@Imperious:
I recommend taking out the Italian battleship on UK1 with the UK carrier. Or you can just roll the dice really well.
Germany can reach that with 2 subs and a bomber with bomber landing back in Germany.
Bomber can’t reach. West Germ doesn’t borderr the english channel sea zone
Yes, it does
@UN:
Based on what I saw from the pics, the French Med fleet can actually be quite useful if the UK does something to save them, whether that means trying to destroy the Italian battleship or move the carrier and destroyer near Gibraltar to the French ships.
Thanks for the summarization, it just makes me even more excited to get E1940!
When I played, it didn’t matter because the UK fleet by Gibraltar and the French Mediterranean fleet are both too small to bother the Italian fleet. When I was the UK, I moved them up north to try and defend the English Channel as G1 they literally wiped out the ENTIRE British navy around England. With the UK ships at Egypt, I scooted them out past the Suez ASAP to meet up with the French destroyer so I could try to funnel up some South African troops. First turn is really not a good time for UK to attack, as they’re too busy trying to not die.
I was also at Gencon, and literally just got back home. The new game is fantastic, I was able to play both Global and Europe versions. I’m not sure if I saw you there, but I was the one playing as the Soviets during the liberation of Scotland :-D. I was also playing as the United Kingdom, but that didn’t go over so well haha. Overall the game is fantastic, and the only critic I had was what I noticed and Greg Smorey talked about, which was that when you play Global you’re basically playing two separate games on one board, and most units rarely cross the map dividing line.
First off: regarding IL’s asking about using Spain as an Allied landing zone, the rules regarding true neutrals state that once a true neutral is invaded, all other true neutrals become pro- whatever power didn’t attack, so if you invaded spain you’re giving Germany a massive amount of potential troops all around the globe, which I think makes a lot of sense.
With the French, they’re pretty much useless after France falls, as the Cruiser and Destroyer in the Mediterranean are wiped out by Italy and the Cruiser by Norway is wiped too. I managed to get some use out of the French destroyer by Madagascar though, as its far away enough to avoid the initial onslaught.
With the Italians, at first I assumed that they’d need German help to succeed, so instead of taking Southern France (which doesn’t border any original German territories) on I1, I waited until G2 so I could make a minor there. This ended up not being necessary as the Italians were able to clean house pretty quickly, taking Egypt and the Suez early on and dropping a minor there. I also took Gibraltar and Morocco and kept pumping infantry in, preventing America from doing anything in the Mediterranean with it’s massive fleet due to the new strait rules (Denmark and Straits of Gibraltar work basically like canals). I was eventually able to push through the Middle East, activating the Iraqi forces and destroying the Russian southern army.
When I played as the UK, In Africa I realized I was severely outmatched, So I retreated all my forces back into central Africa, linking them up with the South African forces I had produced and forcing the Italians to split up. The Italian army and navy vastly outnumbers the British equivalents, and the reason I was able to do so well with Italy when I played Axis was because the British player kept the majority of his forces in Egypt. My strategy in the Atlantic however did not play out so well, and I made a large British fleet but I missed a couple of German transports, which were able to take over England, so naturally I started building a Soviet Navy and shipping the massive amount of troops I had built up over the previous 3 turns to Scotland for a counter offensive.
The only other annoying thing is that because it’s obvious that the Germans and USSR will go to war, the Soviet player simply keeps their main army behind the frontline and keeps one infantry per border territory, so that when the Germans finally DO attack, the Soviets can simply counter attack and negate their airforce. In both games I Played, war was declared through NAVAL skirmishes, and the Eastern Front remained largely stagnant as the Germans vied for an opening to drop a large amount of troops behind the frontlines in order to do as much damage as possible (specifically in Karelia). On the Pacific front, in the one Global game I played, on first turn I situated the infantry in a defensive posture, keeping one inf each in both coastal and border zones, with the other 16 divided between the two other territories. The Japanese player ended up leaving only 4 inf in Manchuria and 2 in Korea, so I took advantage of the situation and charged in. I ended up getting pushed back, but the casualties were relatively minor and I still had around 10 inf left in the theater, while Japan had to divert planes that would have been used against the US player (Who spent his ENTIRE income in the Pacific theater, so it’s not completely my fault England got taken) and the UK in India.
America is about as much as you would expect, and plays largely the same as it always does. In Global, like I said they spent all their money in the Pacific, but in Europe they made a large fleet but we had to pick up around the 5th turn so they didn’t get to do too much.
