Yeah, now that would work. I guess the second one is just a spare, in case one is eaten by the dog/toddler/vacuum cleaner.
Posts made by almashir
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RE: My review copy of Axis & Allies Europe 1940 has arrived
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RE: My review copy of Axis & Allies Europe 1940 has arrived
Well, yes. I get that there are two separate UK incomes. But, unless these Union Jack roundels are marked with something too small to see (maybe a small “E” on one and a “P” on the other?), they seem to be identical. So how do you know which one is for which income? Unless you are using a separate IPC chart for each map. But that still doesn’t answer the question of why not just use their regular roundels like all the other countries?
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RE: My review copy of Axis & Allies Europe 1940 has arrived
22 years and 5 kids :-D Back when I learned geography Rhodesia and the Republic of Vietnam were still on the maps.
Anyway, the theory someone posted that the Union Jack roundels are for tracking IPC levels seems to make sense. But why not just use their regular roundels? Ah well, I guess we’ll find out in a couple of weeks.
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RE: My review copy of Axis & Allies Europe 1940 has arrived
Yeah, he’s American. What’s sad is that I probably know more geography than the average American, but I didn’t know that one off the top of my head. I guess I could have looked it up if I wasn’t so lazy. The picture of the roundel was small enough I couldn’t see the little orange dot in the center. Ya know, what’s extra extra super pathetic is that I was actually married in the Netherlands and have a Dutch marriage license :oops: I should have remembered how similar the Dutch and Czech roundels were.
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RE: My review copy of Axis & Allies Europe 1940 has arrived
Sorry if this has been answered already, but I had a couple of questions about the pictures of the map and playing pieces. I noticed on the countersheet with national roundels the British have their normal air force roundels plus 2 Union Jack roundels that seem to be slightly larger. What are those for?
Also, on South America, just North of Brazil, there are 3 roundels on the map - one British, one French, and one that appears to be Czechoslovakian. Is that supposed to be a Czech colony???
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RE: USSR Baltic Navy?
If the Russians have a convoy marker on the map, it will probably be in the Arctic Ocean (Arkangelsk) instead of the Baltic. Historically, they had a fleet consisting of a couple of old battlecruisers and assorted cruisers, destroyers, and subs trapped in Leningrad. The Germans did worry that they might try to set sail, but it would probably have been suicide against the Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe. The Russians used them as artillery to help defend the city while it was under siege.
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RE: Euro40 Starting fleets
Turkey: 1 BB, 4 CL, 13 DD, 11 SS
The Turkish battleship was actually a WWI German battlecruiser that was trapped in the Med in August 1914, and “loaned” to the Turks for the duration. They kept it until after WWII.
Spain: 2 BB, 2 CA, 5 CL, 21 DD, 14 SS
The Spanish forces listed above are what Spain had before/during the Spanish Civil War, and includes both Nationalist and Republican ships. At least 1 battleship and 1 heavy cruiser were sunk prior to 1940.
Sweden: Couldn’t find much yet, but they had at least 2-3 light cruisers, probably 5-10 destroyers, and assorted gun boats and coastal defense ships.
Brazil: 2 BB, 2 CL, 7 DD,
Argentina: 2 BB, 4 CA, 30 DD
Argentina also had a couple of heavy coastal defense ships. Two of the four heavy cruisers listed above were older ships (1896), but still dangerous, if slow.
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RE: Euro40 Starting fleets
“Hmm. That could be a problem. We might need a more strict Russo-Japanese non-aggression rule. Maybe Japan can’t attack any Russian controlled territory unless the Axis has already captured at least one of the following: London, Moscow, Washington, San Francisco. Russia can’t attack any Japanese controlled territory unless the Allies already control either Berlin or BOTH Rome AND Paris.”
Almost forgot: …and Russian units may not enter Chinese territory until they are at war with Japan.
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RE: Euro40 Starting fleets
Hmm. That could be a problem. We might need a more strict Russo-Japanese non-aggression rule. Maybe Japan can’t attack any Russian controlled territory unless the Axis has already captured at least one of the following: London, Moscow, Washington, San Francisco. Russia can’t attack any Japanese controlled territory unless the Allies already control either Berlin or BOTH Rome AND Paris.
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RE: What will be wrong with AAAE: 1940?
Yes, you are definitely right if you want to keep the scale as close as possible to the official rules. I kind of strayed off topic, and probably should have posted this over in the House Rules section. I’ll have to do some playtesting to get it right.
