Hello,
 I am the organizer of the Portland group, and as such, came up with the idea of "the cone of silence". In effect it means: noone may talk to the acting player during his turn and , the acting player may not talk to anyone except to ask rules related questions.
 This is in a attempt to allow each player to develop their own playing style, learn their own lessons(good or bad), and speed up play(quite conciderably by the way).
  In addition it results in mistakes(good or bad) that happen in a real war situation. Players are still allowed to discuss strategies or whatever during thier allies turn and during any of their opponents turns so absolutely none of the social interaction is lost. Give it a try(especially if you have 7+ players playing) and I think you will see the benefits.
 I am not trying to tell others how to play, but it has gotten us down to 1 hr or less per round and made for more interesting and diverse play. I dont believe anyone wants this game to digress to a set of preset maneuvers or battles that exclude any personal mistakes or "eurikas". My 2 cents as a play group organizer. War on gentlemen!  

Didnt quite understand your reply to: Why do the units total up to 150 pcs, but it says theItalians will have 138 pcs?

Cold war baby! How close we came to actually throwing nukes at each other will always fascinate me. My second choice would have been the "Star Wars" between the Star Trekkers and the Star Wars fans at Comic con that one year.

I wish they were as straight forward as Pacific 40, only giving the bonuses to 1 seazone each. Placing them on a single coastline makes the board look cooler .

When it says southern italy gets a naval base, do ships in both its seazones get the naval base advantages? Same question for southern englands naval base.

in aap40, just let UK go before Japan...then anzac, then US. This allows UK to save its navy and gives them an extra build on Japan.

What about having Aircraft only be able to land at airbases, factories or carriers. Also, transports can only load units from a territory with a naval base or factory. This would make building and protecting factories,airbases and naval bases much more important.

Larrys latest list of possible changes (from his forum):
The new list (08/03/10 3PM) seems to be:

1. Simply move the BB and 2 transports back to India
2. Swap the BB with the cruiser and…move transports back to India
3. Add one ANZAC fighter to Queensland.
4. Add a naval base to New South Wales
5. Reduce Japanese air force to some extent.
6. Beef up China (particularly by adding an AA gun).
7. Pull back transports but leave battleship.

once we get a clear answer on whats adjacent to what, I plan on making a strip map that i can place on either side of the map to show adjacentcies.

in his forums Larry writes:
Presently on the table of consideration (in no particular order)
are:
1. Simply move the BB and 2 transports back to India

2. Swap the BB with the cruiser and…
2.A. Leave one transport
2.B. Leave no transports (moving both back to India)

3. Leave the BB and one transport where they are (sea zone 37).

3. Doing something with the 3 fighters in New Zealand to… (?)

4. Add US destroyer to sea zone 26
4.A. Move US destroyer from sea zone 10 to 26.

5. Move ANZAC destroyer from sea zone 62 to sea zone 45 (this is just something I’ve been thinking about).

6. Add one ANZAC fighter to Queensland.

7. Add a naval base to New South Wales

With that said, and the ideas numbered, I’m leaning towards:
2+2B+4+5

What would be your numerical choices? And/or do you have other ideas (be ready to back them up with a damn good argument). For example, my contribution to this list is #5. It prevents the Japanese Caroline Islands fleet from reaching Java on turn one.

Again, thanks for your inputs.

Larry

the way the edges line up , a ship on the west coast of US(or Mexico) would need a move of 3 just to get to the west side of the panama canal.That just seems wrong and will definitely be problematic If the US wants to reposition ships between theaters. 2cents given.

Gotta go with Tanks on this one...nothing looks cooler than a huge stack of chips with a tank on top, backed up by some infantry (meat shields).

Back on topic, this misallignment of the maps is definitely noteworthy as it will effect naval movement from the panama canal to the pacific..ie which seazones are adjacent to which when you wrap around? Plus its ugly as hell if you have any perfectionist tendancies at all. A lot of guys that have said its not a big deal have complained in the past about smaller errors........just sayin .

I hope they decide to reprint and update Fortress America so we can see some modern and futuristic pieces. It would also give the rest of the world a chance to beat up on us some more.

[Rolling 6d6:]

Rolling 6d6:
(1, 1, 3, 5, 5, 6)  

Rolls: 5@2 7@3 2@4; Total Hits: 9

5@2: (1, 5, 1, 1, 5)7@3: (5, 1, 3, 6, 6, 2, 3)2@4: (2, 2)