Best posts made by Narvik

@djensen

I sent in for Gold as usual.

Thanks for running this site

@The_Good_Captain

Right, 5 years in the military make me read everything literally, letter for letter, to the letter, if you will. Unfortunately I don’t have power to make you edit your Headline to “I know 5 versions of A&A that surely are imbalanced” so I just move on. I let it go. Not my business.

I am aware of your YT Channel and have watched some, not all, and you have done a good job. I’m not a competitive player so I’m not qualified to comment on most of them. But as a history buff and vet I don’t appreciate silly game mechanics or rules that produce results which don’t make sense in the context of the historical setting, like Submarines shooting down Aircrafts, Trannies sinking Battleships, which was an issue with MB Classic but that have been fixed in later versions. I do like the rules and mechanic to be streamlined for ease of play, and IMHO Infantry shold always cost 3 IPC and not 2 like in N.A, and why do we need so many different Supply rules? Battle of the Bulge had one type of Supply, then North Africa had another type of Supply rule, and now Stalingrad have another Supply rule. And what about Road movement? In Battle of the Bulge everything on wheels move unlimited, in North Africa vehicles move 5 spaces, and in Stalingrad some vehicles move 2+2 spaces on the road. But StugIII and the truck with Katusjas only move 1 even they got the same engine as other vehicles. Don’t make sense to me. And then there is the scripted games. Like in Stalingrad Russian Infantry is restricted form moving in the first 2 rounds because Stalin had OCD and said not one step back. When I play Russia I am not Stalin, and I want my Infantry to move back, but silly rules prevent me. Enouch, maybe I’ll comment on some of your other threads some time. Take care and keep up the good work.

Renegade announce reprint of D-day for april 2026.

@CentralCommando

I surely don’t want to derail Jensens thread, so you should make a new topic. This issue need a dedicated thread, for sure.

That said, the quintessence of A&A is a simplistic game with simplistic rules. Easy to learn, and a lifetime to master. Either AA42 second ed or Anniversary, but not with dark colors. (The colors from MB Classic or Europe (1999) or Pacific (2001) had maps with bright colors. Too dark colors make me sad). Focus on that. All this Theather games with different and complex rules, some with D12, D10 or D6, or a dice Box, different stacking limits (in the range of 8 to 12 units) different supply rules, different road movement rules was a bad idea. Streamlining of rules and ease of play should be the cornerstone of A&A. Now make this new thread and I for sure will weight in, man

@The_Good_Captain

As of 2026 there are 19 spin-off games in the A&A franchise. You only investigated 5 of them. Also we are aware of the imbalance and bugs, and that is why we have bidding. No games are strictly balanced, not even Chess. If you start with white pieces in Chess you got the advantage. If you go first in Monopoly you got an advantage. Your study is not wrong, I appreciated it, and would like to see you do all the 19 spin-offs. You shold also look into the Tournament Rules, like LHTR, etc, and joined with bidding the games get fairly balanced, That said, the casual A&A player, like the casual Chess player, don’t play competitive. 99% of the A&A Community love to fool around with the plastic pieces and don’t mind any imbalances. We play for fun. Now keep that in mind.

@The_Good_Captain

OK we are cool. My next post will be on the balance and bugs issue. Your statement is that adding one UK Infantry here (Anniversary) and removing a Ge Tank and Sub there (Europe) will fix the balance issue. You are not wrong, but as far as I’m conserned bidding have been taking care of that since 1988.

Looking forward to your next investigation. You now have finished 5 and only 14 more versions to cover.

@vodot

Thank you, I love it, just printet it out as we speak.

How about the “Axis Advantage” Air Transport?
Of course the dive bombers JU 87 or SM.79 can’t transport infantry or artillery, they barely have space for the 2 men crew. But if we use the JU 88 and P.108 Strategic Bomber pieces from Europe 1940 as Air Transports, how about that? Each could transport one Infantry, or one Artillery or one Supply. I don’t belive any Air Transports of WWII could transport heavy halftracks of 8 tons, barely the artillery of 2 tons. IMHO

Got Gold

@Narvik

ANZAC AND UK PAC TURN 22 - WINTER 1945

COMBAT
OPERATION CAPITAL - INVASION OF BURMA
India: 4 Inf, Art, Tank, BMB (UK) + 4 Inf (Punjab) + 2 Inf (Gurkha) attack> Burma: 3 Inf (JAP) + Inf (BU)
Loss Allies: 1 Inf + Loss JAP: all units

BATTLE OF RAMREE ISLAND
1000 japanese soldiers retreat into crocodile-infestet mangrove swamps.
Only 20 survive.
This is known as the worst animal attack ever recordet. If it’s true. Historians differ

Burma switch side and join the Allies.
1 Inf (BU) join the Allies.

