Posts made by baron Münchhausen

Here is the end of Round 1. SS’ picture.

It will help compare the evolution with next picture of Round 2.

One thing which makes me think you were conducting a KGF is the fact that India’s fleet was send into Med to protect Cairo. This opened up more room to maneuver for Japan and mainly INJ.

You played an interesting defensive strategy with Japan with 2 consistent fleet. And being stationed into Carolinas allows IJN to be reinforce right away by the end of round 2. I see the interest of an IC in Carolina to compete with UK’s capacity to join USA fleet into Solomons. It is the first time I see how this IC in the middle of Pacific islands, at least, help being in par against two Allied powers.

Another point is that invading Solomons and New Guinea allow to keep USA at same level of ressources. We can see this in round 2, as USA lost all Chinese territories but gain 4 IPCs in south Pacific. So it is break even, and so Japan do not gain any more ressources by invading main land.

I keep this empty post for addendum.

And this is the map in its working (beta version) state.
https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/assets/uploads/files/1593201441672-barons-1942-2nd-edition-final-print-copy-3.pdf

Hi everyone,

with the help of a few members (Barnee, SS General, Imperious Leader) and ideas of many (Black_Elk, Young Grasshopper, Argothair, CWO Marc, Der Kuenstler,…) , I’m working out a personal project inspired by years of discussion. It crystallized in the last two months. I used TripleA plateform and V5 map programmed by Barnee with a customized game and roster developed mainly around the Redesigned thread in house rules.
https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/topic/26089/g40-redesign-currently-taking-suggestions

SS General is generously working, tweaking and printing a map based on an map file of 1942 2nd Edition created by Imperious Leader which gives us a kind permission to use and modify it according to our need for gameplay, which I want to thank for his artwork.
Here is his main thread:
https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/topic/34574/redone-1942-2nd-edition-map-file

This thread will be mainly to help us (SS, Barnee and me) discussed conveniently of issues regarding this double sided project (Triple A and tabletop game). My main interest is to make an improved version of 1942.2 game to play with my friends, while using TripleA (a Redesigned version on the OOB V5 version will be available soon for experimenting the Larry Harris 2nd Ed TR and the Redesigned roster) as an interesting tool to experiment ideas. SS is actually making the first board game playtests on the beta version of the map. I use the Triple A version as a testing ground. Special thanks to Barnee and SS General for your support, time and passion for Axis and Allies, and your help in developing this project.

If you want to comment, analysis or make suggestion about issues of the moment, feel free to write a post. The more POV I can have, the more it will help me makes my mind about the best way to solve issues. Just assumed I remain the final judge, since it is my own personal project.

Hope you will find some interests in it and enjoy what you read.

This is the actual roster being tested.
LAND units:
Infantry A1-2 D2 M1 Cost 3, Gets +1A when paired 1:1 with Artillery
Artillery A2 D2 M1 Cost 4
Anti-Air Artillery A- D3 M1 (ncm) Cost 5, up to 3 rolls @1, 1 roll max per aircraft.
Tank A3 D3 M2 Cost 6, Blitz, gives +1A to Tactical Bomber paired 1:1
Industrial Complex Cost 15, produced up to territory value, max damage doubled TT value.

AIR units:
Strategic bomber A- D- M6 Cost 5, no hit value. DF: A- D-, 1 hit value, damage: D6+2
Tactical Bomber A3-4 D3 M4 Cost 10, Dogfight: A1 D-, damage: D6,
Depth charge: A1 D1, gets +1A paired 1:1 with either Tank or Fighter
Fighter A3 D4 M4 Cost 10, Dogfight: A1 D2, gives +1A to Tac Bomber paired 1:1

NAVAL units:
Destroyer A1 D1 M2 Cost 5, Depth charge: A1 D1, block sub’s Surprise strike 1:1
Submarine A2 D1 M2 Cost 6, Cannot hit aircraft nor submarine, Surprise strike,
Submerge cannot be blocked but Sub submit to 1 Depth charge phase roll.
Transport A- D1 M2 Cost 8, Can load 1 Inf and any 1 other, or 2 AAA (ncm, only).
Escort Carrier A1 D2 M2 Cost 9, Carry 1 Fg or TcB, block Sub’s Surprise 1:1
Cruiser A3x2 D3x2 M2 Cost 12, Shore bombard @3
Fleet Carrier A1 D3 M2 Cost 14, Carry 2 Fg/TcB, 2 hits: repair start of turn, damaged: no flight operation
Battleship A4x2 D4x2 M2 Cost 20, Shore bombard @4, 2 hits: repair start of turn.
If damaged at the beginning of a combat round or by the end of Sub’s Surprise strike phase, it can only roll 1 die @4.

