New modern A&A variation - Superpowers

Good Action Argo ! Sounds way cool. Do you plan on making a triplea version ?

Probably Confederate infantry attire would strongly resemble British or French kit, to include either the Adrian, or, even more likely, the Brodie helmet.

One imagines that the Union would take its cues from the Germans, or, even more likely, the Russians, meaning either no helmet, or else some version of the stahlhlem. It’s also possible that one might see a distinctive steel hat more akin to the M1, or even a kind of “stovepipe” or “top hat” in steel.

I’m trying hard to think up certain National Advantages. Perhaps Confederate cavalry would be able to execute a kind of blitzkrieg. Would it be likely that a nation without much native automobile production, but having to cover a long border with a relatively small standing army, would develop a heavy emphasis on motorization?

As early as Bull Run, both armies were learning the military value of railroads.

In the meantime, there’s this:

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=22218.0

It’s one of the Axis and Allies Express games that some board members have been working on.

Attached is the latest version of AAG41 w/ Axis & Allied Minors.

I know coachofmany/Tigerman77 & Ozeta have there own versions running now…mine is not meant to override but is just an update of a version i’ve posted over the years.

It plays off the AAG40 boards and is based off Alpha2 rule base; NO’s have been modified to take into account the timeframe and a NA or two have been added to each nation.

Essentially, the game adds Romania, Finland, Bulgaria, Hungary and Vichy France for the Axis and Canada, African Colonies, Free French and a more separated UK Pacific for the Allies.  It also establishes “Major Neutrals:” Spain as Pro Axis; Sweden and Turkey as “major” strict neutrals.

There are also some modified rules allowing for powers to attack on the same turn, etc.

I have found it to be a “simple” upgrade and fairly balanced (played 5 games so far with 2 Axis wins and 3 Allied wins).

I have used units from historicalboardgaming.com and will eventually add the FMG units.  I’ll post some pics later.
AA41G for Minor Powers v2.0 Mar 11.xls

This is my first shot at an expanded naval system that I’m working on.

Note: Since different dice types are needed, I’m using the following notation for a shorthand: the type of dice (d6, d12, d20) etc. is immediately preceded by an “at” sign, a @ and the number you need to roll for a hit comes first.  Thus a ranking of a “3” on a d6 would be written as a 3@6, which is really the same as a “10” on a d20 (a 10@20) or a 6 on a d12 (a 6@12)

A. What you need:

1. To implement it, you would probably need a couple of things.  First, after carefully comparing all the options, I decided to base it on a d20, primarily, so you’ll need a 20-sider or two.  (They’re not hard to find, btw, in case you’re not familiar with them.)

2. Secondly, you’ll need a much wider array of ships, particularly the large ships, battleships, carriers, and possibly cruisers.  I have some few Skytrex & Navwar 1/3000 metals and Panzersciffe 1/2400 plastics.  After comparing them, I’m probably going to go with the latter, though note that you’ll need a pretty big board for them.  For the 1/3000, you could probably get away with the oob AA40 combined board or the AA50 board, but for 1/2400 you’ll probably need something the size of the TWG board or the larger version of the new GW1939 board (which you can get from HBG)

B. Key Rules:

1. Gunnery: Battleships and Cruisers each have 2 attacks, while Destroyers have only1.

a. Destroyer/ Secondary Armaments: 1 attack represents the secondary armament, which is roughly the same attack rank as that of a destroyer, which makes sense as guns that were the primary armament on a destroyer were often the same ones as those used as the secondary armament on a battleship or cruiser.  Thus battleship/ cruiser secondaries attack and defend (both) at a 7@20.  (To save time, however, you could also roll them with a 6-sider as a 2@6 or on a 12-sider as a 4@12, which allows you to roll both primary and secondary simultaneously, since a BB primary armament would always be rolled on a 20-sider.)  Destroyers have only 1 attack, at this same ranking.

b. Cruiser Primaries: A “standard” cruiser’s primary armament would be a 10@20, which also allows for much flexibility, as a 3@6 or 6@12 has the exact same 50% chance to hit, so any of these three could be used as a substitute.  A “standard” cruiser is defined as either a “heavy” cruiser, a “CA,” which technically means a cruiser with guns larger than 6” (usually 8”) or a “large light” cruiser, which was actually nearly as big as a heavy cruiser and carried a larger # of 6” guns.  Gunnery experts debated on the relative merits of these two types of “treaty” cruisers, but the rule of thumb is that with two cruisers with equivalent armor protection, 8 8” guns are roughly equal to 12 6” guns in firepower, all else being equal.

c. Battleship Primaries: This same relative power rule of thumb carries forward to battleships, in that 2-3 more guns of a given size roughly adds the firepower of the same # of guns an inch or so larger.  Thus, a 10x12” BB would pack about the same punch as an 8x13” BB and a 12x12” BB would be about the same as an 8x14.” With this proviso in mind, a normal (8-9 gun) BB’s attack/defense ranking for its primary armament is the same as the inch diameter on a 20-sider.  Thus, an 8-9 gun 12” BB would roll for a 12@20 for its primary, a 14” gun BB at a 14@20, a 15” BB at a 15@20, and a 16” BB at a 16@20.  The super-BB Yamato would then attack/defend with its primary armament at an 18@20, making it a formidable foe indeed!

2. Hits a ship can take: DD’s and CA’s can still only take 1 hit.  Most BB’s can take 2, and a few of the largest, most powerful ones can take 3.  I haven’t yet decided, however, where the cut-off point for a “Super-BB” that can take 3 hits would be.  The Yamato is a definite yes, along with the American Montana, its never-built direct American competitor of roughly the same size.  I’m leaning toward giving the 45,000 ton + BB’s the same 3-hit “Super-BB” status.  This would include the American Iowa, British Vanguard and German H-Class.  The next level down would be 40,000 tonners, the German Bismark and Italian Vittorio, which I’m leaning toward not giving the status, because if I do a very good argument can be made that the American South Dakota, British KGV and French Richelieu were just as formidable, despite being more faithful to the treaty limitations demanding that BB’s not exceed 35,000 tons… If I open it up this far, nearly all the original “standard” BB’s in the game would be 3-hit “supers.”

I still have many more thoughts in terms under-sea/submarine/ torpedo warfare and air/ carrier warfare, but I’ll save those thoughts for now, as this is already a long post, so I’ll send this out for any who are interested to take a look, digest and share their thoughts.

Rick!

Great game you developed, it is awesome - my only suggestion is when you make a reprint, to have the tanks be more A&A size (they are tiny right now)

This line of products will not be successful…I have no idea why so many people make the same mistake. Jeff who made The War Game: World War Two had its minis made by Pegasus hobbies and i knew when i saw the prototypes the size would be an issue because they are not compatible with AA. The whole point is to make them smaller so they fit on the map and are in scale with what people use over many years. Such a simple concept that they never seem to realize. Then in this case he makes these ‘guns’ as representative as infantry? Terrible idea.

I think perhaps House Rules is the more appropriate forum for this topic…