Posts made by vodot

The four setups I want to evaluate for this rule are 42.2, 42.2TR, Anniversary '41, and Anniversary '42. For starters, for each of these setups, I want to look at a few obvious destinations for the OC (India, Australia, Egypt, SA, Hawaii, and SFE), and for each examine the strongest possible Axis response on turns 1-5, compared to Allied reinforcement potential. The result will be a table I’ll post below as I test. You veterans, are there other locations you think are worth checking for the first round of tests?

I’m in “little” Vancouver (WA) just north of Portland. Great to hear there’s such a strong A&A community here on the west coast. Please keep me in the loop for future events!

@Midnight_Reaper said in Custom 3D Miniatures: Major & Minor Industrial Complexes, Recruitment Center, Airbase, and Naval Base:

@vdot

So, you’ve done up all of these cool new sculpts, and linked them in ThingVerse. Could you tell us, the uneducated, how to move from looking at these pieces to getting them printed out and shipped to us.

I think they’re great, but looking at them is all I can do, as I don’t know how to proceed from there.

Thanks in advance!

-Midnight_Reaper

Well, the next step for me is testing. I expected to have parts in hand faster than this (I submitted my prints to the internal queue days ago, normally faster turnaround than this). If they come out ok, I’ll try batching them up on Shapeways. That will make them available for anyone to pay to have them printed and shipped out to them. I’ve never used Shapeways before, so there is a bit of a learning curve for me too, like what qtys are the most cost-effective and how to link parts together to cut costs, etc. I would love to print these off on the company machines and sell them at cost for you guys, but that is basically the one thing we are NOT allowed to use the printers for :p

What quantities would people be interested in printing, so I know how many to batch up? Shapeways doesn’t strike me as terribly affordable, but definitions of affordable vary… I’ll be looking at Ebard’s Shapeways shop for inspiration and reference :)

For those of you with a 3D printer, you’re good to go- These designs aren’t all completely desktop-3D-printer friendly (some of them are), but with support material even the unwieldy should come out just fine. I tried to keep the smallest details at 1MM, so resolution should not be a problem. Do let me know if any of you try it and have issues.

Splitting this Colonial Outpost idea out into it’s own thread.

After putting forward this idea last year, it’s been discussed in various other threads so I’m splitting it out here to avoid derailing them. I’m sure someone else has thought of this, but it seemed original and interesting enough to warrant consideration. I see this applying widely but at least to Anniversary '41 and to AA42.2.

Colonial Outpost
Before the start of the game, in lieu of any bid, the Allies may instead elect any one Allied-controlled territory to be the “Colonial Outpost” for that game. If they do, add a Industrial Complex* and AAA unit** to that territory and increase it’s IPC value by +1 (but not over 3) for the duration of the game. If the Colonial Outpost is ever captured by the Axis Powers, the Industrial Complex there is destroyed (not captured) and the value of the territory reverts back to the original value printed on the board.

* This is a Minor IC in games that include Minor ICs
** Only in games where ICs do not have built-in AAA

The background for this idea is the combination of two problems that seemed to have dogged at least the ‘mainline’ games like 42.2 and Anniversary:

1. Axis bias (sometimes extreme)
2. Godzilla-Japan (KJF is an order of magnitude more difficult than KGF; JTDM; etc.)

The consensus fix for balance’s sake is an Allied bid. Bids do offer a kind of flexibility and balance, but are by definition minimal (usually no more than one unit per TT allowed)- and they can be subject to fiddly restrictions or ultimately swept away by a single unlucky roll of the dice. A hitpoint in Egypt in no way guarantees it holds against even a nominal G1 attack; and Indian bid cannot ultimately preserve it from Japan; units in Russia have to be scrutinized to avoid breaking the tenuous R1/G1 balance; and so on. What makes the Colonial Outpost idea so interesting to me is that it can’t be negated with dice alone (it’s a vector change, not just an incremental blip) while also being very simple: just place a factory and bump the IPC value up by 1 (unless it’s already 3+).

Some additional considerations of a Colonial Outpost rule might be

1. Maybe we want to allow any IC placed by the allies as part of a bid to be considered a “Colonial Outpost”, following the same rules as above, ala: “Any IC placed as part of an Allied bid is considered to be a ‘CO’…”
   – This would allow the CO to be just a part of the bid and not the entirety thereof, meaning you could have this AND some elements of a normal bid, or they could be combined for an even stronger CO e.g. CO +1 Inf in the event of a bid of 18, etc.

2. For that matter, maybe we build in a free Infantry or two to the CO, to widen the range of possible locations to include those where a naked IC could fall even before it’s owner takes a turn.

3. Maybe we should set a bid threshold that would have to be met in order to depoloy the CO with this: “In any game where the settled bid is greater than X, the bidding side may elect to waive that bid and designate a CO…”
   – X =…18? 20? You can already just bid a factory, if you want, and the +1 IPC/turn is nearly worthless by itself… but +100% or +50% production capacity is obviously a game-changer in a default 1 or 2 IPC territory.

4. [ G40 only ] Maybe we should preclude the risk-free upgrade of the CO into a full-blown Major IC with this: “If the Colonial Outpost’s Minor IC is ever upgraded to a Major IC, that Major IC is exempt from the special CO rule above and is not destroyed automatically when the territory is captured. Follow the standard OOB rules for IC capture instead.”

I’m teaching either AA50 or AA42.2 to a group soon, and I’m intending to give this rule a try. I’m not sure that this rule wouldn’t also be some fun for the Axis side as well, I just can’t think of a game other than Revised where anyone ever has to bid to take the Axis :)

These are astounding. Well done.

@LHoffman I have multiples of 1941 almost solely for heavy tanks. I think it’s painfully obvious that’s what WOTC was doing there. :) I found them for $8-10 each and decided to go for it. I used the other unique sculpts from 41 and older games to make some bootleg Italians with a can of spray paint.

I don’t own any multiples of the mainline games… because I own multiple mainline games. If I didn’t, though, I could see the rationale for buying copies, simply because it’s easy to run out of units. Revised, for example, shipped with like 1-2 more Japanese infantry than you needed for the initial setup alone. How are you supposed to play ‘army men’ with your reserve units when it isn’t your turn, if all of your plastic is out on the board?

Maybe that’s why I lose :)

I think lots of other people like to paint, customize, and otherwise torture/convert/diy the sculpts. Nice to have extras, in that case, in the event of any irreversible plastic disasters.

That’s a wrap- 15% ebay coupon today (PLAYTIME15, all) lands me Europe. Thanks all, @djensen you can lock this thread.

@taamvan said in The Polar Express:

I am glad we can welcome open discussion about whether the VITALLY CRITICAL STRATEGIC areas of NORWEG are inaccurately depicted on the map. This seemingly minor country has been overlooked as a potential battleground and since it had the 8th largest sea-going force by tonnage, think that we need to give it several destroyer units as well as fishing boats units that can choose to capture COD or HERRING depending on the season, these fish can be exploited for their valuable OIL which is the reason that NORSKLAND has such a large offshore OIL industry and also has several varieties of SMOKED and PICKLED fish (with accompanying liquor resources) that should be represented as an in-game commodity.

ONce our re-evaluation of Scandinavia is complete, we should move to my homeland, the CENTRAL UNITED STATES which is ill-represented in terms of its full variety of strategic options and should be divided into no less than 12 zones depicting the DAKOTA regions, and some of the lesser-known parts of NORTHERN TEJAS AKA Kansas.

Precisely! :rolling_on_the_floor_laughing:

If @Narvik gets Atland, then where are my freshwater, bootleg Aircraft Carriers for the glorious Great Lakes of my beautiful home state of Michigan!!?

Inconceivable!

@djensen Thanks for everything you do for this community!

@axis_roll to continue this variant discussion, since I just mentioned it in @Argothair’s Balanced Mod thread- where I also took the liberty of naming it- what if when the “Colonial Outpost” (the TT that gets the pre-game boost) is captured, the IC there is destroyed (not captured) and the TT value reverts to OOB?

Colonial Outpost
Instead of a bid, before the start of the game the Allies may designate any Allied territory as the “Colonial Outpost” for that game. Add an Industrial Complex + Anti-Aircraft Artillery to that territory and increase it’s IPC value by +1 (but not over 3) as long as it remains under the control of its original owner. If the “Colonial Outpost” is ever captured by the Axis Powers, the Industrial Complex there is destroyed (not captured) and the value of the territory permanently reverts back to the value printed on the board.

This addition to the rule would accomplish two major things:

1. It solidifies the dramatic pro-Allied swing that the Outpost represents, because it eliminates the potential Axis savings if they capture the Outpost on a TT where they stand to benefit significantly from having an IC anyways (like India)
2. It removes a major disincentive for adventurous or decoy Outpost placements- they are are net-zero for the Allies at worst.

Since the Colonial Outpost is designed to replace outright the bid, my thought is that it should never hurt the Allies even if they just drop it to distract the Axis and never build a single unit there. To weaken the variant while keeping the spirit, you could always leave either the boosted IPC value (but still destroy the IC) or let the Axis keep the IC but revert the TT value to make it less valuable to them.

I would personally much rather play a game with a whole new opportunity or angle of attack than get another couple Russian artillery and some British infantry in Egypt… not because it would be fairer but just because it would be more fun.

@Argothair What about that spectacularly elegant idea we discussed last year (in this thread) : The Colonial Outpost?

Colonial Outpost
Instead of a bid, before the start of the game the Allies may designate any Allied TT as the “Colonial Outpost” for that game. Add an IC + AAA to that territory and increase it’s IPC value by +1 (but not over 3) for the duration of the game. If the “Colonial Outpost” is ever captured by the Axis Powers, the IC there is destroyed (not captured) and the value of the territory reverts back to the original value printed on the board.

I’m teaching this game to my group soon, and I liked this idea so much that I’m planning to pretend that an “internet quorum” of “unassailable genius” (namely yourself and @axis_roll) had decided this was the best way to balance 42.2 and 50_41… and if the idea completely tanks I can blame said quorum for all failures. :rolling_on_the_floor_laughing:

@Partydad do a search on the forums here- there are several groups here that use a variety of well-tested event cards.

@Striker Given the breadth of effect this change would have, I think you should do your best to tweak it and rebalance, then just launch it with you game group and do a write up here. Announce it ahead of time as a ‘test run’ and that you’ll be taking notes/accepting advice, which might help people emotionally when a huge unforseen exploit (like the inevitable Berlin Can-opener) leads to their destruction.

You might consider adding a “reaction move” phase.

Recruitment Center token :) Thingiverse Link

@COJOH said in German mass tank build - how to counter?:

@vodot about the shipping efficiency (KGF = ?)

KGF = Kill Germany First (as opposed to KJF, Kill Japan First). Most Allied sides will agree before or during the game to focus primarily on either Germany or Japan to focus on eliminating first, electing to simply ‘contain’ the other of the two Axis powers. KGF has essentially always been the de facto A&A strategy for the main games (of which AA42.2 is the latest), since it has always been harder to KJF because of design decisions made by the game’s creator.

@mcmeeple said in AA50 Objective Trackers:

.dropbox.com/sh/dpt8f141xohoxd7/AABH1Xm8QWKewuciZy7Cj9Dba?dl=0

This is a terrific idea, but I really want to find a way to do this on the board.

Update: I found a copy of Pacific for $45 (shipped!)… my empire is now nearly complete…

@COJOH I agree with @Nowhere-Man and @DouchemanMacgee; I’m surprised they get away with the tank build. I think something’s wrong with US and UK’s KGF shipping efficiency, or perhaps Russia’s defense.

@COJOH said in German mass tank build - how to counter?:

@Panther Tks Tanks a lot !

fyp :)