Posts made by koba

They must not be at war with the country having the sneak attack used on them. Which kind of sucks as, if you want to use it on the Commonwealth, you have to do it by turn 3 as they are at war with Japan on that turn.

Agreed. If things go well for Germany via impulse attacks, wonderful. If things don’t go so great, catastrophe.

Note: A lot of it depends on your opponent(s). Mine are fanatical terrorists (I hope they’re reading) who take advantage of every little shred of bad luck, lapsed attention, and strategic weakness on my part. There was already a whole gaggle of underhanded schemes and tricks (and slanders!!!) viciously applied to me as the Axis before these rule changes. Now it’s going to be a monsoon of terrorism. I can say from experience that opportunism, skulduggery, scandalous campaigns, shameless posturing and downright scuzziness in general are the traits and activities of a dedicated Allied player :-P.  All this while the unfairly handicapped, dignified and altruistic Axis player merely attempts to hold their own.

This being said, I never leave anything to chance when I slap France. I’ve seen too many times when my Axis opponent had poor rolls and/or did not apply overwhelming force, or relied on air power for hits (only to see a bunch of planes shot down), and had to deal with a whole mess of French forces–duly supported by British reinforcements–breathing down Germany’s neck on turn two. Combine this with UK activation of pro-allied armies of Yugoslavia and Greece and the Axis are having a lousy outing. Not even mentioning the fact that the Russians are yuck yucking it up while building the Red Army.

Germany needs that two impulse move in order to break out and have even half a chance of success. This is even more acute given the recent rule and set-up changes.

The two impulse attack could also be defended as it reflects the historical reality of Germany’s early lead in terms of organization and revolutionary tactics in warfare. Not to mention the political dissension (France, it could be argued, did almost as much as the Germans to bring on defeat in 1940) and military ineptitude of the western allies.

No offence Ben, I know we’ve had this discussion about balance before.

My allied opponents would just love you Ben–-I’m beginning to wonder if you’re not one of them :wink:, it certainly wouldn’t be beneath them to come on here and masquerade as someone generally concerned about fairness and balance (the swine)—.

They’re probably reading your post right now and slobbering over the proposition of an end to the two impulse (at least until it’s their turn to be the Axis—the side they are generally not interested in playing—even less interested now).

Sounds good.

Will implement and report back.

Thanks again.

It definitely will be a tough go for Japan. The beauty of the old sneak attack rules was that the Allies knew it might be coming but there were a few turns of drama beforehand. Now (if it remains the case), the “sneak” has been taken out of the sneak attack. Maybe it would have been better to give Japan a two impulse like Germany which she had to use by the end of turn three or something.

When I get home I’ll be setting up the map right away and getting the lay of the land. I’m sure SS will be giving us some more info as seeing is believing.  :-o

Past that, we’ll see what Tigerman sends us.

Oh, bummer.

Listen, take care of yourself and thank you for the work you’re doing on these rules.

Will do.

Thanks for the recon SS.

In retrospect, as radical as the changes are to Novosibirsk, I am surprised no Russian navy showed up off of Vladivostok!

I seem to remember a small one there in Zeno’s World at War.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking hard shoulder to the USSR (maybe grab a bit of buffer from the eastern territories) and drive for FEC, DEI, and beat up China along the way. It’ll have to be quick though and if the rolls go bad it may mean turtle time. It looks like Japan is going to be forced to declare war early by slapping FEC (maybe USSR too) hard with the sneak attack. I don’t see a Pearl Harbour happening.

Then again, I’m still thinking about a more conservative game if the sneak attack by turn 2 is still in force by the time we play. All that new junk in Novosibirsk is a bit intimidating. Are the small gains worth it to get the US after me earlier on?

Please keep the reports/impressions coming.

I noticed the UK re-reinforcements as well. As Germany I generally do not invade Norway by sea anyway and do not end up with the bonus until after declaring war on the USSR and going into Norway via Finland. Regardless, I am with you SS regarding the changes you mentioned.

