Best posts made by Narvik

Got Gold

@Imperious-Leader I was trapped in an unhealty relation to a woman that did not respect a real mans urge to play A&A, but I’m back now. Still waiting for my gold badge, that was paid for a week ago. Miss the Message Boards from the 1990’ies now that was action.

@Narvik

ANZAC AND UK PAC TURN 22 - WINTER 1945

COMBAT
OPERATION CAPITAL - INVASION OF BURMA
India: 4 Inf, Art, Tank, BMB (UK) + 4 Inf (Punjab) + 2 Inf (Gurkha) attack> Burma: 3 Inf (JAP) + Inf (BU)
Loss Allies: 1 Inf + Loss JAP: all units

BATTLE OF RAMREE ISLAND
1000 japanese soldiers retreat into crocodile-infestet mangrove swamps.
Only 20 survive.
This is known as the worst animal attack ever recordet. If it’s true. Historians differ

Burma switch side and join the Allies.
1 Inf (BU) join the Allies.

@CWO:

…. and two American fighter units represented by two different sculpts (though their cost and characteristics in the rules were identical).Â

Correct, One of the designers said he could not live with an Army P 38 Lighting as a carrier based plane, so they gave us 6 carrier based fighters too. Those were the days…

@Requester45:

I totally agree with all of you, however Vann is right when he says that it’s probably to appeal to the younger crowd.

I am 50 and it appeals to me, man, so dont blame the age.

Oh, and since many of you wont buy it, I will buy 10 copies, just to support WOTC.

Yes, my way to honor and respect the veterans is to buy as many copies of A&A Zombies that I can afford, and store in my basement.

Enough

I paid years ago and start to get tired of waiting, anybody know how long to this game is actually coming to my home ?

In this blog I compere the real WWII to a game of A&A.
In this blog one Round is 3 months. Rounds follow the seasons: Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall.
This blog start with the Fall-Round, that would be september 1. 1939 in the real war, and end after 24 rounds with a summer Round, that would be september 2. 1945 in the real war. This 24 Rounds represent 6 years and one day of war.

A&A is known to be a game of Grand Strategy, that involves both military, diplomatic and economic stuff. Each Turn is split in two, a diplomatic action between the players (National Leaders) in the Game Room and the military campaigns on the A&A 1940-map. To make it simple I just list the purchase, combat moves and non-combat moves. I skip Collect Income but might edit it in later, since it is complicated with GDP, military outlay, revenue from occupied territory that just was schorched, burned, bombed but also different and nation specific cost of units. USSR had cheap infantry but real expensive ships. USA had cheap ships but real expensive infantry. It’s complicated.

Since 9 players will make 24 Rounds, (=216 Turns) and each Turn is split in a Game Room post and a Map post, this Blog will be 432 posts long. Some posts will have a image, but don’t worry I scaled them down to 700 kB and also I will be a Gold member every year as long this Blog run.

What do an A&A unit represent? This question has intrigued the community since back in 1984 when the MB Classic game was made. There are no logical answer to that. In this Blog I keep it simple and abstract.
One Battleship unit is 100 000 tons of battleships, between 1 or 4 real life ships.
One Carrier unit is 60 000 tons of carriers with 200 aircrafts. It is impossible to combine CV-air with land based air so I keep them separate.
A Cruiser is 30 000 tons, a destroyer 20 000 tons, a sub is 20 000 tons, a Tranny 250 000 tons (that is what it takes to transport to land units of 100 000 men each across the Atlantic) and a Convoy is 100 000 tons of merchant shipping with a value of 1 IPC, just to have a number. This may change when I start working on the economy and Collect Income phase.

When purchased a FTR and TAC is 1000 aircrafts and a S.BMB is 500, but on the map this is reduced to 500, 400 and 250 because in the real war old planes were replaced by new ones continiously.

Land units are tricky, they are both men and stuff. An Infantry unit is 100 000 men and weapons, based on the average Division Slice of an average Triangular Division.