Here is the initial set up (based on Larry Harris 2nd Ed. TR) we work on at the moment. SS’ picture.

For now, as a work in progress, the IPC total is:
USSR : 25 IPC
UK: 40 IPC
USA: 50 IPC
Allies sum: 115 IPCs

Germany: 45 IPC
Japan: 35 IPC
Axis sum: 80 IPCs

Map total: 195 IPCs.

Modified territories are:
Central United States: 4 IPC (instead of 6).
Eastern Mexico: 1 IPC (instead of 0)
Central America: 3 IPC (instead of 1)
Greenland : 1 IPC (instead of 0)
Iceland: 1 IPC (instead of 0)
Gibraltar: 1 IPC (instead of 0)
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan: 1 IPC (instead of 0)
Belorussia: 3 IPC (instead of 2)
West Russia: 3 IPC (instead of 2)
Ukraine SSR: 4 IPC (instead of 2)
Caucasus: 5 IPC (instead of 4)
Japan: 4 IPC (instead of 8 )
Formosa: 1 IPC (instead of 0)
Okinawa: 1 IPC (instead of 0)
Iwo Jima: 1 IPC (instead of 0)
Wake: 1 IPC (instead of 0)
Philippines: 2 IPC (instead of 3)
Carolines: 3 IPC (instead of 0)
New Guinea: 2 IPC (instead of 1)
Solomons: 2 IPC (instead of 0)
Alaska: 4 IPC (instead of 2)
Midway: 2 IPC (instead of 0)
Hawaii: 4 IPC (instead of 1)
Western Australia: 2 IPC (instead of 1)
Eastern Australia: 3 IPC (instead of 1)
New Zealand: 4 IPC (instead of 1)

@Imperious-Leader said in Redone 1942 2nd Edition Map file..:

Looking good! Just need a waving flag correct for USSR, Japan

About USSR flag, was it an old Bolshevik flag?

@MGregersen

Certainly worth a try.
One issue to solve is somewhat a kind of specific markers to know which unit can do a combat move and which cannot, because it might be possible that units retreat into an adjacent TT already containing units.

@mAIOR
To simulate Pearl Harbour, you will need a special procedure because A&A is working under the assumption of Powers at war and fleet fully operational at sea.

In that case, you can go for a full combat round without retaliation, followed by Surprised strike type of roll for Fighter.
This Pearl raid is a very special case, similar to Taranto.

Or, if you want to go historical. Pearl harbor was not the most efficient raid and IJN were not willing to throw a third waves against all Fuel facilities and Submarines.
Which makes all the attack a strategic failure…

@mAIOR
Assumed there was 8 BB and 8 Cruiser at Pearl Harbour.
You want to do a 2:1 ratio with these so
4 BB A4 D4 and 4 Cruiser A3 D3.

There was 6 IJN Carrier, means 3 units.
If each were 3 Fg on each, it means:
9 Fg A3 D4
6 Carriers
21 hits total
Vs
12 hits.

If you give a special preemptive shot or an additional opening fire round to these 9 Fg, , for initiating an unprovoked act of war.
You might get 4-5 hits.
And you may specify that once a Battleship is damaged, the next hit has to be allocated to the damaged one, or sink a Cruiser.

Just my two cents at how I would deal with it.

@mAIOR said in G40 Redesign (currently taking suggestions):

@SS-GEN said in G40 Redesign (currently taking suggestions):

What ever you feel is historic. Basically you looking for correct hit status based on Divisions or corps like you mentioned. Ground is a different animal a bit.

hmmmm I am not sure about naval hitpoints. I mean, I keep going backwards and forwards and sometimes I step dangerously close to a CRT… Because I just find the overall attrition rate too high. Star Wars Rebellion does this with the hit markers under each ship but I also find that not very elegant. For instance, things like the sinking of the Bismark or the Hood were not that common and results like the battle of Riverplate were more common, I want there to be a chance of back and forwards and a single battle not being a monumental victory or defeat like game most of the time represents them (kind of because you then get the insane rebuilding economy). What I am trying to achieve (naval for now, land for later) is a sense of strategic warfare like A&A sometimes gives us but other times fails to do.

