2nd edition board using G40 pieces and 1942 rules?

Welcome, Marcvs!

There is an on-line demo of the Revised version of A&A (2004) on the Avalon Hill website.  This is an older version of the game, and a few rules have changed (some of them in a big way), but the general flow of the game is the same.  If you watch it, it may give you a framework to hang the rules on and help you to understand them better.

@NDfan:

How come there seems to be 3 kinds of planes?  Or are there two different sizes for the bombers or fighters??

In the 1942 edition there are only two, but as others have explained they are represented as historical models of fighters or strategic bombers for each nation.  These aren’t necessarily the most representative types each nation used, but are distinctive.  While the primary fighter types of the major combatants were single engine, the U.S. twin engine P-38 modeled in the game is a fighter.  (It wasn’t used on carriers, so I would have liked a single engine plane instead…thought most likely it would have ended up being another USAAF fighter rather than USN anyway.)  The axis powers primarily used twin engined bombers even for strategic bombing.  That is why Germany and Japan both have twin engined bombers.  The German model is a Ju-88, and the Japanese is a “Betty.”

Allied powers used a mix of two and four engined bombers for heavy bombing with the latter type being used for the bomber models in the game.  The UK gets a Halifax, and the US gets a B-17.  The Soviets, fighting for survival on the homefront didn’t have much need of 4 engine types during the war, and instead relied on twin engine types.  The four engine model in the game looks like the Pe-8 with gun positions in rear of inboard engine nacelles.

Other fighters in the game are UK’s Spitfires, Soviet Yak-3’s, and German Bf109’s.

In the A&A 1940 games there are three types:  fighters, tactical bombers, and strategic bombers.  So for A&A Pacific 1940 the U.S. has a twin engine P-38 fighter, a single engine tactical bomber (the Dauntless dive bomber), and a four engine strategic bomber (B-17.)  The Japanese have a “Zero” fighter, a “Val” (dive bomber) tactical bomber, and a “Betty” strategic bomber.  The UK has the Spitfire fighter, the Mosquito tactical bomber, and the Halifax strategic bomber.

I have experimented with going after Japan in several recent games. Although I still consider my startegy far from perfect – Pacific is really messy! – I think Japan can be really squeezed into corner quite easily, but there has to be one condition met. And this is at least one of the battles does not go for the Japan well.

If Japan fails Pearl or does it heavy and loses some ships, or has very light presence in China or – most often – exposes some of its ships to counters, there are two stretegies you can really follow with success: 1. US IC build on Sink R1 and UK IC build on India R2 plus naval buys US or 2. just naval buys US which is the way to go if Japan lost or is about to lose 2 of its capital ships.

If Japan does not make mistakes R1 and does not hit bad luck though, I think it is very difficult to break it. But then still you can slow it most of the times sufficiently to get to Berlin the same round japs get to mosc which should be sufficient.

Japan definitely does not need to be house ruled to weaken them.

good job

@St.:

I hear alot of people say that revised is more complicated than spring 1942. Now I played the classic version when I was 12. Sure it was a long time but aside from the tech and the board being diffrent I dont see to many changes from the two, and neither one really seems more complicated than the other.

So what happand in revised that was taken away that makes it more complicated than Spring 1942

Other than the Technology and the National Advantages (although the NAs were optional) the game system is essentially the same. I almost never play with Tech because it can be a game breaker.

Thank you!  :-)

You can retreat from an attack regardless of how many moves your unit has left. It has been that way since Classic. It effectively adds 1 movement for the attackers but defending planes can also move 1 to land on a territory if their carrier has been sunk.

One of the best examples is for G to have a big tank stack on Caucasus and the Allies move a large force to Eastern Europe. You hit EE with units for G and the tanks from WR and afterwards you retreat back to Germany. And all of a sudden Germany gets a lot harder to take by the UK/US.