Brion Emde wrote on 3-26:
I played your Victory tweaked rules last week and wanted to report the results and ask you a question or two. First the results: We played only few turns, just wanting to get the feeling for the changes caused by the new rules. We used the same maps as those used by Tim on your web page, except in a side-by-side configuration, wanting to mostly have a land war. We found that we needed to setup battle lines to keep the enemy away from the now-lightly defended cities. I was looking for an opening to use my Airborne unit to cut supply to my opponent's forward troops and ways to maneuver for the same purpose. It seemed much less futile to consider these things with the tweaked rules. All in all it seemed much more realistic and fun using your rules.
We were also using your suggested rules of 2PP for cadres and allowing only a single-step build per turn. After the initial jousting we were starting to get into a situation where there were weak units on the front lines and cadres and half-built units in the rear. It seemed very realistic to me!
Yes, I think this does two things, first, you are much less likely to
"kill off" units because their replacement cost is much greater.
Also, without this there is a real temptation to build waves of 1
strength fighters and use them to "pin" enemy positions so you can
attack without worrying about response. This becomes more risky when
the replacement cost is larger.
Also, there is a long range planning
aspect - you have to think in general terms about what you will need
three or four turns in the future, shift units from 2PP cities (where
they are built) to 1PP cities (where they can be built up) and
sometimes just take a production hit when you aren't able to build
because of stacking limitations, or just the inability to build
something new in a 1PP city.
I am assuming that the attacks on cities through hexsides does not preclude
two land units also attacking the city from inside the hex. Also that
losses taken by the defender are spread out among all the attacking units,
even those going through the hexsides. Right?
I think I need to clarify this a little better. The way I see it,
the attack occurs IN the defending hex. The defender will already
have units there, as well as any units that he decides to bring in as
a response (air and mech) but MUST observe the stacking limits.
This does bring up an interesting point about reinforcing over the
stacking limits with mechanized response, but for now I'm trying to
keep it simple. In other words, the defender has to follow the
stacking limits while the attacker doesn't, at least until the end of
the turn.
The attacker will presumably attack with 2 air, up to 2 naval, and
then as many ground as he chooses to put into the defending hex given
the hex side restrictions and his ability to follow the movement
restrictions. For instance, if there are two "clear" hexsides and
one hexside with a bridge, the attacker would be able to put five
ground units into the defending hex (two for each of the clear hex
sides and one over the bridge hexside). ( I don't have my rules
handy, but the back page of the rules has a listing of the hexside
restrictions - use them, not my example if my example is wrong - I'm
just trying to use them as an explanation.) Furthermore, the
attackers must have the movement points to enter the defending hex,
not just get adjacent to it.
Then the attack occurs as you suggest, with losses to the attacker
distributed evenly to all attacking units. If the attack is
successful, the attacker may only leave the "correct" number of units
in the city according to the stacking limits (two) and as in the
regular game, the air must go back to their original base until the
next turn. (As before, Air units cannot participate in an attack
and then stay there if the attack is successful.) Any additional
ground units over the stacking limit will stay in the adjacent hex
to the battle from which they came.
From your question, I think you were suggesting that an attacker
would move units into a city as before, using the stacking limits,
then move more units adjacent to the city and use them to shoot from
across the hexside into the battlem to augment the two attackers
that are there. That's not what I was suggesting. The hex side
limitations come into play by serving as the limitations for the
attacker. Or to put it a different way, the defender can have 2
ground units in the city - period. The Attacker can put as many
units into the city as the hex side limitations will allow, but if
the attack is successful, can only leave 2 ground units there at the
end of his turn. The other attacking units over the limit will
remain in one or more adjacent hexes. Have I cleared things up a
bit?
Yes, I never really thought of this. Obviously, this will be of the
biggest concern in the cities near the front - a player will have to
purposely keep one or two lower strength units there to fully utilize
the production. But again, the whole point of this is to create
"fronts" and take the game away from a city to city affair, etc. As
to the 3PP cities, I generally try to establish a system where my 2PP
cities are building units, the 3PP city builds a unit and adds to a
unit, and the 1PP cities "finish them off".
On some maps, you can get a kind of production line going, where
every production turn you shift units along to the next city. It
gets really interesting when you have to make the decision to USE a 2
or 3 strength unit or keep it in the production line for another turn
or two . . . .
I appreciate your willingness to spend valuable gaming time giving it
a shot.
Hope to hear from you again soon.
Jim
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