ARGO'S MIDDLEWEIGHT 1942
Welcome to Argo's Middleweight Map! My goal in creating this map was to offer a WW2 experience that is more realistic and flexible than traditional maps like 1942.2, Anniversary, and Global without adding much more in the way of extra territories or extra rules. Instead of using national objectives, I've simply made each territory worth at least $1. Instead of asking players to build harbors and airbases, I've put islands in the middle of multiple sea zones so that owning islands naturally extends your forces' mobility. Instead of throwing a ton of 1-IPC "barrier territories" in Siberia and western China, I've tried to simply give the Russians and the Chinese enough resources and enough plausible Factory sites that they have a reasonable chance to defend themselves against early Japanese attacks. My hope is that this new map will offer you enough different pathways to make interesting strategic decisions, but not so many that you get bogged down in micro-management.
This is an beta version -- it should be fully playable, but you may find some minor bugs or an unbeatable strategy. Please read the notes all the way through, play at your own risk, and send feedback to Argothair or to jasongreenlowe@gmail.com.
| Alliances | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Axis | Allies | ||
| Germans | |||
| French | |||
| Russians | |||
| Japanese | |||
| British | |||
| Italians | |||
| Americans | |||
| Chinese | |||
(Nations listed in their Turn Order.)
| Land Units | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unit | Name | Att | Def | Move | Cost | Special Abilities | |
| Infantry | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | Fits on Cutter | ||
| Artillery | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | |||
| Flak | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | AAA @1 on off., @2 on def. | ||
| Jeep | 2 | 1 | 3 | 5 | Blitz | ||
| Halftrack | 2 | 4 | 2 | 5 | Blitz | ||
| Tank | 4 | 3 | 2 | 6 | Blitz | ||
| Commando | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | Fits on Cutter, Glider, or Cruiser; no amphib. penalty | ||
| Naval Units | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unit | Name | Att | Def | Move | Cost | Special Abilities |
| Cutter | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | Carries 1 Inf. or Commando | |
| Submersible | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | Destroys up to 2 credits if adj. to land | |
| Destroyer | 2 | 3 | 2 | 6 | ||
| Transport | 0 | 1 | 2 | 7 | Carries 1 Inf/Commando plus 1 other land unit | |
| Cruiser | 3 | 3 | 3 | 9 | Bombards; carries 1 Commando | |
| Carrier | 1 | 2 | 2 | 11 | Carries any 2 planes | |
| Battleship | 5 | 4 | 2 | 13 | Bombards | |
| Air Units | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unit | Name | Air Att | Air Def | Land/Sea Att | Land/Sea Def | Move | Cost | Special Abilities |
| Biplane | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 8 | Scramble to adj. sea zone | |
| Fighter | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 12 | Scramble to adj. sea zone | |
| Interceptor | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 10 | Scramble to adj. sea zone | |
| Glider | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 8 | Carries 1 Commando | |
| Strategic Bomber | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 12 | Destroys 1d6 credits by raiding Factory/Barracks | |
| Dive Bomber | 0 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 14 | Scramble to adj. sea zone | |
| Buildings | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Unit | Name | Source | Effect |
| Factory | Cannot be built | Build any type of unit | |
| Barracks | Costs 10 credits | Build Inf, Art, Flak, Commando, Jeep, Cutter, Sub, DD, Transport, Biplane | |
| Bunker | Cannot be built | Static unit; defends at 4. Only one hit. | |
Welcome to Argo's Middleweight Map for 1942!
Several rules that are common in other versions of TripleA have been dropped from Argo's Middleweight maps to keep the overall weight of the game "medium." What this means is that more units now behave in a "default" way and do not have any special properties other than their attack/defense/move ratings.
- Submarines now behave like any other sea unit -- they no longer strike first, submerge, evade air units, ignore air units, or allow Transports to ignore them.
- Transports now behave like any other sea units -- they are not defenseless, and they can be chosen as casualties.
- Bombers no longer damage factories; instead they just cost you Production Units directly out of your treasury.
- Factories no longer have inherent AA capabilities; you must put air defenses with your factories if you want to protect them from bombers.
- AAA units (called Flak) are no longer treated as equipment or restricted to non-combat move; they move and fight just like any other unit.
