A few idea's

To start out with I like the game as is, however, here is just a dream list that probably won't make it in the game.

Fuel for air units - Due to air transports ruling the skies, here is a way to nerf them. Give them a fuel/turn restraint so they need to return to base. Say maybe 4 turns of movement (not including non-movement turns). This will prohibit their global sky movement. On the fourth move have them be destroyed if they do not land in a base. Troops can still live as they exit the plane already as coded.

Aircraft Carrier - Fuel for aircraft will force a new ship to arrive to the scene. Bombers and maybe stealth bombers having fuel requirements, will force navies to produce and protect base's at sea the air craft carrier. Pretty self explanitory really.

APC and/or cargo truck - A land unit that moves about as far or farther than the tank, able to carry troops via ground. The apc (ex. Bradely) could have a weaker attack than the tank but still be useful in battle. The cargo truck strength will be around the same as an air/sea transport.

Attack Helicopters/ASW Helicopters - Two units designed (bonus ability) to attack land vehicles/submarines respectively.

Strategic phase - Certain units having the ability to "bombard". Before the movment phase certain units have the ability to fire on other certain units. Battleships firing on other battleships or land targets, submarines firing at surface ships. Bombers bombing cities, all having a certain range of fire. This will prohibit units from Running during regular movement/attack phase.

With this phase a few more types of units could be introduced...

Destroyer - exceeding in detecting submarines and aircraft and able to fire "bombard" or atleast a bonus against submariens and aircraft in a very short range (will still have to catch the sub during movement phase as in real life)

Fighters - bonus against other planes/able to bombard "planes" at a certain range.

Rocket/Missile Truck - Vehicles that can bombard cities from a distance.

Rocket/Missile ammunition - supply for trucks as listed above and possibly submarines, as the unit might be to well used during the game, they will need to be resupplied, via, cargo plane, cargo truck, cargo ship during movement phase. Rockets being cheaper, have longer range, but less likely to hit targets based on rolls. Missiles, more expensive, shorter range, more likely to hit their target. Fire and forget ammo.

Afterwind - Nuclear missile varient.

Edited for grammar and spelling.

Curiously enough, Amok had a very similar idea for planes using up fuel - so far we've done nothing about it, but it might be implemented in the future.

Your suggestions for units are not bad - but as stated elsewhere, we're not introducing any more base units (ones you can buy in cities). We are, however, working on dozens of rare units, which will be awarded randomly or through cards.

I really like the fuel and APC ideas. Maybe have certain cities that only offer "refueling".

These are my comments to your suggestions:

Wr1tt3n by JackHunter, 12.01.2011 at 07:09

Fuel for air units

I suggest increasing range of air units but also forcing them to both start and finish their turns at the airport. You use half of the air transports range to get far into the enemy territory, and then you use second half of the range to return. If you don't the airplane crashes. Some random units would be free of this effect. Seaplane would be able to finish it's turn everywhere on the water and helicopter everywhere on the land, and both these units would have their range way smaller than other flying units.

Wr1tt3n by JackHunter, 12.01.2011 at 07:09

Aircraft Carrier

Transport for the airplanes and mobile airport for the above idea.

Wr1tt3n by JackHunter, 12.01.2011 at 07:09

APC and/or cargo truck

The subject of APCs was already rised on the forum. You must know that Infantry is already using APCs! You just have to use your imagination to see them ingame. This is modern war, no leader sends his troops without solid support of vehicles :D.

Wr1tt3n by JackHunter, 12.01.2011 at 07:09

Attack Helicopters/ASW Helicopters - Two units designed (bonus ability) to attack land vehicles/submarines respectively.

I personally suggested some time ago to introduce helicopters. Discussion didn't last for long. Reasons to not include them given by devs were good enough, though it would, in fact, be nice to see them sometimes as a bonus unit. The game is evolving all the time and at some points the need for such unit may become noticable.

Wr1tt3n by JackHunter, 12.01.2011 at 07:09

Strategic phase - Certain units having the ability to "bombard". Before the movment phase certain units have the ability to fire on other certain units. Battleships firing on other battleships or land targets, submarines firing at surface ships. Bombers bombing cities, all having a certain range of fire. This will prohibit units from Running during regular movement/attack phase.

You don't need another strategic phase in a game which is nothing more than moving units on a strategic map of the world. Every turn is a strategic phase, you don't need to complicate that.

Battleships are naval units, that means they are not supposed to fight with units located far inland. Well except if the target is a Decepticon climbing onto the Egyptian piramid, and the battleship is armed with long range railgun.

Bombers bombing cities is the same as bombers attacking cities, right?

Wr1tt3n by JackHunter, 12.01.2011 at 07:09

Destroyer - exceeding in detecting submarines and aircraft and able to fire "bombard" or atleast a bonus against submariens and aircraft in a very short range (will still have to catch the sub during movement phase as in real life)

So you just want another type battleship which is weaker at fighting one half of the unit types and same as old battleship when fighting the submarines and bombers?