Anyway, I am sure I will reach a solution… Not sure it will be as simple as I want it to be.

IMO, Axis and Allies is much more pleasant as a tabletop game because of eye candies it provides with all these little sculpts. Especially warships and aircraft on carriers.

On land, I usually use chips for Infantry, MechInf, Artys, but not Tank, when there is enough room in the TT. However, in SZ and Naval, I will never use chips. Just the sculpts.

My personal taste would be to rather increase the number of units but not going into damaged units besides aircraft or Battleship.

US and IJN have a limited numbers of Carriers and Battleships, per se.
These number might provide a level of individual unit which remain manageable.

At Pearl Harbor Raid time, there was no more than 8 US Carrier with various aircraft capacity (before Essex was launched) . I noticed that Light Carriers or Escort Carriers were able to carry around 30 aircraft while Fleet was around 90.
So about one third. For me, this provided the ratio: 1 aircraft on light Carrier, then 3 aircraft sculpt on a US Fleet Carrier.

So, all sturdier aircraft carriers might just hold two. It works on the table top. The only issue is about TcB scultp. 3 does not hold on a Carrier, but 2 TcB and 1 Fg can be put on a Carrier sculpt.

If this can be your starting point, then think about 1 aircraft Carrier unit figures for about 4 or 5 Carriers. Take a look at how many Fleet Carriers were available for Japan.

For instance, 2 US Carriers (for 8 to 10), if IJN gets 5 Carrier sculpt then would signify around 20 to 25 Carriers.

This might come handy if you want to set an adequate numbers for each sculpt: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Japanese_Navy_in_World_War_II

@mAIOR said in G40 Redesign (currently taking suggestions):

@baron-Münchhausen Hmmmmm… I have issues with that. As I said, I don’t want a single hit to completely remove aircraft. And remember that I am considering that each carrier figure represents 2 fleet carriers or 4 light carriers so capacities are similar. Carriers outside of the US at this scale will have half capacity and maybe an extra hitpoint (because they had armoured decks).

As I said, I will try this over the weekend and will get some results for Monday.

Another way to increase the number of warships sculpts (without going nuts with plastic chips under each unit) on your map board is to reduce their relative strength and cost. For instance, using:
Destroyer A1 D1 Cost 5 is a tool.
That way, your
Cruiser can be A2 D2 Cost 7
Carrier A0 D1 Cost 8, 1 hit, 3 planes (USN and IJN)
Carrier A0 D2 Cost 10-11 or 12, 2 hits, 2 planes (RN)
Battleship A3 D3, 2 hits Cost 12

This is just an example of scaling down warships roster so for the same number of IPCs group, you have more units in a given SZ, for a similar firepower.

So instead of a Full Carrier of 36 IPCs with only 2 Fighters.
You get (suppose Fg A2 D2 Cost 6): same for 22 IPCs.
(26 IPCs) USN and IJN Carrier A0 D1 Cost 8, 1 hit and 3 Fg (18 IPCs)
(22-23-24 IPCs) RN Carrier A0 D2 Cost 10-11-12, 2 hits and 2 Fg (12 IPCs)

In the last case, you mostly get 3 RN full Carrier (66-69-72 range) for the cost of 2 OOB fully loaded Carrier (72 IPCs).

@mAIOR
I don’t see why you cannot use 3 planes Carrier.

Also, with half damaged aircraft sculpt, you are going to a lot of micromanaging stuff. Are you sure you want to go that way? It will be detrimental to overall strategy gaming experience.

By suggesting 3 planes, instead of doubling the number of sculpt. Which is not possible on actual plastic carrier. You can go from 2 toward 3. x1.5 increase in numbers of aircraft. A Fighter A3 D4 C10 is of similar strength per IPC invested to Fg A1.5 D2 C7. And you get 3 Fighter C7 for about the cost of 2 Fighter C10.

It is possible to work with 1914 values for Fighter.
Even Fighter cost 6 A2 D2, if Tank worth 5 IPCs.
TcB cost 7 A3 D2.
On your set up, for each pair of Fg or TcB, you can add 1 aircraft of your choice (either Fg or TcB).
It remains within workable size when going for the first game round with more and more units on board, which take more times to figure and move toward a specific location for combat.

