Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Game Summary #2 (21 June, 2011)

This game features:
Matt D as the Axis (Germany, Italy, Japan)

The Allies consist of:
Brett as Russia, United States, and China
George as the United Kingdom, Australia/New Zealand (ANZAC), and France.

Just some trivia, ANZAC stands for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.

TURN 1

GERMANY

Germany bought a major-factory. It sent the navy and Luftwaffe after the UK fleet surrounding the  British Isles. Things worked out well for Germany, who had much of their navy remaining at the end of the turn.

The Germans had an undamaged battleship left at the end of turn one. Their subs wait to reinforce it in turn 2.

The Germans also attacked the victory-city of Paris on turn one and took it despite tough casualties. They lost almost all of their infantry and mechanized-infantry in the attack. The Luftwaffe landed in Western-Germany.

RUSSIA

The Russians built land units and sent their armies to reinforce the victory-city of Leningrad. Russia also sent its Baltic fleet closer to the Germans.

The Eastern Front is quiet for now. Germany's new factory both threatens and tempts the Russian army.


JAPAN

The Japanese built two minor-factories and placed them along the Chinese coast. The Imperial Army moved inland but could not secure the Burma Road, a tough break for Japan.



UNITED STATES

The US bought a carrier and fighter to escort two transports. Being bound by the games neutrality rules, the US couldn't do much besides build and wait.


CHINA

The Chinese have the Burma Road open,  have the option to build artillery. Brett declines the artillery and builds infantry instead. Brett aggressively attacks the Japanese forces bordering the Burma Road, and both sides lose all their forces in the battle. The Chinese army then retreats to their western border with Russia. 

The Burma Road stays open. The Imperial Navy consolidates along the Chinese coast.
 


 UNITED KINGDOM

The UK built a carrier-group in for the Atlantic and infantry for India. In the Mediterranean the UK attacked the eastern Italian fleet, wiping it out. In the eastern theater, the UK sent troops closer to the Burma Road. The colonial army did much worse however, and failed to eliminate the Italian threat in the Horn of Africa.

The UK fleet attacks the Italians in the Eastern Mediterranean. The Italians were wiped out in the first phase of combat but managed to get 3 hits, reducing the UK Mediterranean fleet significantly.
Poor rolls prevent the amphibious-assault from succeeding.


AUSTRALIAN & NEW ZEALAND ARMY CORPS

The ANZAC troops move into the Pacific Rim and begin assuming control of the Dutch colonies.



ITALY

The Italians begin aggressive tactics in the Mediterranean and shut down the Suez Canal by taking Trans-Jordan and French-Syria. The Italian air force makes a gamble by attacking the French navy as well. The Italian expedition in Africa moves toward the victory-city of Cairo, threatening it for turn 2.

The Italians only lost one fighter during the attack on the French fleet.

Mussolini's neo-Roman Empire is a possibility, but by no means guaranteed yet.
 FRANCE

Always playing to win, France makes the best of an opportunity by counter-attacking the weak Germany army-group in Paris. It was a battle that came down to the wire! Charles de Gaulle would have been proud.

Five German tanks and a mech-infantry face off against two French infantry, an artillery, tank, and a fighter.
 
France sacrifices its fighter for a last shot at re-taking Paris.
France rolls a 4 and Germany rolls a 3. Vichy-France is established at the end of turn 1.



Monday, June 20, 2011

Rules: Air Raid

Air raids are much more complicated in Alpha+2 than in Revised-1942. We made a mock air raid to demonstrate the rules. The air raid rules are based off of the Alpha+2 rules posted by Larry (creator of A&A) here http://www.harrisgamedesign.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=4167.

(Section 8) Strategic Bombing Raids procedure:
• Escorts fire @1, and interceptor casualties are immediately removed.
• Bombers fire @ 1 and interceptors fire @ 2. Remove bomber and interceptor casualties (escorts may be taken as casualties only after all bombers are eliminated).
• Surviving bombers are assigned a specific target (IC, airbase or naval base) if more than one type is in the territory.
• The target fires its AA defenses at the attacking aircraft - @1
• Surviving bombers attack their target, looking for the highest number possible.

When bombing, each Strategic bomber rolls one die and 2 is added to each die result, giving the total number of hits the target will receive. Gray chips are placed under the target for each hit received.  

 
(Tactical Bombers can also conduct bombing raids. They are limited to attacking only naval bases and airbases, however. Other wise they follow the exact procedure as strategic bombers presented above. When bombing they roll one die. The number rolled is the number of hits the target receives. DO NOT ADD +2 DICE ROLL WITH TACTICAL BOMBERS.)



OK, so now that we've reviewed the rules you are all likely either fairly or completely confused. We were as well, so we set up a sample bombing run before our game to test it out. In this air raid, the somehow-mighty Italian Air Force takes off from Africa to bomb a French colony in Brazil. Don't question DeGaulle's logic, just follow this tutorial.


PROLOGUE - The Italian air force comes into Brazil with two"escort-fighters", one tactical-bomber and one strategic-bomber (The tactical-bomber is going after the seaport and the strategic-bomber is going after the minor factory, just fyi). All planes must participate in the air-raid battle before bombing occurs.



STEP 1 - Attacking "Escort-fighters" go first, and roll on 1's (only fighters are allowed to escort!). Any casualties are removed immediately. Italy rolled a 1, so France takes it's third fighter off before the next phase of combat.




STEP 2 - First the bomber's roll for 1's. Then all interceptors roll for 2. All attacking bombers must be used as casualties before any fighters. The Italians choose the tactical-bomber as their casualty after the battle. The French then remove their casualty.



STEP 3 -  If any bombers remain, the attacker declares which bombers will be attacking which facility. In this case, the Italians have their remaining bomber attack the French minor-factory.  All factories, naval-bases, and air-bases have a built in AA gun that only is used during air-raids. They roll on a 1 for each bomber coming after the factory and any casualties are removed immediately.  In this example, the factory-AA misses. (Regular AA guns do not participate in an air raid, they are for regular battles only.)



STEP 4 - Finally, it is time for the remaining bombers to do their thing. The Italian strategic-bomber rolls a 3. Strategic-bombers add 2 damage to their roll, so the total damage is 5. The French place five damage-chips under their factory and the Italians land their remaining planes.



FINAL THOUGHTS ON AIR-RAID RULES - Tactical-bombers can only be used in an air-raid if there is a naval-base or air-base present. You cannot bring tactical-bombers as "fodder" during a raid on a territory that only has a factory in it. Also, a quick reminder that attacking bombers must be taken as casualties before any escort-fighters are removed. Finally, the defending team cannot use tactical-bombers as "interceptor-fighters" during the air raid.

Thursday, June 16, 2011