Posts made by Midnight_Reaper

Hello Everyone,

I have been working on a collection of House Rules for A&A Classic, the Milton Bradley edition. They’ve been a work in progress since before A&A Revised came out. Yes, I know I’m late.

I would like to discuss some of the parts in my House Rules. I was wondering if it would be better to do them all in one post or to make separate posts for them all? There’s about 13 different things I was considering talking about. I figured I would ask about the expected etiquette of discussing a bunch of topics regarding House Rules for A&A Classic before I went and posted up 13 new topics. Some of these are things that have since been added to the game (Artillery, Cruisers), some are things that have been written about by others before (Paratroopers, Flying Paratroopers to the battlefield), and some are just things where I took an idea and ran way down field (such as my extended optional rules for playing with Special Forces).

The floor is yours.

-Midnight_Reaper

I’ll reply via PM.

-Midnight_Reaper

The only problem I have with HBG’s new flight markers is that they stop at 6. Between long range aircraft tech and air bases, if I’m getting a set of flight range markers, I’d like them to go up to at least 8, if not 9.

But that’s me.

-Midnight_Reaper

I’m in Maryland as well and looking for someone to hone my skills against. Still looking for players?

-Midnight_Reaper

I’m in Maryland and looking for someone to hone my skills against. Still looking for players?

-Midnight_Reaper

@IKE:

What happened to the videos?

Use the links on the original post to get to his channel, then watch his Channel Update #1. It explains things.

Link for his Channel Update: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2hV-wwlWas

-Midnight_Reaper

I don’t disagree with anything that CWO Marc has to say about the Attack! pieces or about the Risk pieces. I mention them as cheap options, not as ultra perfect sculpts.

For some, ability to be bought for cheap has a quality all its own. To each, their own.

-Midnight_Reaper

There are a few additional options that I can think of for getting more pieces on the cheap.

One is the game Attack! (BGG Link). They can be a source of Elite or Special infantry, a different type of Artillery, a different type of Armored unit, and a different type of aircraft. If you go for the Expansion or Deluxe edition (BGG link for Deluxe), you also get naval units: a new Battleship or Cruiser, a new Carrier (I think they make great escort carriers), a new Destroyer, and a new Submarine. If you find that buying the games for the pieces is a bridge too far for your wallet, you can order sprues of units directly from Eagle-Gryphon Games: Land Units http://www.eaglegames.net/product-p/101950.htm and Naval Units http://www.eaglegames.net/product-p/101944.htm.

Another option is to use a set of pieces from Risk. Yes, that Risk. Infantry for Militia, Artillery for Coastal Artillery, and Cavalry for, well, Cavalry. Just a thought.

-Midnight_Reaper

@Nowhere:

@Midnight_Reaper:

I figured I would point that out. I think it makes a difference in how you approach winning if taking Moscow does not net you the game, just some cash and territory value.

This also ties into the viability of doing Sealion as Germany - as I don’t think Japan is going to take Washington for the win…

It’s a good catch, my-bad I didn’t see that, but that doesn’t invalidate the fact that short of the UK player just leaving England open for invasion, this is STILL 1941 we’re talking about, and my point of income problems of just magically making a fleet appear out of thin air for Germany is very, VERY hard to do with the income levels of this game.

It’s a LOT easier for the UK player on a fixed income to defend England than it is for the German player on a fixed income to build a fleet in-being from nothing and have the forces to invade England without first securing income from territories Germany doesn’t already start with.

Sealion in-and-of-itself is not the problem here, the main problem with 1941 is, and always will be, the complete lack of a reasonable income to build expensive things you don’t start the game with.

Lack of cash hurts both ways, though - it takes a while to build a navy at 12 IPCs, whether it’s the UK or Germany rebuilding their fleet from the first turn battles. I think I need to spend some time on AAA working this out.

-Midnight_Reaper

I would like to throw in my vote for maintaining the different levels of badges. I think that having lower and high tiers of support is a good thing. If the prices of the tiers need to rise due to increasing costs, to me that’s a separate issue from removing the badges in the first place.

When I get a bonus due to me I am going to put my money where my mouth is and put down for a gold level sponsor badge for the site. I’d like to be able to do that next year as well.

-Midnight_Reaper

A sides offer to Italy may include turning over control of different powers to the player controlling Italy.

(e.g. Triple Entente can, in their offer, give control of the US to the Italian player as a part of their offer.)

-Midnight_Reaper

Regarding a neutral Italy that may or may not change sides, try this:

Minimum number of players: 3 - 1 player for AH/GE/OE, 1 player for RU/UK/FR/US, 1 player for Italy

Round 1: Italy stays Neutral. Italy may move army troops between territories but must stay within Italy and/or its colony. If attacked on R1, automatically join the other side.

Round 2: Italy decides between the powers. If Italy is not attacked before the beginning of its turn, then Italy must pick a side in the war. The Triple Entente and the Central Powers both may pass secret offers (written offers kept secret from the other side of the war). The two sides can promise whatever they want - military units, money, help conquering new territory - what ever you want. Both sides must have a secret, written plan for how they will fulfill their promises (e.g. Russia pays cash, France and England hand over units).

