Posts made by Trenacker

Can somebody clarify the need to roll for the destroyer? Thanks!

When removing these pieces from their sprues, I use clippers that I bought at CVS Pharmacy, if I remember correctly.

The sprue connections and nubs can sometimes be quite thick, especially for HAT pieces, which are also remarkably rigid by comparison with OOB pieces. (Like thicker versions of old Heroquest miniatures.)

Never tried painting any of mine. Did you use primer, General?

Addressing the issue of unit size, individual pieces in Axis & Allies typically depict the Corps or Army level, as I understand it. However, there are a few deviations to depict smaller, independent commands, such as the two British infantry in Hong Kong and the French and British infantry scattered in West Africa south of the Sahara.

I understand the desire to be able to build every type of unit, but I think that scarcity places correct emphasis on those troops’ elite status. The mobilization rule would be a quirk: the Legion has periodically fought on the mainland (as during WWI, for example). Its frequent foreign deployments are rather a reflection of the fact that the Legion’s peculiar non-national composition gives French politicians greater latitude to pursue foreign policy that has some blood cost.

I think that Frogmen should get to roll a d6 against every capital ship, hitting on a 2 or less. They should have no independent combat value because they operated as small units, not at the division level.

When it comes to Marine infantry, the question is whether you view naval units of any type as indicative of fleets (e.g., a Destroyer could stand in for a single capital ship), or whether you want them to represent actual unit types, in which case I don’t think a Cruiser or Battleship should be allowed to carry Marines. Historically speaking, Cruiser divisions sometimes fielded Marine and naval landing parties, but these comprised perhaps slightly over 100 men when multiple ships combined their detachments.

Think about whether you want to confer advantage to certain units only for certain rounds of combat. The difficulty of remembering when and how to roll for them can be partially mitigated by player aids.

One additional unit type for which HBG makes a piece is the Armored Car. This is especially good if you want to game out the inter-war period. I have developed rules allowing attackers to re-roll a die when an Armored Car is present in the attacking force. This is a play on their role as reconnaissance elements. Think about Cavalry, also. Perhaps Cavalry strike harder versus infantry when they outnumber defenders.

I’ve used cards to trigger the appearance of special units denoted by markers. They can also be used to grant nation-specific bonuses for a single round of play, etc. This works better on much larger maps with a game that is expected to go on a while, especially because the cards can be used as interrupts, which prevents players getting bored between turns.

The Marine infantry should get an added bonus when conducting amphibious landings.

The Foreign Legion was headquartered in Sidi Bel Abbes, in French Algeria, until 1962. I would say that there ought to be three Legion infantry on the board at the start of play, without the option to build more. These would be in Algeria, Syria, and Indochina.

The Katyusha is fine as a Russian unit if you think it most iconic.

I’d counsel the Frogmen for Italy because those units made the most iconic contribution to the Italian war effort. The San Marco Marine Regiment, while interesting, is arguably even more obscure than the frogmen.

Der Kuenstler, the problem with that is this: Italy’s tanks, despite being weaker, would presumably not be cheaper, although one presumes that they would have been. The relative weakness of Italian arms vis-à-vis German arms is simulated by Italy’s smaller overall IPC value. An alternative to trying to calibrate costs and strengths for each power is to assign Italy a different type of units. For example, you can use the A&A:1914 aeroplanes to stand in for Italy’s weaker air force.

I think that, generally speaking, the transport plane, airborne infantry, marine infantry, and torpedo boat flotilla deserve to be included in A&A for anybody considering additional units.

I think that greater unit variety is a superior solution to unique units.

You’re correct that adding too many new units and rules changes the game by making it much more involved. One solution to that would be to create combat cards.

The best solution I found for including new and unique units was transitioning to a different die base, such as d10, d12, or d20. This entails accepting that infantry fights may go on forever, and so I’ve adopted a rule that, after three rounds of combat, surviving units stay in place. There is also a system for “holding” enemy forces on a 1:1 basis so that armies can hold one another in place.

Wow. It looks like the learning curve for making TripleA maps is extremely high.

As best I can tell, the editor expects you to upload a map, then tries to contour to it. Do you know if that is accurate?

I’m looking to add a number of new territories, both land and sea zones. I’m also looking to add a number of new units, but those types can be pulled from other games.

Thanks.

The modding tools aren’t as intuitive as I’d hoped they would be. I figured it’d just be a series of drop-down menus, but it’s anything but.

Any competent Triple A modders out there that might be interested in testing new maps, units, and rule sets?

