I think Persia might be the optimal play for the Allies under these rules – you can easily reinforce it from Stalingrad, and you can push either east to India or west to Egypt as needed. Persia’s usually not worth a factory in OOB play because it would only have 1 production slot, but with 2 production slots in Persia at the start of the game, you could really swing the center of the board toward the Allies.

Anybody want to test this out by e-mail? I’ll take the Allies with a factory and AAA in a modified Persia that’s worth 2 IPCs and has 2 production slots for as long as I can hold it. I wouldn’t ask for any further bid; that sounds like plenty to me.

@vodot Very interesting; that could be a useful part of the toolkit. It’s somewhat trivial to build fighters in Eastern US and fly them into the Western US sea zone, or vice versa, or to build tanks in Western US and drive them into East Canada – so it would be very rare that you’d actually choose to build boats in one sea zone and then sail them through the Panama Canal.

I think +20 IPCs per turn for the US would be disruptive; that sounds like way too large of a bid. My friends usually play with a one-time bid of less than 20 IPCs, so if that money came in every single turn, it would be a problem.

From my point of view, the problem is less that the USA wants to build 100% in the Atlantic, and more that there are no Allied “rally points” west of San Francisco. You can stack up in Hawaii, Alaska, or Australia if you really want to, but it’s honestly not that big of a problem if Japan takes them, and you don’t want to put a factory in any of those places as the Allies. It feels like the natural front lines for the Japanese empire are near Persia, Australia, Yakut, Chinghai, Alaska, and Hawaii – which means that the forward staging ground for a Kill-Japan-First campaign is either Cairo, South Africa, or San Francisco, none of which are particularly thematic. I’d like to see the Allies staging in Guadalcanal, or Midway, or the Soviet Far East, or Burma. That rarely happens in an OOB game. I think the new NOs have gotten us part of the way toward that goal – it’s more reasonable to go to Guadalcanal or New Guinea now. The tournament Victory City rules we used in Marin County (21 Victory Cities, win immediately if you hold 13 VCs, win after round 8 if you hold 10+ VCs) also help out with those staging grounds – if you’re counting victory cities, that gives you much more reason to hold onto Sydney and Honolulu. I still feel like we’re not quite there yet, though. I would personally like to see even more use of forward staging grounds in Kill Japan First campaigns.

If anyone doesn’t want to read the entire game update thread, or if you want to skip my gaming buddy’s blatant pro-Allied propaganda, here’s the summary:

We played the first game out for five rounds, with axis_roll putting heavy Axis reinforcements into the Med via an early factory in France. As Britain, I built a factory in South Africa that didn’t quite pull its weight, and a US Pacific fleet that held the Japanese at bay but was not able to actually push them off of the core of their economy. axis_roll did a good job of shutting down Britain and Russia’s NOs, and Russia was so poor that even though German initially went south, Russia didn’t have the units to hold off the eventual German thrust, so we called the game when Russia’s position started to collapse. Germany also benefited from re-directing surplus African troops to Stalingrad via the open Dardanelles. The USA was earning slightly more than usual from the new NOs, but not nearly enough to compensate for Russia falling apart.

For the second game, to give Russia a bit more cash, we adjusted the Russian NOs to kick in on turn 2, and we switched sides. We are in the middle of round 6, and in my opinion, the game is still very much alive and kicking – fighting is hot in the Pacific, around India, and in eastern Europe. The Allies hold Scandinavia and are rapidly hoovering up Africa, but the Germans have western Europe locked down with big infantry garrisons – so the question is whether Moscow, Cairo, or the US Pacific fleet crack before the Germans and Italians run out of income after inevitably losing Africa.

We’re still struggling a bit to find ways to properly incentivize Pacific play – just giving the Allies money for holding territory in the Pacific doesn’t help much if holding the Pacific is impossible, so we’re not really seeing factories in India or China or Siberia or anything wild like that. There are too many d*** 1-IPC territories in the Allied Pacific sphere of influence, and too many starting Japanese transports and fighters to crush any initial pockets of resistance. It may be that just editing the NOs, by itself, isn’t enough to enable a truly competitive Kill-Japan-First strategy. Still, this game has seen a fairly convincing two-front war – the Pacific theater may be secondary, but it’s been a real front with meaningful losses and gains on both sides.

I was originally excited about this thread, and it was interesting to hear other people’s ideas about how to create a playbook that could give beginner-to-intermediate players a comprehensive overview of what specific moves they should make to do well with the Allied side during the first few moves of a Global 1940 game.

At this point, though, it looks like the thread has mostly degenerated into a general stream-of-consciousness discussion about “how to win at Global 1940.” I’m not seeing a focus on the opening, I’m not seeing an attempt to be comprehensive, and I’m not seeing recommendations for specific moves.

Do people want to try to get the thread back on track, toward creating a playbook? If so, I’d love to continue the discussion. If not, I’m going to unfollow the thread and let you all enjoy the rest of the conversation.

All right, axis_roll and I have called the first playtest at the end of round 5 – the Allies are still significantly down on income, and the problem’s only likely to get worse – Russia is collapsing faster than the Allies can hope to make up the difference in Scandinavia or the Middle East, and the South Pacific is basically stalemated.

Per axis_roll’s request, we’re keeping changes to a minimum between playtests – so he’s got the Allies now and I’ve got the Axis with almost the same rules: the only change to the NOs is that Russian NOs are now activated starting with the end of round 2, rather than the end of round 3.

