Combining Pacific and Europe

@frimmel:

Yes this is a nice version of Axis and Allies and the sets with Cherry Red Japanese pieces are terrific looking.

Oh I love em!

Wow, great story!

@Haacon:

Hi, I am a fan of the “normal” Axis and Allies and play int since several years. Now a friend of mine has bought the pacific version, we played it a couple of time and I must say, I’m quite dissapointed. Maybe we play it in the wrong way, because we`re used to the other version, but in non of our games the allies had even a chance to win the game.
During the first turn the Japaneese player kills much of the allied fleet and in round two he owns all of the Islands in the south western pacific. The british have enought to do with protecting their capitols, and even if they manage to do so, Japan has 10 to 15 Victory-Points, at the moment the US-Player has a new fleet, that is big enough to be dagerous for the Japaneese ships. From that point on the allied can start to conquer back their territories, but its quite impossible to do so fast enough, to prevent the Japaneese player from winning by victory points.

What goes wrong with us?

The Out of Box rules for AAPacific are heavily slanted in favour of Japan.  Equally capable players will see that Japan will almost always win.  To even our the game, give the Allied players 12 extra IPCs to spend (one time only) at the start of Allies 1.  The Allied player allocates these extra IPCs among India, Australia and US before J1.  This is in addition to the convoy money that is split between Australia and UK.  Finally, have Japan play to 24 IPCs.  Leave everything else the same and you will see that the game is well balanced.

SS

@timerover51:

I like Pacific, and use it in my summer gaming class.  The kids like it, and it does have reasonable US production potential.  I have some house rules posted that you might want to look at since you also have Europe.  It seems like it is easier to get a handle on the game than with Revised, with only the one Axis player.

I’ve never been much for house rules. Most folks have enough trouble keeping the OOB rules straight. The biggest fear with new players is the rule complexity. I have trouble getting the interested to give it a try. I start giving folks addendums to the rulebook no one will ever play with me.  :cry:

I am however grateful to the house rules guys as that is how the OOB rules improve from version to version.  :-)

Europe is easier to teach than Revised.

It would definitely unbalance the game to limit builds to the IPC value of the territory.  The Allies have a hard enough time as it is preventing Japan from winning the game (especially to a 22 VP target).  If you handicap them further by not allowing the US to build more than 2 units per turn in Hawaii, the game is lost for the Allies.

SS

Wow!  I am flattered!  Thanks for the vote of confidence on the articles.  Really, I prepared the essays hoping to get more players interested in the game, so that I would have more opponents.

I still have 1 or 2 more essays ideas to finish but have been too busy to complete it.  I’ll try to get to the last ones in the next few weeks.

SS

Chinese and Indian Infantry would just stack up while you wasted everyone of your fighters…then the U.S. would just come in from your rear and wipe you up.

I personally played this game several times, alone and with friens
My consideration is that 6 or 7/10 Japan can win.
Take most advantage of the J1 special rule.
Take most of the money island and sink all the ship you can; british too; focus on allies transport too.
Move all in to India; while pushing China west.
Japan can win if they get India within J4 / J5.
The longer the game, the more the pain, because US pressure will become too hard to hold