Volunteers: Listing of House Rules

[Siberian HEAT]

Was thinking it is time for everyone and get together and come up with a list of house rules you may or may not use in this scenario. Once we have them all in one place it will be much easier when you sit down with an opponent and agree which ones to use. I'll post in the TOAW HQ section when we have a complete (or nearly so) list.

Here are a few to get us started.

Flying HQs... Airbase to airbase only, and Student HQ anywhere?

Supply drain attacks - first attack on a given hex always open, but the 1:3 ration after that?

Neutral air to rest

Neutral nations not allowed to move their armies and reinforcements until at war; neutral majors may redeploy, but no 'scouting' with navies even if transporting units

No naval blockaded of Malta with 'neutral' navies that can't be attacked

Italy can move units within her borders and also to North Africa

ANY assault on Matla (and other such places) must cover the sea road with a navy, embarked HQ, etc. to prevent a cheap retreat

Gentleman's rule; we won't attempt much in the way of gamey tactics? Such as taking 20 fortified points of Brits out of Gibraltar with 1/3 of a brigade repeatedly, of Vichy French, etc?

No Allied units should be in the USSR at all / or completely free deployment

Amphibious landings in non port hexes? Yes or no?

No disbands.

Minors must stick to their outlined boundaries

Nations in 'deaththroes' may attack at will; ie - no ratio restrictins, etc. (Deaththroes being deinfed as their capital captured, or surrender conditions met)

If Russia falls, all 'Allies in Russia' restrictions are lifted.

Allow surrender or play until the end of scenario?

Entrench anywhere you like, but not just for the sake of entrenching

Entrench only along rivers, or in/around cities.

Entrench anywhere within 2 hexes of enemy units.

 

[Mantis]

Gentleman's rule; we won't attempt much in the way of gamey tactics? Such as taking 20 fortified points of Brits out of Gibraltar with 1/3 of a brigade repeatedly, of Vichy French, etc?

LOL! I have to mention this! This message was built by copy and pasting the houserules that Brian and I are agreeing to for a future game, with him as the Axis. But the point above was just so reminiscent of a game that Tiberius and I are currently playing that I had to give a quick shout!

(Never knew it would come to a public posting, Bill! No offence intended!! )

 

[Wolfe Tone]

Re
Supply drain attacks - first attack on a given hex always open, but the 1:3 ration after that?

Brian: Could you explain that a bit as I,m not too sure how many attcks per turn are allowed under that one.

 

[Siberian HEAT]

Wolf, basically the rule is to prevent a single AA unit attacking a stack of 9 russian infantry corps over and over possibly over 10 times in one turn. Under this rule you could use the AA to attack the stack once...but after that you would need to use at least 3 infantry corps to attack his 9 (or at least come close to the 1:3 ratio).

I wouldn't say anyone is out there measuring ratios, but you get the idea that using a tiny unit to suck the supply out of a much larger stack is generally not allowed.

When you and I played I did use that tactic somewhat liberally to bleed your forces (and mine) down so they were weakened for my final assault on the Reich. It is going to be somewhat necessary lest the lines stagnate forever - but overdoing it could be too much.

 

[Tiberius]

Gentleman's rule; we won't attempt much in the way of gamey tactics? Such as taking 20 fortified points of Brits out of Gibraltar with 1/3 of a brigade repeatedly, of Vichy French, etc?

For the last time the Vichies weren't supposed to TAKE Gibralter, they were just supposed to soften it up! I am not a gamey player, I swear!

 

[Siberian HEAT]

For the last time the Vichies weren't supposed to TAKE Gibralter, they were just supposed to soften it up! I am not a gamey player, I swear!

Bill, I think I am going to change your title above your avatar to say "Gamey Player." Would that be OK? Might as well revel in it!

Don't worry, it is all in good fun. We know it was an accident...just one of the flaws of the scale and placement of units.

"All is well!"

 

[Tiberius]

I guess I should feel good that I have inspired two house rules: block the sea road retreat, and Vichy French invasion of Gib. :devious: What will I think of next?

 

[Mantis]

I dunno, but I'm against it!



