, one power will become the strongest amongst all. If a victory condition is really needed, it would be survive and defeat all other players.
And also its correct that it will turn out to be an open-ended game will maybe double or triple game time of the original game.

The reason this house rule is developed is that me and my friends often find ourself in the position of becoming dominating powers as Russia, Germany or the USA but still want to continue the game and expand our hard-built empire. At the end of the day, it is just a house rule that me and my friends loved and would like to share with other A&A lovers here.

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.

Setup Changes:
Add one German Fighter in Munich
Add two German Submarines in Sea Zone 22
Add one Ottoman Battleship in Sea Zone 20

Rule Changes:

British Empire may only build up to the territorial value in their India factory.

If a Capital or India is captured, the nation that captured it may build on it, but only up to half of the territorial value, if odd numbered, remove one value and divide in half from there.

Germany may declare an unrestricted submarine warfare anytime during the game, if declared, following all combat, all German Submarines may roll a die for a two or one to subtract IPCs from British Empire alone while the United States is neutral, in addition, role a die for the United States, if in itself is a two or one, the United States may enter the war immediately. Once the United States enters the war, the rule itself also will apply to the United States.

Tanks now cost 11 IPCs, but you get two of them.

Switzerland, if attacked, all true neutrals on the board become friendly to the opposite alliance.

The United States territory (the capital), once the United States is at war, increases it’s base IPC value by 5 every turn, at the end of the United States’ turn. (Basically, the United States territory would be worth 25 by the end of round 4, for example)

New Victory Conditions:

Central Powers win the game if they control at least four of, India, Moscow, Paris, Rome, London, Egypt by the end of United States’ turn, or if they captured the United States.

Allied Powers win the game if they control at least four of, Berlin, Venice, Budapest, Constantinople, Munich, Ankara, or by holding two Central Power capitals, both at the end of Ottoman Empire’s turn.

@Razor:

Maybe the inherent Carrier defense value should be boosted, to compensate for the weaker fighter. Let say you can land 2 planes on the Carrier, but the Carrier itself has a little fighter force just to close combat self defense, making the carrier defend on D3 ?

Very good idea: it is a can opener. It gives much room to compensate.
Maybe you can even give it the classic A1D3, if necessary for balance.
Or even going that far: A2D3, so almost all of the OOB A3D4 Fg + A0D2 Cv= A3D6, will be converted: Fg A1D2 + CV A2D3 = A3D5.

Just suppose that there is a bunch of escorting ship/fighters wich can not be separated from the Carrier unit.

It can probably solve a lot of balance problem.

Sounds pretty cool but very complicated. Implamenting something like this opens up a whole can of worms becouse if you have these, what about PT boats? They were fast attack boats armed with torpedeos and depth charges. if you want these type of units you have to move the game into a 12 die system. 6 die cannot support anymore units that are currently in the game.

maybe Cruiser and Aircraft Carrier shouldn’t take 2-hits after all

I haven’t played games with all optional units select for play (usually only select naval fighter)
but yeah its funny how:
BB 2-hit, 2-turn
CA 2-hit, 1-turn
CV 2-hit, 2-turn

yes but we are working on that now with 4.1 no more 2 turn naval builds.

carriers could go to 1 hit units and of course the latter file for AA50HE will have them just at 1 for both CA and CV.