Posts made by axis_roll

Try this house rule for China to have IPC’s like other allied countries:
1941 China Modifications
These changes enable China to function like a 4th allied country. China collects income at the end of a turn just like any other country. China starts the game with $7 IPCs. $2 inf for China, other unit costs are unchanged. China can save unspent IPCs. China gets to Non Combat Move their fighter and place their IC before start of game play (start of round 1). China gets an IC for mobilization of new units. The IC can move one territory per turn and place units into the just moved into territory even if China just took the territory this turn (no unit limit on placement of Chinese units).
If China or her allies capture a Japanese IC in Manchuria or Kiangsu or ANY original Chinese territory, the IC is immediately destroyed. If China captures a Japanese IC in French Indo China, the IC is destroyed. If any allied country captures a Japanese IC in Burma or Kwangtung, it would revert to UK control. If any other allied country (besides China) captures a Japanese IC in French-Indo China, the IC is not destroyed, and control would be reverted to the capturing country. If China’s IC is captured, it is destroyed, and China no longer can ‘purchase’ units. Without the IC, China can get new infantry units per out of the box rules. Chinese units may now be engaged outside of China in Burma and/or French Indo China.

China has its own National Objective:
The Burma Road If the allies control Burma and 2 of these 3 territories: India, Yunnan, and Hupeh, China receives an additional $2 during their collect income phase.
China Modifications FAQs

1. Are all Chinese units limited to China and Kwantung? (as per AA50)
   • Chinese units may now be engaged outside of China in Burma and/or French Indo China.

2. Can China roll for Tech?
   There is no restriction on how China spends its money.

3. Can the axis conduct Strategic Bombing Raids on a Chinese IC?
   No, since the IC has unlimited development. The Chinese IC is limited by the fact that China has few IPCs to spend.

4. May Chinese infantry be placed the same as AA50? (i.e. not just at the IC)
   If China still has its IC, new units may only be mobilized in the territory where the Chinese IC resides. Since the IC can move into Allied territories not under Chinese control, reference "Handling when China moves their IC out of territories under Chinese Control.” Once the Chinese IC is lost, AH original Chinese rules apply.

5. Can the Axis use the captured Chinese IC to build?
   No. When the territory where the IC resides is captured, the IC would be destroyed.

6. What happens when China loses its IC but still has Chinese units / territories under Chinese control?
   When China’s IC has been captured and destroyed, China reverts to getting more infantry as described in the AA50 rules. They no longer collect income in the form of IPCs, nor can they ever get any other unit than infantry

7. China just lost it’s last territory and still has IPCs in her bank. What happens to the IPCs?
   Any Chinese IPCs go to the conqueror.

8. Can the Chinese fighter (the Flying Tigers) attack units in sea zones outside China if it returns to China in the same turn?
   No, it can’t leave China/Burma/French Indo-China/Kwangtung, even temporarily.

@argothair said in India Complex for UK - usually a bad idea?:

@taamvan I think this says more about the weakness of the tournament design than about the game as a whole. How can you be expected to generate interesting results after only five turns of play?

One idea to make the Short time frame of that tournament more palatable to a better game is to utilize dice averaging. Less dice to roll and less wild dice outcomes to skew the results.

@Panzerboy0191 said in Should I buy this version?:

I really enjoy playing with the national advantages in revised, does this game have any? Thank you guys!

There are no OOB National Advantages like in Revised, but our Chicago Rules {for AA50-41} has some that you might want to incorporate. Send me a PM with your email if you’d like a copy.

BTW, I love the map changes in AA50 over classic, 2nd and Revised. We loved revised with the community developed house rules set AARe (Enhanced). No OOB AA game, in my humble, somewhat limited experience, has ever been balanced. In other words, with a little tweaking, the games can be balanced, and have other possible strategies other than the usual Race for Berlin/Moscow.

Good gaming!

It’s interesting to see what is focused on during the several hours over two episodes. Several times, the macro level story glossed over the details or showed them incorrectly. For example, they said in 9 minutes, USA sank 4 carriers in the battle of Midway. Not true…

What’s interesting is that the latest generation (even my own daughter, aged 28) knows little about WWII, let alone the great war before that one. I mean, WWII ended almost 75 years ago, and this becomes more and more ‘a thing of the past’.

