Posts made by GeneralHandGrenade

I’ve finished my video series on house rules and I’m ready to move on to something else. The last one that I uploaded is turn 2 through the rest of the game playing all 10 of my house rules. It gives you a good idea of how they work in a game situation in case you would like to try them or maybe they will give you some ideas of your own on how to improve upon my ideas to fit your vision of what G-40 should be. Here is a list of them;

Special Forces Unit/Airfields
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkbTDATv1bI&t=1408s

Japan vs. Russia
I decided to go with a rule that split Asia from Europe. The only passage is south of the Himalayas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JoMX7mwLy0&t=9s

Heavy Tanks/Tankograd
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aET6BEPAXNQ&t=6s

Heavy Tanks 2/ Partisans
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8K4Vo5lORA&t=15s

American Minorities at War
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pO8gcDu6Pw4&t=24s

Railways/Hospitals/“The Spy”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSz5Il0CRyE&t=12s

House Rules First Turn Run Through
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjWCCiFYgzA&t=21s

House Rules Turn 2 Through the Rest of the Game
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUl4bBxZbfg&t=13s

If I were using rail stations then certainly you would be using strategic bombers to damage them as they would be representing the rail yards as well. I really tried to keep this rule simple by only putting tracks on the board and not accompanying them with trains or stations. That could be something for down the road. My reason for using tactical bombers was that they would be dive bombing a single line and not a yard, and also to give them something that would differentiate them from fighters (fighters escort  and intercept bombers, tac bombers damage air/naval bases and railways).

For someone that wants to add a lot of complicated rules you could add a great deal to railways, including having different gauges. I could play a game like that but I find that most people are intimidated by the number of rules already associated with the game and would be put off by adding too much more. If this was my only house rule then sure add a bunch, but I have 10 house rules and so I try to keep them as simple as possible.

I uploaded a first turn run through with all 10 of my house rules. It’s a long one (almost 2.5 hours) so if you’re bored and have nothing to do check it out;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjWCCiFYgzA&t=1s

I liked the idea of using trains as well but I decided against it for no other reason than to keep it simple. After I get used to using the rails maybe I’ll have a good idea on how to incorporate trains on them. If you were able to purchase trains then you could increase your capacity to move more units.

That’s a really good idea changing the sizes of the continents and UK. There is only a fraction of the number of units south of the Sahara compared to the northern hemisphere. If you stole a small piece of the Anglo Egyptian Sudan territory you could add it to Egypt because there always seems to be more units located there during a game.

I have a first turn run through uploading right now so you can see how it’s working out with all of the house rules. It takes forever to upload a 2+ hour video so it will take quite awhile. The hospitals haven’t saved very many infantry so far in the first 2 rounds, I think only 3 or 4 in total from all nations and it doesn’t take very long if you have a few 12 sided dice. The spy is adding a lot to the game in the first 2 rounds. So far ANZAC has managed to develop improved shipyards and Japan has developed jet fighters. The choices are limited so it doesn’t prolong it that much. U.S. got the spy in the 3rd round but I haven’t started it yet.

One of the interesting things I’m finding out with the railways is I’m constantly thinking " I should’ve put them here instead". That’s what I was hoping for though, a way to change them every game instead of having them the same every time.

“The Spy” doesn’t represent a singular spy, it represents the whole espionage network and all of their political operatives. The spy refers to the player sitting at the table playing the nation who was lucky enough to win the roll for that round of play. They would be trying to turn a nation in their favour any number of ways including political influence, trade sanctions or incentives, staging coups, sowing the seeds of discontent amongst a nation’s population, etc. You have to use your imagination a bit to think of ways that you could turn any strict neutral and those ways would probably be different for each strict neutral nation.

I made a video of the final product as well as Hospitals and “The Spy”. You can view the video here;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSz5Il0CRyE&t=3s

I went with 3 options;
1. Move into or out of a combat zone after opponents combat movement.
2. Turn a strict neutral.
3. Research and Development.

This keeps it simple and leaves less to chance and requires more strategy. I made a video which also includes Railways and Hospitals. You can view it here;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSz5Il0CRyE&t=3s

This is my last house rule (for now).
Cost-5 Purchased hospitals must be placed on one of your originally controlled territories or adjacent sea zones.
Movement-1 (land hospital). Same as any ship, 2 or 3 if starting movement from a naval base (hospital ship).
Initial Setup- Major powers get 2 hospitals and Minor powers get one. They can choose either type and place anywhere.

How they work;
-Any infantry casualty (infantry, paratrooper, elite infantry) in the same territory or adjacent territory to a hospital when they were hit is set aside until the end of the combat stage.
-Roll one D12 for each casualty (or 2 D6). A roll of 12 means that the unit doesn’t die and is placed in the hospital or hospital ship.
-In the Repair Damaged Units phase of the following round the unit leaves the hospital. They can re-enter at the location of the hospital or enter on their home capital. If the hospital moves while they are there then they move with the hospital.
-Neither the hospitals or the units in them can be attacked. The hospitals can’t be captured either.
-Friendly infantry units can also use a nation’s hospitals. Enemy infantry units cannot.
-There is no limit to number of units in a land hospital. There is a limit of 3 units on a hospital ship.
-Note- Mechanized Infantry don’t qualify for a hospital. Those infantry are lost with the mech unit.

