1939 Scenario for the 1942.2 Map and Pieces

@copt2 I’m not real familiar with the HBG games. They look way cool but I’ve never really found the time to explore them much.

Sadly, I can only play digitally, so triplea. A lot of House Rules have been added to the “Global 40 House Rules” mod in triplea.

One of them is the “Vichy Rule” which is a combination of Vichy rules.
Oops just noticed i never did add this yet. it’s in “Oztea’s 1939”

Anyway here it is:

Vichy Option Adds Vichy rules.
They are as follows:
If Germany conquers France on turn 2 and only turn 2, it will activate the “Vichy Option”. After their Non Combat Move, each French territory will be rolled for to determine if they become Vichy controlled or not. A roll of 1,2 or 3 and the territory turns Vichy. A 4,5 or 6 and it remains Free French. The only exception is “Southern France” which automatically turns Vichy.

Southern France will also have 2 Vichy Infantry placed there. All Vichy territories and units are represented by the “Neutral Axis”. They behave the same as Non-Vichy Pro-Axis Neutrals.

If any Allied units are present in a territory that becomes Vichy, on their turn they have the option to stay and fight or leave, if possible. The only exception are air units, which are destroyed.

At the beginning of France’s 2nd turn, each French Naval Unit will be rolled for to determine if they become Vichy. A roll of 1,2 or 3 and the Unit is immediately ordered to the Vichy Harbor in Sea Zone 93. A 4,5 or 6 and it remains Free French.

Vichy ordered ships must take the most direct route possible to Sea Zone 93. They may not attack (Player Enforced) but can defend normally. Once a Vichy ordered ship arrives in 93 Sea Zone, it will “turn” Vichy at the end of the turn. Vichy Ships are controlled by the “True Neutrals”. You will need to declare war against them in order to attack Vichy Ships. They may not move and defend only.

If a ship hasn’t arrived in 93 Sea Zone by the end of French turn 3, it will not automatically turn “Vichy” if it enters 93 Sea Zone on the following turns. You may either use “Edit” or decide that the Captain has disregarded his orders and has stayed Free French.

If Southern France is taken over by any Axis player, then all Vichy territories immediately revert to Free French. This includes any Vichy Units that are present.

Vichy Naval Units are rolled for to determine their fate. On a roll of 1,2,3 or 4, the Fleet is scuttled and removed from play. On a roll of 5 or 6, another roll is taken. On a roll of 1,2 or 3, the Fleet reverts to Free French. On a roll of 4,5, or 6, it turns into the Axis player.

If Southern France is controlled by an Allied player (excluding Russia) a roll of 1 thru 5 will scuttle the Fleet. A roll of 6 and the Fleet will revert to Free French. Vichy land territories are unaffected.

If Southern France is taken control of by the Free French, the Fleet and all Vichy territories immediately revert to Free French. If France is liberated, all Vichy territories and units revert to Free French.

Anyway, there are a lot of House Rules that have been added that have been discussed by people here. If you want to elaborate on what yo want to add, I can see if triplea can do it.

If you play strictly Face to face, then i would add the ideas you like and test them out. Let us know how it goes :)

Here’s a list of the House Rules which are mostly discussed here: https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/topic/26089/g40-redesign-currently-taking-suggestions?page=1

Global_40_House_Rules.notes.doc

Hmm … can’t seem to upload the Rules without the code bleeding through. I’ll see if I can change the format for easier reading.

Edit
Also, here are the Captain and Company’s House Rules. You may find some you like there as well. They have a large group ( dozens of players ) in Europe that plays frequently, so quite popular. They spent 25 years in the making. Very well thought out.

https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/topic/36945/axis-allies-global-1940-house-rules-expansion

As the two game boards are combined there may be anomalies, especially for the UK player.
I thought (& think) the UK player has two ‘Treasuries’.
In addition, the ‘Commonwealth’ (the UK ‘emigrant colonies’) deserves it’s own three ‘Treasuries’.
The other GP starting income totals are due to the ‘historical notes’ on Germany & the USSR.
As to the USA points - it is suggested there should be one & one only Territory value for each space on the board.

