Smart Boards for Axis & Allies 1940 SE

An example here is how we fill this one up.
I was formerly playing as Germany, so below is my movements.
For sea zone, we use the same number (Eg from sea zone 93>99)
If transport, we will write 93 > S france(pick up 2 troops) >96 (disembark on Tobruk)
For land, we will just write the name of land (from a to b)
Next we will be marking the troops to move.
If it’s all units in the land to move, we just write “all”
Adding the concept of bidding, you’d get lots of fun when you either evade an attack, or managed to “pin” your enemies.
Hope this helps.

@zhirong-fu 145447164_10222966829931692_1275817621394509162_n.jpg

My group has taken the ultimate step that many on this and other sites are loathe to do. We have unified turns, 1:Axis 2:Allies. We mainly play a modded AA50 with slightly (5-10) more territories. This greatly increases the speed and playability for several reasons.

Positives
Firstly, the vast majority of the engagements can be done simultaneously without any real issues.

Everyone can purchase simultaneously, and if you are not particularly a-retentive some people can finish their purchasing while others are moving forward with their attack declaring, but please make sure all attacks are declared before any attacks begin, to easy to start conflict there with meant-to/didn’t-do.

The most important factor in time improvement is not the actual simultaneity of the turn but that every turn, every round, attack and defense, involves every player. No one is bored (US/USSR) for turn after turn of waiting to do anything. This engagement greatly increases the camaraderie (heh) and the pressure of the turn. Everyone’s attention is focused. We REGULARLY complete our AA50 to a satisfying surrender in about 3 hours. In fact most of us have young kiddos so we don’t really have a choice.

Another useful point is that if someone brings an uninterested significant other or newbie, Italy makes a great and dynamic option when coordinating with an expert playing Germany. I find that scheduling is one of the hardest issues with getting a group together and perhaps one of the main reasons you would want a shorter game.

Counter points/Solutions
No 1/2 punches with Italy/Germany or UK/US. This might be a bigger problem on Global but I do not feel that it is an issue in AA50. To correct this we use some special rules including a reserved 2nd attack round for unused armies that want to attempt a blitz through/drop past a recently conquered territory or Sea Zone.

Massed Allied navies, especially in Europe. Haven’t really figured this one out, but it is historically accurate and axis can usually get the allies to a surrender point without Operation Sealion anyway. Massed navies is one of the reasons we support the 7/0 Transport rule in the recent editions over the 8/1 of the old editions.

Starting positions for UK and USSR. Since Axis will move collectively ahead of them, USSR and UK might need a little tweaking in the setup. I usually move some of UK’s Pacific/Indian navies one space further from J1. Additionally we give a territory or two to USSR to absorb the assault of G1.

Conclusion
I feel like if you really want to make A&A work for you, it can. It just might take a little more willpower in working through and agreeing to some compromises on OOB rules.

P.S. It always helps if the scheduling problem is with other people, you be the one to set up ahead of time. I always end up falling on that sword.

When I painted my units, I had issues with Britain, I originally made 2 schemes, then decided I only wanted the tan, not green… On my painting, I used a combo of lacquer Enamel and acrylic, it was at the enamel stage, but I soaked them in paint thinner (in all preparation to consider them toast and order new units)… but they came clean, they soaked for 10 min or so, and I used my tooth brush (yes mine lol, bristle’s turned green, and yes, I still use it, the green faded away HAHA) to scrub away the paint film.

@crusaderiv:

YG……great card…I love it.
I’ve used A&A card for long time but yours are awesome…

AL.

Thanks Crusaderiv, I’ll be making my national objective deck available first, and then I will look for time to complete my R&D deck.

Thanks for the comments.

The purchases are optional for either the US or UK. All options rolled are worth more than 20 IPC so there is a incentive.
The fleet doesn’t get placed on the board until the end. This way the Axis have no idea what is coming.

It’s worked pretty good for us but might not be for all players.

Give it a try and let me know what you think.

WWA Frank

@MrRoyboto:

(My apologies for the non-linkable links. For some reason the forum won’t let me embed links.)

Probably that you don’t have enough posts.

I would be curious to see photos of these Bit Pits with A&A pieces in them.

Also the Magic Chamber with dividers and A&A pieces in them.

Also how many Bit Pits will fit into a final sized Magic Chamber?

Does each side have a lid?

Your collection and set up is truly awesome.

@BluGerman:

today i managed to read through this year long forum thread and I have to ask what happened after November 17th 2011?.. did everybody in this forum mysteriously dissapear? or was it just discontinued? or was it moved to another forum thread or something?.. somebody please let me know because I was really excited to see Allworks whole board with his miniatures (they are awesome!)

In answer to your question- I don’t really know.  :? Allworkandnoclay is an artist who does all sorts of other work for money, not just Axis and Allies. I presume that he moved on to other work, as his Flickr account shows him doing some sculpting and what not. To be honest though, he stopped posting pics, people stopped commenting, and it sort of fell of the face of the earth. There’s some stuff on TallPaul’s page, and there are plenty of other artists with some awesome stuff if you need your daily fix of painted minis!