Units can be sent to Italy from other countries. Once the units sent to Italy arrive in a territory that started the game as Italian and that Italy still controls, the units is swapped for an Italian unit and remains under Italian control until destroyed.

The side that gets Italy has to keep Italy in order to win the war - what ever your side’s original winning condition is, add to it: “Must retain control of Rome in order to win.”

The side that loses Italy gets 1 new Inf raised in any European territory that borders Italy.

And that’s what I have to say about that.

-Midnight_Reaper

I like the idea of Transports as units that are A0 D0 M2 C7 units that haul ground units from one shore to another. I also like the idea of groups of transports, that’s 2 or more transports, have a single collective defense roll of 1 on a d6. The transports would be taken as casualties last but so long as there’s 2 or more, they continue to take potshots @ 1 at their tormentors.

And here I thought I was being unique for having thought that up myself, before I read this thread. Parallel Evolution, I guess.

-Midnight_Reaper

Wolf555,

I think I may have stumbled on a partial solution to help you with those cardboard roundels you are looking for.

I Will Never Grow Up (iwillnevergrowup.com) is selling some of those HBG Axis Minors. They are closing out their holdings, hopefully you can grab them before they are gone: http://iwillnevergrowup.com/shop/index.php?route=product/product&path=63&product_id=266. They are selling other sets as well, but not the Allied Minors you were looking for.

I hope that pays off for you.

-Midnight_Reaper

If playing a strictly low-luck game, you would roll 1 d6 at 3. Throwing 1 d6 at 3 give the same average results as throwing 3 d6 at 1 (on average, score 1 hit in every other toss of the dice).

Use of low luck rules trades the possibility of lucky dice rolls for the certainty of making hits if enough units are present in the combat.

So yes, you might shoot down three attackers with your AAA if you play by the base rules. But the most likely result is that you will shoot down 1 plane every other time - which is a result you would also get by tossing 1 d6 at 3.

So the answer you are likely looking for is:
If using AAA against three attacking planes, you toss 1d6 with a hit scored for ruling 3 or less.

-Midnight_Reaper

@Caesar:

Thanks but those are Soviet copies which I am sure you know as well. Hopefully we actually get some French units soon.

Well, if you can’t wait for those HBG French units, you could always play make-a-set with these “French Blue” HBG pieces:
http://www.historicalboardgaming.com/Blue-France_c_424.html

Not everything on that page is available in French Blue, but the majority of the individual piece sets are.

HTH

-Midnight_Reaper

@calvinhobbesliker:

Is there somewhere I can get the German trucks from Bulge? HBG is out of stock.

Depending on how “authentic” you want to be, you’ve got a couple options.

1 - Go back to HBG and grab a 5 pack or 2 of “‘‘Battle Pieces’’ - Axis Minors - Opel Maultier Truck”
http://www.historicalboardgaming.com/Battle-Pieces–Axis-Minors–Opel-Maultier-Truck-x5_p_781.html

2 - The WWII miniatures game Flames of War sells “Flames of War: WW2 - Opel Blitz 3-ton Truck”, available at Miniatures Market and other fine online retailers:
https://www.miniaturemarket.com/fow-ge431.html

I haven’t used or seen in person any of these pieces so I don’t know how will they would substitute.

HTH

-Midnight_Reaper

@calvinhobbesliker:

It seems that the US only gets 20 infantry pieces, but the setup and reinforcement charts have a total of 22 American infantry. In addition, all the countries seem to have lots of extra artillery pieces that will never come into play. Am I missing something in the rules, or are these artillery pieces just extra? I understand the extra German infantry and tanks and extra American tanks since stacks with chips may split up, but the American and German artillery and the British tanks and artillery are all separate in the setup/reinforcement charts and so would not need extras.

I doubt the US will have fewer than 2 infantry unit casualties over the course of the flow of reinforcements, especially if the Germans are trying to win the game. The last 2 US Infantry reinforcements come on the board on round 7. So, it is kinda odd, but nothing to worry about. Just consider it a taste of the Hasbro/WotC/AH penny-pinching that we would all become familiar with in later releases…

-Midnight_Reaper

@TheAandAClassicDude:

If so, what kinds of videos?

I’m sort of new here and I don’t know what kind of videos you normally do. I assume that they’re A&A related, but that’s all I know. So, um, what kind of videos would you be willing to do?

-Midnight_Reaper

@Bob77:

Get to 10 posts and you can post the link for all to see

That’s all well and good for getting the privilege to post links to this forum - but my question is: Is the act of posting the rules to an out-of-print A&A Expansion produced by an out-of-business company something I would get moderated for, or something that is an acceptable practice here? You can see by my post count that I’m relatively new here - I don’t want to step out of line.

I do a lot of posting over at BGG, and I know that they frown on it. But I also know that just because one place doesn’t like something doesn’t mean that everyplace doesn’t like it.

“… I think I’d better think it out again!”

-Midnight_Reaper