Bombing by Average

This house rule was designed by myself independent of any other source and was made in the 1980s when I played A & A Classic and designed my own variant I term ‘Allies and Enemies’. The rule is as follows; During a develop weapons phase a player mat attempt to develop an atomic bomb. A player must pay 30 PFs for every die roll that is attempted. A roll of a 6 on a D6 roll gives the player nuclear capability (needless to say the die roll must be clearly random). Additionally, the second time (a subsequent turn) a player pays 30 PFs to attempt to develop an atomic bomb the die roll to be successful becomes a 5 or 6 on a D6 roll. For each subsequent attempt of 30 PFs the die roll to be successful decreases by one number so that on the sixth attempt research for an atomic bomb is automatically successful. On the turn that an Atomic bomb is successfully developed that player may buy them at the purchase units phase for 5 PFs for each Atomic Bomb. Atomic Bombs may only be delivered to the target space by Bomber aircraft ( 1 atomic bomb per bomber) or by a Rocket (if house rules allow). The effects of an Atomic Bomb are 1) destroys all units in the target space (either land or sea) and 2) permanently (for the rest of the game) reduces the PF value of the land space targeted by 1 PF (0 being the minimum value) for each Atomic bomb dropped.

This mechanics can also be applied to ABs as Carolina is suggesting:

Air and Naval base damage
@Carolina:

Great topic - hi-lights how A&A is a little too basic.  ie. not all hits should be equal - really, when would AAA blow every plane out of the sky?

I would propose to change the AAA rule for bases and industry that AAA does not kill but affects the accuracy of the attacker.  Defending installation rules a 1d6 and this is subtracted from the attacker’s roll.  
1d6-1 for fighters and tacB
1d6-2 for bombers
Roll an AAA dice for each attacking aircraft.

Here’s one that doesn’t have any IPC changes or the added Russian and UK NOs.

ww2global40_2nd_edition_A-Bomb_No_PUs.xml

@Uncrustable:

I think you should play some games of G40 on here before making these assumptions.
I do, and I see many SBR involving fighters.
Germany sometimes will send 5 or more bombers on Moscow alone, where Moscow has 2-3 fighters to scramble. Odds are better that Russia will lose a fighter before Germany loses a bomber in the air combat. And  Il trade a German bomber for a Russian fighter, Russia can’t afford it.
I also see many games where G2 Germany sends 2 bombers 2-4 tac bombers and 2-4 fighters to London where there are sometimes up to 5 fighters that can scramble.
Italy will also heroically send its lone bomber to London in an attempt to disable the airbase on London before Germany’s turn.

Even with interceptors SBR is a touch too powerful in G40.
This is mainly because bombers are getting +2, meaning 1 bomber auto disables bases and minor facilities once past AA and interceptors.

I would propose taking away bombers +2, while halving tacbombers damage.
Bombers SBR at 1D6
Tacbombers SBR at 1D6 /2. Rounded up.

Now I better see why you wanted to give defending interceptor D2 instead of D1.

Attacker have the advantage of picking which units will go SBR and to concentrate firepower on a single IC.

The defenders are overwhelmed by the sheer number.
In addition, on defense you have often more than just only 1 IC to protect, and you cannot keep all the Fgs in the same territory, have to split them usually.
D2 interceptors can counterweight the advantage of attacker and hindrance of defense a bit.

Reducing attacking bombers to only 1@1  for the whole group is also a way to preserved the defending fighters against destruction by a large number of StBs. But we both know, that is not A&A standard rules, each unit usually get 1 roll…

…unless you treat StBs/TcBs the same way as AAA!!!. :-o
So each defending Fgs can never have more rolled against them than 1A@1, if there is at least the same number of StB/TcBs vs Fgs.

It can be rationalized to get an historical accuracy somehow in the way:
intercepting fighters are not able to attack all groups of StBs/TcBs flying over the territory but only one unit (flight group) at a time.
When interceptors fly around StBs they are under an intense and concentrated AA fire coming from the flying fortress. But all others group of StBs are not chasing actively Interceptors, they are just flying toward the IC/AB/NB target.
So if interceptors are overwhelmed by the StBs/TcBs, it will be in essence 1:1 combat.
1 TcBs A1 vs 1 Fg D2, all other additionnal StBs/TcBs cannot shoot anymore.
In fact, all intercepting Fgs are already busy, other StBs/TcBs have pure and simple an open road toward IC or NB/AB.

What do you think of this one?
When StBs/TcBs attack fighters on SBR air combat, they get A@1 for each StB/TcB or intercepting Fgs wichever is less.

Escorting fighter attack as usual, 1 unit get 1 roll.
Based on 1942.2, I will keep @1 First Strike
Based on G40 rule, if Interceptor has D1, then A1.

(I really wonder why I haven’t think about it, even back in the old thread about StB spam strategy. :?)
http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=31373.0

Good implications for Battle of Britain etc.  At $10 it would basically take hits from 3 tactical or 2 strategic bombers to destroy a base (after AA).  The best part is it could kill some very gamey phoney baloney moves involving gratuitous bases.  For example:

J1 Japan takes Chahar
J2 Japan builds airbase in Chahar and lands bombers there
UK2 UK pacific bombs Chahar airbase
USSR3 Russia bombs it a second time, destroying it
J3 no Japanese SBR of Moscow

I am gonna post a new version of mine using KISS. I think it is too complicated.

but i will do that in a new thread :-D

I have changed my Strategic Bombing rule.

A bomber bombing a factory for the first time recieves 1xd6 to damage enemy industrial complexes however, on a second raid when the same nation attacks the same enemy factory, all surviving bombers use 2xd6 and may choose the highest result rolled to inflict damage. During a third raid from the same nation against the same enemy factory, surviving bombers roll 3xd6 each and may choose the highest result rolled to inflict damage. Bombers receive 4xd6 each for the forth raid and 5xd6 each for the fifth (5 dice is the maximum each bomber may roll).

Each bomber may only apply 1 dice result to damage factories.
Each surviving bombers dice must be rolled separate from other surviving bombers dice.

@Rakeman:

@Cmdr:

That is significantly better. (Allies can capture Kwangtung or Philippines easier.)

Though, I still think having it auto liberate after Russia’s turn is the best idea.  That way Japan would have to maintain pressure on W. USA too keep the VC.

Perhaps if USA loses money due to bombing, the VC is captured, but liberated automatically on Russia’s turn?  It would require pressure maintained, but not so much pressure that Japan needs to dedicate all of its money to bombing.

I think it would be okay as long as Japan has to successfully bomb W. USA each successive turn to maintain command over the Victory City there.

That way Japan can still screw up by sending one bomber and having it shot down, or America could get lucky and get 3 hits with it’s AA Gun against 3 bombers.