While immensely enjoyable, my most recent Axis & Allies game (1942, 13 VC) took seven hours. So, I recently began play-testing a short, 2-player variant that has taken about 2-3 hours to play.

If it is possible to combine Axis & Allies Europe 1940 and Axis & Allies Pacific 1940 to create A&A 1940 Global, you can create an “A&A 1941 Pearl Harbor” variant by removing one of the three game board panels of Anniversary.

Here are the rule changes to the 2-3 hour variant:

GAME SETUP

Remove the left Atlantic section of the three game board panels (you will only be using the center and right Pacific panels)

Set up and play only with Japan (Player 1) and United Kingdom & US (Player 2) units using 1941 setup rules except that no UK units are set up on the continent of Africa

No USSR units are set up and all USSR territories are vacant, so you can place the National Production Chart on the upper-left corner of the game board

The Axis player (Japan) starts with 17 IPCs and two Victory Cities (exactly same as A&A Anniversary 1941 setup)

The Allied player (UK & US) starts with:
21 IPCs and three Victory Cities (as the UK)
and 23 IPCs and three Victory Cities (as the US)

Note that the UK does not have any industrial complexes at the start of the game. The UK still receives income, but needs to purchase and build an industrial complex in order to produce units on the board. Even if the UK builds an industrial complex on the first turn, the first UK purchased units won’t appear on the board until the end of the second turn (just as they would if playing a full game of A&A Anniversary)

The game board then should look like this at the start of the game:

AA 1941 Pearl Harbor variant.jpg
(ERRATA: The picture of the initial set-up has an error: the US (“Flying Tigers”) fighter in Yunnan is missing!)

ADDITIONAL NOTES ON RULES

Turn order is (1) United Kingdom, (2) Japan, and (3) US

USSR territories and all territories on the continent of Africa are out of play and treated exactly the same as neutral countries; no units (Allied or Axis) can enter or fly over

No National Objectives (while fun, having to check objectives for each country prolongs the game)

Technological Development phase is in play

All other rules in Axis & Allies Anniversary (like the rules for China) are in play

VICTORY CONDITIONS

First player to capture 7 (out of 8 ) VC by the end of the US turn wins.

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Although set-up is faster, it is not meant to be a better game than Pacific 1940 (nor is it a better game than a full game of Axis & Allies Anniversary).

It is merely meant to be a way for owners of Axis & Allies Anniversary Edition to enjoy a dice-rolling, dudes-on-a-map game in under three hours.

Give it a try and please share any thoughts.

I should also add that for a “bid”, we give the US “improved shipyards” and that seems to balance things out.

Yeah that makes sense

@doomer1940 I agree with you I’m working on fixing it

Research is super fun, but can seriously unbalance the game if a player gets lucky with their first couple rolls. Therefore, we play that the player chooses which tech to research, however better techs have a lower chance of being successfully researched.

The mechanism of researching is the same, you buy research tokens (dice rolls), roll for success, if none hit the tokens are banked for next turn and can roll again at no cost, if successful the tech is gained and the tokens are removed and must be rebought to do more research . The cost of each token (die roll) is increased to 8 IPC (normally is 5). But, tier 1 techs will be successfully researched with a roll of 3 or lower, tier 2 with roll of 2 or lower, and tier 3 with roll of 1:

(3/6 chance) 1. adv artillery, inc factory prod . || mech infantry, war bonds
(2/6 chance) 2. long-range aircraft, radar . . . . || paratroopers, rockets
(1/6 chance) 3. heavy bombers, super subs . . || jet fighters, improved shipyards

To balance out how multiple techs are gained, we separated complimentary tech into opposing groups to prevent them from easily being researched too quickly back-back and becoming OP. To research a tier 2 or 3 tech at least one tech from the tier below must be already obtained from WITHIN the branch. Note, the techs are separated into left and right branches.

So to get heavy bombers (left, tier 3), you could research adv artillery or factory prod (left, tier 1) then radar or long-range air (left, tier 2). Then, to get jet fighters (right, tier 3), you’d have to also research 2 corresponding lower tier techs in the right branch, because adv artillery/radar/etc. don’t count towards the necessary lower tier techs for the right branch.

Thoughts?

@Grinchveld Yeah, its all essentially the same thing just slightly different ways of presenting it. In my experience, most people hate fractions/decimals. My guess is 2 reasons: 1. they kind of appear less clean and more complex then integers, 2. many people really struggle with even simple fraction/decimal math.

These house rules are meant to make the game more realistic while staying as simple as possible.

Battleships cost 14 IPCs. They cost 1 IPC to repair.

Switzerland has an IPC value of 4.

The U.K. can only produce up to 4 units per turn in India. If India is captured by the Central Powers, the Central Powers cannot produce units there.

If a capital is captured, the IPCs are discarded and not taken by the capturing power.

Neutral territories that are not home territories still get units if invaded.

Sea units, except submarines, must end their movement when they enter a sea zone with enemy mines.

Units that retreat from a contested territory cannot move into another contested territory. They may move into any adjacent friendly territory.

There is a combat move and a non-combat move. During the combat move, units can move into neutral, contested, and enemy territories. The non-combat move comes after combat. During the non-combat move, units that did not move during the combat move and did not conduct combat can move into friendly territories. Land units can move an unlimited number of territories during the non-combat move within their original territories.

Optional Manpower Rule

Keep track of the infantry that are destroyed for each power. If a power has had 2x the number of their infantry destroyed as their starting IPC value (rounded up), they may only collect half of the total IPC value of their territories when they collect income (rounded up). If a power has had 4x the number of their infantry destroyed as their starting IPC value (rounded up), they may only collect the IPC value of their capital territory when they collect income.

@imperious-leader I’m guessing in person? The Mapview apps for them hasn’t been compatible on any platform I own in a while.

Back in the day, I had been reading up on all sorts of A&A stuff: some of the “limited” scenarios (where not all nations were used/played) on thrasher’s A&A site, as well as World at War and its use of an “impulse” turn for the Axis.

I kind of wanted to combine some of those ideas, with a setting earlier than Classic’s “Spring 1942” which Larry Harris described (in a video during the credits of Iron Blitz) as the “high-water mark of the Axis expansion.” My knowledge of WWII kind of suggested that the highest mark prior to that, would be 1941 – specifically when most of France’s colonies were still collaborationist, or had not yet been captured by the British, and when Italy still controlled east Africa.

I can recall sharing this with a friend back in 2007, so this sort of comes after the original Europe and Pacific games, but prior to Global. As you might guess, this kind of shared the mindset that would go on to create that game. Essentially, the game is broken into 3 theatres – one Axis power for each. If that Axis power is either defeated, or achieves their objectives, then their theatre merges with at least one other. (i.e. Italy must be defeated in Africa before the western Allies can start to attack Germany)

For simplicity, I kept the starting unit setup the same, with units changing nationality if their territory also changed. For balance, the Axis were given some early bonuses, and (also for historical reasoning) the USA and USSR both had restrictions in the first round. I also included some further clarification to the 2nd Edition rules, as well as some changes (such as adding some complexes, but all complexes being limited in the number of units they can produce.)

Anyways, I have most of the documentation saved, it probably just needs some updated formatting; I wanted to post here first, so as to gauge interest and see if I should go through with the process of cleaning up what I have.

Thanks for reading 🙂 hopefully there are some enthusiastic responses!

Updated. Simplified the rules more.