Magnets: what to use behind board

I would really like to here the communities take on this subject. Praises and criticisms. I realize I’m late to the ball, but here I am and I’ excited about getting into this game.
Here is my take.

This board and map are great.

I love the hugeness of it; this thing is just massive.

The geography and how that effects play was very well thought out. Africa is squashed down abut as much as possible and there is more room available in Europe as one could have reasonably made without completely distorting the world map. The point being , the map still looks like the world while still being able to provide effective space for game play- that is a tough balance to achieve.

The idea of making the Himalayas and Sahara impassible was inspired. Of course they are impassible to large armies. If the Axis want to do damage to the British Empire in Sub Saharan Africa, they need to either turn the corner at Alexandria or win the Atlantic or Indian Oceans.

The neutral spaces are very well done. More on that when I review the Neutral Countries.

But the main thing the map gets right is what it’s supposed to get right, it provides the right geometry to promote good game play. Their are major regions and regions within those regions and each set has its own keys to being manipulated for offense and defense. That makes for interesting game play.

Even better, I haven’t found any rinky dink ways of manipulating the geography in ways that don’t feel true to the intent of the game/WW2. The space in the Pacific is an obstacle. The Space of Russia is an obstacle. As they both should be. The benefit from gaining Scandinavia is big, but its not a game changer. The Far East or the Black Sea can’t be used as some unanticipated flanking move. One doesn’t want to be tied down to replaying WW2 as accurately as possible, but one doesn’t want to completely break with reality either.

Every game I play I learn new things about this board. I’ve played 4 intensive games with myself and am still feel like I am a long long ways from mastering the geography of this board. That is a good thing.

Certainly there are things I could quibble about.
The names for the Chinese Provinces could be better. In that , as someone who lives in China, I would prefer the proper current Pinyin names for them, A westerner defiantly made this game. But I understand they are trying to keep with the Pre 1949 feel for the region and using the terms the west used back then; so ok.

Having Kazakistan so far south is a bit weird.

There are times where I wish certain spaces were larger; I’m looking at you Bessarabia and SZ110. But most of my spatial problems stem from my style of game play which is still rooted in monolithic stacks of enormous proportions which worked well in the Axis and Allies of old.

Which brings me to my biggest opinion about this board. This board is infinitely superior to the previous incarnations of Axis and Allies.

This is a very good and interesting game and it starts with the map.

What are your thoughts?

@Ichabod No. UK Pacific can mobilize facilities only on territories on the Pacfic side of the map.
Rulebook Pacific 1940.2, page 35:

Mobilize New Units

United Kingdom mobilizes its new combat units purchased by each economy at industrial complexes that fall under that economy. It mobilizes its new facilities purchased by each economy in territories that fall under that economy.

In addition to this, any of your ships in the sea zone when the combat are presumed to have taken place in combat. The only way to avoid this is to move them during combat movement (even if the move does not result in combat).

Marsh

The Aussies have lots of IPCs and even an operational aircraft carrier.

@Young:

Can T-Bombers scramble into an adjacent sea zone from an airbase, or is that just for fighters as well?

T bombers can scramble.

I just made a quick guide as we are new and learning the new rule set with these same questions.

Scramble
A quick reaction team of no more than 3 defending fighters and/or tactical bombers  located on each island or coastal territory that has an operative air base can be scrambled to defend against attacks in the sea zones adjacent to those territories.

Scrambling is a special movement that the defender can make at the end of this phase.
It must be done after all of the attacker�s combat movements have been completed and all attacks have been declared.
The attacker may not change any combat movements or attacks after the defender has scrambled.

These air units can be scrambled to help friendly units in adjacent sea zones that have come under attack. They can also be scrambled to resist amphibious assaults from adjacent sea zones, whether or not the
territory being assaulted is the territory containing the air base.
They may defend against the enemy ships conducting the amphibious assault even if friendly ships are not present.

A quick reaction team on 3 defending fighters and/or tactical  located on each island or coastal territory that has an operative air base can be scrambled to defend against attacks in the sea zones adjacent to those territories.

In situations where a sea zone is adjacent to more than one territory containing an air base (sea zone 109 and
Scotland and United Kingdom, for example), each of the territories can scramble up to 3 fighters and/or tactical
bombers.
In situations where a territory containing an air base is adjacent to more than one sea zone (United
Kingdom and sea zones 109 and 110, for example), the territory may still only scramble up to 3 fighters and/or
tactical bombers, but they may be split between the sea zones in any combination.

