Global or Anniversary for better 6 player game?

Given that your players are a mixed group with different levels of experience at various other A&A games, I think your best option would be a two-part strategy: start with Anniversary, play a few games to get everyone up to speed, then make the jump to Global. In terms of size and complexity, Anniversary is nicely positioned between the 1942 game and the Global 1940 game, so it’s a good tool for transitioning from the former to the latter. Jumping straight into the deep end of the pool might be less comfortable for the less-experienced players in the group; ideally, you want to set up a situation where the whole gang gets into Global with more or less the same level of skill and enthusiasm, so that nobody feels like an odd man out.

@Warhawk77

Even though I haven’t played AA50, I agree with Marc. The tournament game of AA50 is 4-5 hours, whereas G42 is 7-9 hours.

We worked our way up to Global play after ~10runs of each board individually…setup, questions and uncertainties make the first few games drag. However, once we played often and most of the rules were hashed out, we typically assume Global play and rarely play anything else. In that sense Global may focus everyone on playing the “big kahuna” whenever it can be done, and other lesser versions of the game are laid aside.

At this point, I’d actually prefer to play AA50 or AAZ, as the Global games run from 1000h-2000h on Saturdays and that is my prime exercise and son time!

You do have a good idea about playing a lesser team, as the most experienced player you can advise and observe all players, to ensure they everyone is on the same page and is applying the rules correctly. However, it is one issue that even Global really only has 5 seats (US UK RUS GER JAPAN) because the other smaller teams don’t provide enough engagement for an experienced player across a whole day. In that case, we usually break into 2 (or more boards) based on how many players show up—that creates the opposite dilemma as with 3 players, one player is left with an entire side (which is 90% engagement and focus for 10 hours…almost too much)

Short version; Play AA50 three times first–then right when things are getting familiar with that, blow their minds and head straight for Global 40.

42 is closer to even balance out OOB, and debatably a little quicker. It may be worth looking at that for the first game and try the more unique(compared standard games) 1941 scenario after.