Posts made by iwugrad

Great input, thanks all.  I know that for A&A Europe, playing all Axis, then all Allies made it a 3 or 4 hour game instead of an 8 hour game without diminishing the fun factor, so I’m glad to hear that may be doable in Global '40.

I like the blockhouse idea and I could very easily add that to my next HBG pieces order (I’ve purchased quite a few pieces from them over the years and planning on adding the recent UK and upcoming France, Germany, and US supplement sets)… not sure if the fun factor of blockhouses & mines would be enough in exchange for the additional rules though.  @crusaderiv and Narvik: What would be the rules/prices/attack factors associated with block houses and mines?  Or is this a special use for only the Maginot line?  I could see this being fun for the Maginot line and an invasion of Normandy or even a UK/USA invasion, but not as much if there are blockhouses and mines all over Europe.

@ Flashman & Narvik: I agree that cooperation between Russia and the other Allies took a very different tone than cooperation between UK/USA and Germany/Italy.  We don’t really know how well the European Axis and Japan would’ve cooperated in battle.  I like the idea of a certain separation for Russia and Japan, but to save time, perhaps they could still go at the same time and have specific rules for cooperation.  I could see any of those groups having joint participation in the same battle, but there would be coordination issues. What about for each battle engaged by joint powers (Russia & Other Allies or European Axis & Japan), one group (decided by that side, or if indecisive, the opponents get to decide) must complete one full round of combat before the other power can participate on the battle board, and the later side must survive 1 additional round of combat if there’s a retreat?  Germany was accused by the Hungarians of using them as cannon fodder and I’d bet Russia would’ve done the same to their allies.  So another possibility could be that Germany could decide whether to take Italians, Japanese, or Germans as casualties in a joint operation and Russia could decide whether to take their own or their ally.

I hesitate to say that Italy could attack anyone on R1 primarily because it would make them unrealistically strong in the Mediterranean: they could wipe out the British mediterranean fleet while taking Egypt, Alexandria, and Anglo-Egyptian Sudan with relative ease on R1.  Also, they didn’t jump into France until they knew they were safe doing so and likely wouldn’t have gone in without knowing the German attack would work.  I’m not sure that Mussolini would’ve been ok with the Germans sending some of their French invasion forces in via northern Italy prior to their late invasion of France.  I also would prefer to start in the 1940 scenario, where Germany has already moved into Belgium since I’m getting out of scope if I start trying to create a 1939 scenario: for that, I’d probably just take that 1939 game mentioned on HBG and mod it rather than turn the 1940 game into 1939.

That’s certainly something to watch out for: so the question would be “Is this scripted?”.  My impression is that it wouldn’t be, but this may need play testing: I’m not sure if it would always be the best strategy as Italy to try to block the UK fleet from co-opting the French fleet… you may instead want to keep your forces congregated so that the UK can’t defeat them piecemeal.  Also, sending ships to SZ92 to block the UK ship in SZ91 from co-opting the French also opens up your ships to attack by that ship as well as fighters from the UK mainland.  Even if Italy blocks off the UK fleet, would you want to launch an air strike against the French boats?  If you can use those planes in helping your fleet wipe out the Italian fleet, then you could sail in and incorporate those boats to the Allies.  Also, an air strike could displace aircraft to unsafe areas or possibly require your carrier to move within one square of where the French Fleet is, which could expose the UK fleet more than it wants to be (especially if it’s allocating material to eliminating French boats that would’ve gone towards eliminating the Italian fleet).

For Operation Dynamo: that could be a risky option (IF your UK transport somehow survived the German subs and aircraft: slightly more possible as the German player may want to invest more Luftwaffe into France since the Maginot line cuts off a lot of ground forces from the attack).  It could potentially open up transports to German attack on the next round.  I could see these scenarios having a bit of fun and chiding your ‘heartless’ opponent for attacking either a defenseless fleet or fleeing men.  Rather than a scripted game, I believe this would add a new element to the game as forces try to compete over who can co-opt French material - as they did in the war.

