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Has this ever happened to you?
What a game! After eight rounds of brutal combat, you finally have Germany hemmed into Berlin with no hope of escape. The British economy has revitalized itself upon the spoils of Europe and Russia remains well defended against the Japanese. Only two conquests remain. Crushing the Nazi capital and choking off Japan's income flow. Victory is in the air. |
Your Japanese opponent is scratching her head. A faint glow of hope remains in the back of her eyes. Finally, she throws down 30 ipcs and proclaims, "I must have Heavy Bombers!" You don't even break a sweat... what are the odds, this is ridiculous. "Come play the game or surrender..." But wait, she just rolled a six. Unbelievable!
You smirk, "So what, all you're gonna get is super subs or something worthless". Silence fills the room. "Noooooo! It can't be! Not a six!" You take a deep breath and assure yourself that certainly the British or the Americans will have the same luck.
As your opponent uses the rest of her cash to buy 1 bomber, the flame of hope in her eyes is now glowing red hot. Quickly, she moves her bomber to Russia. Boom! $11 damage, ouch. Not to worry though, the Americans are next.
Calmly, you buy 6 developments as well. You roll 2 sixes and eventually get, Super Subs and Jet Fighters. The UK follows a similar unlucky pattern. Within a few turns, the Japanese are pounding your collective economies into the pavement. There is no chance now of ever getting Heavy Bombers and the Germans may bust out of Berlin very soon.
Without hope of victory you finally surrender, cursing the very game you love.
Time for a Change
Many of us have both won and lost games simply because of one (un)lucky roll of the dice. In some cases, this spoils the strategy aspect of the game. If you agree, you may want to consider implementing one of the following house rules into your games to neutralize the impact of Heavy Bombers.
No Heavy Bombers allowed. A very straight forward option to Heavy Bomber question: Simply do not allow them in the game.
Use 2 Dice instead of 3, when rolling for heavy bombers. Although, this doesn't completely negate the impact of heavy bombers, it certainly gives those without the technology a fighting chance.
1 Heavy Bomber Mission per turn. According to the designers of the game, Heavy Bombers were meant to represent the A-Bomb. Realistically, the A-Bomb was very difficult develop and it would have taken a long time to place it into mass production. Therefore, to represent this difficultly, A-bombs (Heavy Bombers) should only be allowed to be used once per round. For example, if Japan has the technology Heavy Bombers and she has three bombers on the board, only one of those bombers will be allowed to roll all three dice when attacking or performing a strategic bombing run.
$30 Heavy Bombers to reflect the increase in cost it would take to perform Atomic Bombings during WWII, the initial cost of purchasing a heavy bomber could be increased to $30. This would dampen the initial impact of Heavy Bombers, giving the opponent a few extra rounds to react to the crisis.
Original Rules only. Leave the game alone, cry baby.
The Last Word
No matter which option you feel is best, make sure to agree with your opponents
upon any rules changes before your game starts. A simple
sheet listing the "house rules" that will be in play
during your game is a simple, but effective tool for resolving disputes.
Finally, we'd want to hear from you! Take our poll
and let us know which optional rule you like best. Also, join us on the
Message Board for further debate. May all
the technologies be yours, before it is too late.
Heavy Bombers' and Other Poll Results.
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