First game ever, should France go first?

  • Customizer

    That is all right if you don’t want Normandy or S. France. As Germany, I like to get those two as well. With Normandy, well, it just seems like taking France without Normandy seems somehow incomplete to me. As for S. France, I like having the minor IC in the Med so I can send U-Boats to help out the Italians, maybe even a transport and some troops to take a couple of the N. Africa territories to help Italy get the North Africa NO or take Gibraltar if UK doesn’t have it well guarded.
    Sure, it lessens the force going after France some, but I might send the Stuka from Poland and fighter from Slovakia to assist.


  • @knp7765:

    That is all right if you don’t want Normandy or S. France. As Germany, I like to get those two as well. With Normandy, well, it just seems like taking France without Normandy seems somehow incomplete to me. As for S. France, I like having the minor IC in the Med so I can send U-Boats to help out the Italians, maybe even a transport and some troops to take a couple of the N. Africa territories to help Italy get the North Africa NO or take Gibraltar if UK doesn’t have it well guarded.
    Sure, it lessens the force going after France some, but I might send the Stuka from Poland and fighter from Slovakia to assist.

    I assume you might pull planes off of 111/110 in order to have decent odds on Normandy and South France, right?

  • '15

    @knp7765:

    That is all right if you don’t want Normandy or S. France. As Germany, I like to get those two as well. With Normandy, well, it just seems like taking France without Normandy seems somehow incomplete to me. As for S. France, I like having the minor IC in the Med so I can send U-Boats to help out the Italians, maybe even a transport and some troops to take a couple of the N. Africa territories to help Italy get the North Africa NO or take Gibraltar if UK doesn’t have it well guarded.
    Sure, it lessens the force going after France some, but I might send the Stuka from Poland and fighter from Slovakia to assist.

    Isn’t taking Normandy a pretty serious disadvantage for the Axis, since that allows the UK or the USA to land and make use f the factory there?  I often leave it untaken for that reason.


  • @Shin:

    @knp7765:

    That is all right if you don’t want Normandy or S. France. As Germany, I like to get those two as well. With Normandy, well, it just seems like taking France without Normandy seems somehow incomplete to me. As for S. France, I like having the minor IC in the Med so I can send U-Boats to help out the Italians, maybe even a transport and some troops to take a couple of the N. Africa territories to help Italy get the North Africa NO or take Gibraltar if UK doesn’t have it well guarded.
    Sure, it lessens the force going after France some, but I might send the Stuka from Poland and fighter from Slovakia to assist.

    Isn’t taking Normandy a pretty serious disadvantage for the Axis, since that allows the UK or the USA to land and make use f the factory there?  I often leave it untaken for that reason.

    But, that allows usa to land planes on it and make it harder for Germany to counter it.

  • '15 '14

    Simple rule 2: Don’t be too greedy G1!;) You can take Normandy and SF G2!

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    In my opinion - take it as you want - France’s job in this game is to throw randomness in what Germany has for units starting in Round 2.  Bad dice?  Good dice?  These give the game some randomness.

    And yes, Italy will kill off France if Germany doesn’t.

    Kinda curious if you could orchestrate it so that France lives so Italy can take it with the treasury and thus give them significantly more money to use round 2 for the Med?


  • Have seen a couple games where the Germans try to do to much G1, and went a little light on Paris. With normal dice it wouldn’t have been a problem, but ……    So by default (d fault of bad German dice), Paris stood, but the Italians were licking their chops and took it on their turn gaining the loot. It makes for an interesting game when Italy has some income from the get go.

    We have actually had Germany strafe Paris after that leaving Paris for the Italians. You do need to be careful not to leave too much though, because the allies can make it challenging for Italy to finish the job.

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    idealy you leave them with just a fighter, yes.  But if you can reduce them to 3 units or less, may it actually be better for Italy to get it?  Let Germany clear out Taranto, then start rebuilding the Italian fleet with what, like 27-30 IPC for round 2?

  • Customizer

    @ghr2:

    I assume you might pull planes off of 111/110 in order to have decent odds on Normandy and South France, right?