I’ve done something similar before, but on the Xeno map, which has fewer territories than AA40. I converted the World in Flames starting forces to Axis and Allies with a Dec. 1941 start date. It worked pretty well, but I figured out I needed to cut the number of aircraft in half. The Lufwaffe sank the bulk of the Royal Navy, which was sitting in the English Channel, on turn one, which pretty much crippled Britain for the rest of the game :| The problem is that fighters in A&A are more powerful than their counterparts in WiF. In WiF aircraft can heavily influence the outcome of a land or sea battle, but they generally can’t win it outright all by themselves.
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RE: What will be wrong with AAAE: 1940?
Thanks, Wild Bill. These force strengths were not just the result of what each nation could afford. Much of it had to do with the Washington and London Naval Treaties (plus The Treaty of Versailles for Germany), which set limits on tonnage, gun size, total number of ships, etc. The treaties were largely abandoned by most nations in the 3-5 years leading up to the war, but, given the lead time required for building capital ships, the treaties still heavily influenced the starting forces. You’ll notice France and Italy are almost at parity, for instance. And Japan was allotted a much lower total tonnage than either Britain or the US, since it didn’t need a separate fleet for the Atlantic.
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RE: What will be wrong with AAAE: 1940?
Oh, yeah. I’ve been a wargame geek since around 1981 :-) And I worked in military intelligence in the army for 10 years (I’m still in the National Guard). I’m working on land and air forces next :evil:
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RE: What will be wrong with AAAE: 1940?
“The French Fleet was ranked 4th or 5th in the world at the time, the set-up might only be a shell of what it was to factor in the losses due to UK attacks or ships held at Vichy ports after Paris falls.”
Well, to give you an idea of why the disposition of the French fleet might make a difference, the list below is my best guess (I spent some time researching it) about actual fleet strength around May-June 1940:
(Abbreviations: BB=battleship (includes battlecruisers), CA=heavy cruiser, CL=light cruiser, DD=destroyer, CV=carrier, SS=sub)
US: 15 BB, 18 CA, 19 CL, 118 DD, 7 CV, 112 SS (+2 more BB built but undergoing sea trials, and 4 more under construction. Also had a CV and 15 DD under construction)
Britain (includes ANZAC, Canada, etc.): 16 BB, 21 CA, 49 CL, 214 DD, 6 CV, 78 SS (+1 BB built, and 5 more under construction. +8 more CL under construction, with 6 of those almost finished. +7 CV under construction, with 2 of those almost finished. Also 65 more DD either under construction or in the process of being transferred from the US under Lend Lease)
France: 8 BB, 7 CA, 11 CL, 70 DD, 20-30 SS (+2 more BB nearly built).
USSR: 3 BB, 4 CA, 2 CL, 68 DD, 218 SS (+2 more BB under construction. Note: Many of these ships were leftovers from the Tzar’s navy, and had not been modernized or properly maintained).
Germany: 4 BB, 7 CA, 6 CL, 26 DD, 240 SS (+1 CV and probably a couple of hundred SS under construction)
Netherlands: 5 CL, 12-14 DD
Japan: 10 BB, 18 CA, 20 CL, 108 DD, 8 CV, 68 SS (+2 BB, 2 CL, 15 DD, and 6 CV under construction)
Italy: 6 BB, 9 CA, 13 CL, 59 DD, 146 SS (+2 BB, 4 CL, and 1 CV under construction)
Now, obviously, if you wanted to convert these numbers to A&A, you couldn’t use a 1-1 ratio, unless you had, like, 10 extra sets of playing pieces (or a whole lot of poker chips). But somehow the starting forces in the official A&A rules seem a bit TOO abstract for me. What I was thinking was to convert them as follows:
1 Battleship represents 2 real BB (BB divisions tended to be 2 ships in most navies, and the number are small enough to be do-able)
1 Destroyer represents about 15 reall DD
1 Carrier represents real 2-3 CV. (Carriers came in different sizes. I’m thinking 1 carrier equals the capacity to operate 120-150 aircraft)
1 Submarine represents about 60 real submarines. (Subs had to rotate back to a base or sub tender for resupply more often than other ships)
Cruisers are a bit trickier. I’m thinking add up the total number of cruisers for each fleet (with a CL counting as 3/5 of a cruiser), and dividing by 5.5. This should mean you have enough playing pieces for every navy (when combining AAP40 with AAE40), if we assume one of the British cruisers is ANZAC.
