Darkest Hour Expansion Pack, and Skonk Works Ruleset

1943 Europe Josh Schoorens Custom A&A Game Report - 1 time ever played

Finland, Romania, Vichy France - Cathy M
USA - Pat H
Germany - Mkgionet (me)
USSR - Alex M
UK - Mike K
Italy - Josh S (game’s creator)

I’m thinking I should’ve taken pictures of the empty board before placing any units as there are so many units it’s hard to see where many of them are located as they are covering up the names of several territories. My apologies.

EARLY 1943 took quite some time as there many battles. (Germany initiated somewhere around 15 battles on his turn.)
USA destroyed about half of Germany’s U-boats in the Atlantic , had a sizeable force about to land in Africa, and started making Brazil a staging area.
The remaining German U-boats were able to do some damage to the US Fleet, but not a major impact, though some ground units were lost due to transports being vulnerable in the middle of the Atlantic. Germany and Finland pushed toward Archangel in the North by capturing Novgorod. Moved directly toward Komi by capturing Kaluga, and pushed south capturing Kursk. A minor factory was built in Greece and troops were moved towards the front-lines, or anticipated front lines bordering the English Channel. The German navy took control of the English Channel.
USSR launched a massive counter-attack reclaiming most of the territory Germany had captured, with the notable exception of Novgorod, which still had a strong force. Many casualties on both sides.
Romania pushes into Kostroma.
UK started building up troops. Although Germany clearly was going after USSR hard, he knew it was only a matter of time before the UK initiated D-Day. Controlling the English Channel was going to be key. In the south the UK consolidated their navy in the Med and took Tobruk in Africa. Troops were pushed into USSR for lend-lease conversion.
Italy cleared out most of the Med, except where the UK consolidated, and they prepared to counter-attack in Africa.
Vichy France pushed towards Western Africa with fleet and troops to meet the coming USA force.

LATE 1943
Finland consolidated troops and pushed eastward with troops and westward with ships. Made the mistake of leaving several territories unguarded.
USA landed a massive force in Africa, with an equally massive navy. Brazil became a massive staging ground. Many ships, planes, and troops moved into position closer to Europe. A decent sized fleet is moved into the western part of the British Channel.
Germany sees an opportunity for attack with more ships and plans and sinks the US fleet that just moved into the western part of the English Channel, reclaims the Channel, and eliminates Allied ships off the Eastern coast of the UK. A massive battle takes place in Archangel (70+ German units) for a decisive victory. This lend-lease location wasn’t used and now is in control of Germany with little USSR resistance in the north. Not much progress in the southern part of USSR however. German forces in Africa move west towards the massive US force. A bold move utilizing (2) heavy bombers takes Gibralter. Likely a temporary move, but it will at least delay the Allies. Navy moved to meet the US when they are able to come through.
USSR effectively pushes back in the southern half of the country but is unable to retake Kostroma, and they sneakily move their northern navy out and capture Oulu.
Romania navy decisively takes out the southern Russian navy.
UK continues to feed troops to USSR in the south through lend-lease. and continues to amass troops in England. The massive UK navy consolidates and wipes out most of the German navy regaining control of the western part of The Channel.
Italy makes a bold attack to recapture Tobruk and succeeds rather easily.
Vichy France makes a risky attack with most of their fleet and air force against the massive US navy sitting off the coast of Africa. It doesn’t go well and they limp away after taking many losses and inflicting only minor damage. Vichy reinforces Gibralter as best as they can.

Turn 3 continuing on 7/5!End of Round 2 Germany Africa Corp and lone Allied Army.jpg End of Round 2 Germany Army chart.jpg End of Round 2 IPC chart.jpg Sea zones east of England featuring German Super Battleship and Finish fleet.jpg Territories bordering the Atlantic.jpg The English Channel and Northern Europe.jpg Belarus and surrounding territories.jpg Berlin and neighboring territories.jpg Finland and Novgorod with surrounding territories.jpg

@general-spengler Very interesting. I think having conscripts cost only $1 and be totally unable to attack is both a little sleepy and tends to give too much of an advantage to the defenders.

What about conscripts that cost $2, move 1, defend at 1 each, and attack at 1 as a stack? In other words, no matter how many conscripts you have in an attack, they all collectively only roll one die per round of battle, which only hits if the die is a 1.

This should naturally discourage players from building too many conscripts, since a stack of 5 conscripts is less cost-efficient than a single conscript.

You could also limit production of conscripts to 1 per factory and/or recruiting center per round. So if you have both a factory and a recruiting center in the same territory, you could buy up to 2 conscripts there per turn. If you have only a factory or only a recruitment center, then you could only buy 1 conscript per turn in that territory.

@The-Captain

Didn’t know your team was so impressive. I look forward to the update.

@the-captain yea the wolfpacks are pretty effective in my limited experience with them. If you decide to send the Bismark to Scapa Flow after the Hood and if given the option, retreat and the Hood goes to Iceland, a wolfpack has a good chance to sink it without loss.

You’ll still be a wolfpack for defense if the Americans are activated and try and come after you as well.

Definitely changes it up. I like em. Adding some more convoy zones would be something you guys might consider as well. just a thought : )

I’ve seriously considered using the map and customizing it for my never-ending variant project.

One thing I like in both Risk! And Attack! That I didn’t like previously is the “sea lane” movement as opposed to A&A’s transport only movement. This idea is one I’m tinkering with on the A&A maps not only to speed up the game but to also break away from standardized strategy. Which not only lengthens the game but contributes negatively IMO to replayability as well as other aspects.

@Flashman:

Italian Navy

I really think ships in port rules are the only thing that will prevent navies being sunk on the first two turns.  Without this they are simply too vulnerable to aircraft.

US Build UP

Simpler to make US factories minor until at war.

Free French

If anything they are over represented, since all surviving French units are assumed to be Allied, with the considerable Vichy French forces entirely absent.  All FF fought effectively under UK command, as did the large Free Polish forces, which are not represented.  The Western Allied forces are fragmented enough already.

Other things needed for historicity:

No new factories, no use of captured factories

Unlimited rail movement during NCM; i.e. all land movements between war zones used this method and should therefore all land units should have the same movement

Collect money at start of turn rather than “money grab” attacks

Defender retreats

Thank you for your insight on this project.  I am trying to keep it simple… rather than change the rules all together.  Some of your suggestions are MAJOR changes to the game.

Atomic bomb should roll 4 dice for damage

If you doubble the damage threshold for what you are attacking then it is destroyed, in the case of major factories they are reduced to minor factories if you do 21 damage.

So you can basicly pop any port or airbase or minor with a roll of 12+

New IC’s can be built for 12 IPC’s instead of 15… yeah your right W should have Air