I’ve long felt that naval combat on the AA map is actually too simplistic to allow for the variety of units that I might like.

My first thought was that I could add more sea zones to place a premium on the movement values of naval units. The idea was that this would make it worthwhile to build battlecruisers and cruisers rather than battleships. Unfortunately, it was pointed out to me that this throws the timescale off because it means that naval units take an unreasonably long time to cross oceans. If you’re OK with that, then try adding some new naval zones and see what happens.

Consider adding abilities (some perhaps card-driven). I came up with a concept that I call the “Naval Combat Search.” I’ve described it a few times on this forum. Basically, the players roll every time two naval or air forces meet at sea. Aircraft grant a bonus. Most of the time, the search is successful and a combat results. However, some of the time, fleets will steam past one another in the night or reconnaissance aircraft will miss something. No combat results and the pieces may move normally next turn or stick around to attempt another search.

Just looking at the key concepts for which certain nations became known, I’d propose the following special units:

Germany: Heavy Tank (the Tiger is fine for this role). Alternatively, you could go with the '88 as a kind of cross between an AA gun and an anti-tank gun
Italy: Frogmen
U.K.: Battlecruiser, a kind of fast, lighter battleship
France: Foreign Legion
United States: Mechanized Infantry
Japan: Sure, the Yamato is fine. You could alternatively do a special submarine or fighter, or else simulate the Tokyo Express by allowing Destroyers to carry 1 infantry.
Russia: Militia is fine.
ANZAC: I’d give them a tougher infantry piece.

Young Grasshopper, here is the result of my scanning the book Hitler’s Italian Allies, by MacGregor Knox.

From Mussolini: “Either war, or let’s end this commedia of a great power.”

“Men, our indisputable resource.” - General Armando Diax, 1923

“The tank is a powerful tool, but let us not idolize it; let us reserve our reverence for the infantryman and the mule.” - General Parani, 1937

There is not much else of value in there for optimistic-sounding quotes, I think, given that the thesis is that Italian industry, society, and high command were totally unprepared for war.

Another from Robert Menzies for the ANZAC, this one from September 1939:

“There can be no doubt that where Great Britain stands, there stands the people of the entire British world.”

I pulled my copy of Hitler’s Italian Allies, so I’ll search that and try to get you something useful for the Italians.

Some quotes attributed to Isoroku Yamamoto:

“The fiercest serpent may be overcome by a swarm of ants.”

The fate of the Empire rests on this enterprise. Every man must devote himself totally to the task at hand."

Some quotes for the ANZACs:

“At present, the prime necessity is to ensure the defence of Australia itself. But it would be wrong to assume that throughout the duration of the war, our duty would continue to be as circumscribed as that.” - Prime Minister Robert Menzies, September 1939

“This is the gravest hour of our history. We have a heavy responsibility. I ask every Australian, man and woman, to go about their allotted tasks with full vigour and courage.” - Prime Minister John Curtin, December 1941

Force intact. Still fighting. Badly need boots, money, quinine, tommy gun, ammunition. - Message transmitted from Portuguese Timor to Darwin, April 1942

Some quotes for the Italians:

“The German soldier has astonished the world; the Italian Bersagliere has astonished the German soldier.” - Erwin Rommel, epitaph to the Italian soldier

Until face to face with the enemy, who inexorably advanced well protected toward sure prey, they cried with the last spark of life, “Long Live Italy!” - Gen. Rodolfo Graziani

The Graziani quote is probably too dark. You may have to go hunting in a university library for better quotes on the Italians. I suggest a small book, Hitler’s Italian Allies. Much of the material you are likely to find, if not from Mussolini, will come from Ciano, who was something of a dry wit as a diarist and therefore isn’t likely to give you anything very stirring.

No, the first one is not Italian. It is a Romanian I.A.R. over the Ploesti oil fields.

The second is a Hawker Typhoon.

The third is definitely Italian per the roundel, which can just be made out on the starboard wing.

What about expanding South America so that it can become a viable theater of war? It feels like so much of that part of the map is wasted.

Perhaps more segmentation in IndoChina and the CBI theatre? I always feel that the fight in that area goes too quickly.

I don’t like how the latest HBG map deals with North Africa. I think there needs to be a separate Tripoli half-circle. However, I think the A&A Global 1940 map deals with North Africa fairly well overall.

The purpose of this thread is to share the backstory that I am using in a home-brew, card-driven modification of the board game Axis & Allies, which I have discussed elsewhere. I thought the folks on this forum might have some interesting suggestions.