@Plantageneto said in Operation See lion:

I’m new player and I have a doubt. Looking the 1941 setup, it’s seem too easy, in my opinion , for the Germany attempting England invasion at the first turn. Just a destroyer in sea and few units, if you calculate the punch is a 50/50

Not sure how you came up with those figures, or what you consider to be an ‘EASY’ victory, running this in dice sim, the BEST outcome I got was an 8% chance:

@general-LD said in AA gun:

Example stack up AA guns in Germany to help against bombing raids? Thanks

Radar tech is the only way to slow those bombers

@Altruex said in How to create the best gameplay for this edition?:

@axis_roll

Very interesting. I have heard the Dardanelles strait as a limitation before but never understood it. Maybe our group does not use it much, but what is the implication of closing it VS not?

The above “Chicago Rules” closing is a modified version of “Closing the Dardenelles Straight”, in the sense that Sea Zone 16 is still open, and you can reach Bulgaria, but not Ukraine and/or the Caucasus.

Implications are to keep yet another front from easily being opened against Russia. The axis can empty Africa via the Med fleet (German transport, Italian Navy) and give Russia even more headaches, especially early if Germany went on a strong Barbarossa game plan.

@axis_roll

Couple other easier mods to slow the axis:
Restricted Dardenelles straight: Bulgaria is the only territory accessible via
transport(s) in sz16 (helps Russia with Caucasus defense)
No new complexes may be developed on an island territory (slows Japan a bit)

@Altruex
In our “Chicago Rules” for AA50-41 version, we make it easier for UK to get one of their National Objectives:

“Gain 4 IPCs if Allied powers control at least FOUR of the following territories: Eastern Canada, Western Canada, Gibraltar, Egypt, Australia, and Union of South Africa.” UK doesn’t have to control ALL those territories like the OOB NA.

Prior to altering the game board to split india into india and bangledesh, and sz35 into sz35a & sz35b, we altered the Japanese National Objective of taking either India or Australia or Hawaii for the $5 national objective. We required Japan to get TWO of those three territories to get that NA bonus.

Also, we made all axis National Advantages only worth $4.

@Taewakan said in Russian kills German Fleet Turn 1?:

Why not sent a Russian Fighter and Bomber to take out the German Fleet on Turn 1 in the Anniversary 42 scenario. It is a 3-4 vs a 2-3. Seems like good odds to me.

You can also send a russian bomber on the Germany sz13 fleet of a Destroyer and transport. A “4” on a “2”.

@Argothair said in Alternate dice rules:

It’s a hard problem. …
If you let players use LL when they really care about the battle, and force them to roll regular dice the rest of the time, then that keeps the game moving at a reasonable speed without leaving you feeling like you lost the whole game because the dice went against you in one crucial battle.

Sure, if you save one of your precious 3 LL dice chips for that key battle, you might not have such remorse.

Also, what if the game goes 15 rounds? Is 3 really enough? Perhaps start with 3 and get an additional LL battle every 3rd round?

Allot comes down to a players level of comfort when allowing randomness into the game. Some players love the gamble, the long shot, the chance that we might still have a shot to win with some luck on our side in this last ditch effort.

Other players might become dismayed when the above scenario happens to them after all their well executed plans have them at a 99% chance of winning and feel that the dice has stolen their victory.

This is a grey area, there is no right or wrong when it comes to what is the proper level of randomness in a game of A&A?

@Trusty-Sapper
Wow, you’ve responded to my reply from a year ago, on a very old thread. I checked my PM’s and I was able to send Bass my most recent version of AARe.

I do agree with you Trusty, that “National Advantages plus bid makes every game a strategic puzzle”
Don’t forget the targeted tech rolls too. No chance to develop super subs when my scientist were working on long range!

I was a bit upset when it was only a short 5 years after Revised was released (and we fine-tuned Enhanced) that AA50 (Anniversary came out). Everyone ran for the new release and Revised was left to rot.

Ah dice rolls, the ultimate Love/Hate relationship. Having thrown them bones for A&A outcomes for 33+ years, here’s my observation: Dice suck!

Wild outcomes DO HAPPEN, in real life, not only just via an online application or computer dice simulator, in person too! We hate them so much, we’ve long ago implemented playing games via low luck rules. Yes, this does change the game a bit since there will be a guaranteed number of hits, plus potentially, 1 more hit. Does this hurt the game, IMHO, no it does not. Low Luck does what it’s supposed to do, eliminate the wild outlier results.