- Artillery no longer 'boost' Infantry; instead Artillery just have a high attack and a low defense. They synergize well with Infantry, but they don't add a special bonus.
- All land units that can move more than one territory can always blitz. Empty neutral countries do not interrupt a blitz.
- You do not need a capital to produce units. If your enemy conquers your capital, they will steal your treasury for that turn, but next turn you can earn new income from your remaining territories and continue producing units as normal.
- Along similar lines, the Chinese economy works the same as everyone else's economy. They don't raise guerilla armies and they can only produce at Barracks and factories.
There are also a few new rules that are not found in other versions of TripleA:
- Submarine Blockades: Each submarine next to *any* land territory will reduce that territory's income by 2 points, down to a minimum of 0. The game will report this income loss as a "blockade."
- Air Superiority Battles: Any battles that include both air units and anti-air units (Flak, Biplanes, Interceptors, or Fighters) will have a single round of air superiority combat that precedes the main battle. You will have to click on the "air battle" from the list of battles during your turn, just like you have to resolve sea battles before you can resolve an amphibious assault. The game will enforce this rule for you when playing against humans. The AI sometimes ignores this rule, which generates a harmless error message.
- Downgrade Captured Factories: When you capture your enemy's Factory, it is automatically downgraded to a Barracks. When you capture your enemy's Barracks, it is automatically destroyed, but you can pay to rebuild it later.
- Heavy Units Need Major Factories: High-tech units like Halftracks, Tanks, Cruisers, Carriers, Battleships, Interceptors, Gliders, Bombers, and Fighters can only be built in your starting factories. If all of your factories are destroyed, this means you will no longer be able to build these units! China does not start with any proper factories, so they cannot build these units.
- Amphibious Assault Penalty: Artillery, Tanks, Jeeps, and Halftracks only attack at 1 during an amphibious assault. This penalty only applies to the units that are actually exiting from a boat; if you mix a regular assault and an ambphibious assault, then the units that attacked by land will keep their normal attack values. Air units and naval bombardments still work at regular strength.
- Paratroopers: Each Glider aircraft can carry one Commando unit as cargo. The Glider and Commando must begin their movement from the same territory. They can travel as part of the combat move, or as part of the non-combat move. You do not need any technology to use paratroopers. Paratroopers can conquer an enemy territory, but their Glider will still have to return to a territory that was friendly at the beginning of your turn, just like other air units. Paratroopers cannot be intercepted, so make sure to garrison your factories if your opponent has a Commando and Glider nearby. To activate a paratrooper, do not click on the Commando. Instead, click on the Glider plane(s) and give the Glider plane(s) orders. You will then be prompted to choose how many paratroopers to load onto the Glider plane(s).
- Fast Cruisers: Each Cruiser can carry one Commando unit as cargo. The Cruiser can pick up and unload the Commando just like a Transport would, but each Cruiser can only carry one Commando at a time, and Cruisers cannot carry any other units. Unlike other ships, Cruisers can move up to 3 spaces! This is enough to cross an entire ocean, so be sure to garrison your factories if your opponent has both Cruisers and Commandos in your region.
- Slow Cutters: A Cutter is the cheapest naval unit; it represents patrol boats, landing crafts, and other very small vessels that would operate near the coastline. Each Cutter can carry one Infantry or Commando, but the Cutter can only move one space. Unlike regular Transports, Cutters have a modest combat ability; they hit on a roll of 1 on both offense and defense.
- Automatic Scrambles: You can scramble an unlimited amount of Biplanes, Interceptors, and Fighters from any territory you control into adjacent sea zones. This means that the main point of Carriers is to project air power into sea zones where you do not control (or cannot protect) any territories.
- Canals: There are several canals where you must control the relevant territor(ies) in order to pass through with any surface ships. Submarines and air units can always get through canals, even if you don't own any of the territories. Canals are marked with one or two blue dots showing the territories that must be owned. I believe the game will automatically enforce these restrictions; plesae let me know if you see any problems. There is also one "land canal", marked with red circles. You must own Stalingrad in order to pass overland from South Russia to the Volga or from the Volga to South Russia.