Scrambled fighters and tactical bombers are defending, so refer to their defense values.
Fighters                   Tactical Bombers
Defense: 4                       Defense: 3

They are treated as normal defending units in their sea zones. As defenders, they may not retreat. They
can�t participate in any other battles during that turn, including a battle in the territory from which they were
scrambled.

After all combat is completed, each surviving scrambled air unit must return to the territory from which it was
scrambled. If the enemy has captured that territory, the unit can move 1 space to land in a friendly territory or
on a friendly aircraft carrier. If no such landing space is available, the unit is lost. Surviving scrambled air units
land during that turn�s Noncombat Move phase, before the attacker makes any movements.

Amphibious Assault Sequence
1. Sea combat
2. Battleship and cruiser bombardment
3. Land combat

Step 1. Sea Combat
If there are defending surface warships and/or scrambledair units, sea combat occurs.
If there are only defending submarines and/or transports, the attacker can choose to
ignore those units or conduct sea combat.

If sea combat occurs, all attacking and defending sea units present must participate in the battle. (Even if the
attacker chose to ignore defending submarines and/or transports, they will still be involved in the battle if the
defender scrambles air units and forces a sea battle.)

Conduct the sea combat using the rules for General Combat (below), then go to step 3 (land combat).
No bombardment occurs.

Strategic and Tactical Bombing Raids
Fighter Escorts and Interceptors
Defenders uses interceptors-Any number of defending fighters (not tactical bombers) may intercept.

� The attacking bombers and fighter escorts and the defending fighter interceptors will be the only units
participating in this special combat.
� The combat lasts for only one round.
� All of the air units have attack and defense values of 1.
After the air battle is complete, or if there were no defending fighter interceptors, surviving fighter escorts
are considered to have retreated. They don�t participate in the actual bombing raid, are not subject to antiaircraft fire, and will remain in the territory until the Noncombat Move phase. Any surviving attacking bombers carry out the bombing raid. If the territory offers more than one target, the bombers may be divided into groups, and each assigned a specific target (tactical bombers may not attack industrial complexes).

Each complex and base rolls one die against each bomber directly attacking it.
For each �1� rolled, a bomber of the attacker�s choice is immediately removed.

An industrial complex can�t receive more than 20 total damage for major industrial complexes and minor ones can�t receive more than 6 total damage for. Air bases and naval bases can�t receive more than 6 total damage. Damage exceeding these limits is not applied.

After resolving the antiaircraft fire, surviving bombers each roll one die.
Add 2 to each die rolled for a strategic bomber (but not for tactical bombers), then total the results.

Strategic Bombers 1-6+2 against an enemy industrial complex, air base, or naval base.
Tactical Bombers   1-6     against an enemy air or naval base.

I use my fingers.

Right hand - Hits 1 through 5 normal; 6-10 pointing left; 11-15 pointing down; 16-20 pointing right.
Left hand - Hits 21 through 25 normal; 26-30 pointing right; 31-35 pointing down; 36-40 pointing left.

If it goes beyond 40, start over on the right hand.  Once the hits are known, we just pull that many pieces from the board.  Each land piece has its own color poker chip (except ships, so many ship pieces), so armies get colorful and stand tall.

I would move the Naval units south to Australia too.

Well, because it takes awhile to be effective in europe, people generally lean toward fast results in the pacific. I do too.

Don’t get me twisted, I still drop some dds and carriers fighter stuffs in the atlantic. but I do not buy ground forces for it, since brazil has 3 inf and you start with some mech and tonks and an artillery. 2-4 trans is all you need.

after that dds and carriers to protect UK transports so he can get drops going sooner… that is the way to go.
~
Depends on how the pacific is going really. I mean you do have to stop japan from winning the game. A good Japan player is not a pushover… you either invest now or wait till japan has all of asia and is poised to take hawaii for the win…

people rather invest sooner than later so it don’t come to that.
~

also it is true, a good japan player will not be anywhere near hawaii. so you buy, then move to hawaii, then move to anzac, then you can threaten japan’s fleet…

in other words your first round buy is critical for the pacific campaign.

where as your first round buy in the atlantic, generally is not enough to survive the luffwaffe.