The modification uses (for now) the HBG 1936 world map. The map is beautiful, but the choice of projection means that huge areas of the play area are irrelevant.

Based on numerous playthroughs with my gaming group, I have revised the map so that we can include a greater number of participants and extend the fighting to parts of the map that are often disused. (Please note that these modifications reflect the play patterns and preferences of specific groups of people. They will not be appropriate for everyone.)

I have tried to write the material in a unique style that simulates a 1930s radio newscast, so forgive the unusual tense.

Credit to Dr. Mike Bennighoff of Avalanche Press for ideas on Greece and the Dutch. Much of the content related to naval issues is taken directly from “The Cherry Trees Spared,” a speculative history of naval treaty discussions on Changing The Times, an alternate history electronic magazine, author unknown.

The Story

The War to End All Wars did nothing of the sort. Even as all went quiet on the Western Front, Russia was still mired in a long, bloody process of unwinding that would drag on through 1922. The Greco-Turkish War opened in May 1919 and is still being fought. The Entente soon dissolved in acrimony as the three major Mediterranean powers � Great Britain, France, and Italy � squabbled over how best to divide both the nearly-spoiled German and fast-crumbling Ottoman pies.

Thinking to head off a prohibitively expensive arms race between themselves, five great powers (the aforementioned trio, joined by the United States and Japan) convened in Washington, D.C. to reach agreement on how to apportion German�s High Seas Fleet. (In June 1916, British inspectors at Scapa Flow narrowly averted a plot by German Rear-Admiral Ludwig von Reuter to scuttle his storied command.) The delegates also discussed restrictions affecting naval shipbuilding.

The negotiations achieved little in the way of tamping down rising tensions. Nor did they succeed in turning swords to ploughshares, as some had intended. Instead, the British achieved their aim of preserving the Navy List by agreeing to transfer the lion�s share of Germany�s fleet to the French � much to the chagrin of Italy and Japan. American acquiescence was secured only because Clemenceau agreed to immediately end his country�s occupation of the Rhineland.

Over the next decade-and-a-half, the tonnage of the world�s major navies grew by leaps and bounds. Virtually all of it was devoted to battlewagons. Absent the imperative to reduce the weight of armor and guns and without a surplus of hulls requiring conversion, few design bureaus saw any reason to commission aircraft carriers. The sole exception was in Italy, where, following a state visit during which he observed British planes simulate an attack on an ex-German dreadnaught, Mussolini insisted that his navy build one of its own. Interest in submarine technology similarly waned amidst continuing enthusiasm for the all-big-gun warship.

Fleets are expensive. When the global depression began in 1929, the pain was all the keener. Desperate for change, millions turned to the opiate of fascism. From Lisbon to Warsaw, military men promised to restore the dignity of the working man. First, they turn on alleged enemies within; then, on enemies without. War was once again made to seem glorious. It worked too well.

In the West, tensions came to a head over the Abyssinia Crisis. When Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935, the League of Nations did nothing. Within less than a year, the Italians pacified the country and installed their viceroy. Feeling that Mussolini�s ambitions must soon force his hand and urged on by critics in the fascist Mouvement Franciste, Albert LeBrun decided that he must act. With the backing of the British, who closed the Suez Canal, France blockaded Italian Africa.

The French and British press predicted that Italy would take humiliation sitting down, but in a burst of martial ardor, Il Duce ordered Admiral Domenico Cavagnari, commander of the Home Fleet, to make steam for Tripoli. Fearing that a general melee would expose the weaknesses of the Regina Maria, Cavagnari opted to launch a surprise attack with the small air group borne by Italy�s lone carrier, Leonardo da Vinci. The admiral anticipated that his fighter-bombers would do only light damage, thereby salving Italian honor without provoking an invasion of Savoy. Instead, the Italians traded some two dozen aged biplanes for one battleship and the newest and largest cruiser of the Marina Nationale. Immediately, both sides lurched backwards. Terrified of French retaliation, Mussolini sacked Cavagnari even as the Suez was hastily reopened.

The Tripoli Raid provoked a paradigm shift in thinking about the future of naval operations. Because huge investments had already been made in battleships and battlecruisers, only some of the major navies of the world were in a position to exercise the full range of their options. One immediate solution, at least, was to refit every warship with anti-aircraft guns. The British, Japanese, and Italians chose to build more carriers. The United States expanded an existing programme of airship construction, increasing the size and carrying capacity of new models so that they could serve as launching platforms for up to six fighters. The airships would act as sheepdogs for their precious capital ships. They would be supplemented by large numbers of land-based fighters and torpedo bombers. The Dutch pushed their existing lead in fire-control technology.