Ya, seriously, Bill, there was no slight intended. It was just a good citing of an extreme example. It's why we need these damned rules!

 

[Mantis]

When people talk 'gamey' who do you think of, with 28 combat rounds? I'm the worst example there is!

 

[Wolfe Tone]

Thanks, get the picture now.

Re
No Allied units should be in the USSR at all / or completely free deployment

I think the Allies should be allowed to go to Russia. Stalin wanted 40 British divisions in late 1941 from Churchill, which of course the British did not have.
Maybe though some limits could apply.
What about the otherway round though? I don't think Stalin would have allowed Soviet units to operate in areas outside his control.

 

[SkyVon]

Part I

WOW, that’s got to be the mother of all house rules! Makes note not to play Mantis a game of EA...will cause headaches

Flying HQs... Airbase to airbase only, and Student HQ anywhere?

Never used this one...never seen it done in a game

Supply drain attacks - first attack on a given hex always open, but the 1:3 ration after that?

I've never cared for this house rule. It's all part of the game, IMO.

Neutral air to rest

A must rule...should be "official".

Neutral nations not allowed to move their armies and reinforcements until at war; neutral majors may redeploy, but no 'scouting' with navies even if transporting units

A must rule...should be "official".

No naval blockaded of Malta with 'neutral' navies that can't be attacked

This one makes sense...Vichy Navy blockades Malta. LOL. Note that the same can be said for east side of Gibraltar. In fact, at the first opening (3 hexes wide) a, ahem, savvy player can place a lone Vichy fleet in the middle hex forcing the Allies to move next to it and thus, releasing those Vichy units.

Italy can move units within her borders and also to North Africa

Falls under the house rule already listed above.

ANY assault on Malta (and other such places) must cover the sea road with a navy, embarked HQ, etc. to prevent a cheap retreat

I do not like this rule. Placing ANY unit on that road hex is tantamount to suicide. I've run tests and a navy placed on the road hex is cannon fodder (was wiped out nearly 100% of the time). A ground unit placed on that road hex will no longer be a "naval" unit thus increasing the attack of that unit (I believe this is correct). Best to leave that road alone and just deal with what we have (until the day that we see the patch).

 

[SkyVon]

Part II

Gentleman's rule; we won't attempt much in the way of gamey tactics? Such as taking 20 fortified points of Brits out of Gibraltar with 1/3 of a brigade repeatedly, of Vichy French, etc?

Who's to say the Germans wouldn't use some active Vichy in an attack on Gib? Don't tie a players hands too much here.

No Allied units should be in the USSR at all / or completely free deployment

If you go with the former, shouldn't that also read "no USSR units outside of Russia and its neighbors?" I.e. no Russians in England. I agree with this part; however, there are times where that Indian Div in Iran has no choice BUT to move into Russia. You could also have UK units around Narvik that are pushed towards Murmansk.

Amphibious landings in non port hexes? Yes or no?

No. Isn't this part of the "official" and not "house" rules?

No disbands.

Isn't this part of the "official" and not "house" rules?

Minors must stick to their outlined boundaries

Not sure what your saying here. Are you talking about Guerilla and minor country Communist units? If so, then yes. (this needs to be in the rules.) If your referring to their regulars, then I have to say no.

Nations in 'deaththroes' may attack at will; ie - no ratio restrictins, etc. (Deaththroes being deinfed as their capital captured, or surrender conditions met)

Falls under the heading "let the players play".

If Russia falls, all 'Allies in Russia' restrictions are lifted.

See above.

Allow surrender or play until the end of scenario?

Have yet to see a game play until the end. How can you force someone to finish this monster if all hope is lost? If this is required then the scenario should be renamed Marquis de Sade or MS for short

Entrench anywhere you like, but not just for the sake of entrenching

Entrench only along rivers, or in/around cities.

Entrench anywhere within 2 hexes of enemy units.

Anywhere you little heart desires

I guess you can see I'm pretty much anti-houserule. The bastages :angry:

 

[Siberian HEAT]

Do the scneario notes explicitly prohibit disembarking amphibious units on non-port hexes?