I don't see anything special about this "bombard". It would just add some more complication into the game, and I'm not sure if it would be worth the effort of coding it).

Wr1tt3n by JackHunter, 12.01.2011 at 07:09

Fighters - bonus against other planes/able to bombard "planes" at a certain range.

Bombers are great at stopping every other kind of flying unit. Go play a game choosing a Sky Manace strategy and you will have your fighters.

Wr1tt3n by JackHunter, 12.01.2011 at 07:09

Rocket/Missile Truck
Rocket/Missile ammunition

Units firing at long range would need a completely changed battle mechanics. I think.

Artillery can be easily introduced with the bonus cards which are to be introduced.

Wr1tt3n by JackHunter, 12.01.2011 at 07:09

Afterwind - Nuclear missile varient.

Devs said about nuclear missles a long time ago, they think about it for even longer time. They were planning to introduce nuclear weaponry at some point and I'm sure they still are.

I agree most with akuku except for his take on plane fuel. Also if we r going to implement fuel then tanks and infantry should also be restricted it doesn't make since that a tank could wander all round Europe without consequence. Simply you can't have one without the other.

I Disagree with the implimentation of refueling but agee with the Idea. Planes on Land spaces should be able to refule from ground suport type vehicals so ther is no need to change that, on the other hand if ground suport vehicals cant get to the planes then there has to be a carrier or some army avalable for them to resuply them. Example turn you fly your plains to bomb my capital now the plain has no way to refuel because its way outside your controled map space and cant refuel so it must use its remaining movement to fly to either a suporting army in my country or land on frinendly terain, (aircraft Carrier would be the same thing only ocean force) also a number of plains needs to be determined Per Unit Example 1 tank unit can resuply 1 aircraft, maybe 3 infentry to resuply and 1 aircraft carrier resuply of maybe 5-10. as far as airports go it would make for a nice addition but most milliterys are designed to land on any flat terain as long as iy is controled by them they would make a make shift airport no mater where they are in the world. Special units you may argue need airports this one i would suport.

I also think that using airports would be a good way to make planes more realistic, though it would probably be too big of a change to be made quickly.
The reason I support this is for munitions reasons rather than fuel ones. Ships have enough weapons to last them for plenty of battles, and tanks and infantry carry a good deal of ammo and can get more from nearby cities via convoys easily enough that this doesn't need to be depicted in the game. Fighters, and especially bombers basically have a handful of missiles or bombs, and once those are gone, they're done in the battle and need to return to an airfield or carrier to resupply.
The board game Axis and Allies actually depicts this very well, with aircraft starting from a friendly city, attacking 1 target, and then landing on a friendly city with their remaining movement. In this way, bombers perform bombing runs rather than acting as actual troops with staying power as they do in Afterwind.
Their are several problems with this: first, the way movement rules are right now it would take twice as long to attack with aircraft (as you also have to plot their return movement), and if you are unable to do so in time or can't change the path you've already set, the planes would be forced to either crash or not move at all. This worked well in Axis and Allies since on a board game with discrete tiles you can go on, calculating movement distance is easy, and there is no clock limiting your planning. The best way I could see this overcome in Afterwind would be to include a second shaded region showing movement available, like the one when you first select a unit to move, but instead centered on where the cursor with the selected aircraft is hovering, so you have a better idea of the distance that would remain after making your bomber run.
The other problem is that with the huge change in how aircraft operate, and it would likely mean that some new unit to fill their current role would have to be made (helicopter gunships or transports that don't need to return to an airfield after a mission, for example. They would be able to move freely, but have lower combat values and transport capacity). Aircraft Carriers would become definitely need to be included as well. It would also make aircraft less effective as a large bomber wing could effectively be tied up in its city by an opponent who launches small raids at it, preventing movement. These major changes in how aircraft work would lead to further effects on the other units and strategies, and overall, while I like the idea and think it could make the game more realistic, it would be far too difficult to implement smoothly over a relatively short period.

Guys, this is risk. Not Nazi Tycoon.

I really like the idea of not needing to be right next to another unit in order to attack though. Destroyers having to sit right next to a Transport in order to fire on it is just stupid. IRL a Destroyer can sit kilometres and kilometres away and still get a good hit. Maybe we can implement something like a hit/miss system, where every successful shot doesn't necessarily hit the target if the target is one that attacks from a distance. e.g. Destroyers still have to run right into transports to engage, but the transports only hit 50% of the time while the destroyers get full accuracy, simulating the distance between the two ships. Same thing for bombers. Infantry shooting down planes? WTF?

Wr1tt3n by Cascadiaball, 27.03.2011 at 12:06

Infantry shooting down planes? WTF?

well if we can imagine that infantry is moving around by trains, buses and other vehicles then we can also imagine that they carry some AA weapons with them.

What about air refuelers... well air forces use them and so do navies... If there is a penalty for air transports and bombers than there needs to be air refuelers in my opinion!!!