Great Britain now strikes a conciliatory tone. Too many young men never came home after the last war. Whitehall, chastened by the Roman Affair, says it will seek to accommodate the �reasonable� ambitions of certain continental powers. The Opposition charges that British government is craven. Yet, still mired in economic depression and anticipating Japanese aggression in Asia, the Empire can ill afford another general conflagration in Europe � all His Majesty�s resources must be diverted east, to Fortress Singapore.

Across the Channel, the LeBrun government has barely survived the backlash from one-time political allies who charge that he has betrayed French honor by failing to punish the Italians more sternly. But French coffers are empty, and the air force antiquated. French generals vacillate between assertions that they can easily sweep aside the Italians and disturbing confessions that, should they fail to do so, Hitler would surely pounce. Realizing that he must fend off pressure from his political right but in no position to sort out his army�s crisis of confidence, LeBrun has reversed French policy on Spain, opening supply lines to the Republican cause while at the same time ordering the Arm�e d’Afrique to the Libyan border in a deliberate show of force.

In The Hague, a long-standing policy of austerity is being hastily abandoned � and none too soon. Fear of German and Japanese aggression has yielded an impressive expansion of United Netherlands naval and air power, and in the East Indies, a credible fleet (anchored by fast battlecruisers) takes shape to delay any task force the Emperor might send until the British arrive. Still, it is the army that will bear the brunt of action if war comes again to Europe, meaning that the French and British commitment are of utmost importance.

In divided Spain, the Nationalists are on the offensive as the country convulses under the twin blows of Red and White Terrors. Rapidly consolidating his authority over the Moroccan Protectorate in early July, General Francisco Franco secured both Italian and German assistance � most critically, a commitment of 22 Junkers Ju52 aircraft to ferry his colonial troops to Seville. Now, with a string of victories behind them, these battle-hardened units drive toward Madrid, opposed only by a hastily-assembled and militarily ineffective Popular Front. Spain�s moribund empire has likewise fractured: Peru and Cuba have declared for the Nationalists while leftist officers have seized Puerto Rico and – with timely assistance from French Indochina – narrowly aborted a coup attempt in the Philippines.

To the west, in Portugal, Ant�nio Salazar is coming to grips with the fact that his trans-Atlantic empire has seen better days. Ambitious rivals in Spain and Italy are accomplishing great things in the name of fascism, while Portugal can only leak at the seams. A recent naval mutiny has underlined the fact that not all Portuguese are reconciled to the Novo Estado � as if the Great Depression had not already badly damaged regime standing. Hundreds of thousands of Portuguese have departed Europe to try their luck in Africa and South America. As a result, Salazar’s secret police report that constitutionalism, and with it, the cause of independence, is winning adherents both at home and in Brazil, the jewel in Portugal’s colonial crown.

Distance from likely adversaries has preserved the peace in much of Portugal�s still-extensive overseas empire, but the reactionary clique that recently seized power in Spanish Peru is reportedly sanctioning the intrusion of Spanish settlers into Portuguese territory. Meanwhile, neighboring Argentina has embarked upon a program of naval expansion that Lisbon will be hard-pressed to match. Worse yet, war has broken out in the Chaco, pitting Portuguese client Bolivia against Argentine-backed Paraguay. Bolivia is by far the larger and wealthier of the two combatants, but Paraguayan successes have been virtually unmitigated, requiring Portugal to subsidize the Bolivian war effort at a time when she must already spend heavily to keep the flag flying in Rio de Janeiro.

German fortunes are once again at high ebb. Inch by inch, the Reich redeems the bloodlands of Mittel Europa, rejecting the conditions imposed at Versailles. Adoring crowds numbering in the hundreds of thousands hail the Fuhrer who promises them one thousand years of glory. Successfully staring down her Great Power rivals, who did nothing to arrest her increasingly warlike behavior, Germany has risen as a phoenix from the ash heap of the Great War, leading the Continent in industrial output and completing a comprehensive remilitarization. Now, the noose tightens around the necks of the old arbiters of European power. In October, Germany and Italy signed the Rome-Berlin Axis, a dagger pointed at the heart of the Mediterranean, while in November, Germany concluded Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan, squeezing the Soviet Union between them.

