Bombing by Average

@barnee

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find anything from Der Kuenstler. Here is the piece Gen Manstein was talking about:

https://www.historicalboardgaming.com/Atom-Bomb-3D-Printed-x5_p_3707.html

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.

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.

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.

@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.

Interesting.