As Germany, as I’m sure you know you spend the first turn destroying France, and also trying to kill as much as the UK fleet as possible. The challenge with this is trying to destroy as much as possible, as while your army navy and airforce are all vast, there’s lots of potential targets. Germany is much like Japan in Pacific, albeit on a smaller scale area wise and more fun in my opinion. You also want to kill France using as few units as possible so you can divert your forces to other theaters. Because Russia had all their forces behind the front lines, a full frontal assault was not a good idea, so I spent a long time making a big fleet with lots of transports and trying to position it to attack, but unfortunately the combined Russian and British fleets were able to deliver a one-two punch and take it out. As this was going on though I was building up a massive southern Army, and attacked in the south (where he had relatively few units) and held firm in North and Central Europe, as while it would be disastrous for me to attack in those places, it was literally impossible for him to, as he had only one infantry in range each and a few tanks/mechs in range, with big stacks of infantry too far away to help. This southern German army, combined with the Italian force that burst through the Middle Eastern Soviet army I talked about earlier, was able to do some real damage and most likely would have taken Stalingrad. That fleet I had made as Germany psyched the British out, and they started building stacks of infantry, which I was more than fine with as I had no plans to invade England and I would rather they build infantry than ships. The American fleet was pressing in soon though, and I wasn’t in a position to assault Karelia (which had about 15 inf plus several tanks and mechs). It was a very close game though, with the Axis plowing through Africa and the Middle East up into the Caucasus, and the Americans prepping to land. I was preparing for that landing though, and was planning on making stacks of infantry at the French Major and Minor Factories, so there’s really no way to say which way it could have gone.
The Neutrals add a really cool dynamic to the game, and allow for much more options. It’s also a ton of fun having money (and a battleship!) as Russia, and the turns your not at war for let you experiment with making lots of different buys.
I took a ton of play by play pics, but I can’t find my cord at the moment and I’m also exhausted so I’ll try to upload them soon. Overall, it is a fantastic game and a great addition to the A&A series.
Idk about doomed to sink, it’s definitely vulnerable but the Italian player is going to need to make some important decisions. While the Italian fleet starts out pretty powerful, there’s a good amount of British/French sea units in range (and on land) and while they start out spread out, I doubt the Italian player will be able to wipe out all the Allied units in the area in the first turn, giving the Allies time to reorganize their remaining ships.
@Table:
I have one more land unit set I want to make :-)
Please let it be Norway.
A lot of people want to play the Invasion of Norway 1940 game, and need german and norvegian pieces, and besides the norvegian Krag-Jorgensen rifle will look great on that pidestal, not to mention the norvegian Qwizling-tanks that actually was the same size as the Tiger, only with a barely larger barrel.
Go on…
This thread is pretty hilarious
I feel like you should make Vichy France possible to invade. If you can invade the French African territories, they should all me treated as one entity.
Map looks fantastic! Have you come up with the unit set-ups yet?
Larry Harris 7/28
The idea of the UK Pacific’s income suddenly being combined with UK Europe income and all being place in London was my main reason for splitting the UK income into two different accounts.
Great Britain’s proximity to Germany would make for an impossible, potentially game breaking, situation in Europe. Imagine the UK being able to purchase 45 IPCs worth of units and placing them on Germany’s doorstep each round
Total UK income = 45
Pacific UK income = 16
so
Europe UK income = 29
“My advice to you and any other old veterans of A&A is watch out for those automatic tactical assumptions you’ve acquired over the years. Often they will prove to be outdated. You’ll run the risk of looking like an old General fighting the new war with the strategies of the last war.”
thx calvin, i wish we still had karma cause id give you a +1
I am ready for the challege, i just got a ticket to play AAG40 at Gencon, who else is going?
I am! Which time slot are you in?
Yeah, I’m thinking the 18 inf will go a long way towards balancing the pacific in the global game. Japan starts off with relatively few ground units, and the Russian presence will force them to leave a good portion of their units behind in Korea/Manchuria, which will hopefully slow down their advances in China and South Asia.
I eagerly await this, but I hope its a little cheaper than what IL is suggesting. If I could get all the pieces together for around $100 that’s doable, but I couldn’t justify spending $50 on each individual nation’s set.
fifty dollars a set I can buy hole new games with the money I put into six of these sets
Then don’t buy it, you saw how much their production costs are.
Well I’m in college and I work and I could never afford getting 6 copies of every single game that ever comes out
How can you afford getting like 6 copies of every single game that comes out haha
@Imperious:
I got Tides of Iron too ( 3 copies) but have not played it.
You have three copies of a $90 game that you haven’t even played yet? Why…?
@UN:
I think there should be a special rule that the British or American player can give the French player a certain amount of IPCs to use on only infantry (and perhaps artillery and tanks when certain prerequisites are met). I do not think it would be fun at all if the French player simply has to make due with what he has after the fall of Metropolitan France.
That’s why there’s not going to BE a dedicated France player…
Ok, some of this is legit, but Liechtenstein? Really? And dividing French Guyana, British Guyana, and Suriname? Reall?
this technology will be extremely weak. look at the pacific map and try to find a usefull scenario for it. i have done so and it would not help usa, anzac, japan or china. it could be slightly usefull for uk. you could save 2ipc a round by buying 2 infantry instead of 2 mechinized infantry. thats not worth the cost of acquiring the technology.
Well that’s the point, to my knowledge paratroopers weren’t used very often in the Pacific theater. The European theater on the other hand is a completely different situation, and I’m sure they’ll be very useful.
@Brain:
I’m going to gencon and will be sure to take pics. I’m going to get larry to sign my Anniversary rulebook :D
I wonder what will be worth more. An unopened AA50 game or a signed AA50 game?
Maybe he could sign the shrinkwrap haha. I’d never sell my anniversary edition anyway.