Is this perfect? No. Is such a perfect battle outcome decision process possible? Probably not. There will be some variance in a game where dice are involved.
Sure, you could totally eliminate the dice (ala NO luck), but that would be so boring, IMHO. Low Luck meets the need of eliminating excessive variance, while still offering some variance.

@PizzaPete I missed your mention of no tech, my apologies.

Perhaps you might like a directed National Advantage, where you have to roll dice (akin to tech) to achieve a specific national capability, which varies by country. This way, there’s no surprises about the advantage(s) you develop, and therefor, the cards don’t randomize your strategy. If this sounds interesting to you, PM me your email and I can send you what we use in the Chicago Rules for this.

@taamvan said in Anniversary 2017 Reprint - rule changes?:

The reprint could have re-organized the setup charts, which are not very rationally laid out and appear to just wander around the area and put the units in a different order in each list. In the better organized versions, the lists are alphabetical, or some snake around the land then the sea–but it would be more rational to have some uniformity to that, rather than just a messy list without any rhyme or reason.

As to the tournament rules, the game is VASTLY different in that setting than OOB. The NOs add a ton of money, the tech adds a lot of randomness. I think the tech favors the allies because they are well-positioned to invest in that starting on turn 1, and would probably make better use of most of the random outcomes than the Axis.

I find both games to be quite imbalanced, towards the Allies. There are no other maps where fighters can fly in one move from US to London, then from London unblockably to Moscow (over the top, 4 moves). There are more layers of buffer territories for moscow–almost as many territories in the “maze” as global. In the 42 scenario, the Germans just punch themselves out really quickly trying to fight in the russian maze. And the 5$ tanks are a big boon for Russia because it can fight Germany on even terms. You might argue that goes both ways, but in most of our 41 and 42 games, Germany has to buy DEFENSIVELY, all game–not just $5 tanks. The Allies have easy choices of what to buy–tanks for russia and fighters for the other two powers, until Russia is absolutely untakable. India without a factory is a lost cause. Both setups are an easy 5-turn KGF, OOB.

In the tourney, its a 6 turn game with less than a 6 bid for either side. The Allies won 1-2 more games than the Axis did, in 2018, under these parameters. I think the only way this is possible is for the Axis to grab Sydney, India, Karelia, and then hold those, plus the original Axis cities. They can lose 1 and still win a tie, I believe.

Not having watched the invitational games in detail, that’s the only conclusion I can draw from the available data.

This is an odd reply to a question about the rules being reprinted…

@taamvan said in Anniversary 2017 Reprint - rule changes?:

There are no other maps where fighters can fly in one move from US to London, then from London unblockably to Moscow (over the top, 4 moves).

Hmm. Classic, Revised, and Anniversary can have a fighter make it from Washington DC to Moscow in 2 turns.

Sounds like a “fortress america”-like modification

I guess I come from a different perspective of what I like about the game. I don’t like the “woah, look what the opponent got, which I could not plan for, and it might win the game for them”

You probably like the great variance of tech dice rolls too.

@Argothair Any update(s) on these rules? Have you play tested them any further or switched to a different new shiny object to keep your attention? :relaxed: :relaxed:

You know I mean that in a good way, as you like your novelty over the “same-old, same-old”

@PizzaPete said in 1941 Balance?:

@axis_roll said in 1941 Balance?:

Agree with Maverick, as the National Objectives are easier to obtain for the Axis and harder for the Allies to maintain/achieve.

My play group modifies the bonus from 5 IPCs to 4 IPCs to minimize the difference/impact

That’s a cool idea! I’m going to try that. Do you still do any sort of bid or do you find this eliminates the need for a bid altogether?

My play group has many house rules, mostly to try and open up other strategic options that have an equal chance of succeeding as the old Allied game plan of KGF/keep Russia alive (boring!)

My play group thoughts are that the OOB 1941 game (NO’s active, no tech) is very slanted in the Axis favor, especially when you remove/diminish the wild dice variable with low luck like we use. There are several thoughts on how to balance the game in the house rules section.

One of my favorite is splitting India and sz35 in two (add Bangledesh and SZ35b). This may not be easy to implement online, but is very easy in FTF games and really makes a difference IMHO.