@Guam-Solo I’m not the world’s most experienced Global player, but I’ve never had a Spanish beachhead used against me as the Axis, and I’ve never used it as the Allies. The difference between invading Spain and invading France is that invading Spain doesn’t require an immediate Axis response – if you’re in Paris, then you just gained a victory city and you’re one move away from permanently destroying my major factory in Western Germany. If you’re in Madrid, then you just gained 2 IPCs per turn. The consequences for the Axis just really aren’t in the same league. In a sense, actually invading Madrid is just a threat to do D-Day. Whether you pre-position your troops in Canada, London, or Spain, you’re still just pre-positioning. The only reason why I would want to do the Spanish beachhead is if I can’t get control of any sea zones near Europe, and I have to keep sending in waves of suicidal transports to cope with a Dark Skies strategy.

The Americans collected 62 IPCs last turn, but with Germany consistently in the mid-40s, Japan in the mid-50s, and Italy in the mid-20s, that’s just not enough to make up for an anemic UK in the mid-20s and a struggling Russia that has been in the mid-20s and is likely to dive into the teens. America is nibbling away at the edges of Axis possessions, but not fast enough to make up for the loss of Russian income – the ability to send transports through the Turkish straits is powerful!

@axis_roll suggested that the UK take a slightly different tack on turn 3, building a large Atlantic navy in the North Sea that could threaten Paris and Berlin and force them to keep infantry at home on the Western Front, instead of going south to Algeria and forcing Italy to divert troops from Ukraine / Egypt. Personally, I think it’s six of one and half a dozen of the other – either way, I don’t see how to hold Stalingrad long-term with the Russian income this low. axis_roll and I may swap sides at some point so he can show me!

Here’s the board after round 4:

As you can see, the Allies have made some progress in Scandinavia and have kept the sea lanes to Australia open, but otherwise have had a lot of trouble getting any momentum going. The Axis are still out-earning the Allies by about 10 IPCs per turn, and Russia is unlikely to hold Stalingrad, which means that Russian income will further collapse.

Based on the playtest so far, I’ve suggested letting the Russians have their lend-lease NO income starting on turn 2 instead of turn 3, and I’ve suggested letting China collect income (including its NO, if applicable) based on what China owns at the end of its turn, which would slightly increase Chinese income – so far China would have collected another 1 inf and 1 art this game if we had been playing the rule that way. @axis_roll notes that an Allied opening that included an Atlantic fleet buy on US1 before switching to Pacific buys on US2 and later might be more effective with these NOs, and I’m willing to give that a try, but my opinion at the moment is that the Russians are seriously under-powered with lend-lease delayed until turn 3.

@crockett36 Hey there! I’m glad you like it. You are more than welcome to read or summarize my advice on YouTube as long as you give me some credit for it as part of the video – I’m not likely to be recording a YouTube video of Global advice anytime soon.

My thought about strict neutrals is that they’re there to help you punish your opponent when they do something really strange or make a mistake. If neither America nor the UK is putting anything into the Atlantic, for example, then Germany can attack Sweden and Spain while Italy attacks Turkey, and you can mostly get away with it – this can help you take Gibraltar, Egypt, Iraq, etc. without wasting a ton of money on transports. Conversely, if Germany and Italy are dropping huge stacks of infantry into France and Rome but are leaving Poland / Romania / Bulgaria / Greece wide open, and the UK has a big stack of infantry in the Middle East, and Japan has already activated Mongolia as a pro-Allied neutral by invading Amur, then you might be able to attack eastern Europe from the Middle East through Turkey – sure, Germany can walk into Spain and Sweden, but that’s not a big deal; you’re basically allowing them to keep Western Europe in exchange for a British factory in Greece and a Russian tank swarm fueled by the Spread of Communism NO that will ultimately take Berlin before Spanish infantry can reach it.

These are pretty rare scenarios, though, and of 10 games where you’re tempted to invade a strict neutral, you should probably just pass in about 9 of those 10 games and stick to more conventional strategies. The Spanish beachhead is not as exciting as it looks – you’re closer to New York, but you’re correspondingly further from Berlin; it saves you a few bucks on transports, but you lose that money by needing to fight formerly neutral infantry, and the attack as a whole doesn’t necessarily save you any time.

Of course, if your opponent is foolish enough to invade a strict neutral, go claim your prizes! It often makes sense to leave one mech hanging around somewhere near the area where your opponent might be tempted to invade strict neutrals so that you can quickly capitalize on the newly available fighting forces. Once the mech runs in there, you’ll be able to fly in air support and get a decent offensive punch. Be aware that you cannot ever activate neutrals with a plane, so even if neutrals are ‘on your side’, they are still off-limits to your planes until you move a land unit into their territories.

@DizzKneeLand33 Lol, no, @axis_roll and I are just the last two people on earth who prefer AABattlemap to TripleA. Here’s round 2…Germany took the unusual step of building a Mediterranean aircraft carrier, which has created a variety of interesting threats in the Atlantic and given Russia a bit of breathing room. Meanwhile, the Allied presence in Egypt & the Middle East is hanging by a very thin thread, and Japan has conquered New Guinea, knocking out the ANZAC NO for the foreseeable future.

Current NOs:

Germany - Scandinavian Iron (5) and Eurasian Wheat (5)
Russia – None yet; lend-lease starts on turn 3
Japan – Chinese Coast (3), Bornese Oil (3), Javanese Rubber (3)
UK – North Atlantic Sea Lanes (3)
Italy – Mideast Oil (5), Mare Nostrum (3), Vichy Collaboration (3)
USA – South Atlantic Shipping (2), Alcor Aluminum (2)

Axis total NOs – 30
Allied total NOs – 7

Partly that’s due to skilled play from my Axis opponent; partly that’s because several big Allied NOs don’t come online until turn 3.