Axis & Allies 1942 Game Board Size

Thank you soooo much. You have no idea how frustrating that has been. I’m sure more problems will come up but you have made this game 10x easier to play now. Thank you again.

I recently played two games of Spring '42 against my cousin.  On BOTH occasions, I captured UK on G2 and he conceded.  My cousin would be the first to admit that he is a lousy A&A player, but I still took a lot of joy out of silencing his trash talking, even if only for a moment.  It NEVER should have succeeded.  It was entirely due to poor decisions on his part.  Hobbes is absolutely correct.  The UK would have to make GRAVE miscalculations (purchasing and combat), and/or have absolutely horrendous luck with the dice.  Hobbes gave it in a nutshell.  Let me flesh it out a bit for G1 and G2.

Let’s give Germany the MAXIMUM possible force to bring in for a UK invasion on G1 or G2.

G1 assault on UK:  German 1 BOM, 2 FTR, 1 ARM, 1 INF versus UK 2 FTR, 1 ARM, 1 ART, 2 INF, 1 BOM, and the AA.  Germany has 4% chance to win with 1 ARM or better (in order to capture, the standard OOL is changed)

G2 assault on UK:  Let’s assume on R1, Russia went big into WR alone.  Germany has all 6 FTR’s intact.  On G1, Germany bought 1 CV, 3 TT, 1 ARM, and the SZ8 SS sank the SZ10 US fleet (50% chance).  On G2, Germany could bring as much as 1 BOM, 6 FTR, 5 ARM, 5 INF, 1 BB bombardment shot (though the BB would be better used in SZ 9 to interdict/divert the new US1-built fleet hoping to liberate UK on US2.  Let’s keep the BB bombarding UK, however, just to give the best possible odds for the Germans in the invasion of UK. With the sz10 fleet eliminated, the G1 naval purchases are placed in the Baltic rather than the Med.  The UK player has to see the threat of a G2 invasion bearing down on them.  The UK player, not being COMPLETELY inept, decides to shore up UK.  UK purchases 5 INF 3 ARM, the SZ1 TT brought the ECan ARM over to UK.  The BB stays put in SZ2 as Germany’s 3 SS, 1 DD, 1 CV have a 98.5% chance of wiping out the BB without needing to divert any air units from the invasion.  Germany has 1 BOM, 6 FTR, 5 ARM, 5 INF, and the BB bombardment bearing down on UK, who stands with 7 INF, 1 ART, 5 ARM, 3 FTR, 2 BOM (1 FTR 1 BOM from EUS), 1 AA.  Germany’s odds of capturing UK under this optimal condition would still be only 24.5%, and the US would be able to liberate on US2.  If Germany parks the BB in sz9 to interdict/divert the US, a liberation by the US would be impossible, but the German odds of success at UK drop to 19% without having the bombardment.

Clearly, a G1 attempt is suicide.  Assuming the G1 attack succeeded against the SZ10 fleet (50% chance of success) followed by a best case scenario G2 attempt after a G1 build of 1 CV, 3 TT, 1 ARM (19% chance of success while preventing liberation by US).  By compounding the probabilities, your chance of a G2 assault of this sort succeeding is less than 10%.  If Germany is missing a single FTR from their original 6, the odds are cut in half again.

IF you are playing against a lousy UK player, you might have better luck forgoing the naval build on G1 altogether.  Germany can opt to smash the sz2 fleet, and hope the UK will turn around and buy 1 CV, 2 DD (or a similar navy heavy buy) and ignore the Baltic fleet on UK1 (2 big IF’s), allowing Germany to invade UK with 1 BB shot, 2 loaded transports, 6 FTR, and 1 BOM on G2.  83% chance of success without US units on UK.  Long story short, unless you are playing inept opponent(s), a G1 or G2 invasion of UK is a suicide mission.

Do you have to be logged in to see the pictures? How do i post more pictures, without browsing?

I’ll save my next game, as soon as the server is back online. :)

I can host a game if anyone is interested

@Keredrex:

Here it is

This is awesome and it is the sheet that I will use from now on. Thanks.

I just ordered that thing. Its awesome!

nice game.

had my first game of 42, was the axis.  Did the Bomber buy 1st round, scared the UK with the new sub rules as the baltic fleet moved into the Atlantic.  Scared the US away till turn 3 from landing in Africa and was able to combine on turn 2.  Pulled back Japan’s navy, killed the Indian fleet, then turned back on the US Fleet.  On turn 4 I was able to destroy both US fleets in the Pacific and Atlantic and took Australia.  A few Allied troops in Africa and had left India’s IC alone except for buffering around it.  Turned on Russia through China and after suckering the allies into throwing everything at Caucaus after i left most of the German army out to dry there, 2 Jap tanks were able to blitz from Sinkiang to take Moscow.  Allies gave up as the Axis ruled all but the North Sea.  Not too wacky of dice, save the loss of my German SBR bombers over Moscow.  
 I haven’t played AA50 much, but I am lovin’ the naval rules applied here!

gotta admit too that those new Russian ship sculpts are absolutely beautiful…sitting in the box never being used.

@scampb:

@allboxcars:

What marketing moron ever invented this disloyal & stupid business strategy?

The marketing moron’s that know in order to get any new fans they have to offer a reasonably priced game that someone will buy.  If you had no experience at all with this game but was just out with the family/friends to purchase a new game to play would you buy the $100 anniversary edition of a war game?  Probably not.  Would you buy a $35 dollar version of a war game?  Yeah, probably.  And if you liked it enough you just might spend more money to buy some other versions too.  Yeah, those marketing morons have no idea what they are doing, LOL  :roll:

They are marketing morons. Actually I will just call them morons because there is absolutely no marketing what so ever. The only way you could possibly find out about Axis and Allies is if you walk into a hobby shop and see it or through web sites like this. In the right hands this game could be so much bigger than it is so you can stop rolling on the floor. And by the way, I know this isnt true for all areas but in my neck of the woods Axis and Allies Revised sold for 40 bucks, so that fictional family you talk about that buys this new piece of crap for 35 will soon find out how screwed they got if they end up likeing the game.