My review copy of Axis & Allies Europe 1940 has arrived

@Oyvind:

Could someone explain the “bid” in the first question?

It is a way of evening up the playing field when it is generally considered that one side has an advantage over the other. Using this as an example:

@Colt45:

Personally, i take Axis with a 3 bid otherwise il take Allies.

Colt45 554 has said that they’ll take Axis if they are given a bid of 3. This means that at the start of the game before the first turn they either get to put down units to the value of their bid, 3, in any of their territories, or accept 3 bonus IPC into one of their countries for spending at a later time.

In a general bidding arrangement, the opponent would have the opportunity to take the Axis for a bid of 2 if they thought they could win with that and that process repeats until a bid has been determined and teams are set.

A bid of 3 is considered a pretty well balanced game. I believe the current bid for 1940 Global is sitting between 20-30 for the Allies. We can read into that that people think that playing the game without bids leads to many more Axis wins than Allied wins by evenly matched players.

@Cesc.1987:

So if I play a single Europe 40 or Pacific 40 game I must use the setup that is on top of the faction’s boxes.
If I play a global 40 game I must use the Global 40 setup alpha 3.9 version, correct?

Not really, Alpha3.9 is way outdated, as it was the predecessor of the official Global 2nd edition ruleset.

@rulebook:

Global Rules

…
Set up units as shown on the setup charts found in Pacific 1940 and Europe 1940. Additionally, place the following units:
Amur: 6 Soviet Infantry
Sakha: 6 Soviet Infantry and 2 Soviet AAA
Buryatia: 6 Soviet Infantry
Egypt: 2 ANZAC Infantry (also, remove 1 United Kingdom infantry)

…

The powers start with the following IPC income levels and treasuries:
Power  Starting Income
Germany  30
Soviet Union  37
Japan  26
United States  52
China  12
United Kingdom - Europe  28
United Kingdom - Pacific  17
Italy  10
ANZAC  10
France  19

HTH :-)

@theROCmonster:

Honestly I think if anything the allies are advantaged in this one. US is just so powerful. Russia will always fall no matter what the allies do, but it then becomes a struggle for the axis to take Egypt. Normally a game will come down to the US having factories in finland/Norway, and possibly southern france and Normandy. While Germany has a ton of money, and Italy is making under 10 because of convoy raids. Germany has a ton of money that it tries to use to in both defense against a monstrous US, and a pretty powerful UK, while also trying to take Egypt. As long as allied players don’t freak out when Moscow falls then they have a good shot at victory.

The allies have to play very smart, and not rush into things if they are to keep germany from getting the final VC.

I agree with Karl’s assessment.  For the OOB set-up, Sea Lion seems like the only viable option.

Even then, the Allies might still have the advantage.  But taking London early on (by G3) should give Germany a decent shot at the W.

If there is a winning strategy for OOB that doesn’t involve taking London early, then it would need a strong naval component, or the Allies will set up in France and USA will build a major in Norway.

@malstrom:

… a downloadable PDF photo of the global board?

In the Global-Thread there is at least a high-res. photo:
http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=19489.0

You can easily convert it into a pdf of course, but I assume you think about something like IL’s maps.

Many thanks! That sounds clear to me.

I agree. It’s funny because the game is not that hard to comprehend. I started playing A&A at 12, and while my first few games I was playing wrong, that was mainly because I never really read the rule book. Once you sit down and read it once, the only time you have to use it again is if you are doing something like an amphibious assault or shore bombardment, something that maybe only comes up once or twice in a game. Other than that the basic premise is really easy to understand.

@Canuck12:

On that note though, I actually liked the subtle “watermarked” convoy and kamakazi zones.

Same here ;) just when the allies get too cocky you remind them of a kamakazi strike. “Oh, did’nt QUITE see that coming…”