HTH

@mAIOR said in G40 Redesign (currently taking suggestions):

@barnee said in G40 Redesign (currently taking suggestions):

right on. I kinda got the abstract thing it was the other that threw me. How’s the playtest going ?

Early days. I hope to get the brunt of it done over the weekend with proper 10k rolls and stuff like that. So far it feels good.

Submarines seem to be useful for hit and run tactics if they can escape. I ended up choosing for naval scale, BBs represent 2 ships and CVs represent either 4 light carriers or two fleet carriers (so that the air wing size of 100 planes makes sense).

I am redoing OOB in my spare time for the game as well so we have a more accurate force composition to the situation in 1940.

Oh and I think only Japanese and American carriers will be able to load 2 air wings at the start too. British and German carriers had quite smaller air wings (but had armoured decks so maybe an extra hitpoint?).

IMO, you should enlarge your scale:
1 Fighter: Escort or Light Carrier
2 Fighters: UK’s Carrier
3 Fighters: US or IJN Carriers

Yes there is at least one thread talking about different way of scaling Carriers.
Here is how I see the scaling in combat power:

a) 1 hit, 1 aircraft (this one is usually around 9 or 10 IPCs) I prefer 9 (scale of 3 IPCs)
b) 1 hit, 2 aircraft (may use a 12 IPCs range, like it is in OOB 1941)
c) 1 hit, 3 aircraft (maybe at 15 IPCs, it would be correctly incremented)
d) 2 hits, 2 aircraft OOB G40 at 16 IPCs
e) 2 hits, 3 aircraft at 20 IPCs (because it is well rounded, lol)

Now, it is up to you to decide for A/D capacity.
We have seen:
A0 D1, 1 hit
A1 D1, 1 hit
A0 D2, 2 hits
A1 D2, 1 hit (1941 and 1942)
A1 D2, 2 hits (1942 Redesigned version actually tested on WW2, V5 TripleA map)
A1 D3, 2 hits My own houserule with Fg A2 D2 on board.
A1 vs D3 was needed to help a Full Carrier being better at defense than offense because my Fighter type is even offense/defense.

Giving a minimal attack factor to Carrier help makes all warships equal because with “0” you get a special capacity rule: like it was a defenseless Transport but is not, may it enter a Sub infested zone with escort or not, etc.

@mAIOR
I see where you are going. Redesigned developed a Strategic bomber with no combat capacity at 5 IPCs, D6 damage and works quite well, based on various playtest. Tactical bomber replaced it as the actual combat unit, but with a lesser range 4+1 instead of 6+1 with Air Base.

It can be possible to imagine Subs A0 D0 Cost 5 or 4 with special damage on Convoy.
What can replace Subs? IJN Subs were not much assigned to sink civilian cargos. US Navy ships were prioritized by Subs, for their demise.
What kind of naval battle do you see in Atlantic? What will replace combat active units, traditionally U-boats were a major part in it?

@mAIOR said in G40 Redesign (currently taking suggestions):

Yeah… My idea for my rework revolved around DD making an ASW check if subs decide to do a surprise attack. If successful, the submarines will be sunk.

So I want to have the ability to spend money on convoys and escorts and the uboats reducing that amount with successful attacks. Kind of bringing a bit more of the strategic humpf to this boardgame.

I like DDs with a 2:2 value as I think it is fitting. Submarines are downgraded to 1:1 but they will also cost a lot less like 4 or even 3.
Their impact will also be more over time than immediate.

Sooo many things to try out…

As a matter of fact, you are not downgrading Subs, it is quite the contrary. Going from A2 D1 Cost 6 to A1 D1 Cost 4, 1 hit. Is a blessing for them.

Reducing Submarine to low 4 or, even 3 IPCs, is a dangerous path to create unbalancing effects in Naval Combat. One issue you might encounter amongst power players which are looking for ways to win at all costs, is about the fodder unit. If any unit can be used for cheap fodder, no matter its combat capacity, you will use it as a shield around hard hitter. For instance, 5 Subs A1 D1 at 4 IPCs would provides 5 hits and 5 pips A/D for 20 IPCs. Compared to a single roll @4 for Battleship, with 2 hits. The real deal will be to purchase almost exclusively Subs around already existing units to protect them.

I’m not sure it would be the kind of Naval warfare you are looking for.

@mAIOR

Hi, IDK if you read all available threads on Convoy HR.

