AXIS & ALLIES GLOBAL 1940 2ND EDITION – Released September 2012
Finally, we have updates on the SUPERGAME of the Axis & Allies line. When Global 1940 first started being played after Europe 1940 was released in August 2010, gamers were finding there were problems with it. Basically, it was unbalanced. I believe most thought that the first version made it too hard for the Axis to win. So, Larry Harris came out with Alpha, the first revision of the setup and/or rules for Global 1940. While this fixed some problems, it didn’t fix all of them or new ones came up. Over the course of the next year or so, a number of revisions were put forth: Alpha, Alpha+, Alpha+1, Alpha+2… Some versions made it too hard on the Allies, others too hard on the Axis, so Larry kept tweaking it here and there. A couple of these Alphas actually had 2 or 3 versions under the same name. Finally came the version titled Alpha+3.9, which was considered as the final Alpha.
So, WOTC decided to put out a whole new version of Europe 1940 and Pacific 1940. This 2nd Edition would include the latest rule changes, a number of changes to the gameboard to correct issues found in the first edition and even more new sculpts. Besides working in the new sculpts from 1942 2E, Italy and ANZAC get ALL UNIQUE sculpts of their own. One minor disappointment is poor France which is still stuck with all Soviet sculpts with only the Infantry being uniquely French. However, since Russia got a number of new sculpts, in a way so do the French. They are just new Soviet pieces in blue.
ITALY: As stated, Italy got all Italian units now. Many of the sculpts are the same sculpts that were used by Field Marshal Games in their Italian set. While the WOTC pieces don’t look quite as nice as the FMG pieces, they are still nice and better than having German pieces in brown. Finally an Axis power gets a big, 4-engine bomber in the Piaggio P.108. They designated the SM.79 for the Italian Tac Bomber which seems like kind of a large plane for a Tac Bomber, but the piece looks really cool. Also, instead of a Halftrack for the mechanized infantry, they used a truck.
ANZAC: As for the ANZAC sculpts, there has been much discussion as to if these are proper units to represent ANZAC forces. For instance, the fighter and tank it has been said were actually used very little or not at all by Austalian forces. As far as I’m concerned, since they are uniquely Australian, they are good for this game. As for the capital ships, it has been said neither of these ships were even near Australian waters in WW 2. Personally, I think that is nit-picking. ANZAC didn’t really have any capital ships of their own in WW2 so I think using British models that weren’t already used for UK ships is just fine.
The only problem I have with ANY of the ANZAC sculpts would be the over-sized Infantry piece. I was at first excited that ANZAC was getting their own infantry piece until I got them and saw they were a full head bigger than any other infantry piece. I tried using them, but they just look weird on the board. I have went back to use the old ANZAC infantry with the new equipment sculpts.
So, there we are, up to date for now. I have heard there is a WW1 A&A game in the works. I guess that will require a new update. Hope everyone enjoys these pics.