Global is a true game of skill - the balancing factor


  • I agree. The games I’ve played against my opponent have been close, but we can always find the flaw in our strategy that lead to defeat – it never seems like it was just “the dice”, unless Germany rolls really bad in some of the critical early battles.

    We’re just getting started with our first alpha +2 game, but I feel like the changes improve the gameplay. They make a slower Axis strategy viable, whereas before I felt like I always had to blitz to win.


  • Neat idea about strategy talks only between rounds. My groyp is all over the place in experience. We usually play Revised as a team game because Global is a two day affair.  I will impliment this.

    Something we do is allow texting. Sometimes I even text the opposing team. Something like ‘shucks he left Okinawa empty’ is occasionally enough to goad them into making a bad move.

    With five players this is such a social game of convincing folks something is a threat when it isnt


  • AXIS & ALLIES was first released in 1984. Then in 1986 the 2nd edition came out with new rule variations/clarifications and it rocked for 20 years with no adjustments needed. From my perspective  this version (Alpha) game is not even a month old. When one thinks of the January 13 2011 as the last and hopefully final Alpha update….were all Rookies> compared to the original.


  • Great posts, guys.  Thanks for starting the discussion, Gar.

    I have played a few games remotely of P40, G40, Alpha 1 and now starting Alpha2.  Probably haven’t played half as many games as Gargantua.  So I’m glad to hear the report that you’re convinced skill is a much bigger factor and luck is diminishing.

    I too agree that with more spaces and more types of units to choose from, and more powers, that surely success in this version will be due more to skill than luck compared to previous versions.

    I’m glad they toned down LRA to +1 finally.  +2 was always overpowered.  Of course, I’m also glad 3 hit heavies, 1 hit battleships, and 2 IPC men (4 IPC tanks) are ancient history.  Oh, and AA50 paras could be a little ridiculous, too…

    So yeah, liking the new game but only playing 1 at a time, waiting for the final word from Larry before diving in all the way…


  • Yeah, agreed here.  It’s the hardest climb for the Allies yet, with the Axis in the hands of a skilled player.  The Allies start the game out in trouble, and their early turns are difficult exploiting their economic advantage due to US neutrality issues and the Sealion threat.  It helps the Allies some once the US is in the war, but with all the new NOs and the new scrambling ability to protect the Italian fleet in the Med it can be anyone’s game by Turn 4.

    Prob the biggest swing are the extra NOs, up to half and maybe MORE of both ANZAC’s and Italy’s income can come from NOs.  Essentially free IPCs that aren’t being taken away from your opponent’s territory income, they can really be a force multiplier if the players use them right.  Germany and Italy between them can easily get +30 in NOs by Turn 3, and then they’re matching the US’s bonus income already.  Right now it even almost seems the Axis have the advantage since the US has to build extra navy and transports to get troops into both fronts and the Axis can capture the plentiful Allied AB’s to defend their own fleets (using their massive starting airforce).  Plus, they have the home-turf advantage of producing onto their front lines.

    I think some of the Axis starting units were buffed up way too much to try to balance the game between the European/Pacific theaters and the Taranto Raid in Alpha +.2, and the game doesn’t really work out all too well if the Axis players are cautious in preserving their superior starting units in the opening battles.  11 German planes vs. essentially the same starting Russian forces as the OOB setup and you’re got some overkill.  But perhaps I’m biased as I played Global from the box release.

    I guess this makes the Allied players more cautious with all the new rules and money in the game, and leads to a longer, more epic conclusion at the end.  Not a bad thing at all.


  • I think the biggest change in gameplay for alpha 2+ is the increase of options for the Axis player. I played a ton of OOB Global games, and the Axis start with such an economic disadvantage and so many guys that the only viable strategy I found was to blitz my opponent and take as much territory as fast as possible. The allied economic might inevitably grinds away any slower strategies.

    With the alpha +2 scenario, I’ve been able to take a slower approach with the Axis. Since the Allies are forced to defend both theaters, I can “bail out” Germany with Japanese offensives. The USA’s spread out NOs mean that a lot more of the map is in play. Basically, the options available to me as an Axis player are multiplied.

  • '20 '19 '18 '16 '15 '11 '10

    This is has been my experience so far as well. It seems the Axis has a lot more latitiude to try different approaches to skinning the Allied cat. Being able to has some effect on the US NOs as opposed to them just getting a ton of IPCs when they go to war is a big plus as well as the new victory conditionds. Now they can’t just get the gravy and pile it on in one theatre. They have fight for it.


  • I disagree with Mega.  I think the focus is correctly on having a fairly well-balanced game within the general historical framework.


  • @MEGAEINSTEIN:

    the main issues should not be about balancing the game but about making the game as historical as possible.

    by the way, i lose what?

    Bah.  Historically, the Axis pretty much dropped the ball already at the beginning of the game.  They could have captured the entire BEF at Dunkirk and made a Sealion attack a possibility through capturing Gibraltar via an invasion of Spain.  Some things I’d like to see as house rules for a historical version:

    Pro-Axis or Not-Really-Neutral-Special-Case Spain.

    The UK gets like 3x as many boats as it has already on the board at game start.

    Russian peace with European Axis can hold on indefinitely until the Germans capture London or Washington.

    The Russians can mass conscript like 5-10 INF a turn for free once at war with the Axis.

    Italy starts out neutral with the UK (maybe, depends on time frame of game start, it was definitely before the fall of Paris).

    US cannot enter the war without an unprovoked Axis attack.

    When the US does enter the war, it gets triple income plus NO bonuses.

    Yeah.  Not that any of these ideas are very fair, but it makes the game more historical.  I guess.


  • Hehe - great posts, Sarge.  Good thoughts.

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