This one was a kind of spin-off of Redesigned (at one time), you may scroll and read to get a glimpse of questions, issues and options around creating a Convoy raiding mechanics.
My own HR on that topic was mainly developed for 1942.2 and AA50 Ed.
https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/topic/25268/convoy-disruption-for-1942-2-g40-submarine-economic-warfare/130

It worked quite well with Submarine as the only unit able to raid on these smaller scale map. G40 is rather a different beast.

HTH,
Baron

@mAIOR said in G40 Redesign (currently taking suggestions):

@baron-Münchhausen Yeah… 1 Might be enough. It depends. It depends on the size of each individual unit. It might be better to give more AA dice to Battleships and carriers since these ships usually had quite a decent AAA complement.

Yeah, I think I will playtest these changes as well. Writting a small piece of software so I can make this easy as possible.

Is there a kind of calculator like this already made? it would save me the trouble.

What kind of calculator are you looking for? For which purpose?
In Triple A, once the unit combat values are set right, there is a working Battlecalculator.

Otherwise, to set a roster of combat units strength value based on attack/defense power compared to cost, there is a different Excel file.

You are right about how it depends on how we set the narrative about units interactions and “number of individuals” represented by a unique sculpt.

There is many different ways. Which can either be influenced by the tactical scale of combat (a single sortie of StB wings, for instance) or rather the strategic level of theatre of operations (a two to three months long of constant carpet bombing).

For instance, in Subwarfare developed around Destroyer A1 D1 M2 Cost 5 into Triple A Redesigned HR, Submarines always fire a Surprise strike each combat round even if a Destroyer is present.

One way to read this into a logical narrative is to figure it is up to a 3 months campaign and Subs are the best at taking a Surprise shot at any warships crossing their crossfire’s scope.

However, the Triple A mechanic was done so each TcB and DD gets 1 roll @1 prior to Subs surprise strike to act like active AntiSubmarine patrol both air and sea. If missed, means Subs has passed through the net. And only time DD get their opportunity to fire at them is after Subs revealed themselves through a Surprise attack of torpedos. However, if DD or TcB get a hit during this AS Patrol, it is like a AA gun. Subs are not able to roll at all. It is like they were caught off gard at surface and DD or TcB depth charge and sink them.

If you see where I’m going.

@SS-GEN
1914 rulebook p. 19:

Step 2. Determine Air Supremacy
If fighters are present on both sides, there must be an air battle to determine who has air supremacy. Each side rolls one die for each of his or her fighters. For each die roll of 2 or less, one enemy fighter is removed (after both players have rolled). Unlike the land battle itself, the air supremacy battle continues until one side has established air supremacy by eliminating all the enemy’s fighters. Additional rounds of fire are conducted until one or both sides have no fighters remaining.

If one side gains air supremacy either by being the only one with any fighters left, or was the only one to have any fighters at all, he or she gains air supremacy. The player with air supremacy immediately promotes all of his or her artillery to the box that reads “Artillery with Air Supremacy Support”. Air supremacy provides your side with a high altitude reconnaissance advantage… a bird’s eye view of the battlefield if you will.

In addition to gaining promoted artillery, the side with air supremacy also gets to roll for their remaining fighter(s) against the enemy’s land units in one of the next two steps.

1914 Fighter is A2 D2 M2 Cost 6, and plays the whole Dogfight phase, then goes to land combat.
In my 1942.2 houserule Fighter A2 D2 M4 Cost 7 targeting aircraft first, both phase are played simultaneously. And when one side gets air supremacy, the Fighter’s rolls are simply applied normally against enemy’s surviving land units.

@mAIOR said in G40 Redesign (currently taking suggestions):

I think an attack on ships should be preceeded by an AA defense equal to half the ship’s defense.

And I like the idea of TAC/NAV being allowed to chose target.

Another thing I thought of was to fix a scale for the units in game so we can have some more interesting OOB.

Any level of AA which is higher than up to @1 on aircraft, is going to create a lot of aircraft attrition. I saw this happened many times in various playtests. So, it implies to compensate for the accelerate losses of aircraft. Keeping 10-11-12 IPCs values is too high and was balanced for a game which was meant to shield aircraft casualties in many many ways.

As I wanted something like 1914 dogfight for Fighter while TcB being able to target enemy’s ground units (at least, but I’ve tried just 2 times with targeting warships too: need more playtests on that point ). I developed my own working house rule but on 1942.2. It works relatively well. But cannot say for G40 kind of scale.