So the starting fleets, under the above scenario, would look like this (with a bit of fudging to account for the differences in quality between navies):
US: 8 Battleships, 5 Cruisers, 8 Destroyers, 4 Carriers, 2 Subs
Britain: 8 Battleships, 8 Cruisers, 12 Destroyers, 3 Carriers, 1 Subs
ANZAC: 1 Cruiser, 2 Destroyers
France: 4 Battleships, 2 Cruisers, 5 Destroyers
USSR: 1 Battleships, 1 Cruiser, 5 Destroyers, 2 Subs
Germany: 2 Battleships, 2 Cruisers, 2 Destroyers, 4 Subs
Netherlands: 1 Cruiser, 1 Destroyer
Japan: 5 Battleships, 5 Cruisers, 8 Destroyers, 4 Carriers, 1 Sub
Italy: 3 Battleships, 3 Cruisers, 5 Destroyers, 2 Subs -
RE: Can someone explain why tanks need to cost 6
True. A typical division in most armies will have its own artillery regiment/brigade. A corps might have an extra brigade or two of corps level artillery in adddition to the artillery units assigned to its infantry/tank divisions. Soviet Shock armies were basically leg infantry with a buttload of artillery (a buttload being an echelon or two above brigade) attached. But, at the scale of Axis and Allies (with each playing piece representing an army - the echelon between corps and army group), independent artillery units would rarely be large enough to be represented by their own playing pieces. But they are.
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RE: Can someone explain why tanks need to cost 6
Prior to the introduction of mechanized infantry to the game, I used to think of tanks as representing all mechanized forces - tanks, mechanized infantry, and motorized infantry. Even an armored division was typically more infantry than tanks. If I recall correctly, a 1944 German Panzer division had 2 tank battalions and 6 infantry battalions. And Panzergrenadier (mechanized infantry) divisions had self-propelled guns and tank destroyers assigned.
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RE: Realistic battles
You could achieve the same effect by simply doubling (or tripling) the starting forces, and by making units cost 1/2 (or 1/3) of their normal IPC cost.
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Modified turn sequence?
I was just wondering if anyone out there has ever experimented with having just an Allied turn and an Axis turn, instead of each country having its own. It would certainly get you a different game, but for better or worse I couldn’t say. It would make things like D-Day and reinforcing the Afrika Korps simpler. But would it unbalance the game in favor of one side or the other? Of course, you’d also introduce the boredom factor, because you’d have to sit around longer waiting for the other player to finish his turn before you become the active player again.
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RE: What will be wrong with AAAE: 1940?
I pieced it together from other games and from what I know of history, and adapted it to A&A. I tried to create rules which would force players to make decisions based on the same uncertainties that leaders had to deal with during the war.
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RE: What will be wrong with AAAE: 1940?
“What is Vichy France?”
When the Germans reached the edge of Paris in 1940, and it became obvious the French army wouldn’t be able to stop them, the French decided to surrender before Paris was reduced to rubble. A new French government was formed, led by Marshall Petain, with its capitol in the town of Vichy. The Vichy government initially controlled southern France, Morocco, Algeria, Syria, and French Indo-China. They collaborated with the Germans. They had control of a fairly sizable navy, and the British actually bombed the Vichy French fleet in North Africa because they were afraid the Vichy government would hand it over the Germans and/or Italians. When the Allies landed at Casablanca in 1942, the Vichy garrison initially put up a bit of a fight. But they soon decided to switch sides and join the Free French forces.
If you want to simulate Vichy in your games, you can use something like the following:
Upon capturing Paris, the German player must immediately decide whether or not he will accept a Vichy government. If he refuses, all French forces and territories not already under Axis control become Free French. The income from Free French territories can be spent in British factories to produce new Free French units. Free France performs all phases of its turn at the same time as Britain. British and Free French units may attack together and ride on each others’ transports.
If the German player decides to accept a Vichy government, all forces located in the following territories or in adjacent sea zones become Vichy: French Indo-China, Syria, and all French colonies in North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia). German control markers are placed on Vichy territories, and income from those territories goes to Germany until they are liberated by the Allies. All other French territories outside of France become Free French.
For any surviving French Units in France itself or in adjacent sea zones, roll a die. If the roll is 1-2, the unit disbands/scuttles, and is removed from the map. On a roll of 3-4, the unit becomes Vichy and is immediately moved to Southern France. On a roll of 5-6, the unit becomes Free French, and is immediately moved to either Gibraltar or London, whichever is closer.
If any Vichy territory is attacked by the Axis, all Vichy forces and territories immediately become Free French (exception: Japan can occupy French Indo-China with no effect on any other territory). If a Vichy territory is attacked by the Allies, roll a die. On a roll of 1-4, the territory and all Vichy forces within it or in adjacent sea zones become Free French. On a roll of 5, the territory surrenders, and all units are removed from the map. On a roll of 6, the territory joins the Axis, and all Vichy units are immediately replaced with German units.