Bombing by Average

Okay, it sounds reasonable then. As Escorts primary purpose (from a game play perspective) is to take interceptor hits instead of bombers (the ability to shoot down interceptors seems incidental in comparison), I’m inclined to pair it with a rule that escorts can each protect one bomber, but any unprotected bombers take interceptor hits first. This way at least you have a reason for intercepting escorted bombers.

Here are our Atomic weapons rules
Only Germany and USA may research them.
Must pay 5 IPC to research. Roll one die and on a result of 6 a technological breakthrough has occurred.
Then roll 2 dice to determine the technology discovered. We have multiple technologies for USA and Germany.

12 – Atomic weapons.
Atomic bombs cost 24 IPC to build. Only two may be built per turn. May not be built on same turn as breakthrough turn.

Move as infantry by land or sea. If loaded on a strategic bomber, it can move the current range of the bomber

Due to a lack of trained technicians and engineers, a nation may possess no more than 2 weapons at one time.
Due to the size and nature of the airburst associated with the nuclear warhead, no attack roll is required to score a successful hit.
No air defense, such as fighter scramble, is allowed due to the altitude of the strike plane and surprise of the attack. Only upgraded fighters may intercept. Long range aircraft or jet power technology must have been successfully researched to intercept an atomic strike.

An atomic weapon is treated as an AAA gun if the territory in which it is stored is attacked. 
No AAA guns are to be fired due to the altitude of the strike plane and surprise of the attack only normal built in AA gun defenses with an industrial facility can fire. Airbase and naval base do not fire AA.
Any industrial complex is attacked with 4 dice disabled to maximum value of 20 for major and 2 dice disabled to maximum value of 6 for minor complexes.
Any airbases or naval bases in the territory are attacked by one dice of value.
One dice is rolled and that number of units of defenders choice eliminated. AAA guns may be chosen.

If used on a naval assault:
The nuclear strike cannot be combined with surface vessels or additional aircraft.
Due to the altitude of the strike plane and surprise of the strike, aircraft on carriers and loaded troops on transports are considered to be cargo and provide no defense. The 5 hits are assessed and the attacking bomber returns to base. No 2nd attack is permitted.
Transports chosen last.

So if, as germany,after I capture Moscow which had 2 damaged ICs and 2 good ICs.Is the 1 IC that remains after capture a good 1 or a damaged one?
I can imagine Russia leaving a "scorched earth"or Germany being able to find enough infastructure for an operational minor IC remaining.

very true.

As A&A makes no rule for collapsed defenses,  an atomic bomb drop, under any other conditions, against an enemy of any potency, would still suffer teh same flak and interceptor attacks as any other strategic bombing.

@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

Just make it a NO for the US that it needs a cumulative die roll to obtain nukes

Certain things have to happen in order for the US to roll “Atomic Dice”

Allied control of Rome
No Axis controlled territories in Africa
The Axis cannot control US originally controlled territories in the Pacific (Guam, Midway, Hawaii, Johnston, Line, Philippines, Aleutian)
The Axis cannot control UK originally controlled territories in Europe (London, Scotland, Iceland, Gibraltar)
Anzac has to have collected IPC that round

Before Germany goes in that round, the US gets to roll a die for each of the following:
US Control of Rome
US Control of Hawaii
US Control of Caroline Islands
US Control of Marianas
US Control of Iwo Jima
US Control of Okinawa
US Control of Marshall Islands
France collected IPC that round
Allied Control of Egypt

You have to roll something like six sixes in order to obtain an atomic bomb.  Thats six sixes cumulatively.  Alternately, you can make it a cumulative total so something like you have to roll something like a die total of 40-50 cumulatively on the die roll(s) over multiple rounds.

Each nuke thereafter costs the US 1/3 of its IPC to purchase it (so probably something like 25-30 IPC at this point in the game).

The Nuke works just like a SBR however it can only be on the Nation’s Capital (Tokyo / Berlin).  If the StratB’s with the Nuke(s) get to the roll dice phase for damage to the Major IC, then the attack is successful.

A successful attack means that nation does not collect IPC that round.

From the German perspective:

Germany rolls a single die every round for the following objectives:

German Control for each VC it controls

So G1 would see Germany likely roll die for Berlin, Warsaw and Paris.

Germany would also be able to roll die if it controls London, Egypt, Leningrad, Stalingrad, and/or Moscow which allows for Germany to go in any direction to obtain extra die rolls.

Germany scores half (rounded down) its total die roll if the Axis does not control Paris and Rome.

Germany has to obtain the same objective as the US to obtain an Atomic Bomb (six sixes or something like 50 total showing on the dice cumulatively through all rolls).

I believe this puts the Atomic Bomb in play for Germany around turn 7-8 if it never loses Paris and owns London.  However Germany could only really play that Atomic bomb against Moscow if it sealioned G3 as its pretty darned difficult for it to launch a SBR against the US.  In effect it penalizes Moscow for sitting back and really doing nothing instead of pushing back against the Germans.

What would be neat is if you can arrange it so that all the war crimes result in IPC gains but have morality point losses.  If at some point those war crimes result in tangible bad things happening to you (e.g. Fifth column etc), then you have to balance the benefits against the potential harms and it really becomes a game of “How much can I get away with?”.

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.