Posts made by TitusAndronicus

@hobo:

I’ve only played one game and it became very apparent that the game is seriously broken.  In aa50, it was still possible to win with either side even if the allies concentrated entirely on one axis.  In aag40 however, some of the rules are seriously broken and need to be adjusted for the “global” game.

1. ports are fine in the pacific, but in europe, it’s a disaster for the axis.  There is no way the axis can prevent a large US naval stack with 5 or more transports sitting on the atlantic side of gibraltar.  With air on carriers and bombers in uk, the US could strike anywhere in france, norway, or either german or italian capitals with a stack that could be as large as 20 units very early.

2. japan can’t do enough against north america to prevent the US from going all out kgf by moving all their naval units to europe.  They can be annoying but the US income is too large and the building base too high on continental US to seriously threaten taking w. US.  It would also mean giving up china and the rest of asia to put in a serious enough of an attempt on w. US which means japan’s income is just too small.

3. as discussed here, once the US takes norway, it’s over.  Germany would have to spend too much just to defend their homeland which doesn’t leave enough to do anything against ussr if that player is half way competent.  10 ground units with a stack of air every turn means germany gets picked apart pretty fast.  With the US strike force starting off at gibraltar, it’s impossible for the axis to defend everything with both their homelands are at risk.  Building a major complex in norway first doesn’t help since germany isn’t exactly rolling in dough.  The only way to even make any attempt of holding norway is by giving up any assault on ussr but people can see what would happen there eventually.

4. unlike aa50 where japan can eventually get strong enough and advance quickly enough to actually help germany, aag40 board is too large for japan to do anything to help against kgf.  Anyone looking at the unit counts can see it starts to go downhill for the axis very quickly.  There’s too big of a gap in incomes.

The only thing I can see possibly offsetting these factors are victory cities.  I haven’t lookated at it closely enough, but I guess if victory cities for the axis were set low enough, it might be possible for them to win that way if japan can take out all of asia before germany gets crushed.

This is ridiculous, you played one game bro.

Somebody didn’t read the rule about downgrading captured complexes!

If Germany has it in mind from the onset they can use Italian transports to get some stuff down there.  If you let the British take out the Italian Navy though, well… it’ll be a while before any Germans find themselves in Africa.

Horrifying thread.

German sub builds make taking out the Italian Navy a very low priority.  When the UK is getting convoyed for 11 IPC’s a turn and Japan is keeping the USA out of the war the Italians are free to grab Gibraltar and create a safehaven in the med.

If you aren’t attacking G4 you’re doing it wrong.

Germany:
Eliminated the UK navy and built 3 or 4 subs a turn to 1) convoy raid the crap out of UK and 2) make the Americans spend a substantial amount of money to escort their transports.  Attacked Russia turn 4, got some bad rolls, but with America still unwilling to step within range of German and Italian subs Germany is simply outspending the Russians into extinction.

Italy:
Colluded with Germany to grab Gibraltar turn 1 and close the Med.  Plowed through the UK and got almost to South Africa.  Got a few infantry up through the middle east into Russia.  Making 36 IPC’s a turn (including bonuses) which is going to a small force to hold North Africa and Gibraltar and the rest submarines.  Has been constantly attacking American naval builds off the east coast.

Japan:
Attacked J3.  About to engage the American pacific fleet and should win easily.  China and UK are alive and well-turtled, ANZAC has some subs running around convoying.  Doing well.

UK:
Dead-to-rights.  Being convoyed for 8 IPC’s a turn off Scotland and UK, 3 more in South Africa and 2 in Canada.  The Europe side has only enough money for infantry in Africa to keep Italy from taking it all.  Pacific is better, but not by much.  Big infantry stacks in Burma and India are keeping the Japanese away but also lack any sort of offensive punch.

Russia:
In trouble.  German rockets are taking 10-15 IPC’s a turn away from them and they are slowly losing territory.  Had to make some attacks with huge infantry stacks that went well, but extended his lines.  Germany is in between waves of tanks and mechs right now, so the front is fairly quiet.

ANZAC:
Its there I guess.

China:
See ANZAC.

France:
Who?

USA:
Got brought into the war late, had no idea whether Germany or Japan was a bigger threat when they did get their bonus.  Had to spend a 80 IPCs to secure their Atlantic invasion fleet which still might be pushed right off Normandy/Bordeaux by a German land counter-offensive and sub onslaught.  Will probably lose their entire Pacific fleet the coming turn.

Axis look good, but they were looking better 2 turns ago.  Hard to say who’s going to win.

