John Griffey
Desiderata: Wonder Weapons should be strategically significant surprises which are qualitatively distinct, equal in value, minimally luck dependent, minimally complicated, maximally realistic.
A Research Program for any given Weapon costs an initial 20 IPC and nothing thereafter. The Research Program rolls one die per Develop Weapons Phase until it succeeds in developing the Weapon. It succeeds on a "1" on the turn it is purchased, on a "1 or 2" on the subsequent turn, on a "1,2, or 3" on following turn, etc., etc., until success is certain on a "1,2,3,4,5, or 6." No more than one Research Program per Weapon is permitted. More than one Research Program at a time for different Weapons is permitted. The Weapon only becomes available at the end of the player's turn. Its identity remains a secret (card face down) until it is used.
(This should encourage Weapons development. In the meantime there's a war going on and players can't neglect the need to build new units. If you spend 20 IPC on a Research Program on your Turn 1, the probability of developing the Weapon is 16.7% at the end of your Turn 1, 27.8% at the end of your Turn 2, 27.8% at the end of your Turn 3, 18.5% at the end of your Turn 4, 7.2% at the end of your Turn 5, and 1.54% at the end of your Turn 6, for a cumulative probability of 100%.)
To add suspense and variety to the at-start set-up,each Power at game start, in Order of Play, does one of two things: A) Spends 20 IPC on units which are immediately placed on the board; OR B) Draws a random Weapon card, inspects it, and holds the Weapon at game-start, or, rejects the Weapon and instead holds an extra 20 IPC in hand at game-start. HISTORICAL NOTE: Instead of randomly dealing each Power a Weapon at start, you could give each Power its historical at-start Weapon or Research Program. USSR: Heavy Tanks Research Program. Germany: Blitzkrieg Weapon. Great Britain: Intelligence Weapon. Japan: Fanaticism Research Program. USA: War Mobilization Research Program.
Ace. Heavy Bombers. Your Bombers now roll two dice in Strategic Bombing Raids.
King. Long Range Aircraft. Your Fighters have a Movement Allowance of 6. Your Bombers have a Movement Allowance of 8.
Queen. Improved Fighters. A) Increase attack & defense strengths of Fighters by +1. B) The presence of an Improved Fighter in a territory under Strategic Bomber attack decreases each enemy Strategic Bombing die by 1 point. Example: a roll of "5" now becomes a "4." C) In the first round of a naval combat, Improved Fighters fire first, even before Submarines fire, and their hits are preemptive against any non-Fighter they target. In this first round, all enemy Fighters must be targeted by at least one Improved Fighter before Improved Fighters target any non-Fighters.
Jack. Rockets. Each of your territories with an AAA Gun may roll one die against one enemy Industrial Complex (IC) up to three spaces away, subtracting enemy IPC equal to the die roll. An enemy IC territory may only be rocketed once per Conduct Combat Phase.
10. Super-Submarines. A) Your Subs now attack and defend at 3. B) Super-Subs may fire preemptively at any enemy Transport not matched at least 1:1 by an enemy Destroyer, rolling two dice per Super-Sub (giving you a 75% chance of a hit). C) If you have only Super-Subs engaged in a Naval Combat, 2 is the maximum strength of any enemy unit in Round 1.
9. Fleet Train. A) All your Naval units (except Subs and Transports) now have a Combat Movement allowance of 3. B) All your Naval units (including Subs and Transports) have a Non-Combat Movement Allowance of 4.
8. Gunnery. A) Your Destroyers may now Shore Bombard at strength 3. B) Your Battleships now attack, defend, & Shore Bombard at strength 5. C) Your Anti-Aircraft now attack at strength 1, defend at strength 3, and may be taken to satisfy a hit in land combat. Anti-Aircraft in Round 1 may not both fire at Aircraft and defend at 3. They may do one or the other. D) Your attacking or defending Artillery now bombards in the first round of combat, after Anti-Aircraft fire and any Blitzkrieg Fighter attacks. Each bombarding Artillery rolls separately, a number of dice equal to the number of enemy Infantry remaining after the last bombarding Artillery fired. Each die hits on a "1," and all hits are against Infantry and are preemptive--the Infantry which is hit may not fire. No one Artillery unit may roll more than 6 dice. Artillery units fire normally in the subsequent rounds. Amphibiously invading Artillery may not bombard.
