Technology tree

FEEDBACK WELCOMED

Hello everyone. I’ve been lurking here for years and wanted to reach out and get some feedback from our house rules on new tech development house rules for use on our Anniversary map. We went out to solve 2 problems, 1) the randomness of tech breakthroughs and 2) the game changing ability of certain techs. We wanted a system where you picked what tech your research with some sort of progressive path to a breakthrough. We have 20 techs that can be researched (at 1 per turn) in 4 categories, land warfare, air warfare, naval warfare and “special”.

Most of the tech breakthroughs provide advantages only in the first round of combat and we think provide some flavour to the game but I wouldn’t mind getting some more eye on this to see if anything stands out as too powerful or not worth the 4 + IPC investment.

We’ve played 3 games now with the progressive research model and it’s been fun.

I should add that while we play on the Anniversary map (neither of us have room for Global unfortunately), we use the following rules from other games or house rules.

Last note is we wanted to increase abilities without adding new units to the game. The map just gets too crowded once you start including new units.

Would welcome any thoughts you have. Thanks in advance!!

**** New Tech Research Rules ****

To make an investment in a technology, the player spends 4 IPC to start a project, limited to starting 1 project per turn, however doesn’t announce with projects they are starting, places a country roundle on the progress tracker starting at Phase 1. Players can only have 1 ongoing project per category (Land, Air, Naval, Special). During the research phase, the player rolls 1 free dice for each research project and may purchase as many additional dice rolls as they want for each of the research projects prior to rolling (see additional dice cost below). The player needs to roll the number on the progress chart and if achieved, the country roundle is placed in the “breakthrough” box. If roll is not successful, the country roundle is moved up one and each subsequent turn achieving a ‘breakthrough’ becomes easier. If the player gets to Phase 3 without achieving a breakthrough, the roundle is moved to the DELAYED box and the technology is achieved in the research phase of the next turn. Having a tech in DELAYED does not block a new project in the same category from being started.

While the progress of each step is announced, including a breakthrough, the player does not reveal the technology breakthrough until the technology is used. For tracking purposes, keep your breakthroughs in the “secret” box until it is used then move to “revealed’.

link text

Land Warfare

Heavy Tanks, tanks attack at 4 and target select land units on a roll of 1 during the first round of combat.

Heavy Tank Destroyers, tanks defend at 4 and target select land units on a roll of 1 during the first round of combat.

Mechanized Warfare, Inf/Art/AAA paired with tank move 2, Inf/Art can blitz with tank.

Advanced Artillery, infantry paired with artillery defend at 3 during the first round of combat.

Elite Infantry, attacking infantry roll 2 dice in the first round of combat. Only 1 roll gets the attack combined arms bonus when paired with artillery.

Air Warfare

Heavy Bombers, bombers add 3 IPC damage during strategic bombing raids. Heavy bombers hit by AAA fire are removed from play AFTER they roll for bombing damage.

Escort Fighters, fighter units starting in the same territory with a bomber may move up to 6 and escort the bomber to target during strategic bombing mission

Advanced Aircraft, land based fighters attack at 4 first round of combat. Land based fighter escorts/interceptors roll at 2 during air combat round of Strategic Bombing raid. Bombers roll 2 dice in the first round of combat, picking the best result.

Jet Fighters, defending land based fighters have a hit priority aircraft and roll 2 dice during the first round of combat and roll 2 dice at 2 to hit during Strategic Bombing phase.

Advanced Radar and ATC, Industrial complex AAA rolls hit on a 2 or less during Strategic Bombing. Up to 2 land based fighters may scramble from land territory to defend in land or sea combat in adjacent land or sea zones including strategic bombing (copied from Sired Blood’s rules)

Naval Warfare

Heavy Battleship, take 3 hits to sink, roll 2 dice first round of combat including shore bombardment. Considered fully operational with 1 hit, half attack/defend/AAA with 2 hits. Battleship AAA defences roll 2 dice.

Advanced Carrier, Carriers take 2 hits to sink & can carry 3 fighters. Carrier based fighters ‘target select’ naval or air units on a roll of 1 during naval combat.

Advanced Submarines, subs attack at 3 first round of combat, each sub in excess of enemy destroyers in a naval battle may sneak attack/submerge.

Heavy Transports, transports may now carry 3 units. If 3 units are carried, 1 must be an infantry.

Naval Logistics, all naval surface combat units (Battleships, Carriers, Cruisers, Destroyers) move 3.

Special Tech

Improved Shipyards (standard rules)

Increase Factory Production, factories on territory IPC 2 or less produce 1 extra unit, factories on territory IPC 3 or more produce 2 extra units. Factories now cost 10.

War Economy, during the collect income phase, players get 1 additional IPC for each 10 IPC it has on the income tracker + results from IPC modifier roll below.

Roll 6 = 4 IPC
Roll 5 = 3 IPC
Roll 3-4 = 2 IPC
Roll 1-2 = 1 IPC

Full Mobilization, repair factory 1 IPC per 2 points of damage. At the start of the ‘Purchase Units’ phase, the player rolls 1d6. A roll of 1-4 grants 1 free infantry unit, roll of 5-6 grants 2 free infantry units. These units are placed during the ‘Mobilize New Units’ phase using standard placement rules.

Mass Production, players may purchase multiple units of the same type at a discount.

Tanks (6 IPC), purchase set of 3 tanks for 16 IPC (-2)
Artillery, purchase set of 3 artillery for 10 IPC (-2)
AAA Artillery, purchase set of 2 AAA guns for 8 IPC (-2)
Fighter, purchase 2 fighters 17, IPC (-3)
Bombers, purchase 2 bombers for 20 IPC (-4)

**** End ****

Check the range of V weapons. Four spaces is too long of a distance. Also, the new tech units it needs to be clear: When you get say King Tigers do all your tanks go “Poof” and become Tigers , or from that point on are any tanks you build…Tigers. The later idea is much more realistic.

@fantasticfan Allerdings! :grin: Since I could not (yet) find a PM function I started a chat with you (hope this works too).
Greetings from Schwabenländle

sounds very promising!

@ancient:

May I suggest an amendment to your rules.  Any roll under a 3 is treated as a 3.  This way someone is not totally screwed by continually rolling 1s and 2s.  This may have the affect that you will need to raise the tech values a little though.

So the possibilities would be 0, 3, 4, or 5 points, with a 50% chance of 3 points?  That takes a significant portion of the randomness out of it.  Even with that system, someone could be continually screwed by repeated 6s being rolled.

The purpose of my system was to acheive a greater balance between risk and reward.  I think your alteration swings too much away from risk.  That’s the nature of the game.  Sometimes your heavy bombers roll a bunch of 5s and 6s.  The dice bite you some times.

Yes I love Hearts of Iron - I’ve thought you could develop the powerful weapons like an atomic bomb in steps - perhaps make a chart with a progression on it. The more game-changing the weapon, the more steps it would take to produce.

I guess he was referring to some variant or house rule.
No Heavy Tank in OOB or LHTR. Just Super Heavy Tank. :wink:

Thanks for responding-I have used them in AAE as well. We played that you didn’t have to pay the $5. You rolled and if you got a six then there you go. Germany ended up with supper subs… Unfotunately, the Atlantic became a German Pond!