The Maginot line portion would take out some of the scripting from the original game.  It’s possible that if you get too ambitious (wanting to conquer Normany/Bordeaux in R1, conserve more men for an early Russian attack, or allocate too much air power to destroying the British fleet), you may fail to conquer France on R1.  Of course this would be disastrous, as France could then build on their turn.  With that possibility, it makes this portion of the game more intense and less scripted.

The aspect I’m most concerned about would be how having all the forces playing simultaneously could affect balancing.  I’ve read posts on other forums from people who’ve done this and said that it works (I know it does for the A&A Europe that was released in 1999), but some of these additions could swing the balance too far one way or the other.

Here is a variant which would add historical realism and enable several key historic events to occur.  This is under development, so looking for advice from experienced Global 1940 players.  I would really like to hear from anyone who can/has play tested aspects of this variant.  The aspects are as follows:

1. All Aligned Nations Have Simultaneous Play
This aspect opens up the possibility of some key events.  Also, it makes the game much faster and more enjoyable for some of the patience deficit friends I play with.  The turn order and rules would be:
a.  All Axis aligned nations play simultaneously:  Italy may not attack US/UK/France/Russia on R1.  They may attack neutral, allied neutral, or incorporate Axis aligned nations.
b.  All Allied aligned nations play simultaneously
c.  All neutral countries play simultaneously:  For R1, this is the U.S. and Russia if they haven’t been attacked.

2.  Maginot Line
Germany purposely went around the Maginot line.  They only attacked the line after the war had been decided.
a. For this rule German land units can only attack France through Belgium.

3.  French Unit Alignment After the Fall of France
During the war, French units fought with both sides.  This also opens up the possibility for some realistic historical events (such as the controversial British air raid on the southern French fleet after France fell).
a.  For this rule, after France falls, their units are unaligned, unmovable, and could be co-opted: they would defend with a roll of “1” in situations where the attacker doesn’t want to or cannot incorporate them.  Any side that ends it’s combat movement with combat units sharing a sea zone or territory with isolated French units incorporates those units to their side.  To represent the diplomatic relations, the French units would be controlled by an aligned nation’s player from the Pacific board, not the one who incorporated the French units.  
b.  French units already stationed in the same territory as Allied units would start the turn incorporated and could be used immediately by the Allies.

* Play Example 1:  If the Italian player blocks off UK access to the southern France French fleet in R1, the UK player may launch an air strike (where French naval units defend at “1”) so that Italy cannot incorporate the units on their turn.  This would allow for the UK air raid on the French fleet that occurred in the war.  
    * Play Example 2:  This could also allow the UK’s Operation Dynamo where the UK evacuated troops from France, since Germany may leave that area untouched due to the Maginot line rule encouraging all their Belgium forces to invade France.  ex.  On R1 Britain lands a soldier in France for their combat move, thereby incorporating those units to the Allied side.  For their non-combat move, the French units are loaded onto the transport(s).  Depending on balancing, aligned nations could either need to unload on the next round or could use aligned transports without restrictions.

My impression is that #1 initially favors the Axis at the start of the game and the Allies at the end of the game.  #2 favors the Allies.  #3 favors the Axis.  Some balancing possibilities:  
If the Axis have too much of an advantage: You could place stricter rules on the incorporation of French units, such as requiring a dice roll to see if they join or fight.  You could disallow Italy from attacking Allied aligned neutrals in R1 as well.  You could impose limits on Italian participation in the invasion of Russia and UK.  This would align with the historic reality of their limited participation as well. Alternatively or in addition, you could impose a limit on their dice rolls in Russia since many Italians felt that their equipment was not suited for battle on the Eastern front.
If the Allies have too much of an advantage: You could allow Germany to invade France through Italy and/or invade France through the Maginot line with a penalty of half the dice roll value for any land units attacking that direction.  You could also require them to do a dice roll to see if French units in or in sea units around Africa will join or fight.  You could also only allow the UK to attack Italy in R1 if the Italians invaded any Ally aligned nations.

