I just briefly mentioned above the two official “Optional Rules” for 1942.2 and those are : Sz 16 Closed, and the Escort/Intercept rules for Strategic Bombing Raids. But there are other kinds of “optional” rules too, they’re just not quite “official.” We call these “House Rules” or “HRs.” Some of them are more popular than others. Some groups use all kinds of HRs, others keep their House Rules to the minimum. A lot of people know about at least one house rule though, so lets give it a quick nod, for the sake of completion.
Bidding:
The most common House Rule.
A&A is unlike most boardgames. In nearly every board game, there will be some randomized “event” that occurs at the outset, which is designed to make each game more or less unique. Perhaps its something as simple as “roll the dice, to see who goes first” or “shuffle these cards, then make a random draw” or perhaps “select which spot you want to put all your forces.”
A&A doesn’t work this way at all. Instead, in A&A, the starting forces and the money and the turn order and all the rest, are set. They’re pre-determined, fixed by some grand Logos, like clockwork.
:evil:
The basic starting conditions do not change from game to game, but are instead thought of as representing World War II at some set point in time. The “start date.” Here the randomized element comes later, mainly through combat rolls, or through unit movement, or unit purchase, but the opening set up is constant.
The A&A approach to game design has an upside, because it means that it is possible to “learn” from each game, various ways to take advantage of that “set opening.” You try something the first time, it totally backfires, next time you try something else, but from the same essential starting position. This allows players to concoct strategies, and to tease out the “best moves” or the “winning openings” etc, because each time out the board remains basically fixed.
But the A&A approach to game design has a downside too, because it means that at some point a player will learn how to “break” the game, or crack the secret code, exploiting the unit set up for some optimal winning strategy as one side or the other. When one side is recognized to be too dominant, and returning consistent wins (ie. “Axis always win!” or “Allies always win”) and a consensus develops among experienced players, you will start to hear discussions about whether the game is “balanced” or not.
Balance, or “balance by sides,” is just a way of saying that, in an ideal universe, we think players should have have a roughly equal chance of winning the game vs an opponent of comparable skill, regardless of which side they are, whether playing Allies or Axis. This is more of a gaming aspiration, or a boardgamer’s wish, than anything particularly historical, or reflective of the “balance of sides” in World War II. It’s the disbelief we suspend, in order to get a functional boardgame, and a game that can still be fun for any of the 2-5 players gaming.
When a new Axis and Allies game is first introduced, no one can really say whether its balanced or not, because nobody has truly seen it in operation, other than the designers and maybe some early playtesters. But after some time has elapsed, it often turns out that the “Official” set up, seems to favor one side.
At this point players will often introduce a Bid. Or a bidding process to play one side or the other.
What is a Bid? Well, in its most basic form, a bid is extra IPCs awarded to the side/player perceived to be at a disadvantage. The Underdog gets extra loot.
I don’t know exactly where or when this bidding process was formalized, probably over several tournaments and across many years. The most popular way to do this now is what I call the “pre-placement” bid. Here the IPCs awarded to the underdog, can be split up between the Nations on that side, and used to place additional units before the game begins. The units are “purchased” with the Bid IPCs in the same way and for the same costs, that you would buy those units during the actual game.
If the underdog is allowed to choose how these IPCs are distributed (what units to buy, and where they go) this is what I call an “Open Bid.” Frequently an Open Bid game, is used a way to determine who will play which side: Axis or Allies. Rather than flipping a coin, or rolling the dice to make this determination, the players instead enter into a kind of opening contest, or a “bid” to play a given side. One player will open the the Bid, by saying something like “I will play this side for X ipcs.” Then you alternate offers, either increasing the number of ipcs awarded, in an ascending bid. Or decrease them in a descending bid. Most people I play with use a descending bid.
For example, in 1942.2 player A opens: “I will play Allies for +13 ipcs”
Then player B counters: “I will play play Allies for +12 ipcs”
Player A persists: “10”
Player B demurs, "hmmm 9? "
Player A: “8!”
Player B: “OK, you can have 'em. Good luck!”
Then player A takes his 8 ipcs from the bid and decides how they want to spend them for their side. In this case Allies.
Usually there are some extra rules to restrict where the units can be placed. Most people go with these: No more than 1 unit per territory or sea zone. Must be placed in a territory you control and already occupied by units from your Nation.
That’s an open bid. And it’s called a bidding, because you’re really auctioning off the side you don’t want to play, to your opponent haha.
If the unit type and location is chosen in them in advance, I call that a “Set Bid” or more simply, as an adjustment or “hard change” to the unit set up."
Once these new Bid units are introduced, the balance of the game effectively resets. And you play the game again and again, until the bid falls into some kind of standard range between say “6-12 ipcs” or “8 to 15 ipcs” etc. typically awarded to the underdog side. And of course, then the original issue of “OOB balance” is superseded by the question “is it Balanced for Bid?” If you think a bid at X ipcs is balanced, then you allow your opponent to take the underdog side for X. If you think X ipcs is too powerful, then you Bid lower than X, to make sure you still have a chance to win.
All this we call bidding, and it is important to recall that this is still a house rule! It’s not discussed anywhere in the game manual (although I wish it was, or at least something like it.) It’s probably the most popular house rule, just judging by how many players adopt it, or are at least familiar with it. The process isn’t exactly codified though, different play groups sometimes adopt different approaches to it. One popular variant, and the bid I like best, is to award IPCs purely as a bonus to starting income and not as pre-placement units! This means you still get extra money, but you have to buy the units during the normal purchase phase. Here the Bid amounts (in IPCs) are invariably larger, but this type of bid has the advantage of not disrupting the opening battles.
Finally there are house rules, that introduce other kinds of advantages to one side or the other (or both) or which create new conditions for the first round, by other means. These are practically endless, and there is a whole section dedicated to it on these forums. Its one of my favorite sections here, because there are always interesting ideas and discussions kicking around there. Sometimes these HR discussions come, sometimes they go, but every now and again I catch a winner, and then I try to introduce them among my players to see which ones catch.
Some players will be more receptive to this style of gameplay, others prefer to play strictly “by the book.” Some are ok with open bidding, others use set bids, or no bids at all. Some players play with Low Luck rules instead of the normal Dice rules, others find LL totally anathema to what they enjoy about A&A. It really all depends on who you are playing with. I’d say for a first time out, don’t overburden your new players with too many discussions about optional rules, or bids, or how the game needs “such and such” for balance.
Instead, if the player is new, just set the conditions for them and treat it like “this is how we play at my house.” If you just approach it in a more authoritative and matter-of-fact way, the more likely the new player is to just accept the rule. But I’d still suggest keeping things limited at the outset.
There are so many potential ways to change the game, and its such a nuanced and tricky game to begin with, that you really need to start somewhere. And 1942.2 OOB actually isn’t all that terribly off in terms of balance, you can do some very simple things to bring it into a more balanced state. One simple way I like is just to increase the starting income for everyone, by the same amount. Basically everyone wins the bid. This isn’t about balance so much as variety. Say everyone Nation gets an extra 5 ipcs or 10 ipcs.
Rules like that are simple to grasp, but they can change the dynamics of the game in a very dramatic way, by altering the first round purchase options. One minor rules change can make the whole game new. Like zeroing the game back to the release day, where the players have to “unlearn, what they have learned” and then do it all over again.
:-D