I think you’re asking a lot of the right questions: how to add more variety, how to make the game more truly global in scope, how to create advantages for the Allies without overcorrecting. I’m not sure how well you’ve thought through some of the specific changes that you’re recommending.

Moving the British ships from Gibraltar to east Africa does nice things for a British naval presence in the Indian Ocean, but it makes it way too easy for Germany to win the Battle of the Atlantic – Germany can now routinely take out all of Britain’s ships in the Atlantic on the first turn without taking too many risks. This means that Germany can totally evacuate France on turn 1 and probably also on turn 2, which gives Germany a big advantage against Russia.

The Sea Lion threat is probably exaggerated – sure, if you spend 100% of your economy on ships and planes for India, then London could be in trouble, but it’s pretty easy to build, say, 4 infantry in London and still have enough cash left over to place a variety of units in India. Britain starts with 43 IPCs, and London’s not that hard to garrison.

Meanwhile, Japan’s ability to take India or use it as a base to threaten Russia is almost entirely gone. One of the key threats the Japanese have in OOB Anniversary 1941 is building a factory in Indochina on turn 1, capturing Burma turn 1, and then threatening to build a factory in Burma on turn 2. If Japan pulls this off, then it doesn’t matter if Britain has a factory in India, because Japan is still outproducing Britain 4:3, and Japan will wind up with all 3 factories, which can then churn out infantry and tanks to head for Stalingrad. On the other hand, the only way Britain can prevent Japan from pulling this off is by sacrificing its entire starting force of troops from India and Persia, which is expensive and leaves Egypt vulnerable to the Italians.

In your version, Burma is only worth 1 IPC, so there’s very little point in having Japan build a factory there. Japan can’t take Bengal until at least turn 2, and the UK starts with a factory in India, so even if Japan gets a factory in Indochina right away and an eventual factory in Bengal, that’s very unlikely to be enough to deal with the forces Britain will have been accumulating in India proper. The Indian factory is almost 100% safe against anything short of a massive naval invasion – but that naval invasion is much harder to pull off assuming even a modest USA presence in the Pacific, because Britain now has two extra warships in the Indian Ocean, plus a starting factory there.

I think the dance of attacks and counter-attacks you outline in West Africa is entertaining, but unrealistic in terms of strategy – if you’re playing to win, then nobody cares enough about French West Africa to bother sending a transport there. Allied transports are much better off going to Morocco or Gibraltar, and Axis transports are much better off going to Gibraltar or Egypt.

Finally, I don’t think an Indian factory is likely to have any effect on the war on China – it’s 3 moves away from the nearest Chinese territory, and likely 4 or even 5 moves away from the Chinese front lines by the time forces actually arrive.

What all of these admittedly nitpicky corrections add up to is a sense that your changes won’t actually deliver that much variety. You get a different scenario with your changes, but it will always be the same different scenario: Germany wipes out the British Atlantic fleet and then charges hard for Moscow while Britain easily holds London and India and stalemates Japan. The USA can choose to either knock out a weakened Tokyo (and try to get to Tokyo before Germany gets to Moscow) or rush toward Paris and Rome (to try to set up a stable beachhead on the Western Front before Germany gets to Moscow). Other than the USA’s single choice of whether to go to the Atlantic or the Pacific, nobody has any interesting grand strategy decisions to make. Italy has to fight for Egypt, Germany has to fight for Moscow, Russia has to fight for Moscow, Japan has to fight just to hold onto a decent income, and Britain has to defend London, Egypt, and India. The details will vary from game to game based on tactics and dice, but I predict you’ll see a lot of the same general campaigns over and over again.