The Combat Arms (frontline soldiers) would be like 14 000 men (40 %), the Combat Support ( Artillery, Engineering, Signal, Securitsy etc) is 6000 men (20%), Service Supply (Logistic and Supply chain) is 7000 men (20%) and Service Support (Maintenance, Quartermaster, Paymaster, Transportation etc) is 8000 men (20%) for a total of 34 000 men with equipment.

Tank unit is 1000 Tanks of all sizes and 50 000 men. Artillery is funny because it belongs in the Infantry Division but in this game it is separated into its own unit, so I figure 3000 or 4000 art would make a decent unit. Same with Mech, usually in an Armoured Division, but for this Blog 100 000 men with veichles is a Mech unit. AA unit is 1000 AA guns. Fort unit is 50 000 crew +100 heavy guns in casemates. Blockhouse unit is 50 000 crew +1000 heavy machine guns in bunkers.

In the Pacific I used Convoy Disruption Rule OOB because Japan didn’t use convoys, but the Battle of Atlantic was very different, so I use the convoy rules from A&A Europe 1999 ed and also from the A&A North Africa convoy rule. As long as I use rules from the A&A univers I guess I can mix. After all, A&A is the game of House Rules. Larry Harris Tournament Rules is prof of that.

Please don’t clutter down this Blog. This Blog will raise a lot of intriguing historical cases to be discussed, but lets take that in the History part of this Forum. Next post will be the 1939 set up

As Ceasar said, while it is a good idea for the playability and balance, its far from historical truth.

According to International Law for that period, and that is the Haag convention of 1905 and 1907, a country that declare neutrality at the start of a world war, can not take part in any kind of warfare or let other partys use their territory. The Law says the neutral state must have a strong military force to protect and defend its neutral territories.

Based on the International Law, all neutrals should have strong Infantry/Fighter defense for self protection, stronger than the OOB set up, and even maybe let them grow with one additional unit every second turn, if that dont make it too complicated.

The OOB rules for neutrals dont model the historical truth, it models the collective safety mechanic that the League of Nations tried to implement after WWI, but was abandoned in 1938, when every neutral minor country in Europe reverted back to the Haag convention from 1905/07. Attack one member, and you attack them all. I love that idea, and maybe it would have worked, but no matter how beautiful the idea is, it was in fact abandoned in 1938 because UK and France denied the League of Nations to punish Italy and Japan after the attacks on true neutrals Ethiopia, Albania and Manchuria. PM Chamberlain said in his speach that the collective safety mechanic was dead, and that each neutral minor had to depend on their own military defense, or join the Western Allies.

Still, the idea of collective safety for neutrals is not dead in A&A. Attack neutral Spain, and all the neutrals of the world will attack you. Sorry but its not the historical truth, not for the first years when strict neutral Ethiopia, Albania, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Finland, Romania, The Baltic States, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Belgium and Netherlands all were attacked, and all this were strict and true neutrals, its not like they were pro something that would have justified the attacks, but the truth is that the rest of the true neutrals did nothing, strict neutral Sweden did nothing when its brothers Finland, Norway and Denmark were attacked, why would neutral Sweden do something if true neutral Bolivia in South America, or true neutral Zimbabwe in Africa, or true neutral Mongolia in Asia got attacked ? I just cant see the reason. A neutral is a neutral, when your brother get stabbed you turn your back to it, you dont suddenly join any fight, because then you are not neutral.

@Karl7:

Pacific 2001  – not listed

Correct, Pacific 2001 and Europe 1999, the two best A&A games, currently out of print, too sad.

Pacific 2001 was the first game with convoy zones, naval bases and air bases, and my favorite, the CAP, Combat Air Patrol, the current scrambling is by far not that good.

And the best, they were playable, you could play it every where, you did not need a dedicated basement like when you play G40, or a 6 feet table. Also, the map was focused on the spot where the war actually happened. No Africa and no South America. Too sad its out of print

Have you considered using Kickstarter ?

