For my part, I'd only consider anything more than a sub or a TRN if the Ruskies got bad dice on R1.  I also consider Egypt a must do on G1, or the Brits can put that into their India campaign.  Taking out $18 UK IPC value in G1 is pretty important.  It does pain me to have my Baltic fleet attacked on UK1.  I would love to find a good way to keep that available for later, but the costs of doing that are too high.

Three quick questions ...

When do you think you will be able to bring the 7 country combo (Rus,Ger,UK,Ity,Chi,���,US) to market?

Will you let folks that got the 5 country combo pick up the 2 new sets for the price difference?

Will you be developing a set or Aussie dice for Pacific?  Seems if you are going to make Chinese dice, we should also think about Aussie dice too.

How about Switzerland?  White dice with no spots!

All jokes aside, I think this is a great product at a fair price.  I'm going to buy a set for my son and then post a photo of the dice with our painted pieces.

My vote goes to the US Navy diesel-electric submarines.  We were doing to Japan with our boats more than the Germans were doing to us, I think.  My second vote would have to go to the German subs, and my third vote, for aesthetic reasons, would go to the Japanese battleships.  Finally, I'd give honorable mention to the US carriers, they look like they mean business, but have an elegance of their own.  The Japanese carriers look quirky to me.

I remember hearing some kind of crazy formula like (Guys age divided by 2 + 7 years) But still has to be legal age, of course.

Guys age     Girls age
22              18
30              22
40              27
50              32
...

For my part, I see younger folks as so irresponsible that I couldn't imagine marrying someone less than three-five years younger.  My dad gave me a lot of good advice including ... remember. you will be marrying the mother of your children.

It seems to me that possession of Leningrad would have helped the German supply lines in the campaign.  This may then have given a boost to the northern groups, or the extra effort could be redirected to other efforts on the Eastern front.  Ultimately, I think it would have lengthened the war, but I am not sure if it would have been by much.  I don't see how capturing Leningrad would have had much effect on either the Allied invasion of France or the war in the Pacific.  It may have changed the cold war, though.

If the US builds an IC in Phillipines during US1, Japan can still take it in Jap2, right?  I still think the Japs need to use Jap1 to the maximum extent possible.  Capturing the Phillipines in turn 1 seems a must move.

Regarding the strategy you outlined, I think you have to remember that after turn 1, Japans losses are going to rise alarmingly high.  The US can replace their losses very quickly.  Japan can not.  Assuming the US and Brits are going to seek battle whenever they can keep the losses close for each side, you can't help them as Japan by doing the same when it is your turn to attack.  I believe you need to seek opportunities to attack the US and UK where you are going to eliminate them in the first round of dice by picking targets carefully and adding enough air power to make it a one round show.  The US and to a lesser extent the Brits can afford to trade you down.  The only problem for the Americans is they have to cross half the ocean before they are eating your income.

I am still working my way through a first game of Pacific and I am shocked that some of the rules of Pacific didn't make it into Revised.  The sub rules are much better than the original A&A, but I was surprised the great rules about escorting bombers with fighters, and likewise being able to use fighters as interceptors against SBRs is much better than the current "fly the bomber and hope it isn't hit by AA" in Revised.  Even better, I prefer the feel for the interaction of air-sea-land battle as in Guadalcanal.  Why didn't this fighter rule in SBR make it into Revised?

Now, can we come up with a really great rule for subs?  Another thing I really like is the ability of subs to take income by occupying a square.  I think a detection roll by all DDs before the subs first strike would improve the game, and if the DDs don't detect, maybe the sub gets to take one free roll against the target of his choice.  If that roll fails he gets to break off the attack.  Or maybe the DDs get to make a second roll before he gets that choice.

I am becoming a big fan of Pacific with the harbors and airfields.  It seems to capture the real essence of the Japanese dillema, once the US dragon is awake, you better win in a hurry.  It just doesn't get the resources totally in the picture.  But with the convoy squares it gets much closer.

Are any of these features in AA50 or is the scale considered too grand for such trivia?