I picked up some hospital markers from HBG (on sale right now) and then painted some old transports red to use as hospital ships. I made a video for this rule as well as Railways and “The Spy”. Click on the link to view;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSz5Il0CRyE&t=3s

In regards to Argentina, they didn’t need any help as they were an they had overwhelming forces to defeat their opponents in the Falklands. It would have been an embarrassment to them if anyone had to rush to their aid, and I don’t recall them requesting any help. As far as Iraq goes, the entire world outside of the U.S. knew that the Bush administration was trying to pull a fast one and Chretien, in his lame duck status as a P.M. told them to go pound salt. Even the British citizens were 95% against sending troops to Iraq, Blair only went with Bush to try and improve Britain’s status in the hierarchy of the E.U. and ended up looking like a fool for doing so. In hindsight now, all those who abstained from the coalition of the coerced have been vindicated for correctly calling Bush’s B.S.

You can bet that if it were a necessity and if they were requested to defend the Crown in a justified war then Canada would show up ready to do just that. The status as a nation that we now enjoy is that we can make our own determination as to whether or not a war is justified or necessary. In Afghanistan we decided it was, in Iraq were decided it wasn’t.

Queen Elizabeth is the only head of state that most Canadians have ever known and she means a great deal to most of them. You may be right about the dollar though. Charles is a tool.

I’m surprised nobody has made a movie of it yet. It is quite fascinating.

That seems way too easy to turn a strict neutral. Nations should be focusing more on fighting each other and not so much on strict neutrals during a world war.

What I’m thinking is that;
-You have to control an adjacent territory to attempt to turn a strict neutral
-You can only make one attempt per nation to turn it (in reality if you fail they would probably be p!ssed off at you and hang your spies)
-You have to roll a 6 to turn it. I like your idea of having to pay the number of IPC’s the territory is worth for failing, SS.
-You wouldn’t move into the territory, you would simply make it a pro-axis or pro-aliies neutral. After that anyone could move into it without violating Starfleet’s Prime Directive (or strict neutrality).
-You don’t have to be at war to do turn a strict neutral. Like all actions of “The Spy”, this would all be done covertly of course and denied vehemently.

As far as Research and Development goes, I would reason this by saying that your espionage activities have accumulated enough intel from both friends and foes and combined with your own research that you have a 50-50 chance of developing a weapon. How this would work;
-You roll 3 dice for free. A roll of 6 means you are successful. You only count one 6.
-If successful you roll the die for a weapon. You then CHOOSE which table to apply that roll to. That’s the way the rule should have been written in the first place. Why on earth would you ever spend your resources in the real world to develop a weapon that does you no good? Oops, we developed rockets, what were we thinking? It started out as a good idea to have Research and Development but then it turned into a really bad idea because the whole thing was left to chance instead of strategy.

That would seem a lot more realistic too, taamvan.

“Oh they’re not attacking us, let’s just let them fly over so they can bomb someone else.”

Wow that’s an interesting story, Coach.
Please tell me that won’t be your next expansion set, “South African Monkeys at War”.
Hmmm… I wonder if we can think of a house rule for that???
Hey!! Quit looking at my monkey!

You’re observation that Italy tips the balance of the war is spot on Duke. In my games I have found that if Italy has a strong game then the allies will lose every time. That’s not to say that Italy will be the ones doing the damage, just more of an indication of how bad things are going for the allies and how much they can affect their ability to withstand the German/Japan onslaught.

I know a lot of players will advocate a kill Japan first or kill Germany first strategy, but I find that I have the most success when I play a kill Italy first strategy. Get those guys out of the way and make it a 4 (or possibly 5) on 2 fight. There is a lot of money at stake around the Med and it’s enough to tip the balance of the game in either direction. Even if Italy simply holds their own and doesn’t lose much ground but ties up U.K. for the whole game that should be enough to allow their big brothers to win the game.

In the process of playing a KIF strategy you don’t have to commit as much resources to accomplish the task as you would by taking on Japan or Germany first  so you can play a more balanced game on both halves of the board. Killing them first won’t guarantee you a win of course but it will give the allies at least a chance of winning the game.

Haha good one.

My comment was meant that if a nation thought they were only attacking one other nation they would be unpleasantly surprised to find out that they were now at war with much more than that nation.

@Marc. Even though there is not a legal requirement to go to war for the Commonwealth nations, there will always be a unified response on behalf of those nations. When WW2 broke out the french Canadians did not want to join because they didn’t feel the same responsibility to defend the Crown that the english Canadians did. After considerable debate they were convinced that it was in all of our best interests to join the war against the Nazis. It’s a good thing that they did too because the vandoos (22nd Regiment) are among our best units. Every once in awhile a right wing politician suggests that we should remove the Queen as our head of state but they don’t get very far because there is not much appetite for that in our country. After she dies though people probably won’t feel the same way about Prince Charles, we all kinda hope he abdicates in favour of Prince William but nobody’s holding their breath.

It would be much more accurate to call them Commonwealth Forces. Each nation is it’s own Dominion before becoming a nation. We used to celebrate Dominion Day in Canada, now we refer to it as Canada Day. Together the British Empire is known as the Commonwealth.

When the U.K. declared war on Germany all of the Commonwealth nations declared war on Germany. That’s the law in the Commonwealth, when you attack one of us you attack all of us.The Queen of England is our head of state even to this day. All Commonwealth nations have an obligation to defend the Crown. Anyone who thinks we are “woosies” will find out pretty quick that they bit off much more than they can chew, lol.

Thanks for the tip. I’ll try that out on my warped bomber tail.

I already have more dice than I know what to do with. You know what I would like though? I would like some of your custom roundels (love those things) that match the 1914 game. Currently I’m using the WW2 equivalent for Russia,Italy, U.S., France, Austria/Hungary but I would certainly pre-order for WW1 roundels. Oh, and 1914 Battle Labels too.

When is your Invasion of Canada expansion set for Amerika coming out? I’ve almost run out of things to purchase from you so now I’m waiting on that and other expansion sets to be released.