Modified Blitz Rule (Defenders Must Inflict Casualty to Stop Blitz)
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This is a house rule I've played with on the board game version.
I strongly dislike the meta that develops from the OOB rules where any unit that defender places in the first territory prevents a blitz from being launched to the second. There's really only one optimal way to play defense as a result - spread a screen of 1 Infantry in every front line territory and then stack every other unit you have in one or two of the zones right behind them.
I prefer to make tank attacks more dangerous and unpredictable with the following rule: in order to prevent the attacking player from launching a blitz to a second territory, the defenders in the first territory must inflict at least one casualty on the attacking force. If they succeed, the resistance was meaningful enough to halt the advance right there. If they fail, the tanks blew right through them and proceed to their second target.
Therefore, the current meta of a lone Infantryman only has a 1/3 chance of managing to prevent the blitz attack. You can choose to gamble on those odds, or if you prefer more certainty, you'll have to put more units on your front lines - and you can never quite be 100% sure a breakthrough attack is impossible (though once you've put 4+ units on the front lines, the odds are pretty remote).
I've experimented with two different ways of playing like this. In the first variant, blitz destinations need to be decided and announced in advance, at the same time as you launch your attack on the first territory - and it can't be a territory where your other armies are launching a normal attack (but it can be one that another one of your armies is targeting with its own blitz).
In the second variant, only the first territory being attacked needs to be decided and announced. After all normal attacks have played out and been resolved, you then get to take another combat turn where any of your blitz-eligible units (that won their first battle with no losses) can be used to attack a second territory.
Both seem workable and which one's better comes down to player preference depending on how much you value choice vs. complicating the game. The situation they're designed to prevent is where I'm launching an attack on territories A and B, and I want my tanks from B to blitz into A after they win to help my other army take A. I think that would be a BS move to pull, and it would lead to complications where the different battles have to be played out in a particular order - so neither of these rules allow it. I do, however, consider it legitimate for my armies that were attacking A and B to blitz together into Territory C if they both win without losses, so the rules do allow that.
These rules are pretty easy to adopt when you're playing on the tabletop; the question is, could the TripleA engine potentially support it?
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@Vendetta TripleA has no way of supporting this. You might be able to create something like a mechanized movement phase with an additional combat phase and have combats limited to one round, but it would be awkward and confuse the AI.
Infantry screening it not the only way to play. Sometimes, you need to know when to put your forces on the front line.
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@Vendetta Very interesting. I also always have disliked that you could block an advance by just putting one infantry in the territory. On the smaller maps this is not a big deal, but on the bigger ones it makes advancements very slow, so then it would be very interesting to have a sort of blitz ability.
Have you ever heard of Global War 1936? There they also have an interesting blitz rule. If I can recall correctly, if the terrain was plain and the combat lasted for three rounds or less, the attacker can blitz with tanks, mechanized infantry, fighters and/or tactical bombers that still have remaining movement and attack another territory. Makes a theater like the Eastern Front much more interesting.
Currently, you need some XML hackery to get this to work. You'd need to add two CM and NCM phases for every player - a regular CM phase, then a NCM phase to reset movement, then another CM phase for the blitzes, and one more NCM phase for regular non-combat movement. Then, use triggers to prevent movement of non-blitz units in the second CM phase (e.g. infantry, artillery, etc.). The blitz conditions need to be player-enforced though.
Expanding the TripleA engine to better support such a "blitz" feature is definitely possible but requires some work. I currently don't have time for this but maybe in the future some developer will tackle this.
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@VictoryFirst You need to keep in mind that A&A combat consists of a number of interlocking pieces and that changing one can throw the balance off. It is unrealistic that a small force of infantry can stop a tank blitz but is even more unrealistic that battles run an unlimited number of rounds, that there is no retreat and the lack of supply rules. Making blitzing easier makes things hard for the Russians on the Eastern Front.
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