@Narvik

This post cover the Europe 1939 Set Up before mobilization. I do it this way because mobilization was part of Diplomatic actions between the national leaders, in this Blog named players. Not all nations would mobilize in september 1939. Also I will edit typos later, for now I just want this Blog up and running.

Naval Base: To qualify as a real world Major Naval Base, it need a shipyard, drydock, refueling station, arsenal, supply depot and also be fortified. In this Blog I use real world Major Naval Bases. A&A is a game that focus on game balance and playability, and the A&A facilities in the Set Up is not always the same as in the real world. Alexandria and Pearl Harbour is examples of that. But for national pride Pearl Harbour is a Naval Base in this Blog, despite beeing only halfway finished in construction when it was attacked in december 1941. But that is the only exeption.

Germany: BB, 2 CA, 4 DD, 2 Tranny and 4 Subs. (I know only half of the subs were medium but I don’t care since sz 110 is first to be attacked) Ships of significance like Graf Spee and some auxilary cruisers are representet by spesific units. + Naval Base
W. Ge: 6 Blockhouses (Siegfried Line), Paratrooper, 3 Inf, 1 AA-gun
Ge: 3 Tanks, 3 Mech, 3 Art, 7 Inf,1 mountain, 1 AA-gun.
Air: 2 FTR, 1 Tac, 2 BMB and 1 Air transport (Skytrain) + Air Base

Poland: 4 Inf, Tank, Ftr, E. Pol: 3 Inf
Slov/Hung 2 Inf
Yugo: 2 Inf
Romania: Inf, Bessarabia Inf (Bessarabia belong to Romania in 1939)
Bulgaria: Inf
Greece: Inf + DD
Turkey: CA + Naval Base (Golcuk), 2 Inf, Fort

USSR Europe North Fleet DD, Sub, Baltic Fleet, BB, DD, 2 subs + NB (Kronstad) + Fort, Black Sea Fleet: CA, DD, Sub, Trsp + NB (Sevastopol) + Fort.
Army 10 Inf, 2 Art, 4 Tanks, Airforce: 2 FTR, 2TAC, 2 BMB.
Minor factories Leningrad + Stalingrad, Major factories Moscow+ 3 major in Novosibirsk (Ural Tank factory, Sverdlovsk factory and Tankograd factory)
USSR far east is next post

USA east coast. Atlantic Fleet: CV with Air, BB, 5 CA, 3DD, 2 Subs, 1 Tranny
Army 2 Inf, FTR NB, AB, 2 major factory
West coast is in next post

UK
Home Fleet: CV + 2 air, 3BB, 1 Battlecruiser, 2 CA, 4DD, Sub, 2 Trannies, 4 NB (Portsmouth, Rosyth, Scapa Flow and Belfast largest shipyard of the world.
Army 7 Inf, 2 Art, Tank, Mech, AA-gun. RAF 2 FTR, S.BMB

West Indies. NB Bermuda, CA
Gibraltar NB + Fort (Rock of Gibraltar was a fortress with 35 heavy guns, 40 heavy AA-guns and minefields. force H CA, DD

Malta main NB for Med. Force A: 2 BB, CA, 3 DD, 2 Sub, Tranny
Palestina: Mech
Egypt AB (RAF Fayid, RAF Deversoid + Cairo West) Inf (Alexandria NB was under construction) + Inf + Egypt Inf
Iraq AB (RAF Hebbarie) Inf + Iraq Inf
Yemen: Aden NB (largest port in world 1939) + CA

Sierra Leone, NB (Freetown) + CA + Inf
Kenya Inf
South Africa NB (Simonstown) minor factory Inf, CA Tranny

Canada (with nation specific units) NB (Halifax) CA, Tranny, Inf
India in next post

Italy: NB (Spezia) BB, CA, DD, 2 Sub
NB (Taranto) BB, 4 CA, 3 DD, 2 Sub, 7 Trannies
Army 4 Inf, Art, Tank, AA-gun, FTR, Tac
Albania: 2 Inf
Aegean Sea: Sub
Libya: Inf
Torbruk: 2 Inf
Red Sea: DD, Sub, Tranny
Ethiopia:3 Inf