A J1 attack in global will likely incur the “soft underbelly” strategy every time, which probably wont work out well for the Axis.  Think about the US player being able to just roll through Africa, liberating what few UK territories had been taken in the interim on his way, straight into the Med and into Italy.  Italy falls, Germany is pinched, Russia drools and Japan is crowned king of the "half"xis powers.

A good German player can try to reinforce Italy with German inf, but the UK will be at near max production and its going to be difficult protecting both France and Italy from the US behemoth.

Yeah… I’m just gonna play bombers roll at 5 when attacking.  It’s a pain in the ass to roll 2 dice for each bomber involved in a battle.

I did this with MS paint, so its not great.

Once the US is dragged into the war by anyone they can declare war on anyone.

@Raeder:

When I play Germany I will bring Sweden and Spain into the fold, no matter what!  :evil:

Then you just gave Russia 8 infantry free of charge and 2 IPC’s a turn.  Plus a new place to build ships safely.

Attacking true neutrals is a risk neither side should be willing to take unless a player feels they can break the game open by doing it.

Eh wont even need to.  4 extra inf + the Russian threats makes the India crush strategy risky if not impossible.

UK has 6 planes Europe.  1 on the Ark Royalish boat, 1 in Egypt and 4 in the UK.

@BadSpeller:

There may be 4inf in West India.

If there is, and looking at it I’m not so sure that’s a 4, Japan is knocked down another peg in global.  Maybe they wont be a doormat, but they wont be the nightmarish horde of unstoppable military force that they were in P40.

@fanofbond:

@Proud:

I dont know why but Russia. I always volunteer to play Russia (since my gamemates hate it) and I always, win or lose, enjoy it. Ive enjoyed other countries but russia is different. Maybe because when I played for the first time it was my country. Im also the best at it. Second is Uk by far.

Aren’t either winning or losing your only results in this game.

I think what he’s saying is Russia controls the fate of the game, which is probably true.  It dictates how much resources the UK and US can put into the Pacific and Africa to keep the Axis away from the IPC pinata.  A strong Russia will instigate pressure on the Germans with minimal western support while a weak Russia forces the Allies to play piggyback the Reds and provide a weaker defense against Japan.

Here’s what will happen to every A&A playgroup known to man:

Beforehand while talking about it everybody agrees it will be best to play E40 stand alone to get the feel of it.  But the very second E40 comes in the door somebody will suggest setting it up with P40 “just to see how huge and awesome it is.”  After admiring the scope and insanity of the global map numerous high-5’s, whiskey shots and general alpha male behavior will ensue.  Then, caught up in the moment, one person will suggest playing it for kicks just to see what its like.  Everybody else had already been thinking this the moment they laid eyes upon the finished product, so the request will be welcomed with open arms.

18 hours, 12 vodka-cranberries each, a carton of cigarettes, no fewer than 20 private strategy between powers and nearly infinite referrals to the rulebook later a victor will emerge.  Even after this marathon nobody will get any sleep; “what-ifs” pouring through every players mind:  “How can I better synergize London and Calcutta?”, “How the hell am I gonna deal with all that Russian infantry now?”, “Since when did Italy become so beast-mode in Africa?”, “I should have protected the Middle East better!”, “I better build more mechanized infantry or I’ll never get to Moscow”, etc. etc.  The next day the weary-eyed warriors will be too hungover/tired to go to work or class.  They will talk and gloat and whine about last nights game to the point where a new one gets started.  And so on to infinity…

This is about global folks, and we all are going to play it first.

More important than what ships you start with is where they are.  If you would’ve told me Pacific 1940 would’ve had the UK starting with 1 BB, 1 CA, 1 DD and 2 Transports I would’ve been pretty impressed with the UK’s naval abilities.  However, as we all know, half of that Navy gets wiped out turn 1 at little cost.

Now, I hope the UK gets a starting CV somewhere in the Med or Atlantic.  I also hope it cant be sunk right off the bat by German submarines.

If there’s war in South America the Axis have probably won.

@oztea:

J1 attack wont break the game because

J1 attack activates US in the atlantic, making UK likeley impossible to take on G2+
J1 attack activates US economy 1-2 turns before Germany and Italy are ready to deal with
Japan can not leave Manchuria/Korea empty as in most J1 attacks because there will be russians on the border.

Yupyup.

That total of 6 IPC’s between Manchuria and Korea represents an extra two Soviet Inf or a tank for Germany to deal with, so the Glorious Union isn’t going to hesitate taking it for free.  Not to mention there will be Russian infantry coming in to help out China.  The presence of a potential 5th opponent for Japan in the Pacific (and a relatively rich one at that) is going to force them into being a lot more conservative.

This doesn’t even touch the issue of how much stronger the USA can be in the Pacific with those extra IPCs.