Europe 1940 shows up on Wizards site…with screenshot

@Make_It_Round:

Let the data-mining begin, gentlemen…

1. West India looks like it starts with a minor IC.
   [Possible counter to Italian navy running wild in Indian Ocean?]
2. The French start with navy and substantial presence in Africa.
   [This could be misleading though, as the WOTC promo shots very often make no sense at all. For example, check out the US… it’s completely empty, but it seems that the Americans have taken over some German and some USSR territories for themselves!]
3. Italian units will remain virtually indistinguishable from USSR units in colour.
   [No suprise there… Bah!]
4. Unless I’m mistaken, there is a USSR battleship in the Baltic Sea!!!
   [ :-D]

1. I think that’s an AA gun, but even if it’s a Minor IC, it doesn’t mean anything, since EUS has no factory on it
2. Not necessarily, as you said
3. True
4. That or an AC, but the BB is more likely since the thing that looks like a plane is upright.

@Make_It_Round:

Let the data-mining begin, gentlemen…

1. West India looks like it starts with a minor IC.
   [Possible counter to Italian navy running wild in Indian Ocean?]
2. The French start with navy and substantial presence in Africa.
   [This could be misleading though, as the WOTC promo shots very often make no sense at all. For example, check out the US… it’s completely empty, but it seems that the Americans have taken over some German and some USSR territories for themselves!]
3. Italian units will remain virtually indistinguishable from USSR units in colour.
   [No suprise there… Bah!]
4. Unless I’m mistaken, there is a USSR battleship in the Baltic Sea!!!
   [ :-D]

I believe I see Americans in the Poland area, so this may not be the initial setup. But if it is, then Germany starts with a Mediterranean transport despite no IC there to make further ships.

I think its very unlikely that this is the actual setup. Look at the box of the Pacific 1940 box. That board state is ridiculous. This is a WOTC employee monkeying around with the board to make a nice picture, just like the back of the AAP40 box. However, we do get a lot of information about the board, and this is very good news.

Plus! We get an actual income board, not the cheap little income strip that came with P40. That’s an income board that is well suited to be used for global, with tech and all.

• South America has many territories -> good
• I cannot see if Spain and Turkey are 1 or 2 territories. My guess is 2 to Turkey, 1 to Spain … probably I’m too optimist with Turkey -> bad
• Africa, Mediterranean and Middle East have many divisions -> very good
• I really love that blue of French units -> really good, thumbs up
• If West India’s value is really 2, maybe India is not a lost cause and that strange split income could have some sense -> let’s pray for it, I have more than enough UK markers to cover those useless leafs
• Soviet Union is huge -> great!
• Canadian splits mean that die-hard KGF fans will have things more difficult -> finally!
• Guayanas have simbols? -> intriguing
• I cannot see Switzerland -> we’ll have to wait
• I see a Italian simbol on Balkans (Albania?) -> good
• Still facilities cardboard crap -> crap

Overall: good impression

AWESOME!!!

The map looks excellent.  It’s gonna feel a little weird for a while having so many neutrals that get regularly captured, but I’m sure I can learn to deal ;-).

One big caveat.  We may be able to glean some starting setup information from the setup pictured here, but bear the following things in mind which cast doubt on the veracity of the setup (as a starting setup).

1. Germany has no white chips under any of their units.  Seems unlikely, as without them I would expect the territories to be overflowing.  I suspect that this is a photographer’s decision (too many whit chips clutter the board), as the only ones visible are the UK infantry in Africa and the US!?!? infantry in Eastern Europe.
2. US infantry in Eastern Europe (with US control marker).  Seems more like a creative setup decision (“Hey, let’s get some good ole USA units on the board”).  It could be a neutral unit from a just attacked neutral territory, but I would expect those to become Germany or USSR.
3. Game progression.  We know that Germany has the first turn, but France appears to not have been invaded, indicating that Germany has not moved, but there are a number of Soviet control markers in territories bordering the USSR

So, my guess is that for the photo shoot, they set up the game at or close to the starting setup, then removed almost all the white and red chips, then had someone who didn’t know too much about how the game plays make a few “moves” to give it a more “action” feel, then plopped down some US units somewhere.

That being said, here are some thoughts on the mapboard that are interesting/awesome/disappointing to me

Awesome

• Mediterranean sea appears to be two SZ high and four wide.  Lots of room for maneuver
• It looks like four moves from EUSA to either France or UK.  EUSA will almost certainly have a naval base but still take two turns to get across.
• USSR is BIG!!
• Lots of convoy zones in the Med and Atlantic.  Hope we FINALLY have a War of the Atlantic

Interesting

• Somebody said that Iceland would be important, but it seems to be way to far out of the way to be relevant.
• Staring at pixelated JPEGs for too long gives you a headache
• As spoiled/requested, that impassable marsh in the middle of western Russia is represented
• Africa looks to be even more valuable/less ignorable. By my count, there are 23 territories including neutrals.  Given that there are several 2 and 3 value territories to offset any zero value territories, I expect the value of Africa to be at least 25 IPCs.
• Building a complex in West India could turn the tide on the AAP India Crush strategy

Disappointing

• Between the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea, Europe appears to be only two territories wide.  I would have hoped for three to promote maneuver.
• (Setup, so who really knows) I was hoping that there would be more of a UK Indian Ocean fleet on this map to help out in Africa and against the Japanese.