The reason it is a "house rule" is because some people claim it is not allowed, while many of us believe what the manual says - saying you can disembark anywhere you like after waiting one turn at sea.

Some of these house rules are scenario specific, while others are applicable to any scenario. Maybe we are just constructing a global house rule sheet?

The bit about Vichy attacking Gibraltar does not say that Vichy units cannot attack at ALL. There was a case where one small Vichy unit was able to destroy all of the Gibraltar units by itself. The "gentlemen's agreement" was saying that a proper force must be used to take over the "Rock" instead of what was effectively lucky dice rolls.

 

[Wolf]

One that seems to have missed the net is a range restriction on Paradrops - 12 hexes?

 

[SkyVon]

The bit about Vichy attacking Gibraltar does not say that Vichy units cannot attack at ALL. There was a case where one small Vichy unit was able to destroy all of the Gibraltar units by itself. The "gentlemen's agreement" was saying that a proper force must be used to take over the "Rock" instead of what was effectively lucky dice rolls.

Wait a minute! Are you saying that a few of those surrendering-sun soaked Frenchmen couldn't take the Rock? C'mon...get serious

How on earth did he accomplish that?!?

 

[Siberian HEAT]

One that seems to have missed the net is a range restriction on Paradrops - 12 hexes?

That is a good one...although in our game I think I sent some paras up to Narvik (slightly out of the 12 hex range). :surprise: I haven't heard of or used this rule personally, although generally players agree not to use Paras in suicide missions like using them to take Baku one turn into the Russian invasion...or using them to block supply in the rear hexes of the Soviet Union. This is what Shane and I agreed upon.

Where did 12 hexes come from?

 

[Wolf]

Where did 12 hexes come from?

I forget where I saw it, in a thread on here - the question mark denoted that I wasn't sure of the exact range.

 

[SkyVon]

Some of these house rules are scenario specific, while others are applicable to any scenario. Maybe we are just constructing a global house rule sheet?

If that is the case then, my mistake(s). I thought you were just talking about house rules for EA.

 

[Mark Stevens]

Twenty hexes will allow paras to carry out UK - Arnhem, North Africa - Sicily, Greece - Crete, Germany/Denmark - southern Norway, although in theory it's well short of the maximum range of a Ju52.

I still don't approve of 'supply drain' attacks full stop (period, for our American friends). Even if you limit them, it's bending the game engine.
I'd never attack at less than 1:1 raw strength unless it's some encircled unit trying to bust out, and even then I wouldn't deliberately limit all my other attacks to allow another nine-tenths of a turn. Surely it's not the 'Operational Art of War' if your game strategy is basically micro-managing all your attacks to get the supply drain effect for as long as possible, then finishing the turn with a mighty assault? I won't mention it again. :hush:

 

[Mantis]

Part I

(supply drain attacks) I've never cared for this house rule. It's all part of the game, IMO.

I recently ate the entire maginot line using 1/3rd of an infantry korp to do the attacking. The entire line of forts destroyed for about 300 HRSs.

This one makes sense...Vichy Navy blockades Malta. LOL. Note that the same can be said for east side of Gibraltar. In fact, at the first opening (3 hexes wide) a, ahem, savvy player can place a lone Vichy fleet in the middle hex forcing the Allies to move next to it and thus, releasing those Vichy units.

You're not able to move any of the Vichy units unless they are already active. And that would be one dead navy!

I do not like this rule. Placing ANY unit on that road hex is tantamount to suicide. I've run tests and a navy placed on the road hex is cannon fodder (was wiped out nearly 100% of the time). A ground unit placed on that road hex will no longer be a "naval" unit thus increasing the attack of that unit (I believe this is correct). Best to leave that road alone and just deal with what we have (until the day that we see the patch).

I think you misunderstand. You use something like an HQ, or a tiny ant that you embark, or even a navy. But you don't keep it there. It leaves after the assault. If you use a land unit, you do not use that unit in the assault. I like to use an HQ if I can't spare the navies, and after taking Malta, the HQ can complete it's move by going to shore somewhere. Even if you get a turn end, it's only an HQ, and they reconstitute. Also - you wouldn't believe the difference it makes to the defenders when there is no possibility of a retreat...