Fighter are A2 D2 M4 Cost 7, always hit aircraft first if any present, as long as there is on the opposite side.
TcB are A3 D2 M4 Cost 8, pick any ground target as casualty upon a successful hit.

I hope you will see how this going in the direction you intend to implement.
The 1914 dogfight mechanic can somehow be working each combat round, as long as you have Fighter remaining on any side.

Just note that Tank A3 D3 C6 have better odds, so it happens very often when trying to take a needed TT, Fighters were sacrificed along the battle so to keep better odds and the opportunity to conquer the TT.

HTH, wish you luck to find the adequate numbers for your game.

@baron-Münchhausen said in G40 Redesign (currently taking suggestions):

@Baron:

@Black_Elk:

As far as combat units go, I would set out these chief goals for fixing busted units in the current (ideally the solutions for the “problem units” should interrelated.)

Deal with the vulnerability of navies to mass bomber spams

Make the Cruiser a worthwhile purchase.
**Fix AAAguns once and for all.

Last things first, AAguns suck. This is pretty universally acknowledged. It blows that the unit sculpt is pretty cool, but it just has no good role to play in the game for most players. For me the single most annoying thing about AAguns is how they are restricted the non-combat phase. This makes them an all around headache in addition to being overpriced and underpowered. So lets fix them.**

As for Cruisers, granting them some sort of AA shot on the water, would fulfill the dual purpose of giving them a unique role to play in the naval game, while also helping to mitigate the overwhelming power of Bombers vs Navies. Does anyone object? Or see this as a non-issue? I would love to find a way to make the AAAgun into a normal combat unit, that moves during the normal combat phase, and can load and unload from transports in the same way all the other transportable units can.
If no one objects to a tweak then I would suggest that we find a way to adapt the AAAgun and the Cruiser (oerhaps in a way that doesn’t violate the current battle board core info) perhaps by granting them some special or expanded abilities?

Cruiser anti air capalities have been discussed before.
Flak that can move during combat has also been discussed.
I think it’d be nice if we took a look at some of those discussions and settled on something we can all get behind.

Not saying we need to iron out all the details right now, but just to looking for some agreement in general principle.  :-D

About AA guns, here is the link to a thread which explains my most recent idea and showed many quotes from other people in various thread. Food for thought. :)
Two simpler and balanced ways to handle AAA unit (Antiaircraft artillery)?
http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=36277.msg1433338#msg1433338

I just found that Larry suggested a similar AAA unit on Alpha+.1 brainstorm.
I believe anything similar should be tried to solve AAA issue.

Let me be the first one to post on this “Theorycrafting” site.

Flak guns… Just a fancy name for AA-Guns. Flak guns are a new unit. Each would be based on the historical weapon used by the different powers (TBD for sure). Hey, in other words its a new unit that has its own Attack/Defense numbers. Its own cost. It’s own capabilities and use. For example the numbers may look something like this:

Cost 5

Attacks: No attack power

Defense: Only aircraft that are attacking land units in which the Flak gun is located can be shot at. Flak guns can only roll 1 die but can roll for each round of combat, just like other units. Each Flak gun in a territory can roll up to 2 dice per round if under attack by at least 2 aircraft or more. They can be chosen as a casualty. They scores hits by rolling 1s.

Movement 1

Special notes: A player may have as many Flak guns per territory as he wishes.

http://www.harrisgamedesign.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=4062

My own idea on AAA wasn’t that far.

@Baron:

@Black_Elk:

As far as combat units go, I would set out these chief goals for fixing busted units in the current (ideally the solutions for the “problem units” should interrelated.)

Deal with the vulnerability of navies to mass bomber spams

Make the Cruiser a worthwhile purchase.

Fix AAAguns once and for all.

ANTI-AIRCRAFT ARTILLERY A0 D1 M1 Cost 4, 1 hit,
Each round, up to 1 preemptive defense @1 against up to 2 planes, whichever the lesser, works similar to OOB AAA but can defend each combat round.
Stop any blitz, and defend itself @1 against enemy’s ground units, if no attacking air unit is present.
Can move during combat move phase, can be taken as casualty (owner’s choice).