Can’t wait to see what other people turn up.

@Funcioneta:

• South America has many territories -> good
• I cannot see if Spain and Turkey are 1 or 2 territories. My guess is 2 to Turkey, 1 to Spain … probably I’m too optimist with Turkey -> bad
• Africa, Mediterranean and Middle East have many divisions -> very good
• I really love that blue of French units -> really good, thumbs up
• If West India’s value is really 2, maybe India is not a lost cause and that strange split income could have some sense -> let’s pray for it, I have more than enough UK markers to cover those useless leafs
• Soviet Union is huge -> great!
• Canadian splits mean that die-hard KGF fans will have things more difficult -> finally!
• Guayanas have simbols? -> intriguing
• I cannot see Switzerland -> we’ll have to wait
• I see a Italian simbol on Balkans (Albania?) -> good
• Still facilities cardboard crap -> crap

Overall: good impression

The gray between Italy and France is Switzerland

@Imperious:

The new tactical aircraft, dive bombers and torpedo planes are just as exciting and fun to play in Europe ‘40 as they are in Pacific ‘40.

So i guess this means the tactical bomber has different roles depending on what nation builds them: for Germany, Russia and Italy this is land based bonus, for UK, USA, Japan this is naval based bonus?

Either that or the guy who wrote this has no idea what hes writing?

Nothing has changed.  From the AAP40 Rulebook (page 27):

Tactical bombers represent dive bombers in land operations and torpedo or dive bombers in naval operations.

Mother Russia is a beast!!!  :mrgreen:

Anyone notice that they reworked the battlestrip a bit to make it slightly more battleboardish?
How about the AA50 style dice in the photo? (not that it matters since i will be purchasing another set of FMG dice for this game.)

I am also not convinced that this is the starting setup. This will probably be the image on the back side of the box, which has NEVER been the starting setup.

@Bob_A_Mickelson:

Anyone notice that they reworked the battlestrip a bit to make it slightly more battleboardish?

Maybe I don’t play the game right…. but who really uses the battleboard? I mean, to me and my cousins, it is quite a waste of time. It is much simpler to count up your unit types and keep track of hits as you go.

@LHoffman:

@Bob_A_Mickelson:

Anyone notice that they reworked the battlestrip a bit to make it slightly more battleboardish?

Maybe I don’t play the game right…. but who really uses the battleboard? I mean, to me and my cousins, it is quite a waste of time. It is much simpler to count up your unit types and keep track of hits as you go.

In my family, the tradition is that we only use the battle board for the one or two climactic, game-changing battles we typically have in a game.  Usually, that’s a German attack on Moscow, an amphibious assault on Germany, or or big naval battle in the Pacific.  The other common usage is for the “I’m probably gonna lose at this point, but if I make this long-shot attack and get a little lucky, I can work my way back to even” battles that usually finish out our games.

@purplebaron:

In my family, the tradition is that we only use the battle board for the one or two climactic, game-changing battles we typically have in a game.

My group has the same tradition. Other than that it is never used unless we are teaching a newbe.

@Tralis:

I think its very unlikely that this is the actual setup. Look at the box of the Pacific 1940 box. That board state is ridiculous. This is a WOTC employee monkeying around with the board to make a nice picture, just like the back of the AAP40 box. However, we do get a lot of information about the board, and this is very good news.

Yeah, my brother pointed out the back of the Pacific box… it is a pretty ludicrous setup. Unit placement makes no sense. Especially considering that the ANZAC units on the back of the Pacific box are actually RUSSIAN sculpts! Yeah, take a look; the tank is definitely a T-34, the fighter is a Yak and the infantry are distinguishable as Russian by the equipment, or lack of it, on their backs. What is up with that?! What fools do they take us for?! Ha!

This board setup looks to be very much similar in its lack of logical unit placement. So, I would not base any unit placement assumptions off of it. We can theorize all we want about the map though, because that it substantially more concrete. I cannot forsee the map being changed at this late of a stage in production.

@Bob_A_Mickelson:

How about the AA50 style dice in the photo? (not that it matters since i will be purchasing another set of FMG dice for this game.)

That sounds like good news to me. I thought the red and black dice that came with Pacific were crap! It feels like they roll 6s, 5s and 4s upwards of 90% of the time… which ain’t good at all unless you are rolling for research, or a bombing raid. We ended up calling them demon dice, both for their color and because they send all your troops to hell. So we used dice from other games when we played.

Anybody else have similar experiences?

Hey, did anyone notice the link at the bottom of the page?

It yields another ‘top secret’ WOTC document on the game, including a higher resolution image of the box cover:

http://www.wizards.com/company/downloads/AAEurope1940solicitation.pdf

Todays been a great day

Anyone see Malta or the Azores?

@Shakespeare:

Anyone see Malta or the Azores?

Yes to Malta, no to Azores.

The French look silly.