    No. Usually I send 1 infantry, 1 artillery and 1 tank to Normandy. 1 tank and 2 mechs to S. France. USUALLY, that is enough and I get both territories (except for that last game when my dice decided to SUCK horribly).

    @Shin:

    Isn’t taking Normandy a pretty serious disadvantage for the Axis, since that allows the UK or the USA to land and make use f the factory there?  I often leave it untaken for that reason.

    As Germany, I use the French factory to build infantry there. UK rarely has the transport ability to invade and by the time the US gets there, I can have 9-12 men there. Also, I try to keep a few men in Paris plus a few tanks in W Germany for a good counter attack.

    @Cmdr:

    idealy you leave them with just a fighter, yes.  But if you can reduce them to 3 units or less, may it actually be better for Italy to get it?  Let Germany clear out Taranto, then start rebuilding the Italian fleet with what, like 27-30 IPC for round 2?

    What if UK sends fighters to defend Paris? Italy could have some real trouble then. That happened in one game a while back. Germany failed to take Paris G1. UK flew fighters in and Italy simply wasn’t strong enough to kill the left over French and UK fighters. That’s why it took until Italy 2 before Paris finally fell.
    By the way, I know what you are thinking. If UK sends fighters to Paris, they aren’t defending London from Sealion. Well, if Germany gets wiped out trying to take Paris, they can buy transports but they won’t have land units to put in them. Most of Germany’s land units that didn’t die in Paris are over on the Eastern Front. So, Sealion is really a no-go so the UK can afford to send fighters to Paris. Depending on how many they send, this might save the Italian fleet from a Taranto raid.


  • So just an update to my game status.  We only got up until china’s turn then everyone wanted to quit.  Unfortunately we did not get to play much at all so kinda bummed me out.  With that I cannot report how balanced I feel the game was.  Hopefully get to play sometime again. -Leon


  • @Leon_Corona:

    So just an update to my game status.  We only got up until china’s turn then everyone wanted to quit.  Unfortunately we did not get to play much at all so kinda bummed me out.  With that I cannot report how balanced I feel the game was.  Hopefully get to play sometime again. -Leon

    So is this just a pause and you’re going to continue the game at another time, or is it over.

    I know that this game can be overwhelming the first couple times you play it. Don’t know how many people you had in your group, or their experience level (we played the Anniversary game a bunch). The first few times we played global40 we only did 1-3 rounds. You will make many mistakes until you get the feel for it. This game is very intense, time consuming, and not for everyone. I would suggest playing with a smaller group possibly to gain experience over a couple games, then bring in more players.

    You could also try the 1942 tournament version that uses the same map and rules. It is a 1942 set-up so all powers start at war. This time line removes many of the political rules from the game, an it might keep more interest when all parties can participate fully from the beginning.

    I will try to post a link later for Global1942


  • @knp7765:

    @ghr2:

    I assume you might pull planes off of 111/110 in order to have decent odds on Normandy and South France, right?

    No. Usually I send 1 infantry, 1 artillery and 1 tank to Normandy. 1 tank and 2 mechs to S. France. USUALLY, that is enough and I get both territories (except for that last game when my dice decided to SUCK horribly).

    That leaves a very weak attack on france itself.

  • Customizer

    @ghr2:

    @knp7765:

    @ghr2:

    I assume you might pull planes off of 111/110 in order to have decent odds on Normandy and South France, right?

    No. Usually I send 1 infantry, 1 artillery and 1 tank to Normandy. 1 tank and 2 mechs to S. France. USUALLY, that is enough and I get both territories (except for that last game when my dice decided to SUCK horribly).

    That leaves a very weak attack on france itself.

    Yeah, I know it’s taking a chance. The fighter from Slovakia and Stuka from Poland do help take up some of the slack, but it’s still a bit risky. Especially if France’s AA gun gets lucky. I have almost always won that battle, with varying degrees of success. Sometimes the dice go bad and I am lucky to win with a couple of tanks and the planes surviving. Other times the dice go good and I still even have infantry left. I consider it a good win if I survive with all my tanks plus any aircraft.

