Posts made by The Pripet Martian

@SS:

For your Red Dragon Brigades I like. Just like a Garrison rule some what. Japan leaves empty, can place 1 China partisan or 1 Light China Inf in the empty territory. This would force Japan to leave an inf for every territory. Now would that be to strong to take India ? But with a die roll its only a 50% chance that China gets an Inf and still gives Japan that inf to use else where and then come back later to deal with China. Play test will only tell.

As for your Air transport rule I don’t see UK or US buying a 8  9? 10? icp plane just to fly in 2 ground. If China has to buy the 2 inf for allies to tranport then thats just a waste. They would go in China right away. As for that 1 Art I dont see the risk.
Why not just have a die roll like your China Inf and when the Burma Road is closed only have at the start of Chinas turn, have them roll a 1 d6 die and on a roll of 3 or less can place a free Art in China. This way China can spend that 4 icp extra towards an inf and maybe get that free Art per turn if Burma road is closed.

Greetings, SS. I might not have made it clear enough in my original post, but as I envision the “Hump” rule, China would only be able to purchase artillery (not infantry - as you alluded to, what would be the point?) and place it in India for future air transport. Allied forces, on the other hand, would have the ability to fly INF, ART and AAA into China once they’re at war with Japan and the Burma Road is closed.

While I’m intrigued by your idea, making the ART free via a die roll eliminates any risk on China’s part. Flying supplies over the Himalayas was an extremely risky proposition, an act born of desperation. I tried to strike a balance between giving China more of a chance against Japan and simulating the risk involved. I don’t want China to become an impregnable fortress, but I do want to better reflect the difficulties Japan faced in attempting to subdue that sleeping giant.

@barney:

Hi Pripet

How much does the air transport cost ?

Greetings, barney. Honestly, I haven’t given much thought to the cost of transport aircraft, as I haven’t ordered the pieces yet. Before making the investment, I wanted to try this rule with notional air transport (again, like the OOB paratroopers rule). If air transport must be purchased, I think a 6 IPC cost per unit would be appropriate, as they should be a bit less expensive than naval transport, IMO.

I’ve been fascinated by WWII since childhood (a long time ago) and have read too many great books on the subject to offer a complete list. Here are a few standouts, though:

The Last Flight of Bomber 31 by Ralph Wetterhahn–If you’ve never read anything about the war in the Bering Sea/Aleutians, start here.

Jimmy Stewart: Bomber Pilot by Starr Smith–Jimmy Stewart wasn’t just a great actor; he was a great American. This book details his military service. Great stuff.

The Last Lion by William Manchester with Paul Reid–A hefty, three-volume bio of Winston Churchill. Volume III covers 1940-65, but Vol.II, 1932-40, is an absolutely fascinating look at Churchill’s battle with short-sighted British politicians who, in their desperate quest to prevent another world war, steadfastly refused to take steps to stop Hitler before he became a grave threat.

The Mantle of Command: FDR at War, 1941-1942 by Nigel Hamilton–I’d always been told that FDR was a successful CinC because he maintained a largely hands-off approach to his generals and admirals, allowing the warfighters to develop strategy and carry it out. I was lied to. This book was an eye-opener. Haven’t read the sequel yet, but it’s high on my list.

Torpedo Junction: U-Boat War off America’s East Coast, 1942 by Homer Hickam–Another aspect of WWII often glossed over in public school is the war which took place along America’s shoreline. This book works for me on a couple of levels. First, it details the role played by the US Coast Guard early in the war. Second, it’s a classic case of command failure: on the US side, a failure to comprehend the magnitude of the U-boat threat, and on the German side, a failure to comprehend the magnitude of the opportunity.

Next on my list is Engineers of Victory by Paul Kennedy, followed by David Faber’s Munich, 1938. I’ll post my thoughts on each when I’m done.

While I’ve only been playing G40 for about a year, some patterns have emerged. The most notable of these is that the Japanese player sweeps through China quickly, taking control of the entire country and often plunging into the USSR in an attack coordinated with Germany. The result is almost always an Axis victory.

To give the Allies a chance, I’ve come up with a couple of rules to slow the Japanese advance through China: Red Dragon Brigades and Flying “The Hump.”

RED DRAGON BRIGADES

To better reflect the nature of Chinese resistance to Japanese occupation, as well as the manpower and resources necessary to control a country as vast as China, the following rules apply:

1. For any native Chinese territory (a territory with a Chinese roundel printed on it) controlled by the Japanese but unoccupied by a land or air unit (except AAA), the Chinese player rolls one die during the Japanese Convoy Disruption phase. On a roll of 3 or less, the territory reverts to Chinese control and one Chinese Infantry unit is immediately placed on that territory at no cost. The IPC chart is adjusted accordingly before Japan’s Collect Income phase.
2. Red Dragon Brigades placed in territories containing Japanese AAA units cause the immediate destruction of said AAA units.

FLYING “THE HUMP”

Unable to move supplies through the USSR to China and with the Burma Road closed by the Japanese, the Allies began the extremely dangerous undertaking of flying supplies over the Himalayas from India to China. With this rule, the Allies may move infantry and artillery units to China via air transport, subject to the following restrictions:

1. Allied powers not at war with Japan may not move into, over or through Chinese territories. Thus, infantry and artillery units (including artillery purchased by China) may not be flown into Chinese territories if no Allied powers are at war with Japan.
2. Each air transport may carry a maximum of two infantry units or one artillery or AAA plus one infantry.
3. Air transports have a range of six spaces.
4. Movement occurs during the Noncombat Move phase.
5. For each air transport attempting to cross the Hump, roll one die. On a roll of three or less, the crossing is successful and the aircraft may continue to its destination. On a roll of four or five, the flight is grounded by bad weather and must return to its territory of origin. On a roll of six, the flight crashes in the Himalayas and both the aircraft and cargo are destroyed.
6. When the UK is at war with Japan and the Burma Road is closed, China may purchase artillery on its turn and place those units in India to await transport. Any Allied power at war with Japan may, on a subsequent turn, attempt to ferry the Chinese artillery from India to China, but only one Allied power per turn may make the attempt.
7. Chinese artillery units in India may not take part in combat and are automatically destroyed if any Axis power captures India.

Note that “air transport” can be either notional (as with OOB rules for paratroopers) or pieces may be used to represent them (I know HBG offers transport aircraft for most, if not all, countries).

I haven’t playtested these rules yet, but if anyone here cares to try them out, I’d really appreciate your feedback. Do they give the game more balance? Swing the pendulum too far in the Allies’ favor? Make little-to-no difference? All thoughts/criticism welcome.

@Caesar:

It shouldn’t be allowed in my opinion because if UK is shielding a combatant while neutral, it would be an act of war legally. Japan goes to war when UK enters Chinese territory but suddenly it’s okay for the Tigers to enter neutral UK.

Though this move may seem a bit dodgy, there is historical precedent: The US occupied Iceland in July 1941, American destroyers escorted convoys bound for Britain (which resulted in the USS Reuben James being sunk off Iceland by U-552 that October), US military pilots “resigned their commissions” to join the Flying Tigers and RAF Eagle Squadron and so on, all prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. In fact, the P-40s flown by the Tigers were originally shipped from the US to Burma in the spring of '41, assembled there, then flown to China.

If you dig deep enough, I think you’ll find that neutrality in WWII was situational, at best; at worst, a mutually-agreed-upon fiction. I’d classify this rule as “strange, but historically accurate.”