Some technologies were sought after with great amounts of money to no avail. This game is suppose to be historical, therefor, spending enough money to automatically get a tech would not be historical.
Perhaps it could be a good idea for some very minor techs, like advanced infantry training or that sort, things that won’t drastically alter the game but would give a Nation a slight edge.
have you read the sections regarding Techs? its not too unlike what you just came up with. check it out
I have read it. Unless I’m mistaken, though, the idea so far still involves free dice. That’s the main thing I’d like to see changed.
Free Dice is a commodity for players, I would say that should be bought (Scientific Infrastructure)… This scientific Infrastructure (Which mind you isn’t cheap and isn’t a “free tech” with every 6) can be only invested into, none of this “oh-look-at-all-this-dough”… With this Infrastructure though projects “budgets” can be increased with certain actions depending on a set “condition” i.e. Jet Power: May roll 1 Additional Dice for free if you take 2 Plane Casualties related to Jet Aircraft Attack" or “Better Naval Guns: may give you 2 Additional Dice Rolls for free if you lose 30 IPC’s worth of shipping and/or Naval Aircraft in one battle”…
Thoughts on this?
GG
Also to consider:
this strategic level game is abstracted and to take say 50% of your money and goto “vegas” for the tech rolls is a flaw in the game IMO. Its fun but it does this:
player one spends 10-15 on tech and by luck gets heavy bombers… player two knows that his game is bust unless he basically spends all his money on his next turn and hopes he rolls well. Lets say he does not. Then he has for sure lost the game due to a turns loss of tempo. Its like losing your capital. The level of investment for tech in the game is way out of balance to what $ in this game represents. Instead tech should follow some natural inclination based on that nations track record that was established long before the war started. Thus germany will be closer to making some heavy tanks or jets because before the war they were allready close to this tech. USA was closer to making a A bomb than say Japan.
The free roll idea is one way to keep this things from destroying a nations budget with those vegas rolls. “Spend it all sleep in a hall” as the saying goes.
and i might add the fact that the allies who have done on average more research and have larger economies also have 3 rolls to the axis 2 rolls, however the axis have substantial gains in specific tech areas. This is truely more realistic and easy to use.
check it out:
a player rolls one d6 if he gets a 6 result he gets to check off a tech box bringing him closer to completing the tech required to obtain the new invention.
yeah free rolls and progressive research (boxes you tick off) is important to prevent these overly portraited gambling
For now I think we need these two technologies because of our new Anti-submarine warfare.
Advanced ASW Reconnaissance
Your ASW attack rolls now hit on 4.
Advanced ASW Weapons
Your ASW attack rolls now hit on 3.
Those are good names! they would be good to describe the techs relative to asw warfare.
The ASW techs are quite important because of the new submarine rules.
This is very apparent on playtesting.
I did playtest yesterday and no glitches were found. What was very clear is subs have an entirely different impact in the game… and its much more useful as an alternate form of “buying capital ships” as your navy. It further brings in the element of siege forcing the enemy to hunt your u boats.
@Imperious:
I did playtest yesterday and no glitches were found.
No glitches. Just felt submarines hard to kill (without technologies).
It further brings in the element of siege forcing the enemy to hunt your u boats.
I don’t feel the “hunt” part though. Like players building fleets of only destroyers/cruisers and run around with them?
Subs should be hard to kill
after all they now lose their ability to:
Also remember with those advanced asw warfare techs fighters will have the ability to locate and attack and bombers will have the ability to locate… also eventually they locate and hit at 3! this will simulate the first and second “happy times” for the german Kreigsmarine.
Playtest thru the war… you can simply just use naval units for this purpose and allow some fixed builds to see what happens.
you will also notice how once germany gets those super u-boats how they are able to have another happy time.
PS i use the phrase “happy time” from a reference from world war two.
Some Ideas:
Technology development difficulties are determined by a number on each “box” that you “check off”; during your turn you may invest into research facilities (the secret part of your work) which is hidden somehow. For every player buying Research Facilities cost different amounts for different technologies (reflecting what they were pursuing). Research in one field can also be activated by a particular action (losing a bomber to Jet Fighter activates Jet Development) and possibly gives you a free Research bonus. The Research Facility can only go to a certain level, meaning sometimes you have to upgrade your “research” to “overcome” the new setback…You could even add a gambling element so that players can attempt to have a “breakthrough” without having to upgrade (optional and chancy)… Obviously the higher you get the more expensive it gets… you also need to manage each technology development well because you can only pursue one tech per turn…
ideas, comments, clarification questions?
GG
Thats funny because its exactly what we have planned to do. WE are going with boxes for tech and allow some nations to start with some progress in specific areas based on historical progress in specific technologies. Each nation has now free rolls with the allies with a very slight edge. When all the boxes are checked off the tech is obtained and availible that turn. This all is kept secret from other players. Now it will be impossible to waste your game buying all tech just to keep up with the jones’
I am covering any issue not addressed in the Draft, and the most “unaddressed” area is Tech’s…
GG
according to Tekky he says we just need NA’s to finish up and also decide on how many boxes these techs should have. also need to know where each nation is on the tech tree.
Like development wise how much do you need to complete? I would say that depends on the “importance”… light importance may take 2 turns… 3 for medium and 4 for strong… Maybe longer for “big boys” like A-Bomb… That I think would mainly need to be judged by the individual tech and how it really was developed lengthwise…
GG
each nation will have a private sheet with all techs each tech and what it does will have a number of boxes to be checked. Some nations will have less boxes to check off.
Also the basic rules covering this will be written on the player aid card.
as i recall
Germany gets two rolls per turn, and Japan and Italy get one
USSR and UK get one roll each, and USA gets three
additional rolls (max of 1 extra per turn) costing 5 IPC are possible per player, except germany and usa can buy a max of 2 and 3 respectively.
The techs are:
Heavy tanks
Heavy Artillery
Jet fighters
Jet bombers
Heavy bombers
Atomic bomb
ASW (planes search- aerial sonar)
ASW (planes can attack in asw)
ASW ( all units locate and attack at 3)
super subs
plus more
plus a few others…
I hope the list is not endless.
I don’t think we need separate Jet fighters and Jet bombers.
We could have for techs that create new units rather than upgrade on an optional list.
Say if Heavy tanks and Heavy Artillery are not upgrades but new units that fights between and costs more…
I am covering any issue not addressed in the Draft, and the most “unaddressed” area is Tech’s…
yeah the draft only have headings for some of those ideas
its complex and we haven’t come up with the numbers yet
How about Advanced Production, reducing the cost of IC’s…? Or Advanced Research reducing the cost of updating your research…?
GG
