Posts made by GeneralHandGrenade

They are slightly taller than A&A OOB German Infantry but it’s almost indistinguishable.

You’ve put a lot of thought into this CWO Marc and I commend you for your efforts. The innovative 2 value system for China is a great idea to address Japan’s conquest of China, making them decide how many territories they should spend the effort on vs. the reward they receive.

These changes may also help to balance the game as well. I think it should be play tested a number of times to see if it shifts the balance just right or a little too much. I can see Japan becoming weaker and Germany getting stronger as the shift in IPC’s moves to the west and right into the path of Germany. That might not be such a bad thing as Japan is an overwhelming, unstoppable force in most of the games I’ve played. The question with that will be does Germany smash Russia too fast because they gain access to the extra IPC’s while Russia loses them faster than if they were protected behind the capital (assuming Japan didn’t raid Russia ). If that happens you could always shift the IPC’s again away from the German front lines, back to Moscow and territories bordering it. Another thing you could do to help the Russians is install the Tankograd rule in some form that was discussed in an earlier thread to balance out the increased threat from Germany.

Overall I think you’re really onto something with these proposed changes to IPC values. It would certainly spice up the battle in the Pacific.

I think that’s a great idea too. It would be such a huge bonus to have 2 different choices of map to play the game on. It’s also a cool idea to have everyone contribute to a new game that we all have the pieces for already but only need a new playing surface.

I think all of this discussion really depends on what your intention is and what it should be. It seemed to me that your original intention was to make a map of Global 40 that was more functional and had all of the aides placed on it. The discussion has morphed into how can we change the game to make it better. So really we are talking about 2 things here. If we change the map itself, i.e. different income values or making it so one particular territory doesn’t touch another specific one then we are creating a different game. Similar but different. That would be like adding a row of squares to a chess board. It wouldn’t be the same game.

There is room for both ideas, improving the game board and creating a new, community driven game itself. Perhaps there should be 2 separate discussions for these ideas.

You could also go the other way with the income as well. Move the 6 infantry from Buryatia to Siberia or disperse them to the west and make Buryatia an impassable zone. Take the IPC’s from Buryatia, Yakut, Yenisey, and Evenkiyskiy. With that you could double each of the territories value to the east of the impassable zone. With the 18 infantry and 2 AAA the Russians could hold off the Japanese for a few turns anyway. In a bizarre game where Germany sucks the big one Russia could build a minor factory over there because the IPC value would allow it. I don’t see that happening against good competition though.

There has to be a great deal of natural resources in that area that Japan could utilize in their war effort since their island nation has limited resources. The reason they went to war with America was because of the embargo that kept them from getting fuel for their war machine against China and Southeast Asia. Doing that would turn the Mongolians against them but that wouldn’t be the end of the world, so it would still be unlikely that they would attack Eastern Russia but that doesn’t mean that they can’t do it to secure resources (IPC’s). The only impossible thing they couldn’t have done was skate an army all the way to Moscow from the Pacific Coast. If they are still hell bent on getting to Moscow they could go through China or violate the strict neutrality of Mongolia with the consequences that go along with doing so.

If you take everything away from Siberia you would be rendering a large part of the map as useless as South America is in G40. I think we could find a way of making it somewhat relevant without completely suspending our belief in reality.

I changed my mind about the blowup boxes. You can always use task force cards or anything really to set your units down on and then you don’t have to permanently mark up your map with the blowup boxes. In the game I’m playing now I’m using a set of coasters from HGB that has each nation’s symbols on them. They’re very cheap and the perfect size to use for a blowup box. It also looks kind of cool too.

I really like this set of cards and I’ve watched your videos on the rules and now I’m ready to print them off and give it a try. I’m wondering what function the last 2 cards are for though. Combat Movement, Combat Declaration, Collect income and Bonuses. I can see what you would use the Mobilization Zones for but I’m not sure about these other 3. Please enlighten me Young Grasshopper and thank you very much for your work in creating this set and all the other work you have done.

One thing that might be cool is adding a few railways. I’m not talking about railways everywhere such as in the Global 36/45 game from HBG, just a few of them which may or may not be historically accurate for the purpose of improved gameplay.

I would put 4 of them on the board;

1. from Moscow to Siberia that does not include Amur For Russia
2. from South Africa to Egypt for the U.K.
3. from Korea to Shanghai for the Japanese
4. from Holland Belgium to Western Germany to Greater Southern Germany to Slovakia Hungary to Romania for the Germans.

Only the owner of the railway could use them. You may move 2 land units per turn up to the full length of the railway (or less) during the non-combat movement phase only. You must hold all of the territories along the railway as far as you are moving the units at the beginning of your turn. Sections of railway can be captured but only the capturing nation can use them.