@Imperious-Leader I was trapped in an unhealty relation to a woman that did not respect a real mans urge to play A&A, but I’m back now. Still waiting for my gold badge, that was paid for a week ago. Miss the Message Boards from the 1990’ies now that was action.

@CWO:

…. and two American fighter units represented by two different sculpts (though their cost and characteristics in the rules were identical).Â

Correct, One of the designers said he could not live with an Army P 38 Lighting as a carrier based plane, so they gave us 6 carrier based fighters too. Those were the days…

@The_Good_Captain

Hi Ryan, it looks like you were an official playtester in Renegades North Africa and Stalingrad versions, maybe even more games that I’m not aware of. So I got some questions. How exactely does the playtesting works? It’s basically an economic game based on math, so it would make sense to use computers, AI, data etc to sort out the patterns. And propably thousands of human playtesting games to include the human factor too. And yet still all games are imbalanced or bugged. Many A&A versions have second editions and erratas to try to fix some of the worst imbalances and bugs, but will A&A ever be a perfect game?

@CentralCommando

I remember when A&A Minis come in 2005, some players had the main movements on the Revised 2004 ed map, but resolved the battles with the Minis. You are basically suggesting the same, but switch the Minis with a First Shooter Game online. Could be fun.

@Argothair:

I wonder why the US Navy changed its mind at that particular time –

You may find some answers in the book “Mr. Roosevelts Navy” by Patrick Abbazia, covering this time of decisions.

The final map

In this blog I compere the real WWII to a game of A&A.
In this blog one Round is 3 months. Rounds follow the seasons: Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall.
This blog start with the Fall-Round, that would be september 1. 1939 in the real war, and end after 24 rounds with a summer Round, that would be september 2. 1945 in the real war. This 24 Rounds represent 6 years and one day of war.

A&A is known to be a game of Grand Strategy, that involves both military, diplomatic and economic stuff. Each Turn is split in two, a diplomatic action between the players (National Leaders) in the Game Room and the military campaigns on the A&A 1940-map. To make it simple I just list the purchase, combat moves and non-combat moves. I skip Collect Income but might edit it in later, since it is complicated with GDP, military outlay, revenue from occupied territory that just was schorched, burned, bombed but also different and nation specific cost of units. USSR had cheap infantry but real expensive ships. USA had cheap ships but real expensive infantry. It’s complicated.

Since 9 players will make 24 Rounds, (=216 Turns) and each Turn is split in a Game Room post and a Map post, this Blog will be 432 posts long. Some posts will have a image, but don’t worry I scaled them down to 700 kB and also I will be a Gold member every year as long this Blog run.

What do an A&A unit represent? This question has intrigued the community since back in 1984 when the MB Classic game was made. There are no logical answer to that. In this Blog I keep it simple and abstract.
One Battleship unit is 100 000 tons of battleships, between 1 or 4 real life ships.
One Carrier unit is 60 000 tons of carriers with 200 aircrafts. It is impossible to combine CV-air with land based air so I keep them separate.
A Cruiser is 30 000 tons, a destroyer 20 000 tons, a sub is 20 000 tons, a Tranny 250 000 tons (that is what it takes to transport to land units of 100 000 men each across the Atlantic) and a Convoy is 100 000 tons of merchant shipping with a value of 1 IPC, just to have a number. This may change when I start working on the economy and Collect Income phase.

When purchased a FTR and TAC is 1000 aircrafts and a S.BMB is 500, but on the map this is reduced to 500, 400 and 250 because in the real war old planes were replaced by new ones continiously.

Land units are tricky, they are both men and stuff. An Infantry unit is 100 000 men and weapons, based on the average Division Slice of an average Triangular Division.

