In how many hours can you complete a G40 game

[Arthur Bomber Harris]

@The-Captain if people are experienced, but not masters, they can complete two games in a marathon game day (15h or so). The game takes about the same time for 2-5 players.

Highly experienced people with careful battle calculations will take more time per round and play 3x more rounds before the outcome is decided, but it is rare to find high quality opponents.

[shadowhawk]

@Arthur-Bomber-Harris said in In how many hours can you complete a G40 game:

@The-Captain if people are experienced, but not masters, they can complete two games in a marathon game day (15h or so). The game takes about the same time for 2-5 players.

Highly experienced people with careful battle calculations will take more time per round and play 3x more rounds before the outcome is decided, but it is rare to find high quality opponents.

True that experienced players will think things over more, but especially round1 they start with a plan. New players might start by looking at germany and going so what will i do. Experienced players already know in advance they play germany and already desided their buy and moves before the game starts. Same with japan.

Also verry experienced players might see the writing on the wall well before beginners see it. So they might actually play fewer rounds. They know what is reasonable possible and what the other side can do.

A few things that i normally do to speed the game up.
4 color dice. So each combat round can be rolled in 1 go.
IPC update phace, during combat move place upside down roundels in the land combat areas. If you win leave them there, this phase you flip them over and update the income tracker.
Reorganize phase, inactive player will make neat stacks of the units on the board. So during combat/non-combat you dont swap units for chips you do that when your not doing anything.

[The Captain]

Thank you all so far, for your replies.

The purpose of finding the time span for an OOB G40 game - or modified G40 version - is to compare to the time span with the Axis & Allies Global 1940 House Rules Expansion.

It seems that the time spans are more or less identical for both the OOB G40 game and the Axis & Allies Global 1940 House Rules Expansion (aka G40 HRE).

An average G40 HRE game lasts an average of 10-11 rounds - a total of 11-12 hours.

This is true even for new players who are only partly familiar with the G40 HRE.

With 2 equally skilled Veteran Players a G40 HRE game takes an average of 13-14 hours.

In other words;
On average a G40 HRE game is slightly faster to play than the OOB G40 (or modified G40) game.

We have analyzed more than 120 G40 HRE games from 2020 to 2024 and calculated that some of the rules and units that makes the G40 HRE faster than the G40 OOB version are:

Economic Related Rules:

• Winning Conditions (Economic Victory)
• US & UK Lend-Lease to the Soviet Union
• Total War Production
• Strategic Rail Movement Capacity
• The Expanded Theatre of Operations in the Pacific (Increased IPC Values)
• Non-Agression Pacts & UK National Economy
• Advanced Production Capacity

Military units & Rules:

• Paratrooper units
• Landing Craft units
• German U-Boat Wolfpacks
• Panzer Armies & Tank Armies
• Soviet Army Corps & German Waffen-SS Armies
• Army Groups
• Air Fleets
• Red Army Conscription Infantry
• Transport Unit Defense
• Air Transport units
• German Take Over Of Italy

As we continously keep analyzing G40 HRE and OOB G40 games and developing the G40 HRE a set of G40 HRE Tournament Rules are now available.

During the G40 HRE World Championship in Late 2026 the G40 HRE Tournament Rules will be used.

Once again, we thank you all for responding to our request about the time span for the G40 OOB board game.

[Galendae]

45 to 1:15 against a newb. They surrender by turn 3 or 4.

[zooooma]

We play 2nd edition OOB, and it takes 2-3 sessions of ~8 hours each.

We don’t take breaks, but we smoke a lot of grass (legal in Canada) and allow ourselves a little time to think and to do math.

[barnee]

@zooooma said in In how many hours can you complete a G40 game:

but we smoke a lot of grass (legal in Canada)

[MarshmallowofWar]

@shadowhawk said in In how many hours can you complete a G40 game:

4 color dice. So each combat round can be rolled in 1 go.

I have never seen this actually speed up any game. Usually the person doing it is a proponent of the method, trying to convert others, and wastes an enormous amount of time trying to perform conversions.

Also, they take a lot of time counting out the appropriate dice of each color.

Finally, they insist on sorting them in the box after the roll is complete.

Yeah, never seen this actually make a difference.

Marsh

[barnee]

@zooooma

Dr Buzzman says high

He see’s that you and your fellow buzzheads play OOB G 40 and recommends a House rule mod https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/topic/36945/axis-allies-global-1940-house-rules-expansion

You can also play it online with triplea https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/topic/17147/gargantua-s-k-i-s-s-triplea-instructions/30

Have fun gaming

[zooooma]

@barnee said in In how many hours can you complete a G40 game:

@zooooma

Dr Buzzman says high

He see’s that you and your fellow buzzheads play OOB G 40 and recommends a House rule mod https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/topic/36945/axis-allies-global-1940-house-rules-expansion

You can also play it online with triplea https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/topic/17147/gargantua-s-k-i-s-s-triplea-instructions/30

Have fun gaming

Thanks! I’m not much interested in house rules or online play. But I’ve been getting lots of A&A in! We have finished six games this year and are on number seven.

