New units in AA50?

Our club has added technology rules that really speed up the game and offer much more variety. One of the most significant is that each country has rail movement. If you want to discuss, best way to reach me is by email at jonkrost@comcast.net

China Factions:

Mao’s Red Guard Take clearly different soldiers from another Axis and Allies game you own. 1 troop may spawn in either Ninxia or Chingai per round.

Chaing’s Nationalists: 1 troop spawn per Chinese coastal territory controlled. Take clearly different soldiers from another Axis and Allies game.
*The rules for Anniversary edition still apply (half of territories rounded down) representing unaligned Chinese units. These may attack with either the Red Guard or Nationalist but not with both. If a Communist force loses to Japanese and retreats, it must attack a Nationalist army if there is one adjacent. This represents the infighting which crippled Chinese forces and suspicion the two factions had against each other during the conflict.

Zhang Xueliang: son of a powerful Manchu warlord Zhang Zuolin who wished for the restoration of Manchu dominance of China. Northeast Chinese forces pledged loyalty to this Independent opiate infused warrior. Who will he align with?
Discuss: If the majority of players decide to engage Zhang in the game, he overcomes his opiate addiction and womanizing ways. His loyalty to either Japan, Chinese Nationalists or Chinese Communists will be determined by the dice. Place an industrial center on Manchuria if not one already, or fully repair one. The IPCs for this region are now worth 4.

1 Zhang politically embraces communism and joins Mao’s forces. Place a tank, and three soldiers on the area.

2-3 “Communism was a cancer while the Japanese represented a superficial wound!” Zhang screams while surging onto the board with five soldiers allied to the Nationalists.

4-5 Zhang allies with the Japanese to restore the Qing Dynasty. Two Japanese soldiers and two artillery pieces placed. An attack on Soviet forces must occur within two rounds or Zhang will ally as a neutral Chinese force.

6 Zhang dies from an overdose

My Manchu grandfather was a destroyer captain for the Chinese Nationalists and passed down stories from this time. Manchuko’s politics were more independent than many realize. Historically Zhang sided with the Nationalists to help key victories and recognized as a hero by all Chinese. The scale of this struggle was as large as any European front, therefore, more infantry should be represented!
Have fun :)

France paratrooper can also simulate commandos  along european shore.

Also, you can identify special infantry or Marines with a Control Marker below the sculp.
That way, you can increase their cost without having to buy 1914 or 1941 to get different Infantry sculpt.
I still wonder if a 3 IPCs unit can be a balanced cost for a weaker Marines unit able to move with Cruiser and BB.
As written elsewhere:

Marines as simply Marines and nothing more
Cost 3
Attack 1-2
Defense 1
Move 1

Sea movement bonus:
1 Marines unit can be carried on 1 Battleship or 1 Cruiser.
Transport can load 2 Marines or 1 Marines plus any other 1 ground unit.
Gets +1A on amphibious assault only.

No combined arms with Artillery.
No production limit number.

That way, 2 Marines for 6 IPCs, A4 D2 on amphibious assault will be better cost ratio than regular Infantry paired with Artillery A4 D4 C7.
But, in defense, 2 Marines Defense @2 cannot hold the ground as 2 Infantry Defense @4.

And also 2 Marines being weaker if going inland combat by themselves because of the no pairing bonus with artillery. But they stay on par 1:1 compared to a single Infantry on offense.

Also, in amphibious assault, Marines will be probably taken amongst first casualties compared to regular infantry because it is the same attack factor than Inf with Artillery (but have a lesser defense factor (very low 1), unless you keep them to move on a Cruiser or BB and want to spare TP to turn back home for new supply on next turn. So, such Marines unit will more often die during debarkment and regular Infantry will last longer, in anticipation of next assault going inland.

About Infantry moving NCM only with Cruiser or Battleship, it cannot simulate the initiative and offensive role being taken by Marines such as Guadalcanal.
As far as I understand, Marines were first almost everywhere in PTO while regular army troopers were mopping behind Marines and garrisoning conquered islands. Maybe the exception is Peleliu in Palau islands.

So this is what I tried in place of bids.
Each power,in the same order as play so Germany 1st France last,gets to relocate 1 starting unit (with the exception of ICs and capital ships)to a place only where they already have another starting unit.
  For example:Russia can start a tank in amur instead of moscow.
                    Germany starts  cruiser in sz113.
                  Italy moves dd from sz96 to 97
                    Us puts a 2nd fig in Phillipines
I think its gives allies a better chance b/c they start with more units out of position and they would ,for the most part, make their choices after axis.

@CWO:

One low-cost way for you to experiment with this concept to see if it works, and to then help you decide if you should invest more money in the way you described to give each nation  its own special HBG unit, would  be to:

Pick up a copy of A&A 1941

Extract from it the unique sculpts that represent weapons which were actually used by the nations which produced them, and ignore the ones which are “national mismatches” (American IS-2 tanks, and so forth)

Designate them as special units and create (or find) house rules to govern them

To give some examples:

The tank sculpts in 1941 represent German Tiger and Russian IS-2 tanks, both of which were heavy tanks.  Those two nations would therefore have the ability to build heavy tank units.

The battleship sculpts in 1941 represent the British Hood class and the Japanese Kongo class, bot of which were battlecruisers.  Those two nations would therefore have the ability to build battlecruisers.

The other units aren’t as clear-cut as examples, but you could use a similar technique.  The American Sumner-class destroyer could be used to represent destroyer escorts (which, I admit, they weren’t).  The British  Lancaster could be used to represent a bomber with a super-heavy lift capacity, the Lanc being the only Allied bomber which was long enough and powerful enough to carry the Grand Slam super-heavy bomb.  And so forth.  The point is that one single copy of this game, which is fairly inexpensive, would give you lots of unit types with which to test your concept.

Interestingly enough, I actually had a new 1941 at one time (I got it as a Christmas Present), but returned it for the very reason that each nation didn’t have unique sculpts. I grabbed the Seafarers expansion for Catan instead.

But thanks for the idea.

no not good.

I think you got some thing for artillery lately. I don’t see any need for changes or modifications except perhaps on first round if they roll a one they can choose the target, but thats it.

The only other option would require an actual piece and including self propelled artillery which is a gun on a tank chasis ( and move 2)

my idea was outmoded by subsequent house rules i made in another thread. So its basically old information that no longer applies.

You mean bells of war?