Spain: Army 5 Inf, AA-gun, Fleet CA, DD, NB (Caditz + Ferrol)
Portugal: 4 Inf, NB (Lisboa) DD

France: 9 Inf, 3 Art, AA-gun, 3 Forts (Maginot Line)
Normandie: 8 Inf, 2 Art, AA-gun, Tank, Mech
S. Fra: 4 Inf, 2 Blockhouse (Alpine Line) AA-gun
Africa: 5 inf + Blockhouse (Mareth Line)
Syria. Inf
Air Force. FTR, TAC, Bmb, AB.
Fleet: NB (Brest) BB, CA, 2 DD, 2 Sub, Tranny
NB (Toulon) BB, CA, 3 DD, Sub, Tranny
Fr. G. CA
NB (Beirut) CA
NB Casablanca, Dakar + Brazaville + CA

Norway: Inf, Fort , Gunship, NB (Bergen)
Sweden: Inf, FTR, NB (Karlskrona) 2 Gunship, DD, Sub
Fin: 2 Inf, AA-gun Viborg 2 Blockhouse AA-gun
Denmark Inf
Baltic States Inf

Holl/Belg: Inf
Scweits Inf + Fort

I dont belive we had oil here in Norway during WWII, I think we found it in 1965, at the bottom of the North Sea, and any way there would be no technology to get it up from the deep of 4 miles before the 1960s. As you know, the oil in the Middle East is just some feets under the sand, and is easy to get up, some places it even pops up by itself.

I love an oil rule. With no oil your battleships, aircrafts and tanks cant move. Lack of oil was the sole reason that the Italian battleships never left port during WWII. There should be some oil in Amerika too, since 60 % of all oil was produced there, like Venezuela and Mexico, and Texas. And you should add, that you need to track a path between your oil and units that are not blocked, if you want to move something other than inf

@HBG-GW-Enthusiast

In my basement we call it the plastic men

@Narvik

This post will cover the 1939 Pacific Set up.

USSR far east: 10 inf, 2 Art, Tank, FTR, Tac,
NB (Vladivostok) Pacific Fleet: DD, 2 Subs
Sovjet Volunteer Group in China: FTR TAC in Yunnan + Chonqing

Japan Inf, Main factory 3 NB ( Yokosuka, Sasebo and Kure) AB
Manchuria: 4 Inf, Art, Tank, FTR NB (Port Arthur)
Korea Inf
Occupied China: 7 Inf, 3 Art, FTR, BMB Minor factory (Kiangsu) NB (Shanghai)
Formosa, main AirBase
Air Bases on Paulau, Mariana, Caroline, Marshall
Combined Fleet: 2 CV + 4 air, 3 BB, 3 CA, 2 DD
5th fleet, CA
Trsp Fleet. 3 Trannies
3th Fleet: CA DD
2nd fleet: 4 CA, 2 DD
Caroline CA DD
Marshall 2 Subs

USA west coast: Major factory, AB, inf, FTR NB (San Diego)
Pacific Fleet: CV + 2 air, 3 BB, 5 CA, 2 DD, Tranny
Hawaii 2 Subs
Asiatic Fleet: DD, 2 subs, Tranny
Phillipines: I Marine inf NB (Cavite) AB

China:
KMT, 32 inf + Camco factory in Yunnan + Tank, (Hunan) FTR TAC (Yunnan) from USSR
Red Army CCP 2 Inf Hunan
Prince De 1 cav
Emperor Puyi 2 inf

UK Pac
India minor factory 2 inf Uk + 2 Inf punjab
Ceylon NB (Trincomalae) CA, DD, 2 Trannies, AB
Hong Kong inf, NB (China station) CA tranny
Singapore Fort, NB, CA, DD, Sub, Tranny

Burma Inf
Siam Inf
FIC Inf (French)

Australia Minor factory, NB (Sydney) CA, DD, Tranny, Inf
New Zealand NB (auckland) CA, DD, Tranny
East Indies CA, Sub (Holland)

@Caesar:

you should add a rule that UK can declare war of Italy but suffers some kind of backlash for it.