I know you don't think we're gonna believe that is a photo of you when there is on A&A board/pieces/dice anywhere to be seen.  I mean, give us a break!  We didn't fall off the turnip truck yesterday.  I always pictured you as one of the Nazi tramps in leather  .  Or maybe a Varga girl ?  Definately not a geisha. <sp?>

Thanks.  I just wanted to make sure I was on top of it.  My son and I are working through our first game.

I guess I can see with the huge income of the US that they should be willing to get that extra punch.

I had not read the essay on KIF so we are just playing by the seat of our pants.  Japan really did run wild on their first turn, and I am wondering how effective they will be on turn 2 w/o the defend on a 1 advantage.  We have a large US force on Hawaii at the end of turn 1 so it will be interesting to see how Japan handles that.  In the current situation (board is not here where I can see it) I think 2 Japanese fleets may be able to reach Hawaii.  My thinking is that they can't afford to do this attack because they can't afford the losses even if they did come out numerically ahead in IPCs.

This is a real shame that someone hasn't noticed the potential for making an add-on for the game pieces.  I think that a second infantryman mold (two for US, a marine and an airborne infantryman) for each country, a set of cruisers for everyone, a second fighter mold for US navy aircraft, a british tank besides the Sherman, and transport planes would give a number of folks what they need.  Look at what one fellow did by just making custom dice?  Another little touch would be to have tiny flags flying above your industrial complexes.

I can't figure one thing out.  If marines cost 4 IPC, and artillery cost 4 IPC, isn't the artillery buy always a better deal?  The only scenario I can see marines being helpful if when making an amphib assault, because you can't carry 2 artillery on one transport, so 1 marine and one artillery would give you the biggest punch.  But it still appears to me artillery are much more helpful.  Am I missing something?

Builder Chris,

It appears I was not adequately clear in my earllier post about the "rule of thumb."  To determine the number of fighters planned in a raid, multiply the enemies expected number of AA dice by 0.75 to compute the minimum recommended number of fighters to bring.  An example:
You decide to bomb New Georgia airfield which has 3 infantry, 3 artillery and an AA gun, with 2 fighters at the airbase.  The Japanese also have 4 carrier squadrons that can be dedicated to New Georgia.  Therefore, you have to expect to resist (2 FIGs + 4 FIGs) x 2 + 3 = 15 AA dice in the raid.  15 x 0.75 = 11 FIGs and probably 2 bombers to have decent chances.  The problem, as you correctly noted is the FIGs have to be carrier squadrons which requires six carriers, although at this scale you probably have good enough chances with 5 carriers, 10 FIGs and 2 bombers.  You will probably lose a bomber and another 4 or 5 fighters too, but you have a huge chance of taking down the airfield.  When one victory point can let you win, this is not an impossible scenario.  Just remember to have some other FIGs to defend your own airfields.

As an aside, my computer bit the dust back a few months and I lost my spreadsheet to compute the air battle "value".  I have been using a notebook just to surf, so I don't expect to do any more rigorous calcs for some time.

I believe building an airfield on Santa Isabel is too ambitious.  I like to build an airfield on New Georgia on turn 1, and I would think you should be able to hold it.  My biggest problem is that I don't have tough competition to evaluate the different options.  However, I am beginning to think Japan can win with an aggressive building strategy and using subs if the US gets too close with their carriers.

Frimmel,

Man, you're tough.  I'm gonna be painting pieces till I'm an old man if this keeps up.  I am surprised at the high ratings AAP is getting.  How could  that many people be wrong?  Never mind, this is an election year. 

I have friends with keys that adjust the seats and stuff automatically.  The husband has his key and the wife has hers.  The keys do not have metal tonges that fit in a mechanism either.  They are chips in the end of a plastic holder that talks to the car to say, "He is driving the car now adjust the seats and mirrors."  If you adjust the mirror or seat after the car starts, the car just lets it go.  But the next time the car is started with that key it still adjusts the seats and mirrors for the "owner" of that key.  It is all pretty neat.  I'm not a big fan of the big brother stuff though.  I expect to be able to trust my kids more than that.  We'll see.