The Combat Arms (frontline soldiers) would be like 14 000 men (40 %), the Combat Support ( Artillery, Engineering, Signal, Securitsy etc) is 6000 men (20%), Service Supply (Logistic and Supply chain) is 7000 men (20%) and Service Support (Maintenance, Quartermaster, Paymaster, Transportation etc) is 8000 men (20%) for a total of 34 000 men with equipment.

Tank unit is 1000 Tanks of all sizes and 50 000 men. Artillery is funny because it belongs in the Infantry Division but in this game it is separated into its own unit, so I figure 3000 or 4000 art would make a decent unit. Same with Mech, usually in an Armoured Division, but for this Blog 100 000 men with veichles is a Mech unit. AA unit is 1000 AA guns. Fort unit is 50 000 crew +100 heavy guns in casemates. Blockhouse unit is 50 000 crew +1000 heavy machine guns in bunkers.

In the Pacific I used Convoy Disruption Rule OOB because Japan didn’t use convoys, but the Battle of Atlantic was very different, so I use the convoy rules from A&A Europe 1999 ed and also from the A&A North Africa convoy rule. As long as I use rules from the A&A univers I guess I can mix. After all, A&A is the game of House Rules. Larry Harris Tournament Rules is prof of that.

Please don’t clutter down this Blog. This Blog will raise a lot of intriguing historical cases to be discussed, but lets take that in the History part of this Forum. Next post will be the 1939 set up

@Karl7:

Pacific 2001  – not listed

Correct, Pacific 2001 and Europe 1999, the two best A&A games, currently out of print, too sad.

Pacific 2001 was the first game with convoy zones, naval bases and air bases, and my favorite, the CAP, Combat Air Patrol, the current scrambling is by far not that good.

And the best, they were playable, you could play it every where, you did not need a dedicated basement like when you play G40, or a 6 feet table. Also, the map was focused on the spot where the war actually happened. No Africa and no South America. Too sad its out of print

@suprise:

What if
Churchill didnt get elected or was killed, or if it was FDR in the same situation
Would the Axis have been able to win the war
Have fun

I belive it did not matter. Churchill and FDR were not dictators, they were not above the Palace of Westminster or Capitol Hill, even with no Winnie then Halifax would still have to listen to the public opinion, and so did FDR. All the other candidates at the 1940 election, like Wendell Willkie, Cordell Hull, Farley, Garner, Tydings, Wallace, Taft and Dewey, were not likely to follow a radically different policy than FDR did. They could not bypass Capitol Hill and declare a personal war, neither could they ignore any Axis threats to the national security. So bottom line is, democracies never have that great freedom of choices, they must obey the public opinion. Ian Kershaw is discussing this issues in his book Fateful Choices 2008. The only persons that could have made a difference were dictators like Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini, they never listened to the opinion and would follow their own way. No Hitler and no Stalin ? Yes, the WWII would for sure turn out in a different way than it did historical. No FDR ? Wendell Willkie could have done nothing different than FDR did. USA would enter the war in dec 1941 like a train on a railway.

I paid years ago and start to get tired of waiting, anybody know how long to this game is actually coming to my home ?

@Narvik

This post cover the Europe 1939 Set Up before mobilization. I do it this way because mobilization was part of Diplomatic actions between the national leaders, in this Blog named players. Not all nations would mobilize in september 1939. Also I will edit typos later, for now I just want this Blog up and running.

Naval Base: To qualify as a real world Major Naval Base, it need a shipyard, drydock, refueling station, arsenal, supply depot and also be fortified. In this Blog I use real world Major Naval Bases. A&A is a game that focus on game balance and playability, and the A&A facilities in the Set Up is not always the same as in the real world. Alexandria and Pearl Harbour is examples of that. But for national pride Pearl Harbour is a Naval Base in this Blog, despite beeing only halfway finished in construction when it was attacked in december 1941. But that is the only exeption.