I think you are on to something. In fact every player, except USA, should be free to declare war on any enemy or neutral, but if they do they will suffer a backlash. USA did not have this freedom of DOW because they had the Congress, but every other nation could. The only ting that prevented them from making favorable DOW,s were fear of suffering backlashes. In fact every nation that unprovocely attacked innocent neighbours did in fact get banned and blocked from the international trade. When Benito attacked France, then Italy was denied American oil the next day, forcing Germany to share the Romanian oil, which led to all Italian battleships staying in port for the rest of the war. Same with UK, they wanted to attack neutral Norway and Sweden to cut of the iron ore trade, but did not dare that because USA warned that in that case they would be banned from trade, so they had to wait and let Adolf do the first move.

I suggest that the German 5 IPC trade NO can be used on every playing nation. Every player start with a 5 IPC international trade NO. If you make an unprovoced attack on any neutral or enemy not yet at war power, then you lose that 5 IPC NO. But if you are the victim then you keep it. Now UK must decide if an unprovoced Taranto raid is favorable, or is it better to let Italy make the first move. I think this is in the spirit of A&A, and all the silly special rules we have seen the last years are not. Tanks you for listening, man

The final map

@Argothair:

I wonder why the US Navy changed its mind at that particular time –

You may find some answers in the book “Mr. Roosevelts Navy” by Patrick Abbazia, covering this time of decisions.

@Narvik

GERMANY - TURN 1 - FALL 1939

TECH: Uranium Factory + Pervitrin (energy booster)
PURCHASE: Sub, Bomber, 3 Inf

COMBAT

BATTLE OF POLAND
Ge. 2 BMB SBR> Warzava (Poland) 50 % damage
113: BB >> 114, shore bombard> Pol
Ge: 7 Inf, 2 Art, 3 Tank, 2 Mech, mnt inf, 2 FTR, TAC attack> POL 4 Inf, Tank, FTR
Loss:
Ge: Inf, Tank + POL: loss all

BATTLE OF ATLANTIC
112: Sub > 109 CV, 3DD, convoy Loss: CV dam, 1 convoy point loss
Sub > 110 DD conv Loss: 2 conv points
Sub > 111 3 BB, 4 CA, 2 DD, conv Loss: Ge Sub UK BB damaged
Sub > 119: SS Athenia Liner. Loss: Liner sunk

90: CA (graf Spee) > 82 Convoy Loss: 2 conv points

Total UK convoy loss: 6 IPC (= 600 000 tons of shipping in real war)

non-comb move

Start of Holocaust: 100 000 civilian poles killed

@suprise:

What if
Churchill didnt get elected or was killed, or if it was FDR in the same situation
Would the Axis have been able to win the war
Have fun

I belive it did not matter. Churchill and FDR were not dictators, they were not above the Palace of Westminster or Capitol Hill, even with no Winnie then Halifax would still have to listen to the public opinion, and so did FDR. All the other candidates at the 1940 election, like Wendell Willkie, Cordell Hull, Farley, Garner, Tydings, Wallace, Taft and Dewey, were not likely to follow a radically different policy than FDR did. They could not bypass Capitol Hill and declare a personal war, neither could they ignore any Axis threats to the national security. So bottom line is, democracies never have that great freedom of choices, they must obey the public opinion. Ian Kershaw is discussing this issues in his book Fateful Choices 2008. The only persons that could have made a difference were dictators like Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini, they never listened to the opinion and would follow their own way. No Hitler and no Stalin ? Yes, the WWII would for sure turn out in a different way than it did historical. No FDR ? Wendell Willkie could have done nothing different than FDR did. USA would enter the war in dec 1941 like a train on a railway.

@Narvik

USSR - TURN 1 - FALL 1939

The border war with Japan ends in cease fire agreement. Stalin and Hirohito (The Japan player) shake hands, and now Stalin has his back free to attack Poland.

Also, carpenter George Elser (far right) shows up in the Game Room.