Great work Young Grasshopper. I like this because we will spend alot of time debating who may have actually won when we have to stop. I do have the luxury of being able to leave a game set up but it is hard to get the people back. Being able to count objectives achieved is great. One question though…can you lose that token once gained? If the allies land in North Africa or liberate one of the captured victory cities before the round ends, does the Axis player then give the token back or do you calculate what tokens have been obtained at the end of the round? Just clarification for my thinking. I think it would be nice to put the token in my hand when achieved and really nice to see the enemy have to surrender any token that they may have one. Sadistic…maybe but still satisfying.Â
In our games, the token can not be taken away… this helps nations to go for objectives instead of defending all day or “turtling”. 2 objectives where it’s good they keep the token is when the Germans want to invade London even though it looks like the US will liberate, and when the Americans want to invade Rome when the Germans can easily drive them back into the sea.
Great video, YG, and glad to hear that your system has been well received by your gaming group. At the risk of making a bad pun, could this house rule be described as a system for producing token victories? :-D
But seriously, your video really drove home the imbalance that exists in the Global game’s official victory conditions. In essence: the two sides are fighting a global war – but whereas the Allies can only win by achieving victory conditions that encompass both the European and Pacific theatres, the Axis wins by achieving victory conditions that encompass only one of those theatres. So it’s hardly surprising that the Allies never seem to win a by-the-book victory.
In a way, I can see why the Allies are required to hold all three Axis capitals (this could be nicknamed the “ROBERTO” requirement) because that’s how WWII actually ended. What I can’t understand is why the Axis doesn’t have a victory condition which is global in scope, and hence which requires the Axis to fight and win on both sides of the board rather than concentrating on just 50% of the world. Admittedly there’s a speculative element here because, historically, the Axis didn’t win and we therefore don’t know what global configuration would have been considered an Axis victory. But it might be an interesting exercise to figure out what such an “end state” could plausibly have looked like, and to devise a balanced Axis counterpart to the official Allied victory condition.
A question: in your system, do you keep a list of which specific victory tokens have been won? I’m asking for the following reason. You mention that a player who wins a victory token (say, by capturing Moscow) doesn’t lose it if the achievement is subsequently reversed (say, by having the Russians liberate Moscow). That’s fine…but what if (in our example) the Germans re-take Moscow? I assume they don’t get a second token for having re-achieved the same objective – and if that’s the case, you need to keep track of which objectives have been “used up” and are no longer available. The two obvious ways would be to either check tem off on a list, or (which might look cool) having a unique token for each victory condition. Your video indicates that you use non-unique tokens, so I would guess that this means you use a checklist.
@CWO:
A question: in your system, do you keep a list of which specific victory tokens have been won?�  I’m asking for the following reason.�  You mention that a player who wins a victory token (say, by capturing Moscow) doesn’t lose it if the achievement is subsequently reversed (say, by having the Russians liberate Moscow).�  That’s fine…but what if (in our example) the Germans re-take Moscow?�  I assume they don’t get a second token for having re-achieved the same objective – and if that’s the case, you need to keep track of which objectives have been “used up” and are no longer available.�  The two obvious ways would be to either check tem off on a list, or (which might look cool) having a unique token for each victory condition.�  Your video indicates that you use non-unique tokens, so I would guess that this means you use a checklist.
Thanks for that CWO Marc, I have edited the first post to address the issues…
“Once a victory objective is achieved, a victory token will be awarded. The side with the most victory tokens at the end of the day wins the game. Victory tokens are awarded immediately upon completion regardless of when, or how the objective was achieved, and a token can never be taken away or awarded twice for the same objective. A win or a tie can only be declared at the end of a full game round, but the game does not need a previously decided round in which to end”.
Also, you bring up a very good point, I plan on making a custom deck of cards that will feature both national objectives and these Victory objectives as well… so the tokens are just temparary I would say. In the meantime, tokens are rare, so remembering how they were achieved in a single game is not difficult.
In our tie game, no side had a token, and the Axis have taken the North Africa token a couple of times along with Calcutta, however, the Allies have gotten 1 for liberating Paris and 2 other tokens in different games for no Axis units in Africa. The Moscow, Tokyo, and Philippines tokens have not yet been awarded in our games, but thats not from a lack of trying.
A great video YG I really like the new VO that you have made and I think they will improve the game a great deal. I love watching your video’s and have learned a lot of new tactics. Keep up the good work 8-)
A great video YG I really like the new VO that you have made and I think they will improve the game a great deal. I love watching your video’s and have learned a lot of new tactics. Keep up the good work 8-)
Thank you Stormtrooper, much appreciated… and welcome to axisandallies .org
The victory objective lists for both sides have been revised and updated in post #1. We feel that the minor modifications greatly improve this house rule for game balance and historical accuracy.
So San Francisco is never a reachable objective for Axis?
@Baron:
So San Francisco is never a reachable objective for Axis?
Not in our games, to take San Fran the Japs would have to give up collecting all the easy money for many rounds, just for a long shot at the same amount for 1 game round.
Big thanks for Young Grasshopper,
Played this last weekend in combination with the Halifax rules (option 2, the greater Commonwealth). Fantastic. We have added a ton of luxury materials (NO-cards, scoreboards, country sheets, , IPCs, tokens, etc) to help speed things up and are looking for a year now how to create a one day game w/o losing the characteristics.
This completely answered our questions! Congratulations on a job well done.
chrz Eppo
Big thanks for Young Grasshopper,
Played this last weekend in combination with the Halifax rules (option 2, the greater Commonwealth). Fantastic. We have added a ton of luxury materials (NO-cards, scoreboards, country sheets, , IPCs, tokens, etc) to help speed things up and are looking for a year now how to create a one day game w/o losing the characteristics.
This completely answered our questions! Congratulations on a job well done.
chrz Eppo
Thanks for the comments NiIOGrav, glad to help… I honestly think these VOs are a no brainer for those that want to sum things up in a 10 hour day. I will be releasing my new game accessory card deck soon, keep an eye out for my next “essential customizations” video.
Cheers.
