Hello fellow players
Here are my thoughts about this topic:
@Uncrustable:
3. Enhanced air units.
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a) Fighters cost 8, attack/defend at 2/3.
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b) Tac bombers cost 10, attack/defend at 3/3, no change to combined arms rules. Does not SBR
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c)Strategic bombers cost 12 attacking/defending at 4/1, SBR as per OOB rules (no change from OOB)
-No changes to range or carrier/airbase rules of any air unit.
-All air units have an air combat value of 1, except fighters on defense at 2.
-Only strategic bombers may SBR, only fighters may intercept/escort on SBR
I like the new air units, although the impact on naval battels has not been checked yet.
Also scrambling Fighters are now weaker (3 x D3 instead of 3 x D4), but 4 new scrambling fighters would be stronger than 3 old ones. This is to consider.
@Uncrustable:
4. Enhanced air combat (land combat only). New scramble option, a defender may scramble air units into a 1 round air defense battle vs incoming air units, the scrambling air units must be in the territory being attacked. (cannot scramble from adjacent territory).The territory must have an operational friendly airbase. Strategic bombers may not scramble. All air units roll simultaneously. All air units roll 1 dice hitting on a 1, except fighters on defense hit on a 2 or less. All air rolls are at a 1:1 ratio, the number of air dice rolled will equal the side with the least amount of air units. AAA units also fire during this round. AAA roll AA dice on defense only as per current OOB rules. (Air dice = # of planes rolling, AA dice DOES NOT change from current OOB rules) Remove casualties before continuing to normal combat.
I would roll the AAA after the air combat, just like SBR. AAA won’t fire into air battle.
This rule would strengthen an already strongly defending player but maybe that’s deliberate.
@Uncrustable:
5. Enhance naval units. a) Cruisers cost reduced to 11 IPCs. Bombards at 4. Units hit by bombardment return fire at -1(with 1 being lowest)
b) Battleships cost reduced to 18 IPCs. Same bombardment rules as cruiser.
c) Aircraft carriers cost reduced to 14 IPCs.
d) Transports cost reduced to 6 IPCs. When empty may move 3 spaces during noncombat move.
No transport may move 4 spaces under any circumstances
e) Transport ‘evasive maneuvers’, each transport caught undefended by an attacking warship or plane may roll 1 dice. A roll of a 1 is a successful evasive maneuver, and that transport is removed from battle and placed back on the gameboard, a transport that evaded an enemy attack while undefended may not unload units until its next turn.
Cruiser, carrier and battleship: could work, needs further playtesting.
Transport: Movement 3 while empty might be fine but I dislike the evasive maneuver: everyone who lets transports alone should be punished. And I don’t see the point in a cost of 6 IPC. I don’t think that transports are to expensive now, especially given the threat they create.
@Uncrustable:
6. Enhanced Armor. For every single tank purchased, a second may be purchased for 4 IPCs. Both tanks must be mobilized in the same territory on the same turn. For example 2 tanks cost 10, 3 tanks cost 16, 4 tanks cost 20, 5 tanks cost 26, etc. If a nation purchases 2 tanks, but is going to mobilize them in different territories then the cost of both tanks remains 6.
This rule would effectively be “Tanks cost 5 IPC if built in pairs, else 6 IPC.”
And I strongly advise against this rule. Tanks at 5 are almost as good as artillery (if both are paired with infanterie) and bring with them the superior speed and blitz.
@Uncrustable:
8. Enhanced Lend Lease. During the US or UK research and development phase the US/UK may purchase lend lease tokens for 5 IPCs each. (Place a Soviet control marker to represent each token on Wash DC for USA and London for UK) During Russia’s research and development phase they may attempt to cash in any number of these in by rolling one dice for each token. The token is destroyed on a roll of 1, delayed atleast one turn on a roll of a 2 or 3. On a roll 4 or higher the Russian player may pick any of the following; A fighter in Amur, 2 Infantry and a mech infantry in Archangel or +10 IPCs if the allies control a series of connected territories from Persia to Russia. The territories must be under Allied control at the beginning of its turn (Soviet controll in the case of Amur and Archangel). The tokens are not redeemable if there are any non Soviet allied units in any original Soviet territory. If London or DC is overtaken by the Axis any tokens there are destroyed.
Again I strongly advise against this rule. It would be much, much to easy for the USA to strengthen Russia up to a point where germany has no chance to conquer Moscow. ESPIACALLY as a 5-IPC-investion from USA would lead (in average) to a 8.33-IPC gain in Russia. This is absurd. For a merely 20 IPC (per round), USA could give Russia 30 IPC (per round, on average). A Russia with this much IPC would be unbeatable by germany and that would be worth a multitude of the 20 IPC lost by the USA.
@Uncrustable:
9. Enhanced Air/Naval bases. Cost reduced to 12 for both.
Why exactly? Don’t see the point.
@Uncrustable:
11. Dice bonuses. On a dice roll of 1 (attack and defense) observe the following for the listed units:
-Fighters may choose an air unit as a casualty
-Tactical bombers may choose a ground unit as a casualty (land or sea)
-Cruisers may choose an air unit as a casualty
-Battleships may choose a surface vessel as a casualty (includes transports)
-Tanks may choose a ground target as a casualty
-Strategic bombers, (offense only) defender must choose 2 casualties
Seems mainly unnecessary and/or to strong.
But first: This would mean, that every third hit by a tank would be choosen by you, not your enemy. That’s a lot.
And second: This would strengthen the mentioned units. Is this really necessary? And why exactly these units?
Now per unit:
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Tacs and tanks are moderat, as the difference between the most and least expensive ground unit is moderat both in cost and power.
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Cruisers dito with naval/air forces.
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Fighters are critical, as they could hit the enemy air forces significantly. Also remember that fighters are now cheaper and therefore come in greater numbers.
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Battleships are ridiculous. The possibility to kill any enemy ship such as a damaged battleship, a carrier (“your aircrafts can’t land anymore, what a pity”) or even a loaded transporter is much to strong, even if battleships are still expensive.
In every case, I dislike this rule as the method of everyone choosing his/her own casualties is one of the most important parts of the system. Every change should be well justified and I just don’t see this here.
And last but not least a rule of my own:
I dislike the fact that every territory can by convoyed regardless of the way transporting the goods would be handled (convoy in a russian Iraq? Where should they even take the boat to?), so here is my rule.
The maximum convoy damage that can be made in a given territory is halved (rounded up? rounden down?) if the following condition is fulfilled:
A path can be drawn from the territory to the capital that only crosses friendly (non-enemy?) landzones.
E.g.: If germany controls all of france and germany, an allied ship in SZ105 can only make 1 IPC convoy damage.
This would mostly benefit Italy and on a smaller scale Japan and UK.
Thats all for now, see you around
Kion