9. Radar. A) Your AAA now hits aircraft on a roll of 1 or 2. B) Decrease the impact of each enemy Rocket and Strategic Bombing attack die roll against you by 1 point, if you have an AAA and a Fighter in the attacked territory. The 1 point reduction applies to each die, so if the enemy throws three dice the hits are reduced 3 points. C) Radar directed AAA now fires at each & every Aircraft the instant they Combat Move into the AAA's territory, not just when the AAA's territory is attacked. (I know, in A&A Revised, the AAA already does this--I'm amending the rule to allow it only to Radar directed AAA.) D) After enemy Combat Movement, you may move any Fighter(s) not pinned by an equal number of enemy Fighters to defend an adjacent space.
8. Heavy Tanks. Your Tanks attack and defend at 4.
7. Intelligence. Once per enemy turn, when an enemy has completed all his Combat Movement, your units in one territory or sea zone may move to an adjacent friendly controlled territory, or to a sea zone. Moving into or out of an embattled space containing enemy units is permitted but not required. Intelligence negates, and is negated by, enemy Intelligence.
6. Continental Railroad Grid (CRG). A) In Non-Combat Movement, your Artillery, Infantry, and AAA may move two spaces. B) You may now take control of any Neutral territory, if and when 1) the Neutral territory is still Neutral, 2) is adjacent to any territory you control, and 3) is not adjacent to any enemy controlled territory. Such previously Neutral territories remain impassable to the enemy, unless he obtains CRG. Each neutral territory so controlled is worth 1 IPC of income and comes with 1 Infantry in-place when it falls to your control. (Exception: the Himalayas and Sahara Desert may never be entered by any player.) C) Your Factories now cost 10 IPC.
5. Production Technology. Cut IPC costs to the following: Bombers 12, Fighters 8, Battleships 18, Aircraft Carriers 12, Destroyers 9, Subs 6, Transports 6, Tanks & AAA 4, Artillery 3, Infantry 2 for 5 IPC.
4. Fanaticism. A) Your Infantry in or adjacent to your Capital defends at 3 and (in the first round of combat only) attacks at 2. (Exceptions: All Japanese Infantry in Japan, Okinawa, Caroline Is., and Wake, and all British Infantry in Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand defend at 4 in the first round of combat; in all other rounds, they defend at 3. British Infantry defend at 3 in Canada. USA Infantry defend at 3 in Western USA, Sinkiang and China. USSR Infantry defends at 3 in Karelia.) B) You may sacrifice Industrial Complexes and Antiaircraft units to satisfy hits. C) The enemy must, with at least one Infantry, garrison each of your at-start territories he controls, or he cannot draw any IPC income from it. (Exceptions: West Russia and Belorussia are USSR territory, and Kwangtung is Chinese territory for purposes of this rule.) D) The enemy does not take IPC income if he takes your Capital -- all such IPC are destroyed.
3. Blitzkrieg. A) Your Fighters, attacking or defending in the first fire round of any land combat, fire first, immediately after AAA fire. Your Fighters must target each enemy Aircraft, if possible, with at least one Fighter. Enemy Fighters may not target your Fighters unless they too have Blitzkrieg. If you have more Fighters than the enemy has Aircraft, your surplus Fighters may target any enemy unit, killing it preemptively--the killed enemy unit may not fire. B) In any Round of land combat, if there are no enemy Tanks or Fighters defending in a territory, your attacking Tanks add one (+1) to their attack strengths.
2. War Mobilization. A) Double the IPC income of all your territories containing Industrial Complexes (IC). War Mobilization does not double the total number of units you may build in an IC territory. The enemy does not enjoy double IPC income if he takes one of your "Mobilized" IC territories. B) War Mobilization increases your cost to build new Industrial Complexes to 25 IPC. C) You may now build Infantry in any of your at-start territories, but no more than the IPC value of the territory. (Exceptions: Japan may not build Infantry in French Indochina, Borneo, New Guinea, Philippines, or Kwangtung. Germany may not build Infantry in Belorussia or West Russia. The natives were not friendly.)
JOKER. (Germany and USA only). Atomic Bomb. Double the dice thrown by your Rockets or attacking Heavy Bombers in Strategic Attacks, only.