G40 vs AA50 discussion (from League players)

[LennardF]

@gamerman01 I bought Anniversary during a reprint a few years ago and quite enjoyed it. Fun on it’s own as a shorter play than Global it was also interesting to see the progression of ideas Larry Harris followed on his way from AA to Global.

[trulpen]

Haven’t tried AA50, but G40 (read BM4 and P2V) simply is a gem.

[Karl7]

@gamerman01 said in Post League Game Results Here:

@gamerman01 said in Post League Game Results Here:

I have 35 of my games of '41 scenario in my records (61 games of '42). Bids ranged from 6 to 19 (and most are under 15)

Eh, to be clear, those 96 games were all ones I played, not the community in general. So you could play a lot of games with a lot of people.

If you were losing, it was over quick. You get diced in G40 global game, you suffer for a very long time if you don’t resign.

Just sayin’! G40 isn’t the best at everything! :D :D

My G40 BM games are now at least 18-22 rounds if they are competitive. Once in awhile you get a rout that causes someone to throw in the towel first 5-10 rounds. But not usual. Even if Germany captures Russia, it isn’t over if Allies are in good position. Almost the start of the game really.

[trulpen]

Perhaps you’d like to introduce me, @gamerman01?

[gamerman01]

Oh wow, it would be like playing a brand new game - exciting. I can’t get my kid to play more than 2 turns, as in, less than 1 round. I had started a game against the AI, rolled super subs for Germany for 5 IPCs, and never proceeded from there.

I do have 3 big G40 games going right now all against people who would love to beat me, so I probably need to wait. Remind me later?

[gamerman01]

I usually got my opponent to agree to +1 movement on long range aircraft. +2 in a serious game is overwhelming. I don’t like 1 turn delayed tech.

[gamerman01]

Also no island complexes (which I believe was first formally codified in G40)

[trulpen]

I trust your judgement and experience. You choose settings. I’ll follow.

[trulpen]

Just no LL. I despise LL.

[trulpen]

G40 OOB is a bit too unbalanced in favour of Axis. It’s very hard to say what is a decent bet as it kind of ranges between 30-60 for the Allies. For me that is a weakness of the game.

BM4 is much better with a richer dynamic of play regarding NOs and balance. Bids range perhaps between 16-24 for the Allies.

P2V might still need some more love, but is pretty darn interesting. I’d say a reasonable bid there is 6-10 for Axis.

[gamerman01]

As my nephew (close to my age and former bitter rival in A&A) used to say (and I agree),
“Low luck is a bastardization of the game”.
(This is Boldfresh, still #8 top poster on this site)

I’ve never even tried one turn of it because I can envision what it’s like.

Pretty sure I never played AA50 on TripleA. Was all ABattlemap back then. Type all your moves, move all the icons. It was fun.

[ussgordoncaptain]

@gamerman01 G40 has a lot of “dead” time it feels like. I’m somewhat surprised that league only has the 2 G40 variants and PtV and not 50th anniversary edition. There are a lot of turns in PBEM g40 where almost nothing happens (France/anzac, Italy, Russia after the fall of moscow) g40 is also just too long face to face since you have to roll a ton of dice turn G1/J1 and moving into the G1/J1 position F2F takes a while (you can agree to start off with G1/J1 already done but that is pretty hard to get people to agree to).

A&A 50 is much shorter in terms of time, but not in terms of rounds. The thing is it removes a lot of the dead turns that have little action, and the smaller map with higher IPC value territories makes it easier to finish the game. the main thing about A&A 50 is that I wish it had mech infantry, which is the unit that G40 added that has the best impact on gameplay. Though 5 cost tanks are basically better versions of Mech infantry+Tank anyway. The other change that G40 made that I wish were in was 12 cost MICs that make 3 units/turn. Instead of the 15 cost ICs that make territory value units/turn.

Though playing with NOs is more fun it definitely makes the game heavily axis favored.

[simon33]

@karl7 said in G40 vs AA50 discussion (from League players):

My G40 BM games are now at least 18-22 rounds if they are competitive. Once in awhile you get a rout that causes someone to throw in the towel first 5-10 rounds. But not usual. Even if Germany captures Russia, it isn’t over if Allies are in good position. Almost the start of the game really.

For a shorter game, try knocking out some NOs. An unfortunate side effect from BM.

[gamerman01]

@ussgordoncaptain Well said, thank you. Glad I moved this to general G40 discussion already

[simon33]

@gamerman01 said in G40 vs AA50 discussion (from League players):

Obviously, G40 is THE standout A&A game in many departments, but that time sink and the amount of RAM you need in your head is sometimes staggering.

I know what you mean here. The mental drain of playing a whole game in one sitting is very noticeable, even if it is <10 rounds.

[gamerman01]

I’ve only played games in competition, so probably a very different experience playing casually and maybe without <gasp> calculators?!

[SuperbattleshipYamato]

@gamerman01

Hmm, never played Anniversary 50. Anyways, I’m surprised how common people seem to make bids are. I love Global 1940 because of how complicated and accurate it is, but it’s curious that Anniversary was almost a prototype for Global 1940, and is as close to an official Global 1941 or 1942 game with similar complexity.

Length isn’t a problem for me as I only play with members of my household, so we can play over weeks.

Too bad Anniversary 50 is very expensive.

[trulpen]

@gamerman01 said in G40 vs AA50 discussion (from League players):

I’ve only played games in competition, so probably a very different experience playing casually and maybe without <gasp> calculators?!

You don’t really need the calculator, but it speeds things up a bit. Power/6 = number of expected hits.

[trulpen]

@superbattleshipyamato said in G40 vs AA50 discussion (from League players):

I’m surprised how common people seem to make bids are.

If you mean to say that G40 OOB is balanced as it is, I can say for sure that an OOB game without a bid for Allies is more or less an auto-victory for Axis. You have to play awfully bad in order to lose the dynamic advantage they carry.

[SuperbattleshipYamato]

@trulpen

I guess I think this game is too accurate to history. So I think the game is balanced, possibly even in favour of the Allies (as they won in history). So I always see it as an uphill battle for the Axis to win in coming up a strategy. On my view, the Allies have it easy. They just have to do what they did historically.

Due to the length of the game though, I haven’t played enough games to prove that (the Axis always win). I play against myself too, so it’s slightly different.