What is your least-purchased unit?

@Karl7:

In some 300+ G40 games, I’ve never bought a battleship unless the game was already won I could do whatever I wanted.

2ftrs, 1 cv= cost 36, 6 attack, 10 defense, 4 hit points.

2 Battleships = cost 40, 8 attack, 8 defense, 4 hit points.

Pretty clear, building a fleet around battleships maybe slightly be better on attack, but otherwise are blown away on defense. And defense is mostly what matters with fleets, since if you are attacking you usually can and should use land based air to bolster your attack.�

Plus if you are going all attack with ships, subs are the way to go: 36Ipcs = 6 subs, 12 attack, 6 hit points.

I rarely buy cruisers, but I sometimes buy tac bombers if I’ve got a leftover 1 IPC at the end of purchase and convert a fight in the cue.

I agree, tacbs should be 10.� They aren’t really any better than Ftrs, or maybe even worse since their 4 attack is only achieved through matching.

I think about tact. bombers I don’t like is the fact that they can’t bomb factories which would make them more useful but the issue I have is with their combined arms with tanks, if you par it with a tank, it gets boosted 1 more attack but logically, you’d think the tank, not the tact. bomber would get boosted, it makes more sense that way.

@Adam514:

Battleships are useful buys if you need to max defense with limited production slots (minor IC) and you don’t have any leftover air for extra carriers.

Yeah, good point.  I guess if you are US and you are holding sz6 and Korea w/mic, and Japan is brining the hammer down, a BB buy out of Korea could be good if no spare planes.

@Caesar:

I don’t see the justification for buying unit that has a 3/18 chance of hitting aircraft when I can spend more for infantry and get better results.

1. It’s not a 3/18 chance of hitting. It’s a 43% chance of hitting with a smaller possibility of two or even three hits. That’s nearly 30% more likely to hit than an infantry unit.
2. AA hits are much more valuable than infantry hits. They immediately kill 10-12IPC units, rather than 3IPC infantry, and they kill it before it can fire - which is a 3/6 or 4/6th chance of saving one of your own units outright.
3. They don’t fire after the first round of combat - but neither do dead infantry. Just take a AA loss first and save an infantry.

There is basically no situation where infantry are a better defensive investment than AA when you’re sure they’ll make use of all three shots. More interestingly, the AA performs cost effectively no matter how badly you lose a battle - unlike, say, a fighter who lands a hit taken on an infantry and is then killed. An AA costs 5IPC and averages a fighter kill half the time. If you’re going to lose a battle badly and can’t avoid it, AA are the best way of burning as much of your opponents IPC as possible.

@Amalec:

There is basically no situation where infantry are a better defensive investment than AA when you’re sure they’ll make use of all three shots.

Disagree, I just ran a typical German assault on Moscow. Giving the Russian +2 infantry gave a better defense than +1 AAA (and I made sure there were enough planes for the AAAs).

Regarding the tactical bomber: I’ve been wanting to houserule them for a long time, either a 10 IPC cost or an extra/improved capability.

@Ozymandiac:

Regarding the tactical bomber: I’ve been wanting to house rule them for a long time, either a 10 IPC cost or an extra/improved capability.

Give Tacs “Close Air Support”. +1 Attack to Inf and Mechs on a 1:1 basis. Also give them D1 in Air Battle against SBRs and Escorts. I like it anyways :)

@barney:

@Ozymandiac:

Regarding the tactical bomber: I’ve been wanting to house rule them for a long time, either a 10 IPC cost or an extra/improved capability.

Give Tacs “Close Air Support”. +1 Attack to Inf and Mechs on a 1:1 basis. Also give them D1 in Air Battle against SBRs and Escorts. I like it anyways :)

Thanks! You might as well just state that their A/D values are 4/3 at that point I think, since basically every unit will give it +1 by then. Which makes sense to me, because they will then become on par with fighters in total combat value (4+3=3+4). Only difference would then be their role in bombing raids.

Doesn’t boost artillery:). I get your point though Ozymadiac :). Been playing with a lot house rules for a while so I tend to lose sight of the “actual” game at times : )

Tac Bomber
A3. Pick target with a return shot
D3  Pick target
M4
C10
DF1
SBR 1D6 IC. Bases. Refineries. Trains
Boost Tank +1 on Attack

From what I read most Tac Bomber was only 7 to 10 % accurate. If Im wrong let me know. So if you had 100 tanks they would only kill 10 on a lot of the big battles. Some even attacked the same damaged tanks. Even though if Tac-dive were that inaccurate you still would give them a pick target just for improvement of piece in game to buy more. Also not a big fan of boosting a fig and a tank. Maybe boost an inf or art +1 on Attack only.
Or
A3
D3
M4
C10
DF1
And swap out 1 or 2 figs for Tac Bombers per country in game setup.

@Ozymandiac:

@Amalec:

There is basically no situation where infantry are a better defensive investment than AA when you’re sure they’ll make use of all three shots.

Disagree, I just ran a typical German assault on Moscow. Giving the Russian +2 infantry gave a better defense than +1 AAA (and I made sure there were enough planes for the AAAs).

2 infantry are also 20% more expensive, so that’s not surprising.

I think statistically buying an AA makes sense in big defense battles involving mass air attack.

Especially since generally an attackers army is going to be top heavy, i.e. the greater number of hits are coming from the 3’s and 4s’ which an attacker should have many of.  If you can nick a couple those off the top, the attackers odds will be disproportionately hurt than say nicking a few infantry off the bottom.

I’m learning how to play Global War now and the AA rules in that game are a bit different, which makes them much more effective. You can also move your AA on combat movement and attack with them. They work the same in that you only get a maximum of 3 shots with each of them on the first round but the odds are slightly better because you attack and defend @3 on a 12 sided die. Additionally, you can tow them with a motorized infantry (trucks) 2 spaces which increases their movement from the normal 1 space. It really makes you think twice about where you’re going to land your planes.

@Karl7:

In some 300+ G40 games, I’ve never bought a battleship unless the game was already won I could do whatever I wanted.

I can’t remember the last time I bought a battleship in a game. If I am going to spend 20 IPCs on fleet, I consistently purchase a destroyer and a cruiser – this hits on average more often than a battleship, has the possibility of generating two hits on both attack and defense, and might increase the number of units required to successfully attack my fleet (the math on this one is a bit fuzzy since there are so many variables involved in fleet attacks), and gives me an extra unit that I can detach for a separate mission if necessary.

On the other hand, I have purchased AA guns occasionally, when I expect the number of planes attacking to exceed the number of AA shots I currently have available and/or when I need to empty the treasury because I know the capital is going to fall. Other than that, AA guns would be my second least purchased unit.

Tactical bombers are also rare purchases for me, but I do purchase them occasionally (more often than AA guns).

Marsh