Newb Questions for Revised rules…

1a, correct.
b, its in the rule book just look up destroyers.  sorry dont have the manual on me and well, havent used destroyers vs subs enough to know it offhand.  Im pretty sure tho that if your sub is successfully attacked by another sub, (no destroyers in that battle), then no you dont get to hit back.
c, subs submerge at the end of any round, after both the attacker and the defender have fired.  If enemy destroyers are present, you cannot submerge until those destroyers have been …destroyed. =)

2. correct

3. artillery is just like an infantry, except it attacks on a 2 instead of a one. As well, each piece of artillery will raise the attack of 1 infantry to a 2 as well if they are used in a battle at the same time.

Artillery are kind of a neat idea, but I tend not to use them unless I happen to have an extra buck lying around.  Usually stick to inf and arm mixes, tho art can be very useful if you have large stacks deadzoning near eachother, for instance on the russian/german front.  Here it can really help one side make a stronger push with their inf stack.

4. You can place newly made or existing fighters directly onto a newly made carrier as it is placed. What you cannot do is park an existing carrier in a seazone off an IC, and dump newly made fighters onto it each turn, effectively giving you a free move point.  You have to pay for that bonus by actually building the carrier.

5. Havent gotten to play Anniversary yet, but we are going to buy it soon.  I know there is a new Axis team, the Italians.  And America has control over new chinese units, tho I wonder if there is any big difference there other than that the units have a different color… tho I suspect perhaps the incomes are seperate as well, just american controlled.  Dont know. =)

@DrFager:

1. Subs
B. First attack. They have some sort of first attack capability, whatever they hit with that first roll does not have the ability to counterattack unless its a destroyer or sub?

Subs fire in what’s called the Opening Fire step, and they’re the only units that do so in sea battles.  Opening Fire occurs before “normal” fire in each combat round.  If there are no enemy destroyers in the battle, Opening Fire casulaties are removed before the “normal” firing steps, so anything hit by subs won’t fire back.  However, hit subs will always fire back because they are also firing in the Opening Fire step.

@DrFager:

3. Artillery
A. Does it move into battle or is it immobile and supports attacks against adjacent territories?

It moves into battle like other units.  It can’t fire into adjacent territories.

@DrFager:

4. Carriers
A. So you can only develop fighters on a carrier as it is initially being placed?

Existing fighters can be moved onto existing carriers at any time.

@DrFager:

Also, is there a place to download the manual for Revised?

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=ah/prod/axis

Infantry push is still important, but it is not the is all has all that it used to be. As well, you tend to not see the wars of attrition either… you know, the giant stacks of infantry where nobody will ever really move because its just too even.

Instead, tanks are far more viable as a purchase, which really opens up the board considering their greater mobility and increased defensive power as well.  On top of this, if you do have two large, opposed infantry stacks, then one side can really tip the scales by adding a fair amount of artillery to the mix.  Suddenly he has doubled his infantries attacking power, not just gonna sit around in the trenches anymore, are we?

The extra sea zones have helped immensely, it really takes the pressure off of germany (the classic US shuckshuck was impossibly broken), tho the allies can still set up a shuck shuck with relative impunity, it just takes longer and requires more boats.  Offsetting this, the saharan desert makes it a bit tougher for Germany to take Africa, but as well it makes it harder for Allied cleaner troops to get back to the main theater of war.

Playing Russia Restricted would end with Moscow’s quick demise, you definitely want to and need to attack as Russia, who coincidentally has a real game going on this time, not just “I buy eight men and stack them in Karelia.”  Tank buys and even a fighter or two are absolutely not uncommon for Russian builds.

As for Japan… hmm I think its the one country the least affected by the changes, tho the Royal Navy certainly can and should be used to hamper their momentum.  The extra russian zones dont do a whole lot to slowing down the Jap advance, if you are swift and your opponent is dumb, you can be on Moscows door in like five rounds, as usual.  What slows the Japs down this time is the fact that Moscow has teeth and can use them, sending tank squads against advanced and isolated japanese infantry divisions (check to see if your competitor pushes too far into sing without reinforcements after taking china, a common mistake), and eventually turning the entire might of the Red Army eastwards.  I like to stage in Novo, blocking all the routes with deadzones, and hopefully making up for lost territories by land grabs in eastern germany.

As for bids, yeah people still bid axis in general.  Its from maybe 5 to 10 ipc, tho 6-8 is def the most common it seems after reading these boards.  Really depends on your skills and those of your opponent.  I routinely thrash the allies with as little as a 0ipc bid (tho its nice to get at least 4 ipc for one inf and 1 buck to japan), whereas im not having too much trouble stomping the fascists into the mud with the same bids…

I have no idea, Ive never played anniversary (btw check out the forum section on this game, its at the top of the list).

I will say Revised so far is like a million times better than classic 2.ed.  It is more balanced, it is far, far more dynamic, and nearly every unit has a definite beneficial reason to purchase it.

Anniversary seems likes its even more so, with extra teams thrown in plus a sorta 2fer1 thing, in that you can start with one of two setups. (tho the boards seem to indicate that the first setup is highly imbalanced towards the allies.)

My advice?  You should buy anniversary and get a friend to buy revised. Or the other way around.  :evil: