Comassion
10-12-2005, 01:20 PM
This had to be done.
For those of us crazy enough to try it (and I intend to, but don't have the time yet), I'd like to present initial rules for fighting the whole of world war II using Axis and Allies Miniatures for tactical battles and Axis and Allies revised for the strategic war.
These games will be long games. They will probably take weeks.
I have not tested these rules, and would appreciate playtesting and feedback. Enthusiasts might want to wait until the next set releases, to get more units that can be used on the Eastern Front.
You will need:
1 Axis and Allies revised game
A good assortment of units. Proxies will most likely be necessary.
Lots of free time.
At least 1 similarly crazy friend with lots of free time.
Space in your residence to accomodate a game board that will be left out for the duration of the game.
I reccommend:
Some custom maps (put some desert, jungle, and city maps together)
4 crazy friends with free time.
Basic rules:
All the standard rules of Axis and Allies Revised are unchanged in this version, except for rules governing land battles and national advantages. National advantages should not be used at all in this version of the game.
To clarify:
Sea battles are unchanged in this version, and are fought as normal in Axis and Allies revised. Unit costs have not changed, but I am considering it. Strategic bombing raids are also unchanged. Technology rules are unchanged.
Land battles are the only aspect of Axis and Allies revised to undergo major revision for this kind of play. Ground units are used to build forces with Axis and Allies Miniatures. Air units have had their rules altered to be compatible but not slow down the game.
Handling land battles:
Step 1: Opening Fire: AA gun fires. Any defending AA gun involved in the combat fires at each attacking aircraft, as normal. Attacking Battleships and possibly Destroyers bombard now. Remove casualties from the board as normal. The AA gun and naval units are now done with the battle.
Step 2: Air unit attacks. Each attacking aircraft fires once, and each defending aircraft fires once. Remove casualties from these attacks. All air units are now done with the battle. Attacking air units will land in other territories as normal.
This means that an attacking force consisting entirely of aircraft will not suffer casualties from ground units. It will suffer casualties from other aircraft and AA guns for one round, and then retreat.
If a defending force consists of only aircraft, they will attack for one round and then be destroyed if there are attacking land units remaining.
If there are no ground units remaining on one side or the other at the end of this step, the victor is the side with land units remaining (if neither side has ground units left, the defender wins).
Step 3: A&A miniatures land battle involving remaining land units.
Land battles are fought by building Axis and Allies miniatures armies with point values corresponding to the pieces used in the battle. Use the setup and victory condition rules for the assault scenario in the back of the rulebook, but ignore the force point values. The attacking player and the defending player on the Revised Board take the same roles on the miniatures board. Choose a map by consensus based on the general terrain of the area - the defender may choose if there is no consensus.
Building your army: You are given a certain number of points with which to build an army based on the units involved in the battle. The Axis players can only use Axis units, and the Allied players can only use Allied units. These build points are restricted to be used with certain kinds of units. There is no 15-unit restriction. When forces get over 150 points, it is reccommended that you use larger maps.
Infantry - 10 points of Soldiers that are not AT guns or Mortars.
Artillery - 15 points of AT guns and / or Mortars.
Tanks - 30 points of vehicles.
Each unit counts for the above values, so if you attacked a territory with 2 tanks, 4 infantry and an artillery (and no air units), your force would be made of 60 points worth of tanks, 40 points of infantry and 15 points of AT guns / Mortars.
Leeway: Sometimes you want 63 points worth of tanks but only have 60. Well, you can have it. You can move your available points around at a rate of 2 for 1 - so if you needed 63 points worth of tanks and you had the above force of 60 for tanks, 40 for infantry, and 15 for AT guns / Mortars, you can take 6 points from the infantry or from the artillery (or a mix of both) to get the extra 3 points for tanks. Make sure you record what points you have shifted for your leeway and where they were shifted to.
Leftovers: Points not spent are left over. Record the points you do not spend seperately. You may never have more than 4 points of leftovers for any type of unit - any excess points beyond 4 are lost.
Once you have assembled your forces, fight the battle as a normal Axis and Allies miniatures battle.
Outcome on the Revised board: If the attacker wins the battle, all defending forces in the territory are destroyed (including air units) and the territory is captured. Determine what attacking forces have survived (see below) and place them in the territory. This means that it is technically possible to capture a territory and have no unit left to occupy it.
If the defender wins the battle, the attacker retreats following normal revised retreat rules. If for some reason he cannot retreat (as in an amphibious assault), all attacking forces are destroyed. Determine surviving defending and attacking forces and place them on the board.
Determining surviving forces: After the battle has been resolved, if your force is not automatically destroyed by the outcome of the battle, tally up the points you have left in surviving units into the appropriate categories - infantry, artillery (that's AT guns and mortars) and vehicles. Damaged and disrupted units count as their full value.
Once you have tallied each value, then transfer the points spent in Leeway back to their original source at a 1:2 rate if possible. If after the battle in the above example (Where I transferred 6 points of infantry into 3 points of armor), I have 14 points of infantry left and 15 points of armor, I would transfer 3 points of armor back into 6 points of infantry, resulting in 20 points of infantry and 12 points of armor.
Then add any leftovers back into your point values.
Finally, round each point type to the nearest whole value of it's corresponding unit. Round up if your points are exactly halfway between two values. For example, if I'm left with 23 points of infantry, 10 points of Artillery and 15 points of vehicles after calculations, I would place 2 infantry (23 rounded down to 20), 1 artillery (10 rounded up to 15), and 1 armor (15 rounded up to 30) back on the gameboard.
Then continue play as normal.
Optional rules:
Date restriction: Choose a date for the war to 'begin' at, from 1939-1942. Every other turn after the US turn, advance the year by 1. Miniatures that were not available until after the current game year may not be part of your armies.
Nationality restriction: This will work better when the Eastern Front-themed set is realeased, but you could try it now. As best you can, restrict forces to their own nationality - German forces may only use German and Italian Minis, Americans may only use American minis, the UK may only use UK and French Minis. Russian and Japanese forces will for now need to be supplied with additional units (especially the Russians) to give them things like machineguns and anti-tank infantry.
Use a Gamemaster: A seperate player who runs the overall game and chooses the maps and armies for each land battle, to be fought by other players. Can result in more interesting and historical battles since the armies won't be able to min/max.
Chain of command: If you somehow have more than 5 people, appoint some players to be strategic commanders and others to be tactical commanders. Strategic commanders manage the A&A revised board, while tactical commanders fight the A&A Minis battles.
Multiple battles: If you have enough people, you can resolve multiple battles at once rather than sitting around. If Germany has attacked two locations, let the Japanese player take control of one of the German forces for one of the attacks.
Keep in mind that these are very preliminary, completely untested rules. Change them for your own use as you see fit, and please give me feedback, especially if you actually try this.
For those of us crazy enough to try it (and I intend to, but don't have the time yet), I'd like to present initial rules for fighting the whole of world war II using Axis and Allies Miniatures for tactical battles and Axis and Allies revised for the strategic war.
These games will be long games. They will probably take weeks.
I have not tested these rules, and would appreciate playtesting and feedback. Enthusiasts might want to wait until the next set releases, to get more units that can be used on the Eastern Front.
You will need:
1 Axis and Allies revised game
A good assortment of units. Proxies will most likely be necessary.
Lots of free time.
At least 1 similarly crazy friend with lots of free time.
Space in your residence to accomodate a game board that will be left out for the duration of the game.
I reccommend:
Some custom maps (put some desert, jungle, and city maps together)
4 crazy friends with free time.
Basic rules:
All the standard rules of Axis and Allies Revised are unchanged in this version, except for rules governing land battles and national advantages. National advantages should not be used at all in this version of the game.
To clarify:
Sea battles are unchanged in this version, and are fought as normal in Axis and Allies revised. Unit costs have not changed, but I am considering it. Strategic bombing raids are also unchanged. Technology rules are unchanged.
Land battles are the only aspect of Axis and Allies revised to undergo major revision for this kind of play. Ground units are used to build forces with Axis and Allies Miniatures. Air units have had their rules altered to be compatible but not slow down the game.
Handling land battles:
Step 1: Opening Fire: AA gun fires. Any defending AA gun involved in the combat fires at each attacking aircraft, as normal. Attacking Battleships and possibly Destroyers bombard now. Remove casualties from the board as normal. The AA gun and naval units are now done with the battle.
Step 2: Air unit attacks. Each attacking aircraft fires once, and each defending aircraft fires once. Remove casualties from these attacks. All air units are now done with the battle. Attacking air units will land in other territories as normal.
This means that an attacking force consisting entirely of aircraft will not suffer casualties from ground units. It will suffer casualties from other aircraft and AA guns for one round, and then retreat.
If a defending force consists of only aircraft, they will attack for one round and then be destroyed if there are attacking land units remaining.
If there are no ground units remaining on one side or the other at the end of this step, the victor is the side with land units remaining (if neither side has ground units left, the defender wins).
Step 3: A&A miniatures land battle involving remaining land units.
Land battles are fought by building Axis and Allies miniatures armies with point values corresponding to the pieces used in the battle. Use the setup and victory condition rules for the assault scenario in the back of the rulebook, but ignore the force point values. The attacking player and the defending player on the Revised Board take the same roles on the miniatures board. Choose a map by consensus based on the general terrain of the area - the defender may choose if there is no consensus.
Building your army: You are given a certain number of points with which to build an army based on the units involved in the battle. The Axis players can only use Axis units, and the Allied players can only use Allied units. These build points are restricted to be used with certain kinds of units. There is no 15-unit restriction. When forces get over 150 points, it is reccommended that you use larger maps.
Infantry - 10 points of Soldiers that are not AT guns or Mortars.
Artillery - 15 points of AT guns and / or Mortars.
Tanks - 30 points of vehicles.
Each unit counts for the above values, so if you attacked a territory with 2 tanks, 4 infantry and an artillery (and no air units), your force would be made of 60 points worth of tanks, 40 points of infantry and 15 points of AT guns / Mortars.
Leeway: Sometimes you want 63 points worth of tanks but only have 60. Well, you can have it. You can move your available points around at a rate of 2 for 1 - so if you needed 63 points worth of tanks and you had the above force of 60 for tanks, 40 for infantry, and 15 for AT guns / Mortars, you can take 6 points from the infantry or from the artillery (or a mix of both) to get the extra 3 points for tanks. Make sure you record what points you have shifted for your leeway and where they were shifted to.
Leftovers: Points not spent are left over. Record the points you do not spend seperately. You may never have more than 4 points of leftovers for any type of unit - any excess points beyond 4 are lost.
Once you have assembled your forces, fight the battle as a normal Axis and Allies miniatures battle.
Outcome on the Revised board: If the attacker wins the battle, all defending forces in the territory are destroyed (including air units) and the territory is captured. Determine what attacking forces have survived (see below) and place them in the territory. This means that it is technically possible to capture a territory and have no unit left to occupy it.
If the defender wins the battle, the attacker retreats following normal revised retreat rules. If for some reason he cannot retreat (as in an amphibious assault), all attacking forces are destroyed. Determine surviving defending and attacking forces and place them on the board.
Determining surviving forces: After the battle has been resolved, if your force is not automatically destroyed by the outcome of the battle, tally up the points you have left in surviving units into the appropriate categories - infantry, artillery (that's AT guns and mortars) and vehicles. Damaged and disrupted units count as their full value.
Once you have tallied each value, then transfer the points spent in Leeway back to their original source at a 1:2 rate if possible. If after the battle in the above example (Where I transferred 6 points of infantry into 3 points of armor), I have 14 points of infantry left and 15 points of armor, I would transfer 3 points of armor back into 6 points of infantry, resulting in 20 points of infantry and 12 points of armor.
Then add any leftovers back into your point values.
Finally, round each point type to the nearest whole value of it's corresponding unit. Round up if your points are exactly halfway between two values. For example, if I'm left with 23 points of infantry, 10 points of Artillery and 15 points of vehicles after calculations, I would place 2 infantry (23 rounded down to 20), 1 artillery (10 rounded up to 15), and 1 armor (15 rounded up to 30) back on the gameboard.
Then continue play as normal.
Optional rules:
Date restriction: Choose a date for the war to 'begin' at, from 1939-1942. Every other turn after the US turn, advance the year by 1. Miniatures that were not available until after the current game year may not be part of your armies.
Nationality restriction: This will work better when the Eastern Front-themed set is realeased, but you could try it now. As best you can, restrict forces to their own nationality - German forces may only use German and Italian Minis, Americans may only use American minis, the UK may only use UK and French Minis. Russian and Japanese forces will for now need to be supplied with additional units (especially the Russians) to give them things like machineguns and anti-tank infantry.
Use a Gamemaster: A seperate player who runs the overall game and chooses the maps and armies for each land battle, to be fought by other players. Can result in more interesting and historical battles since the armies won't be able to min/max.
Chain of command: If you somehow have more than 5 people, appoint some players to be strategic commanders and others to be tactical commanders. Strategic commanders manage the A&A revised board, while tactical commanders fight the A&A Minis battles.
Multiple battles: If you have enough people, you can resolve multiple battles at once rather than sitting around. If Germany has attacked two locations, let the Japanese player take control of one of the German forces for one of the attacks.
Keep in mind that these are very preliminary, completely untested rules. Change them for your own use as you see fit, and please give me feedback, especially if you actually try this.