Allied Playbook - G40 Collection of Essays - Compiled by jacobgeo24 Nov 18-19 2023

I’ve noticed one response to a common variation of a J2. Situation:

SZ36/20 have 2-3 transports and/or marines on board BB/Cruiser (if you are playing Balanced Mod) There are no Japanese naval bases usable in those SZs.

Strategy:
USA DD to SZ43 (Off Borneo)
UK DD to SZ37
UK land on Sumatra
Anzac land on Java

Result:
Allies are secure on Sumatra and Java through turn 2. Some possibility of convoying off income but unlikely to get it all and some of the fleet might be exposed if they try to convoy both. Every bit as important: Japan doesn’t get the money on turn 2 which slows them down a fair bit.

Just tried this against one player and he avoided the DOW J2.

Downside: Losing two DDs. Doesn’t seem like a big problem. The UK one can be replaced turn 3 with the one starting off South Africa.

How is this not pinned at the top of this thread?

I would not be G40 boxed set for a new rulebook or even for new French unit sculpts. However, I would buy a G40 boxed set for some combination of two or more of these changes:

1. Long standing balance issues were resolved officially instead of with the house rule hodgepodge we use now.
2. Historical inaccurances (Scapa Flow, Iceland, Sierra Leone, etc) were corrected on the map/setup (for instance, Iceland was occupied by the US on July 7th 1941, but the map shows it as a UK territory from the start).
3. There were cool new sculpts for multiple powers, and cleaned up sculpts for units that look too similar (ANZAC cruiser vs destroyer for instance, or corrected the 9 ft tall ANZAC infantry unit).
4. New map! For instance, eastern Russia is vast and would have been a Japanese sinkhole that brought no benefit, but in the G40 map those territories all actually produce income. The Global War map is a much better representation – combined German/Japan strategies that work on the current map would not work on Global War map.
5. Map supports faster setup – MICs and setup bases pre-printed, for instance.
6. Rule changes that allow the US to build bases on other Allies territories.
7. Rule changes to fix unit issues (cruisers!)
8. Separate control markers for UK Pacific vs UK Atlantic

Basically, a couple of big changes or a bunch of small changes make the investment worthwhile IMO.

Fixing NOs could be part of #1 – giving the UK an additional NO of no German navy in the Atlantic other than sea zone 112 would probably help the balance issue. Also, giving Japan an NO that costs it money if it DOESN’T control those islands once at war with the US might help the balance issue.

Marsh

@trulpen

right on. It’s a good way to test things. Yea the AI doesn’t play global real well. It does pretty good on some other games. You can give it extra dough. That makes it harder but still would do weird stuff

Ok. Combat move.

Surrender isnt part of our vocabulary,  correct me if I’m wrong in alpha2 when London falls that brings the US into the war,      so why not fight    or just give it away  I game for the battles (Kursk) = big tank battles between Germany and Russia or (truk Lagoon) big naval battles between Japan and USA  or the Battle of Britain/Sealion.    and I like to win , to add or change the rules can be fun but this game was not designed to be redesigned by all of us, It’s a step up from the Anniversary edition.  If because the Axis won the last 4 games means the Allies cant win , then I think you may be missing some thing but I dont think so from what I can tell the people on the forum are skilled, experienced players.    There are a bunch of people who think the game is unbalanced with the Allies being the one with the upper hand. This subject might get ya to think that it is balanced the other way.  In 25+ yrs I’ve seen where one side will get a bunch of wins only to be offset by the other,  overall I would say that the score is about 50/50  we play on average 2 games a weekend.    How did Hitler say it……fight to the last man  I think Stalin said it to… Keep gaming and post the results.

Japan should be able of taking India mid-game (let’s say round 5-7), but never as soon as round 1-3, as usual in AA50-42. Also, this thread is about a 1942 mod for AAG40, not for the OOB setup, that it’s still undecided if it has advantage or how many advantage could have

Also, with this order, ANZAC cannot act as can opener for USA against Japan, and that’s a very big aid for axis (and if you’re trying ignore Japan as allies, you’re totally toasted in AAG40, specially with this mod)