My review copy of Axis & Allies Europe 1940 has arrived

@Trapslick:

Is there a limit to how many units any air craft carriers or transports can take?

Air Craft Carriers can carry 2 planes (Tactical Bombers or Fighters, Strategic Bombers cannot land on carriers. So the possible combinations are 2 fighters, 2 Tac Bombers, or 1 Fighter and 1 Tac Bomber). Transports can carry any 1 land unit + an infantry (so 1 infantry + tank, 1 infantry + artillery, 2 infantry, etc.)

Your basic strategy is correct (there really isn’t much Russia can do in this game but delay the inevitable and save as many troops as possible for Moscow), though I’d emphasize the UK’s immediate priority is dissuading a Sea Lion attack (easy) and establishing Naval supremacy in the Med (usually not that hard after the Taranto Raid).
I would also heavily recommend taking S. France on Germany’s first turn and looking to help the Italians in the Med. In order to win as the Axis, you need 8 Victory cities, which means you have to take either Cairo or London, and the easiest time to take these are early game before the America come’s barreling in. It’s tricky, but this game definitely isn’t friendly to the Axis powers.

Regarding Italy in general terms: use the fleet to dominate the Mediteranean and put troops in Africa. This will mean you can take oil fields in Persia (national objective) + make the USSR nervous. Specifically: you can build infantry, artillery etc. in Italy each turn, and use the fleet to move them from SZ 97 to 99 the next turn. Taking Cairo and moving those troops south will also take points from the UK + take away their national objective. Your aim is to aid Germany as much as possible in taking over the world.

Regarding Germany in general terms: Take France on the 1st turn at all costs. Build around 10 troops every turn to send against USSR. This doesn’t mean you can just march up to Moscow but it will mean your forces will be balanced. Keep pushing the front every chance you get and take away every point you can. Bomb Moscow to smithereens using strategic bombers. Destroy every stack of infantry with as little troops as you can + as many airforce as you have. This will conserve your precious troops. Don’t spend money on factories. It’s tempting and it’s fun to test out , but I haven’t seen it work.

Generally: try not to land airplanes in territories without an airfield. It’s sometimes necessary, but it’s usually more beneficial to put them on an airfield.

On another topic: I see the major industrial complex on Paris hasn’t been downgraded. It should.

Hi, so today I was playing the OOB version of Axis and allies europe 1940 and obviusly ( indeed, a lot of people already said this ) is very un-balanced, so now I decided to change to ALPHA 2, but I have a question, what is the setup, NO’s and turn order for europe theatre only?

I thought I had seen one as well, but I was unable to find it……

Corrected:

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=20856.0

@Krieghund:

Welcome, drmckool!

NO stands for National Objective.

thank you very much, I should have figured that’s what it was, I actually love the national objectives, particularly Lebensraum; even though the historical link between lebensraum and the actual launching of Barbarossa is slightly tenuous. I found as a historian the national objectives (NO) really adds to the game because it really grounds the action in concrete history.

UK/ANZAC has a special agreement with the Dutch government in exile that allows them to take control (“guardianship”) of Dutch territories that are still under original (Dutch) control.  This rule does not apply to any other territories.

If this seems counter-intuitive, bear in mind that Holland is not a power in the game.  Other non-neutral territories all belong to powers.  The Dutch territories are treated in a unique way because of this.

Stay on topic. Geez.

I assume you meant to put “owned” instead of “pwned” when talking about a Barbarossa/Stalingrad game in reference to Battle of the Bulge or Guadalcanal. I agree here too. At least for me, a game such as that would probably have owned the others.

Nah, I meant “pwn”. I was using netspeak: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pwned

I think some kind of A&A Russian-front game would be the brilliant, but I don’t hold out much hope of seeing one.

I won’t continue, since I’ve made my feelings clear and this is just one of those ‘we don’t agree’ type issues. I also don’t want to sound like I wouldn’t be able to enjoy / play the game because of it, which obviously isn’t true.

However, I will still say this…

No, they’d probably, like me, not give a damn.

I think some of them, like some people here, clearly would give a damn. For that reason alone designers should take certain things into account. I don’t hold WotC in particularly high esteem, since they have a habit of short-changing the consumer on many small aspects of games which in reality would take almost no effort or cost to put right. Larry only has input which goes so far, and he has my respect. But Wizards do too many irritating things, and to me, this is just another one of them.