Talking AAA for changing.
With the help of Barnee (thanks man), I run a few test on 1942.2 V5 Triple A.
The AAA was
Attack 0
Defense 1
Hit 1
Move 1, both combat and non-combat
Capacity: preemptive 1 @1 against up to 2 aircraft
Cost 3

I found that in major battle, with a massive opening round attrition, there is only a few if not at all Infantry surviving. In such cases, I understood why Larry decided to not give any regular defensive capacity at all. Instead, he increase the antiaircraft capacity to up to 3 rolls. In essence, it means that on average AAA survived a round and a half. In that case, giving these rolls in the preemptive phase of the whole battle is to be certain that all AAA have the opportunity of opening fire at aircraft. If it was a regular roll at aircraft, we cannot be so sure that these unit reaches the second or third combat round, meaning a single roll would have been shot.

So, make it only preemptive shots was elegant and simplify the regular combat round: each casualties are similar and left to owner’s choice.

However, at 5 IPCs it was a high cost for a unit which can be dodge pretty easily by not sending aircraft. Making it a pure buffer unit, in essence. Only good for absorbing hits to save other units, like a Battleship, but with no retaliation guns. This seemed broken to me. Or make AAA only good for the main theater battles over VC territory or important IC.

By reducing to 3 PU or IPCs as low cost as an Infantry, it provides a better feel of bunker and defensive fortifications which can be afford to lose on front line, as Infantry are used to be traded.

By giving a small Defense 1, in regular battle, it cuts the capacity to dodge it. It may defend by itself. No need to add more units in the territory. So it remains usable as a cheap fodder. And “1” are still clearly associated with this unit.

So, for balance, at best AAA would have the potential to roll 3 times @1. 2 in the preemptive phase and 1 the regular. 3 pips potential. This is mostly even with Infantry A1-2 D2 but you always get 3 pips in all situations and sometimes 4 when combined. I feel it is ok, since the fear of loosing an aircraft in the opening phase which embodied the AAA unit worth something after all.

Now, here is the interesting narrative part I discovered by toying a few game tests over it. Because of the potential of firing at aircraft, you may want to preserve this unit: if hope is high of winning the fight. But, there is a cost. You sacrifice at least 1 pip of defense (compared to Infantry or Artillery). This little 16,7% odds can sometimes make a true difference in the early combat rounds. By loosing Infantry over an AAA, I can read this tactical situation as the commander is not willing to lose or abandon a defensive entrenched line but at a cost. More soldiers have to pay dearly to keep this fortified position assuming that holding the fort will provide the upper hand the next season or month, if enemy is trying again an assault on that position.

I see this hard choice as an interesting dilemma which happens more often because Powers can purchase more of them.

And don’t be afraid about spamming, by giving no attack values, it is a warranty that Infantry mobility and attack capacity remains much needed.

If you don’t want these kind of dilemma during casualty selection. I believed this type of AAA will fit the deal where is more PUs ressources, like G40:

AAA
Attack 0
Defense 2
Hit 1
Move 1, both combat and non-combat
Capacity: preemptive 1 @1 against up to 2 aircraft
Cost 4

@mAIOR
Hi mAIOR,

we actually use somekind of this idea in Triple A G40 Redesigned House rules, which Barnee constantly update, about detecting Sub, then attacking them.

I played an old A&A rules which was named WWII The expansion. The first booklet developed a combat phase named: Air search communication and combat. Each aircraft (fighters and bombers) were rolling and a “2” and less resulted in spotting Subs in the given SZ. Then, each aircraft proceed to attack. Either @3 for Fighter and @4 for Bomber. However, all other naval units were always visible.

In the Redesigned HR suggested in TripleA, Subs can be spotted and sunk on a “1” only by an Antisubwarfare roll by either Destroyer A1 D1 M2 Cost 5 or a Tactical bomber A3-4 D3 M4. This roll is prior to the Submarine’s Surprise Strike. It is a one shot opportunity before Subs can submerge to not being engaged in a Naval Battle.

This 1/6 roll come out from 2/6 (to search and spot) x 3/6 (to hit with an aircraft). So, 6 out 36 or 1/6 explains this very small odds of sinking a Sub by air, with only Tactical Bomber, or by Destroyer.

We tried to allow Fighter this capacity, but the attrition rate among Subs was too much. And since, Subs cannot retaliate against aircraft, it was not funny at all to see them sunk with no chance of defending themselves.

So, the correct setting was only 1/6 per unit, either DD or TcB, for a single opportunity before Subs submerge.