  • Customizer

    @WILD:

    I will try to post a link later for Global1942

    I think this is it. I’m curious, did this ever gain traction/get tested? I’ve seen mixed opinions of it.

    http://smo63.fatcow.com/pdf/G42setup2013424.pdf


  • @ossel:

    @WILD:

    I will try to post a link later for Global1942

    I think this is it. I’m curious, did this ever gain traction/get tested? I’ve seen mixed opinions of it.

    http://smo63.fatcow.com/pdf/G42setup2013424.pdf

    Yes that’s it ossel, thanks (updated April of 2013 w/Germany going 5th). This global42 version is what we have been playing as of late because all powers start at war. Only played a handful of times, and not all complete games. We are having a good time though, and the balance seems to be pretty good. It’s funny though because referring to the topic, if Leon_Corona plays this version the French don’t get much of a turn to worry about because the Germans own it all other then a few strangling units (LOL).

    Germany starts deep into Russian territory, but the Russians have the power to regain most of it on R1 (they go first BTW). The Germans basically get their a… reamed and lose some good units, but can rebound once the tanks from the western front get turned around. Japan is a monster, starts w/48 IPCs, and it climbs fast. It starts with most of the income islands (not sure how they supposedly got them because they only have 2 transports and they are nowhere near the DEI lol).

    The US has some choices to make. If they go head to head w/Japan, it will be a really good fight if Japan adds navy (will slow down the Japanese land game though). If they ignore them watch out for the “Orange Godzilla”.  India seems a little under powered (has some navy though) and the Japanese can smack India, and move on to the Mid East/Africa. The Russians can play spoiler though IMO, and it is difficult to cut down Russian income, plus they can easily get to Iraq for the 3 IPC NO bonus early. The Anz are hard pressed to get their NO because they only control the Solomon’s (Japan has the other 3, and forget about Malaya for a long time).

    BTW Sea Lion isn’t exactly off the table in this game either depending on the German/UK buys, and if the US is going Europe. England itself has fewer units and only 1 AA gun. India starts w/2 AA guns, so I don’t know why London only gets 1 (seems strange). I think that a concentrated effort against the Germans (Italians) might be the way to go, mainly because Russia is no push over in this game (is actually fun to play).

    We are in the 4th round right now, and as the allies I decided to change things up and do a neutral crush starting in the 3nd round w/UK units that evacuated India UK2 to attack Afg (India was a lost cause). I hid it pretty well, and they didn’t see it coming (only attacked neutrals a couple times before, so it flew under the radar). UK3 I managed to hit Afghanistan, Portugal, and Saudi w/UK (they’re working on S Africa neutrals). Anz3 took Chile, then onto Argentina Anz4. Russia hit Turkey R4, and the US took Venezuela, and Spain US4. The Mongolian rules forbid the Mongols to turn pro axis unless directly attacked by Russia, so they can’t be claimed by Japan (hehe). So that left only the Swede’s for Germany. It is an interesting game, and the Germans were in no position to threaten Spain on Ger4, so by US5 (when I build an IC and AB) I will have about 24-25 ground units in Spain and 15+ combined US/UK air units. Plus Spain can be reinforced from naval bases at EUS, Canada, and England every turn port to port (Gibraltar naval base, or even a new Spanish naval base).

    Germany can put a pretty good force together though and the Luftwaffe and Italian air force combined are 20+ planes strong, so we will see how it goes. Don’t think they can deal with both US, Russia, and a bit of UK on the side (Russia also has a sh-it ton of Japanese heading her way too).

  • Customizer

    Bill,
      Thanks for the description. I’m thinking of using these rules for a game this weekend, they definitely seem like they might be simpler for new players (fewer diplomacy situations to deal with) and hopefully will make for a shorter game.

    Just out of curiosity, you said Russia can play “spoiler”…What is this? I’m familiar with a lot of the A&A lingo, but I’ve never heard of this.


  • What I was talking about is that Russia has more muscle in this set-up then in G40. They can be more aggressive and can help defend the Chinese wall and/or the Middle east against the Japanese once India falls (things they don’t get to do much in G40).

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