Germany: BB, 2 CA, 4 DD, 2 Tranny and 4 Subs. (I know only half of the subs were medium but I don’t care since sz 110 is first to be attacked) Ships of significance like Graf Spee and some auxilary cruisers are representet by spesific units. + Naval Base
W. Ge: 6 Blockhouses (Siegfried Line), Paratrooper, 3 Inf, 1 AA-gun
Ge: 3 Tanks, 3 Mech, 3 Art, 7 Inf,1 mountain, 1 AA-gun.
Air: 2 FTR, 1 Tac, 2 BMB and 1 Air transport (Skytrain) + Air Base

Poland: 4 Inf, Tank, Ftr, E. Pol: 3 Inf
Slov/Hung 2 Inf
Yugo: 2 Inf
Romania: Inf, Bessarabia Inf (Bessarabia belong to Romania in 1939)
Bulgaria: Inf
Greece: Inf + DD
Turkey: CA + Naval Base (Golcuk), 2 Inf, Fort

USSR Europe North Fleet DD, Sub, Baltic Fleet, BB, DD, 2 subs + NB (Kronstad) + Fort, Black Sea Fleet: CA, DD, Sub, Trsp + NB (Sevastopol) + Fort.
Army 10 Inf, 2 Art, 4 Tanks, Airforce: 2 FTR, 2TAC, 2 BMB.
Minor factories Leningrad + Stalingrad, Major factories Moscow+ 3 major in Novosibirsk (Ural Tank factory, Sverdlovsk factory and Tankograd factory)
USSR far east is next post

USA east coast. Atlantic Fleet: CV with Air, BB, 5 CA, 3DD, 2 Subs, 1 Tranny
Army 2 Inf, FTR NB, AB, 2 major factory
West coast is in next post

UK
Home Fleet: CV + 2 air, 3BB, 1 Battlecruiser, 2 CA, 4DD, Sub, 2 Trannies, 4 NB (Portsmouth, Rosyth, Scapa Flow and Belfast largest shipyard of the world.
Army 7 Inf, 2 Art, Tank, Mech, AA-gun. RAF 2 FTR, S.BMB

West Indies. NB Bermuda, CA
Gibraltar NB + Fort (Rock of Gibraltar was a fortress with 35 heavy guns, 40 heavy AA-guns and minefields. force H CA, DD

Malta main NB for Med. Force A: 2 BB, CA, 3 DD, 2 Sub, Tranny
Palestina: Mech
Egypt AB (RAF Fayid, RAF Deversoid + Cairo West) Inf (Alexandria NB was under construction) + Inf + Egypt Inf
Iraq AB (RAF Hebbarie) Inf + Iraq Inf
Yemen: Aden NB (largest port in world 1939) + CA

Sierra Leone, NB (Freetown) + CA + Inf
Kenya Inf
South Africa NB (Simonstown) minor factory Inf, CA Tranny

Canada (with nation specific units) NB (Halifax) CA, Tranny, Inf
India in next post

Italy: NB (Spezia) BB, CA, DD, 2 Sub
NB (Taranto) BB, 4 CA, 3 DD, 2 Sub, 7 Trannies
Army 4 Inf, Art, Tank, AA-gun, FTR, Tac
Albania: 2 Inf
Aegean Sea: Sub
Libya: Inf
Torbruk: 2 Inf
Red Sea: DD, Sub, Tranny
Ethiopia:3 Inf

Spain: Army 5 Inf, AA-gun, Fleet CA, DD, NB (Caditz + Ferrol)
Portugal: 4 Inf, NB (Lisboa) DD

France: 9 Inf, 3 Art, AA-gun, 3 Forts (Maginot Line)
Normandie: 8 Inf, 2 Art, AA-gun, Tank, Mech
S. Fra: 4 Inf, 2 Blockhouse (Alpine Line) AA-gun
Africa: 5 inf + Blockhouse (Mareth Line)
Syria. Inf
Air Force. FTR, TAC, Bmb, AB.
Fleet: NB (Brest) BB, CA, 2 DD, 2 Sub, Tranny
NB (Toulon) BB, CA, 3 DD, Sub, Tranny
Fr. G. CA
NB (Beirut) CA
NB Casablanca, Dakar + Brazaville + CA

Norway: Inf, Fort , Gunship, NB (Bergen)
Sweden: Inf, FTR, NB (Karlskrona) 2 Gunship, DD, Sub
Fin: 2 Inf, AA-gun Viborg 2 Blockhouse AA-gun
Denmark Inf
Baltic States Inf

Holl/Belg: Inf
Scweits Inf + Fort