[shadowhawk]

@MarshmallowofWar said in In how many hours can you complete a G40 game:

@shadowhawk said in In how many hours can you complete a G40 game:

4 color dice. So each combat round can be rolled in 1 go.

I have never seen this actually speed up any game. Usually the person doing it is a proponent of the method, trying to convert others, and wastes an enormous amount of time trying to perform conversions.

Also, they take a lot of time counting out the appropriate dice of each color.

Finally, they insist on sorting them in the box after the roll is complete.

Yeah, never seen this actually make a difference.

Marsh

Funny, because you can sort them ahead of time, also once you got the dice you just remove the loses. So the defender throws 4 hits, you just remove 4 inf dice and throw again. At the end of combat what you have left corresponds to the dice in your hands.
Unless the combat is over 30 units with the same hit factor you only select the dice once.

We dont roll on the board but in the cover and that is normally situated on 1 side of the table ( i got an enlarged map of 2x1meters.

What conversions?

Once you get used to it its a lot faster at least that is my experience.

Just having 6 dice takes ages.

[shadowhawk]

@zooooma said in In how many hours can you complete a G40 game:

@barnee said in In how many hours can you complete a G40 game:

@zooooma

Dr Buzzman says high

He see’s that you and your fellow buzzheads play OOB G 40 and recommends a House rule mod https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/topic/36945/axis-allies-global-1940-house-rules-expansion

You can also play it online with triplea https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/topic/17147/gargantua-s-k-i-s-s-triplea-instructions/30

Have fun gaming

Thanks! I’m not much interested in house rules or online play. But I’ve been getting lots of A&A in! We have finished six games this year and are on number seven.

You can use TripleA also to play on a PC as like oldschool multiplayer.
If it takes multiple days but you cannot keep the board setup that long this is an option.

With oldschool multiplayer i mean both sitting behind the PC/TV in the livingroom and do your turns there. So still your group is in the same room you only replaced the board and dice with something on the TV/PC.

[zooooma]

@shadowhawk I tried TripleA years ago. I didn’t like not being able to see the whole board at once. I preferred PBEM games where I kept an actual board set up.

Currently my friend has the extra large mat permanently set up in his basement! When we finish a game, we set it back up.
We’ve been playing a full day every second weekend this year, so I’m not really looking to ramp that up.

I appreciate the tip though!

[cmmiles]

@The-Captain we never use modified rules. But a G40 game takes us at least 20 hours minimum. Therefore, our group has been hard to schedule lately so a faster version would be great. I haven’t been on the forums for a while and came looking for a tourney ruleset to speed up the game when I found your question posted.

[zooooma]

@cmmiles I think the faster version is called 1942 second edition… 😉

[The Captain]

Hi @cmmiles,

Thanks for your comment.

We have concluded that most Axis & Allies players use some kind of modification to the OOB G40 version.

Either to balance the game and/or speed up the game.

The fastest and most profoundly balanced and In-Depth calculated modification that we know of is the popular Axis & Allies Global 1940 House Rules Expansion - also known as the G40 HRE.

This version is used by more than a hundred Axis & Allies players that we know of.

We suggest that you and your play group study and try the G40 HRE - play a few games with these rules - and we guarantee that you will be entertained and challenged on a massive scale - for at least the next decade.

We are always available on a daily basis on this forum for questions & comments concerning the G40 HRE.

Once again - thanks for your time and comment.

Captain

[cmmiles]

@zooooma hahah yes but we love the massive scale of G40 and ruleset.

[cmmiles]

@The-Captain thanks for the info! Do you have a link to the rules?

[barnee]

Hi @cmmiles

Here is the rulebook https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jI_1JdIC-1KiTihBICJAbtX3GpVYnNgf/view

and here is some more info https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/topic/37535/the-captain-s-global-1940-house-rules-collection

I highly reccomend it :) You can also play it online with triplea

Have Fun gaming :)

[shadowhawk]

@cmmiles said in In how many hours can you complete a G40 game:

@The-Captain we never use modified rules. But a G40 game takes us at least 20 hours minimum. Therefore, our group has been hard to schedule lately so a faster version would be great. I haven’t been on the forums for a while and came looking for a tourney ruleset to speed up the game when I found your question posted.

Tournament ruleset is a minor change to the game so you dont need to learn a lot of new things. But it really speeds up the game and streamlines it a lot better.
Takes about 8 hours to complete the game with that, mostly because of the play order difference making it so you can play 2 countries at the same time.
And it fixes some balancing issues because of the turn order.

[cmmiles]

@shadowhawk which tournament rules do you use? Have a link?