IIRC the Jumbos and Heavies simply added either one (or two with the Heavies) support weapons pods or cargo pods? (Heavies had to be matched sets).

Can someone research and report on this?

By Stewart Frazier (Frazikar3) on Saturday, March 02, 2024 - 08:07 pm: Edit

Quick look at the various JAx, JBX, and HAx shows an LAx with one support pod (JAx) or two support pods (HAx), the JBx is an SAx with two support pods. Normal support pod cost is 2 EP for upgrades (S>L>J>H).

By Chuck Strong (Raider) on Sunday, March 03, 2024 - 01:27 am: Edit

Can someone chart out all the current PUBLISHED Jumbo/Heavy combos and post here what 'aft' combat support or cargo pods were added these types auxes.

By John M. Williams (Jay) on Sunday, March 03, 2024 - 11:27 am: Edit

I'm curious to see if anyone can top this exercise in futility. I had the Coalition attack Hydrax on CT4 to eliminate the PDUs (and even potentially capture the entire system with favorable rolling). Instead, my rolls for the five attack rounds were: 1, 1, 1, 2, 1. Adding insult to injury, the Hydrans probably averaged a little over 4. I then retreated with a big pile of crippled and destroyed ships. Of course, I did finally manage to roll a 5 when checking a mauler for shock during the pursuit battle.

By Mike Erickson (Mike_Erickson) on Sunday, March 03, 2024 - 11:31 am: Edit

The heartbreak of F&E!

--Mike

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Sunday, March 03, 2024 - 02:50 pm: Edit

John

I certiainly have rolled alot of poor dice - but that is 'pretty impressive' (for the wrong reasons).

The only saving grace is the Hydrans didn't roll really well!!

1 v 5 for 5 rounds would not be nice!

By Kevin Howard (Jarawara) on Sunday, March 03, 2024 - 11:18 pm: Edit

Worst one I ever saw was in a game of Axis and Allies. Turn 1 German player decides he wants to kill the British Battleship off Gibraltar. So he sends his own Battleship, two submarines, 3 fighters, his bomber, and also has a transport with an infantry to take Gibraltar afterwards.

1st round, he rolls with his subs (needs to roll low). A 5 and a 6. Ok, his fighters, 4, 5, 6. Ok... his Battleship and Bomber, needs only a 4 or lower... a 5 and a 6. British roll a 2, and the German takes the hit on one of his subs.

2nd round, a 3!... needed a 2 or lower with subs. Fighters... 6, 6, 5. Battleships and Bomber, pair of 6's. British roll a 4, that hits. German needs their sub, so they lose a fighter.

3rd round, rinse, repeat, lose another fighter.

4th round, rinse, repeat, lose the last fighter.

5th round, well technically we don't need to take Gibraltar, so the transport is given up as a free hit.

6th round... we really didn't need that sub, did we?

7th round, still not a single hit, take another, the German player decides the Bomber is cheaper than the Battleship, so it dies.

8th round. It's now Battleship vs Battleship. German player rolls. Gets a 5, no hit. British player rolls. A 6! No hit!!! German player leaps to his feet with a cheer, dances a victory dance, and then settles down to finish this fight.

9th round. German player misses. British player hits. German player loses his Battleship, and, well, the whole game.


I didn't have the heart to tell him that had he rolled a hit in the 1st round, avoided any casualties, he'd still have lost to me for overcommitting too much in one spot, when he really needs to accomplish so much more on the 1st turn, all over the board. Of course, with those dice, he would have lost all the various small battles anyway.

By John M. Williams (Jay) on Monday, March 04, 2024 - 10:50 am: Edit

I am notorious for my inability to roll dice, which is why in SFB I usually play the plasma races. No photon torpedo rolls for me!!!

By Timothy Linden (Timlinden) on Monday, March 04, 2024 - 03:31 pm: Edit

I had some friends playing World in Flames. Nov-Dec 1939, and Poland had units next to Berlin, hoping to take it....

The German player left too much on the French border, then proceeded to roll horrible in multiple battles, where Poland's counterattacks got pretty well much the best results possible. At least it was the first game for both of them!

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Monday, March 04, 2024 - 04:34 pm: Edit

I have done several WiF Games - and that German player did alot wrong - irrelevant to dice!

But saying that - some games do have slim chances of a major outcome.

The Original Third Reich had the Poles able to smash the German Assault on Warsaw (assuming the Germans went for a turn 1 'win').

With good set up the Poles couild ensure the Germans at best could only attack Warsaw on 2:1 odds....

and there was a 1 in 6 chance of a Polish Counter attack at 1:1.... which had a 1 in 6 chance of all the original German attackers being killed.

Think it only happened once!

By Douglas Lampert (Dlampert) on Monday, March 04, 2024 - 09:35 pm: Edit

Yeah, but the Germans in old Third Reich make so MANY important attacks at 2-1, that eventually that 1 in 36 chance almost always came up to bite them and kill a bunch of panzers and leave a hole in the line right before the alliance turn.

It seems like every game I played involved the German player saying, if only I hadn't gotten wiped on that 2-1 attack I would have...

