Imperious Leader where do you get such wonderful toys…

@gen-manstein great, I look forward to see it.

Heroic Leaders

Soviet Union
Vasily Zaytsev Soviet Sniper during the battle of Stalingrad killed 225 soldiers including 11 snipers. Pick one Russian soldier. If garrisoned in a region containing a city Vasily may roll to shoot an enemy in an adjacent region (hits on 2 or less). This takes his action for the turn and he may not participate in any other combat for the remainder of the round.

Germany
Hermann Balk German Tank Commander whose lone Panzer Division nearly destroyed the entire Soviet Fifth Tank Army in three weeks. Pick a German tank. For the duration of the game this unit has +1 to combat rolls against Soviet Tanks.
Dietrich Von Sauken Prussian Nobleman, a tough veteran of every WW1 front. Saluted Hitler with a classic bent arm, typically sporting a cavalry sword, facial wounds and monocle. Dietrich asserted his command in spite of vocal anti-Nazi views while instrumental in the Kursk, Barbarossa, Minsk, and Moscow offensives. Pick a soldier. This motorized unit fights has an increased movement to two. May retreat two spaces, but cannot blitz like tanks and must end in first enemy territory entered. VonSauken supports two soldiers acting as an artillery piece.
Hans Rudel German Aviator veteran of 2,530 ground attack missions, over 50 aerial victories and claimed to have destroyed over 800 enemy vehicles of all types. Deploy a plane in Germany, this unit takes two hits to defeat. However, Hans may not take a damage meant for ground units, only for another air unit. At the end of the round if Hans survives he is restored to full health if ending in a starting German controlled territory.

United Kingdom:
Robert Ryder British Sailor, commanded a force of small unprotected transport ships during the daring raid of St. Nazaire dry docks. Instead of withdrawing as commanded, Ryder strafed fire for an hour and fifteen minutes recovering as many wounded as possible. Pick a transport. 1 adjacent allied land unit may choose to retreat to Ryder’s ship instead of fighting in a battle if there is space. This action is determined by the British player before the battle. Additionally, in an amphibious assault retreat if there are not enough transport ships for the British player, they may overload this ship but it may only offload retreated units to friendly territories.
Charles Upham New Zealand Platoon Leader, awarded the Victoria Cross twice. An offensive tactical might fighting in Crete, Greece, and El Almein. Place a soldier in British controlled Balkans, TransJordan, or Egypt during the deployment phase. This unit negates German and Italian artillery to a 1 while participating in an offensive.

Japan
Tameichi Hara Destroyer Captain, Tameichi had the highest hit % of any destroyer in the war. Wrote the torpedo tactics for the Empire of Japan, a samurai descendent, and fierce drinker. Pick a destroyer. This is now commanded by Tameichi Hara and will re-roll missed dice once for that piece.

Italian Famous Maneuver
Charge of the Savoia Cavalleria Anachronistic Italian Cavalry charge. In 1942 the Piedmont Count Alessandro Cazzago led a mounted assault against soviet troops, capturing 600 killing 150 and wounding 300 more. Italian forces lost 32 and well over a 100 horses. The Count’s mount Albino lived as well as the heroic counterattack shocking the Eastern Front. Once per game, if Germans lose and retreat Italy may counterattack with tanks and troops from up to two spaces away. The first round of this counterattack applies losses without retaliation.

United States
Colonial Draft: Place one soldier in Puerto Rico (West Indies) and the Philippines
Native American Allies: Recruit an infantry in Central United States and Alaska

Soviet Union Famous Maneuver
Khalakin Ghol: Japan failed to take Mongolia buffered with Soviet assistance. 1 Russian troop placed in Mongolia with a value of 1 IPC. Only one soldier may garrison or attack Mongolia at any given time without air support. Only one offensive against this region may occur per round.
Far East Railway: Soviet Tanks move 3 spaces eastward.

Japan Famous Maneuver:
Kamikaze: Japan fighters can engage in combat without designating a place to land afterwards. If this choice is made in a sea space it is destroyed after two rounds of sustained combat. On land, if the space is captured on the offensive and the plane is forced to make a crash landing, roll a dice. If the dice is on an even number the plane did not survive the emergency landing and is destroyed.

I’ve decided to scrap this idea… not enough time to flesh it out before my card deck gets released.

@Der:

Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill’s meetings are represented by the 10 minute opening meeting and the 5 minute meeting every round. According to this site the three only got together three times during the whole war. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_War_II_conferences

As for the table talk sample you gave, at our table it would go more like this:

Player 1: “dude, you really want to throw all those troops at Crete?”
Player 2: “Yeah, because look over there, the USA could counterattack.”
Player 1: “No they won’t with my submarines threatening them.”
Player 3: “What you should do is use those on the East Front”
Player 2: “But islands are hard to get back - Crete could pay off for several rounds.”
Player 1: “But that won’t win the game for us.”
Player 1: “OK take Crete, but use the bomber on Caucasus’ factory.”
Player 3: “No way - what if it gets shot down? Italy doesn’t have money to replace it.”
Player 1: “Seriously dude, just do this…” (Starts moving player all of player 2s pieces around) “See?”
Player 2: “No, I don’t like that” (Moves all pieces back to where they were)
Player 3: “Can we have the map for a few minutes?”

It’s this type of tomfoolery I’d like to curb - in my solution players can advise each other all they want if they are not actively trying to complete a turn. I think that is reasonable. If you have something so all important to say to your teammate that it’s worth spending 3 IPCs, you can still do it. We’ll see if it works, I could be wrong also.

I like the setting individual goals idea the most, but after thinking about it it seems too hard to implement. Each nation does not start out even. For example, Italy may have played a great game just keeping what they have with their small income, while Japan should be able to take a lot of land. How do you figure out who did better to declare individual winners? Seems complicated.

Yes, this does happen over table and in team meetings !  :lol: :lol: :lol:

We do have little talks over table if somebody needs to ask what you or him want to do if its like when US and UK are playing split sides and Germany Italy.

We do have team meetings after every turn for 5 to 10 mins if sides request it.

Last game was really good and we had more team meetings than was expected. But guys want that and get it.  :wink:

@AlphaKappa:

As the title says, one of my friends who I play Global 1940 with gets frustrated when his perfectly-orchestrated strategy falls apart due to bad luck (and to be fair, he can often be a pretty unlucky roller).

If his strategy is so perfectly orchestrated. why can’t he win with poor dice rolls?.. I mean it’s not like he’s only rolling 5’s and 6’s. I’ve been playing A&A since 93, and I can tell you that dice rolling is about attitude. In the past, I would throw my dice across the room and curse with an unsportsmanlike temper… needless to say, my attitude about luck has matured with an enlightened perspective. I now see bad luck as a challenge rather than a handicap.

@The:

You should also have captured leader rules where the leader is moved to another tt if they have been captured by an opponent and then they should have to be rescued

If you do that you may want a requirement for the captured leader to have to stay in their own country (under foreign occupation) or the USA could ship Mussolini off to the US and make it difficult to free him.

You get to choose in that case. If you choose armor, your attack suffers. If you choose infantry and you take, then you face the possibility of inadequate fodder for enemy counter attacks

ahh ok good.