Thanks for the feedback guys!  Very thought out reply TheMethuselah, that helps, thanks.  I was thinking that 8 Mechanized Infantry might be enough and that some might only use two, so I was surprised to see that 12 can be used by many of the major powers.  Are you sure that there could be 12 different Mechanized Infantry on 12 different territories?  I could see that if Russia was attacking Japanese forces in Asia by land or vice versa.  I was also surprised to see 6 additional fighters for Italy, which would make 8 total.  I had thought that 4 might do it, so I really appreciate your input.  If anyone has a different experience, I’d love to hear from a variety of people, since I never know who I might be playing with and what units might be realistically used with the various strategies out there.

I imagine my mental estimate for fighters and bombers of other countries is off as well.  Do you have an aircraft estimate for some (or all) of the other countries?

Right now I just have some sub par quality photos of the Europe pieces, but maybe I can post those some time; the IJN probably is my best work, but I don’t have any good photos right now.  If I have free time I should be painting rather than setting up a photo shoot.  I’ll plan to post a link here if I end up posting them.  Thanks for the interest.

I considered playing with a half finished set, but I live in a small town and the people I play A&A with (mostly in-laws) are not die hard.  If they play this version once and don’t have fun, they’ll never want to play it again, so I’ll probably only have 1 shot.  They like A&A Europe (1999) but are mostly into sports and video games, so getting them to play at all is a rare occurrence.  Playing with myself is also not easily done for reasons I won’t bore you with (kids taking pieces off the table, trying to eat them, to name a few), but just trust me.  I appreciate everyone’s advice.

I’m afraid that if I get a guy that wants to build 25 tanks or an over-sized Russian Navy, I’ll just have to apologize and tell him that would be for a later release: just want to have enough painted to reasonably play a game.  For instance, in A&A Europe (1999 version), you probably wouldn’t need more than 5 US tanks and 8 should be plenty to be safe.  You don’t need any Russian aircraft carriers, but one might be nice in case you’re playing with a 1st timer.  You probably only need 2 German bombers, but probably no one would build more than 4 unless they’re goofing off (remember that you can use chips if they will be on the same territory).

I detail each piece after an actual unit, so I don’t just paint a bunch of green airplanes, for instance: I model an actual airplane including any numbers, letters, etc.  It’s not uncommon for an airplane to take 1 hour or a boat to take 2.  This is why I don’t want to overdo it.

Lots of views, but no responses.  I think people, understandably so, don’t have 30 minutes to spend typing out how many of the hundreds of pieces are used in this game.  With that in mind, if you could answer any of these, that would be helpful.  Here’s what would help to know, in this order of importance:

1.  How many trucks (Mechanized Infantry) could each country reasonably use in a game?

2.  How many AA guns could each country reasonably use in a game?

3.  What naval ships could the Italian player use?

4.  What ships should Germany and Russia use?

5.  Relative sizes of A) Italy’s air force B) Everyone else’s

6.  How many cruisers from each nation?

7.  Any pieces other than what France starts with that should be painted?

7.  Any other differences in unit use between A&A Pacific (2000)/A&A Europe (1999) and A&A Global?

Hello, I’m new to these forums and glad to be here.  I’m one of those guys that got the wild idea of painting my axis and allies pieces.  While I’ve painted nearly every piece needed for A&A Europe and A&A Pacific (the versions that came out around 2000) and more than enough for the original and 1941: A&A Global came out while doing this project and of course I just have to try to paint all of those.  I’ve probably painted around 500 and my poor wife is growing weary, so I don’t want to paint more than I’d realistically need.  I play with everyone from tournament winning veterans to 1st timers.  I’d like for newb purchases to be accounted for, but not over the top… I don’t need 2+ carriers for Russia, or 12 Italian fighters for instance.  I own, but haven’t played '40 Global yet as I want to play with a painted set: don’t want to get guys together to play with a half finished set where we have to mix plastic pieces.

In order to assess how many and which kinds of additional pieces I need to paint, can anyone give an estimate of how many pieces would actually be used during your Axis & Allies Global '40 game’s lifetime?  I already have plenty of soldiers, artillery, and tanks for every country except for France.  I already have enough allied and Japanese boats except for cruisers (I don’t have enough Russian, Italian, French, and German navies though).  I probably need a larger air force for this game for each country.  Primarily I’m concerned about the new units: trucks, AA guns, Tac bombers, cruisers; but also any needs for the other pieces compared to A&A Europe and Pacific.