1940 Global table & painted pieces

@Simnos probably not. They look great and I’d love to print these up for new players to use.

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. While it’s still our favorite, there are some challenges. 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 Germany 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. Italy HAS to hold TransJordan to prevent UK ships from crossing the canal. 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. The challenge is that Malaya can be hit (and taken) with the British naval forces attached to India. However, if Japan can do it, they 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. Otherwise, ANAC spawns a transport and 1-2 infantry per turn that can grab IPC-rich islands. The way I’ve countered this is to flood the Pacific with subs everywhere, which will pick off any unattended transport immediately.

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. The USSR has been able to assemble 25-30 tanks in the last three games, and only an error by the Allied player which allowed me to grab Russia for a turn helped even the balance. I have found that blasting the UK’s IC into dust slows things down a lot.

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

I’ve tried priming these twice and the primer just won’t stick. Are these a different plastic somehow?

That is very impressive.

@Young:

Thanks CWO Marc, really appreciate your comments… do you play often? I understand there is a lot of players in Montreal, do you have a game group?

For many years I’ve had too much going on in my life, professionally and otherwise, to have had time to do much of anything other than collecting the A&A games.  And, to be honest, I have too many issues with many of the features of the various A&A games that I’ll probably never play anything other than what I’m hoping to create at some distant point in the future when I do have the time for it, which is a completely personalized version of the Global game that, for all intents and purposes, keeps the sculpts and the map board but throws out the entire rulebook and reconceptualizes the game from scratch.  And it’s not even fully correct to say “keeps the sculpts and the map board” either.  I’ll be expanding the number of nations and the number of unit types by making use of the very large pool of A&A sculpts I’ve acquired over the years, for instance the ones from the early-edition games and the ones from 1941 and 1914.  And as I’ve noted in the thread where I’ve posted pictures of my custom table, one of the first things I did to the Global 1940 map was to rework its “under-the-plexiglass” roundel allocations to better reflect the structure of the world as it existed prior to the invasion of Manchuria in 1931, as a starting point from which I can then modify the map (by placing roundels on top of the plexiglass) to represent any subsequent starting date from 1931 onward.  A related project that I worked on to create the infrastructure for this eventual new game was the Global 1940 map inventory, a copy of which I posted over here last September:

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=36590.0

But at this point I don’t have an actual plan for what this reconceptualization will look like.  Nor am I likely to do so until I have the time to work on this project solidly for months at a time…so this may have to wait until retirement (which isn’t for tomorrow by a long shot) before this idea translates into anything concrete.

YG,

@Young:

Would love to hear from those who have used the file to print their own copy of my custom map… do you have one?
––I would have to say,…NOT YET ! But once I get my latest project going, which will include a large area for a
“GRAND SIZE” War Simulations Room I’ll certainly get in contact with ya’ll.
––I must say, on behalf of all of the other gamers that you’ve already helped with your wonderful map;
THANK YOU !

Tall Paul

Thanks.

Very nice! Love them all!

what was the outcome of this?
was the pieces returned?

since its christmas please tell me this had a happy outcome  :-)

(just curious, I haven’t bought anything from mclovin)