If I were Larry, I would…

Re: Global 1942 Scenario by Larry Harris

We’ve played this version four times now, and it definitely is tilted towards the Allies. The US is simply too powerful, and Japan has no chance with the US getting 65-70+ income every turn. Our thoughts:

I agree with the assessment that the USSR can knock out 1-2 territories right off the bat. This is similar to the traditional A&A, but Germany doesn’t have the forces to respond in any forceful way to retake anything. USSR is starting with 21+ infantry across the 3-territory front, and can’t get its forces there fast enough. The USSR creates strongholds in Kaliningrad and Ukraine and churns out 10-12 infantry or 6 tanks that immediately come into play. The possible solution for this is for Germany to put a minor IC closer to the front for balance.

Germany has no chance to get transports out of the North Sea due to Britain’s fighter advantage. With France’s help, you would need to get 4+ destroyers/cruisers to protect the transports if you’re trying to go to Iceland and then to Canada/US. The key is to have sub packs hunting any transports that cross, and quick. Once the US takes Gibraltar (which it should do in R1), it becomes a fighter landing factory where they can spawn across the Atlantic and then pound Italy.

The US is just too powerful. The winning path we’ve seen is for the US to make 5-6 fighters per turn and fly them to the Hawaiian islands, then eventually take Wake and Midway. From there, it’s only a matter of time. Japan simply can’t put enough forces to fight through the fighters to get Hawaii, Midway and the islands to the south. The 15 bonus just for having the US each turn is too much. If Germany/Italy can put pressure on the US (which we have seen and done), it can help, but it’s really hard. Italy needs to get income fast, which means going hard and fast after Egypt and the consolidated forces there.

Our Allied player did a very interesting thing by putting a factory in Egypt along with an air base, which made it almost impregnable. Getting Africa quickly is perhaps the least understood key to the war - it allows Italy to prevent ships from coming through the canal and lets them pressure the US. I can’t emphasize enough how important a role plays in helping take pressure off of the UK, which can…

Build up an infantry fortress in India which is impossible to take - UNLESS you build a minor IC on R1 in Malaya. Why Malaya (which is much harder to defend)? Because, under the rules, it can be upgraded to a MAJOR IC - producing 10 units per turn - so India can be overwhelmed. Japan can then turn its attention to…

ANZAC - becomes an income suck very quickly for Japan by grabbing the East Indies. Getting Japan to take out India is probably the most important thing the Axis can do. It frees Japan to focus on island defense and ANZAC. If ANZAC starts getting fighters, they become a transport-hunting force which simply can’t be countered.

Germany - Has to focus on numbers to overwhelm Russia while hoping that the UK doesn’t undertake strategic bombing raids, which Germany should do anyway to minimize the UK’s strength.

All in all, a very solid game, but it needs some tweaks so the Axis have a chance.

Thanks for the tips and suggestions guys. I am really trying to find ways to reduce the overall time of the game since 8-15 hours is a tough sell when trying to find more players. We usually don’t even wait till all the necessary victory cities are captured either. We basically can tell once the game is lost for either side.

Perhaps having a timer on the Purchase and Combat Move phase as well as make a hard end date at the end of Turn 7 or 8 would make things go quicker? I think playing a setup where Russia and America are already in the war could speed things up too.

pretty good explanation…cant argue.

@Dark_Destroyer:

@knp7765:

@Dark_Destroyer:

The war Japanese started began with Korea and ended with America, it just flowed into WW2.

Incorrect.  As was previously stated, Korea already belonged to Japan.  The war started when Japanese forces invaded Manchuria from Korea in Sept. 1931.

Actually you are incorrect.  Japan had a 35-year imperialist expansion, which lasted August 22, 1910 to August 15, 1945.  That expansion included Korea, China, and finally US islands.  Which ended up (you guessed wrong) happening to include WW2.

nit-picking the nit-picker: japanese expansion started in 1905 with attacking the russian forces in Port Arthur ^^

Thanks Mountaineer.  Those are helpful.

Slacker is right, yeah its not what we all expected but its still a great game and you should be happy with Mr. Harris taking his time to help improve the game experience. yeah its a pain to check the updates but its not all that bad. i still like both the 1940 games and the way my gaming group plays, we don’t think the OOB is totally unbalanced. yeah it needed a little work but not that much. theirs my 2 cents

@MEGAEINSTEIN:

in AAG40 SU recieves no ipcs for japanese agression

I think he’s refering to the proposed rule changes, which would give either Japan or SU 10 IPCs when the other breaks the truce.

Thanks Larry for the best Axis and Allies game ever, keep up the good work! :-D