I ordered some of those railway tokens today which I’m going to use for G40. They are going to cost 2 IPC’s each and I’m going to use these rules for them. You can only build one section of track per turn. If I had a board with those railways on them I would use those instead and maybe the tokens to build anywhere else. Tactical Bombers can damage sections of track with a roll of one. The railway owner would have to pay one IPC to repair one section of track.

And did I mention blow up boxes?? One for Germany, one for United Kingdom, and one for Southern Italy. I would put the U.K. one somewhere near the bottom left of the board in the south Atlantic because that’s where I like to sit when I’m playing the U.K. since that’s where most of their action is.

I think that it would be good to at least pick up another set of U.K. like you did with Germany. They are the nation with the most room to expand and pick up other territories in Africa and the Ottoman Empire which means that you might need extra infantry between those places and Europe.

After the initial attack on Serbia by AH everyone is at war except for the U.S. Start rollin’.

A few blow up boxes for a crowded Europe would come in handy. They had them on the original game board and should have never gotten rid of them.

No. You can move 2 into a contested territory. You must end your movement in a contested territory. You can only move one space out of a contested territory.

Establishing France as a minor power again after their defeat in the first round might upset the balance in the game. A new government in Algeria wouldn’t last very long as the Italians would no doubt take them out asap.

How about a French Resistance scenario instead? The resistance was a celebrated part of WW2. Aside from providing the allies with valuable intelligence they also performed acts of sabotage especially on D-Day. To simulate their contribution to the war effort they could have one die roll at 1 (or a 2?)  on their turn to hit a enemy unit of their choosing on original French territory in Europe. I would make that contingent on the fact that they still have a least one unit somewhere on the board. Later on in the game when they have very few units left it could be an interesting mission to hunt them down.It would give France an actual role in the game beyond the first couple of turns.

It’s not as good of a game as G40 but it is still a good game. The play is much different so that adds some variety to your game collection. Make sure that if you are going to get the game that you get extra pieces or you will be frustrated. Aside from German infantry the next thing to run out is the playing chips and they are slightly larger than the chips you are using now so they don’t stack well. You can buy the pieces and chips from HBG. The tournament rules are better than the OOB rules as well.

I played my first game of Amerika last night. It was pretty easy to learn once I was finally able to remember which sculpts were the self propelled anti-aircraft units and and which ones were the self propelled artillery units. It took awhile to play because I was carefully going through every step and double checking to make sure I didn’t develop any bad habits as far as the rules go. I can see being able to play a game in under 2 hours including setup if you had 2 or 3 players who already knew how to play. That would be perfect for the lake in the summer when you go into the cabin to wait out a rainstorm. A&A on the other hand would be more of a whole day this is never going to clear up type of game.

It’s a good game and very well made. I picked up the Strategic Markers expansion set with the game but didn’t use any of the extra rules that come with the pieces so I could learn the game first and decide which rules and extra pieces would be appropriate to make it a better game. I did find the map a little small so I am going to get a bigger one for use at home on the big table. I like lots of elbow room and space to line up my tanks without using chips. In the game the Japanese got bogged down in the northwest with the allies holding the line at Hanford Nuclear Research Facility. They had better luck in the south moving inland and taking out Los Alamos NRF. The Germans made it as far as Detroit in the north and Nashville in the south but couldn’t capture Oak Ridge NRF. On the fifth turn the allies were lucky enough to roll big and go first, which meant that they had 2 turns in a row and were able to take back Los Alamos and 3 cities and accumulating enough points to win the game. If the axis would’ve went first on the fifth turn it would have been a different outcome and they might have won on the fifth or sixth turn. It all came down to that one roll…

Kudos to Team Europe for their performance in the World Cup. 25 players from 8 different countries with no past and no future together gave Canada and the hockey world all they could handle and then some. A heartbreaking loss when they gave up 2 goals in the last 3 minutes of the second game to lose 2-1 and give Canada a 2-0 games victory to answer the big question leading up to the tournament - Hockey is Canada’s game.

One last shot. The role of the neutrals is graciously being played by an old set of WW11 Russian infantry and artillery that I painted black.

This pic of the opening setup shows how much room you have to contest territories. I should even be able to fit a few zeppelins in there.  :wink:

I brought home my 1914 map from the printer today. I went with 42 inch vinyl copy. The colors didn’t come out as dark as a paper map but I like the soft feel to the surface. Here is a pic of the OOB map on top of the vinyl map to get an idea of the size difference. I don’t think you would need a larger size than 42 inch because there seems to be lots of room to fit pieces. Even Europe has enough room to hold everyone. Thank you IL for the map file. You rock!

Good point but I’ve already thought of that. I’ve ordered this set of task force markers, they include Italy, France and Germany. I’m going to use them as blow up boxes for Italy, France and Germany even when Germany has taken out France. Besides, they were going to be used as Industrial Complexes as well as city markers so they would be replacing them and not adding any extra pieces. I will place the city markers on the board and the units in the blow up boxes.
http://www.historicalboardgaming.com/HBG-Task-Force-Set-9-Set_p_1812.html