Thanks for the responses everyone!

Bakaman, yeah we’ve found the random hat pulling to be the best and most fun no matter the skill levels.

Yeah, if the Axis have a decent income, the game gets a lot harder for the Allies.  That is the one common denominator throughout all axis and allies games.

So this game, we put roundels in a hat and pick randomly, so we do not know our teammates nor the country we are playing til that day.

As the Axis, I’ve done the Calcutta crush with Japan, Sea Lion, and the Romanian IC, all with mostly success.  Is there anything else that I can try?  I mean, for Japan, is it worth taking Sydney first for any reason?  Is it a good idea to build a navy to feign the Sea Lion and then amphibious assault Leningrad?  I’ve thought about all of these and just trying to figure out some other creative attacks with the Axis.

Thanks for whipping out your old rule books and knowledge!  :mrgreen:

We’ve been playing it since global came out but we only play like twice a year.

It is pretty amazing and yeah, we all think it is pretty even.

Shadow,

I understand what you are saying and I’ve read all of these experiences of how 1st edition is not balanced.  However, somehow in my experience with the same group of guys, it’s been 50/50.  I do not know how are why, but it has, which has made it very enjoyable due to it being unpredictable.

So I have a game of A&A coming up this Saturday that I am super stoked about.

My question for everyone is, who here still uses the 1st edition rules and set-up?  I know my group does and have found it to actually be very balanced with practically a 50/50 split on which side wins.

Just wanted to share that I still roll with the 1st edition and I am super pumped for this weekend coming up!

Welp just to give you guys an update, we did not switch over to 2nd edition.  Everyone just wanted to start playing and get started.  So we stuck with 1st edition.

Allies crushed the Axis.  The person playing as Germany/Italy ignored Russian almost the entire time.  They built navy after navy with Germany and no ground troops.  Needless to say, Russia took Berlin and USA took Rome.  At the end, Japan had their navy intact but lost all of china.  They had just Korea and Shanghai they took back when we quit.  And Russia was making 114 IPC’s per turn.  XD

Perhaps we’ll look at the rules for 2nd edition for the next time we played.  Although, our games have usually been quite competitive and the record is now 4-3, Allies favor.

Alright so I am playing this weekend.

Now, all we have played is 1st edition OOB rules.

We actually have a 50-50 win rate for both sides.  However, I am looking to maybe incorporate some items to the second edition.

Any suggestions on what we should incorporate?  Thanks.

@Cow:

Yeah always take london and india round 3. You can do it every game all day everyday.

Yeah I was figuring on threatening London, that way you can threaten london and leningrad at the same time.

Crushing India turn 3 is usually a good idea as well.  Thanks for the input Cow.

We have not really seen too much of an issue.  The Axis are 1-3 in the OOB 1st edition.  I was the one win for the Axis when I was Japan.  Took India T3, and Moscow by T8.  :-D

Got a game coming up March 2nd.  Any suggestions for the Axis?   :mrgreen:

Thanks for the help.

If I was japan, i’d consider going through the empty territories of Mongolia to get to the Russian territories that do not have any men in them.