For his part, Il Duce preens over the �imminent success� of the Nationalist cause in Spain. He speaks grandly of "eight million bayonets� that will punish French aggression, ignoring the acid remarks of a German minister who cautions that the Italians must remember to see that these are fixed to rifles. The attack against the French went very well indeed � so well that, after an initial fit of nerves, Mussolini sees no reason why fortune will not continue to bestow her favors. Like the Germans, the Italians have an axe to grind. From 1915 to 1918, they paid the butcher�s bill but gained very little for it. The Mediterranean is already a British lake. Italy has acquired a brace of new colonies in East Africa, along with the foothold of Adalia in Asia Minor, but it is clear to everyone, not least Mussolini himself, that even this is not enough. Noises from Rome suggest that Italy may soon make demands of Greece on behalf of the oppressed peoples of Albania, though it is in the Eastern Desert of Libya, against the Frenchman over the border, where the next great conflict will soon come to a head.

Though it contributed little to the Entente victory twenty years ago, Greece has been fighting a war of its own � first against the Ottomans, then against the Turks. Deft diplomacy by the Greek king, Alexander, secured critical European assistance long enough for Greek armies to secure Eastern Thrace, Ionia, and Constantinople before pushing as far as Trebizond on the Black Sea. The war resulted in virtually complete achievement of Greek irredentist aims (the Megali Idea) by 1923 � but at a catastrophic cost in lives and money. Since that time, Greek troops, always too few in number, have struggled to stamp out Turkish resistance for more than a decade-and-a-half. The Greek economy is in freefall, with predictable results for her military: the army has little, the navy nothing, and the air force even less. Many conscripts arrive at their units without boots or rifles. More than half are not Greeks at all, but Armenians, Georgians, Jews, Circassians, and White Russians. Ethnic massacres are still commonplace, and neither Smyrna or Constantinople, two of the three most important cities in the Greek-speaking world, have yet been rebuilt. Greece cannot go on in this manner for much longer. Either she must have the renewed assistance of Britain and France, preoccupied by their own troubles, or else accede to the demands of the Italians and the Soviets and hope that their hunger is sated before too much is lost.

Josef Stalin, having completed a years-long purge of the Soviet Union�s political, military, and intellectual establishment, is now minded toward expansion, both ideological and territorial. One day, Moscow arranges to sustain the Republicans in Spain; the next she plans an expedition into Sinkiang or sends the Black Sea Fleet to bombard Trebizond. Recently, the Kremlin began border negotiations with the Kalmar Union. Stalin�s pretext for demanding concessions on the Karelian Isthmus is fear of his neighbors� aggression. This paranoia has already been borne out in the Soviet Far East, where, as winter snows begin to fall, the Red Army has clashed with the Kwantung Army two hundred kilometers outside Vladivostok.

The Kalmar Union, with its seat of government in Stockholm, is a modestly prosperous nation centered on the Baltic Sea. Although merely an observer to the cataclysm of the Great War, Sweden profited handsomely: when the Russian government collapsed, the Swedish Royal Army led White forces to victory in Finland, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania. The fledgling states that then emerged hardly required the instructive example of the Polish-Soviet War to encourage mutual participation in a compact aimed at preserving their hand-won independence. Since that time, ongoing border disputes with aggressive neighbors in both Warsaw and Moscow have predisposed the Union to cooperation with Germany. Border skirmishes with the Poles tapered off following the death of Josef Pilsudski, but conscripts have been called up and military spending increased more than five-fold in the last year as the Soviets talk of revision. Recalled from holiday in India, Field Marshal Baron Carl Gustaf Mannerheim has been tasked with strengthening the line of fortifications that bears his name.

The Japanese are the great wild card of these halcyon days. In less than a half-century, they have risen to challenge European power in the Orient, defeating the Tsar in a short, sharp war and then thrusting deep into the rotten heart of China. Chiang Kai-Shek�s Nationalist armies won him his first great victory of the war at Tai’erzhuang in April, where he marshaled more than a quarter-million troops, but it is far from clear that the Kuomintang can sustain this momentum.

The Japanese now have a choice to make. Do they take advantage of Russia�s distraction in northern Europe to redress the loss dealt them at Lake Khasan? Will they pivot west, finishing what they started in China? Or will they heed the encouragement of a growing clique of young officers and strike out for Manila, Batavia, and points south and east?

Amidst this disorder, the United States slumbers. President Roosevelt’s has been unable to convince his countrymen that much is at stake beyond their two shores. Even as the number of “incidents” with Japan rises steadily, it appears that the U.S. will stand by as the world burns�

What computer program did you use to make that gorgeous map?