You may be interested in this earlier thread about splitting India and splitting the Indian Ocean:
https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=41826.0

I’m testing my own advanced 42 game. Test results so far here in my thread.
I got to half a turn oob game and said nope. Not playing this that way.

https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/topic/38017/global-1942-with-general-6-stars-advanced-game/29

Here is a different way of playing with Fighters.
The Carrier combat value as been change to keep balance amongst themselves: attacking against defending Full Carrier.
Hope you will enjoy.
Let me know if you ever play-test it.

@Baron:

Another way to play a 1942.2 game with some elements which can simulate air-to-air combat between Fighters or against Bombers are as follow.
This House Rule keep the same principles as the opening post system:

Fighters are having dogfight against other Fighters and Bombers and not just hitting grounds targets (as casualties chosen by owner’s) acting like a shield.

That Strategic Bombers are weak and vulnerable against Fighters in air-to-air combat.

But Strategic Bombers have a heavy payload of bombs against ground targets.

There is no special phase in this HR and the dogfight in SBR is consistent with the air-to-air combat value of Fighter and Bomber units.
However, it implies a few changes on combat values and cost of these units:

FIGHTER
Attack 2
Defense 2
Move 4
Cost 7
Always hit enemy’s aircrafts first, if any available.
A Destroyer must be present to hit submarine.

Strategic Bombing Raid Escort and Interception
Attack 2
Defense 2

STRATEGIC BOMBER
Attack 4
Defense 1
Move 6
Cost 12 (Optional: reduced to 10 IPCs)
A Destroyer must be present to hit submarine.
Can make a Strategic Bombing Raid against Industrial Complex.
OPTIONAL: Every time on attack a “1” is rolled, then an enemy’s plane (either Fighter or Bomber) must be taken as casualty.

**Strategic Bombing Raid Escort and Interception
Attack 1

Damage on IC: 1D6+2**

1942.2 FLEET CARRIER
Attack 0
Defense 3
Move 2
Cost 14
Hit: 2 hits
Carry 3 planes (Fighters)
Damaged Carrier can still carry 1 plane.
Carriers are repaired at the beginning of the Power’s turn (Purchase and repair damage phase),
unlike Battleship which are repaired at the end the player’s turn (Placement phase).

ANTI-AIRCRAFT ARTILLERY
Attack 0
Defense 0
Move NCM1
Cost 4
1 hit
Up to 3 preemptive defense @1 against up to 3 planes, whichever the lesser,(as OOB AAA) and
fire regular defense @1 against up to 1 plane on the following combat rounds.
Stop any blitz, but cannot defend itself against enemy’s ground units.

Additional units are added:

For every 2 Fighter units, you can add on the board 1 new Fighter unit.
USSR gets 1 additional Fighter unit. (1 Fg is put in Russia.)
UK gets 2 additional Fighter units. (1 Fg is put on Carrier, 1 Fighter is put in UK.)
USA gets 3 additional Fighter units.  (1 Fg is put on Carrier, 1 Fg is put in Western USA and 1 is put in Eastern USA.)
Optional: You can add an AAA in China instead of a Fighter in Eastern USA.

Germany gets 3 additional Fighter units. (1 Fg is put in Northwestern Europe, 1 Fg is put in Germany, 1 Fg is put in Polland)
Japan gets 3 additional Fighter units. (2 Fgs are put on each Carriers, and 1 Fg is put in Manchuria.)

Great idea I will post mine tonight and any feed back would be great one thing your NO’s look like NA’s I’m thinking there is a way to do both keep balance in the game and stool have fun

Just curious why “Oil producing Countries” are not brought into play in the 1942 game as they are for 1939.  Makes for a very strategic play.

Its a deliberate tiered approach to introducing ideas outside OOB/LHTR… the idea of three stages of learning: basic, intermediate, advanced.

People invariably start basic and learn that the game does not need to remain an abstraction of WW2, but even with pieces can allow for rules to create a historical model of the real war and its realistic capabilities. Many issues are swept under the rug to deliberately dumb down the game for the beer crowd, but Grognads expect something more and AARHE delivers the promise.