Saying that, it looks like they want us to play it out as presented. We’ll give it a whirl the weekend of the 20/21st and see how it shakes down.

Sounds good. I won’t be playing until next weekend anyway so the clarifications will most likely be out before that.

I send feedback when we are done. Maybe some pics too.

Thanks Tigerman,

By the way, are you going to be involved on this weekend’s playtesting of Global 1936?

Yes, the balance was a bit off. Now we wait and see if the pendulum has swung too far the other way. The others in the group I play with are already reviewing the rules and plotting. I hope the Russia 80 IPC start is a mistake. If not….

Yep, I hear ya Bill. I just hope they have it clarified by time I get home to play. As it stands I’m preparing for the worst case Axis scenario.

Yeah, the lend lease thing never works out for me either. I just gave up on it and put the money toward building a big US fleet with marines and armour.

The more I’m looking at this, the more I’m thinking the Axis player will have the opportunity to replay all those “glorious” fighting retreat (Germans) and (mass) death with honour (Japanese) battles we’ve read about. And if the rolls go as you’ve said, those battles will happen sooner rather than later.

80 IPC USSR starting IPC!!! Can you say “Gotterdammerung”?

I’m strongly considering foregoing the sneak attack in favour of keeping the US out just a little longer. The 35 IPC boost may not be worth it. We’ll see.

You know, since I’ve been playing this game I’ve never used a kamikaze. It’s looking like that is going to change.

How am I going to subdue China,  deal with the commonwealth and a USSR on steroids? Used to be, even in old school A and A, if one Axis country was weak the other would be strong enough to help out. Now it’s looking like they’ll all be fighting for their lives very soon.

This is going to require a significant rethink.

Yes, some clarification would be good before I take a hellacious buttwhoopin as the Axis with these new rules.

Thank you Tall Paul,

I’ve been checking out your 3D stuff and have been considering taking the leap from the existing markers.

Been looking at these pics over and over. Can’t wait to get my hands on this map. I’m really eager to see the rules.

The allies will be landing in Europe quite soon methinks.

Japan is going to feel the heat as well. The Chinese will be able to place six units per territory, Soviets hugely strengthened in the east, ANZAC and FEC permitted major ICs on Sydney and Calcutta. Nowhere will be safe for the Axis.

I’m up to bad this time as Germany and Japan (got a puppet running Italy). I’m going to run through this and start working out my strategy this week before I get home from work. I don’t think just sitting down and figuring this out on the fly will work out.

The boys have worked out a doozie for us to figure out that’s for sure.

What dya think SS? Get building those Tigers and SS units ASAP? I’m seeing lot’s of SS panzergrenadiers/arty combos as well as SS infantry a la HBG rules.

Japan will be sticking to big navy and infantry builds.

Italy, um, well, we’ll see.

Yess :wink: We were using the 1 mech per major too. If these new rules prove to be too unbalanced we may introduce it. My feeling is this will force the Axis to be more creative in the composition of its forces (e.g. more mech/arty combos). We have also been using some of the HBG optional rules (Japanese light tanks, elite infantry units, Atlantic Wall etc.).

If they wanted to make things more of a challenge for the Axis I think they have succeeded. My prediction is Axis on the defensive by turn 5, game over for Axis by turn 10.

Did you notice Italy’s starting IPCs cut to 15?

Whatever the balance, I do think the new rules reflect more clearly the real challenges the Axis faced and the ultimate foolhardiness of their ambitions.

Whether or not history will be changed on the Global '39 map….?

Can’t wait to hear some reports from others.

As for 80 IPCs for Russia, I can’t say it’s a misprint as the rules were reviewed and approved before release.

80 IPC for Russia at the start and big re- in forcements in Novosibirsk = no more one infantry per factory as we have been playing it.

No second impulse for German navy means big pressure on them earlier on. Combined with 6 ipc ar our ,this will lead to a much more conservative Axis game.

We’ll trying these new rules out in two weeks. Looks like things are going to be a lot harder for the Axis.