By John M. Williams (Jay) on Monday, March 04, 2024 - 10:39 pm: Edit

My single worst die roll was in a game of World in Flames. I was the Axis, and between a few of my maneuvers that worked really well and a few of my opponent's mistakes, by late fall of '41 I had reduced Russia to virtually nothing. He had a few counters near Leningrad, a few in the Caucuses, and then the rest of the country was open for the taking. I had to roll for weather, and anything 2 or higher pretty much guaranteed Russia would fall before the end of 1941. I rolled a 1: "mud." My invasion ground to a halt, and by the time spring '42 rolled around, he had completely recovered.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Tuesday, March 05, 2024 - 02:21 am: Edit

Ahhh - an Armchair General's Worst Nightmare.... .a 1 at the wrong time

By Sean Dzafovic (Sdzafovic) on Tuesday, March 05, 2024 - 11:00 am: Edit

I lost the Enemy's Blood SB to the most horrendous succession of 6/1 splits I've ever seen.

The Lyran defenders should have been able to keep the Fartbreathers away, but nope!

By Mike Dowd (Mike_Dowd) on Tuesday, March 05, 2024 - 12:05 pm: Edit

Best set of rolls I ever had was in a game of A&A Anniversary...

As the Soviets, I launched a human wave attack against the Ukraine, facing 5 armour and a few supporting infantry plus a couple of fighters.

I roll my heaping handful of 12 dice for the infantry into the box top we were using as a dice tray -- 9x 1's tumble up, and needless to say the battle was pretty much over before it go to round 2. He had 1 tank and 1 fighter left, and I miraculously survived with 7 infantry and my lone supporting tank.

By Daniel Glenn Knipfer (Dgknipfer) on Thursday, March 07, 2024 - 07:56 pm: Edit

I captured about 1/2 of the Fed 6th Fleet in one game as the Rom. By the time we ended that game I had the following;

DN+, CC, CA, CVB+2DE, 2NCL, 4FF, SC.

All in Rom Colors. Only reason I converted the FFs was because that gave me a BG, and a full battle line of Fed hulls.

And yet I still lost that game. Luck giveth, and luck taketh away.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Thursday, March 07, 2024 - 08:18 pm: Edit

---

Quote:

Luck giveth, and luck taketh away.

---

By Daniel Glenn Knipfer (Dgknipfer) on Wednesday, March 20, 2024 - 08:15 pm: Edit

Anybody have a clue as to what limit the Gorn CMV falls under? The Sit simply lists it as a medium carrier variant of the CM, and the Gorn OoB does not specify whether it falls under the HDV, CV, or CVS limits for production.

I would expect it to fall under the CVS limit, and am surprised that it is not listed as conjectural or limited production. The Gorn did not historically build any CVS hulls and the CMV has the same stats [10(6)/5(3)].

By Jason E. Schaff (Jschaff297061) on Wednesday, March 20, 2024 - 08:32 pm: Edit

From SFB R6.76, "At least three heavy destroyer carriers were converted during the period 176-180. Three names are provided in the description, including a note that one was converted during construction.

By Kevin Howard (Jarawara) on Thursday, March 21, 2024 - 09:45 am: Edit

To my knowledge there is no limit to the CMV. There should be, but I don't think there was ever any codified limit.

It's odd, because it means that the Gorn's most well known historical ship, the Archeopetrix, (I have no idea if I'm spelling that right, and I'm not gonna look it up now), would not only be famous for it's deeds, but also for the fact that it was the smallest medium carrier they ever built! All others would be built as CVS and CMV designs, and they left the lone CV as is because it... looked cute.

I don't think that's supposed to be the effect of the rules, but it does seem to be the case.

By Sam Benner (Nucaranlaeg) on Saturday, March 23, 2024 - 04:08 pm: Edit

So, there's a rule that I haven't seen used: (302.23) states that retreating after a declined approach battle gives a +1 on the pursuit die roll - so contact is made on 1-4 rather than 1-5.

Given that a) the attacker can offer an approach battle after any round of combat, b) especially early, the Alliance doesn't really want to fight open-space battles, and c) the Coalition can do this over a capital, this seems a really obvious thing to do all the time for the Coalition. Why wouldn't you want to keep your crippled maulers a little safer after stripping PDUs?

I haven't used this largely because my opponents have not - and I've mostly played Alliance, so it's not to my benefit. Is there a reason I haven't seen it used or do people just not know about it?

By Kevin Howard (Jarawara) on Saturday, March 23, 2024 - 04:17 pm: Edit

Yeah, I think everyone does this. One reason I don't see it often done is because the coalition comes in with enough to win, so it's the alliance retreating from the hex. But if it's just a raid, yeah, declare another approach round and if they don't come out to play, you're an easier die roll away from safety.

Basic rule on how to determine if you can retreat: If all you have are a couple of crippled E4E escorts in your line, and they can only put up a crap pursuit line, you'll escape just fine. If your B10 is crippled and they have a powerful pursuit line formed and are rolling hot, pursuit chance is 1-100 on a d6.

By Kevin Howard (Jarawara) on Saturday, March 23, 2024 - 04:19 pm: Edit

(I say "Everyone does this", but over in the F&E vassal thread Jason just pointed out a rule I had missed for the last decade!)

By Sam Benner (Nucaranlaeg) on Saturday, March 23, 2024 - 05:35 pm: Edit

I mean, Richard Eitzen never did in my games against him, and I just never brought it up...

By Warren Mathews (Turtle) on Saturday, March 23, 2024 - 08:54 pm: Edit

You might be more likely to see this when the coalition is leaving a raid on the capital hex for purporse of trying to avoid a pursuit battle to protect crippled ships from targeted destruction.

Now fast ships and x-ships will change the 1-4 back to a 1-5 for the purposes of (302.23).