- Opportunistic Colonies: Most colonies and client states (Cuba, Morocco, Sudan, Azerbaijan, etc.) have their original owners treated as neutral, so any friendly power can liberate them. For example, if America lands in an Italian-occupied Morocco, it will become American, not French. By contrast, core territories (e.g. Southeast US, Normandy, Sicily, Caucasus, etc.) have their original owners hard-coded into the game. If America lands in a German-occupied Normandy, it will become French, not American. This has nothing to do with whether a nation currently owns its capital.
Strategy Hints:
- The initial setup for 1942 is intentionally complex -- it is meant to be a more advanced game than the 1939 map that demands a higher level of skill. There are enough possible strikes in enough different directions that even the designer does not know what strategies are best. However, I will say that on turn 1, the Axis powers are intended to be able to conquer some but not all of the Allied territories on their borders. The Germans, for example, can strike at Leningrad, Central Russia, the Caucasus, Malta, Cairo, and Palestine...but not all of those all on the first turn. Most of those territories will be immediately reconquered by your opponent (often at a profit) unless you focus your attacks and stack the territories with extra infantry. Historically, the Axis did launch simultaneous attacks along a broad front in 1942, which led to short-term gains followed by a decisive reversal within about two turns of TripleA gameplay. If you want to do better than history, you will probably need to choose some theaters where you are merely holding the line, or at least choose some theaters where you will wait a turn before attacking so that you can bring up more forces and concentrate your air support.
- The Allies start with a production advantage of 46 PUs per turn -- roughly enough cash to buy the Axis units shown in Army Group South, in southern Ukraine. At first, most of this cash will be needed to shut down German submarines, contain the Japanese fleets in the central Pacific, and shore up vulnerable production centers like Egypt, Chongqing, Calcutta, Sydney, Omsk, and potentially even Moscow. The Allies will also need some way of ferrying resources from the United States to the front lines -- either gliders and cruisers that carry commandos, or ordinary transports plus enough warships to defend them, or just long-range airplanes with a handful of reasonably well-guarded island bases as waystations. The Allies also need some kind of beachhead -- ampihbious invasions are challenging because all land units except commandos attack at only 1 strength when unloading from a boat, so if the Axis are able to fortify all of the relevant beaches, then the Allies may be delayed for several turns while they wear down enemy defenses. If the Allies can protect their capitals, protect their sea zones, and secure a beachhead while they are still out-earning the Axis by a wide margin, then it will be relatively easy to finish the job and win the war. Thus, the pressure is on the Axis to either knock out some Allied capitals or simply seize enough valuable territories to achieve economic parity before the Allies can begin seriously attacking the Axis homelands.
- One final note on bunkers, which are more common on the 1942 map than on the 1939 map. The bunkers represent both literal fortifications (e.g. for Leningrad and Moscow) and difficult terrain (e.g. for Murmansk, the Urals, and Siberia.) Forces defending in a territory with bunkers will get an implicit force multiplier, because the bunker keeps rolling at 4 defense during each round of combat that your ground forces are able to protect it. Once a bunker is destroyed, it cannot be rebuilt. Sometimes it is worthwhile to attack a lightly-guarded territory with a bunker even if you do not need its PUs or even if you do not plan to keep the territory for very long, to avoid the risk that later your opponent will be able to stuff the territory full of infantry and create a prohibitively expensive wall.
Known Bugs:
- Some territories appear twice on the list of options for where to bombard. Choose the first one and it should work fine.
- I'd like to make the penalty for unloading heavy equipment from a Transport optional, but I haven't yet figured out how to do this.
Credits Primary design by Argothair. Thank you to SIEG's World at War team for the graphic design template used in these notes, Black Elk and the POS 2 team for sample XML and guidance on overall map design, Beelee for XML technical support, Vodot and Barnee for moral support, Karl7 and Angel for playtesting, and the entire Bay Area A&A crew for keeping the game alive.
Nations: Germans French Russians Japanese British Americans Italians Chinese
Units: Infantry Artillery Commando Jeep Halftrack Tank Flak Cutter Submersible Destroyer Transport Cruiser Carrier Battleship Biplane Fighter Interceptor Glider Stratbomber Divebomber Bunker Barracks Factory
