Well if you buy the second edition of spring 1942 the map is bigger and you can get it for about $45.00 US. That is less than getting it printed. Malachi Crunch is right there are a few maps here you could get printed, but if cost and technology are an issue 42 second edition might be the way to go.
It would also be a different map….
I don’t understand, what’s the advantage to having the AH fleet in the Med, but not attacking with it?
The tanks don’t absorb a hit from the enemy artillery’s “first fire” against an amphibious landing. As Norway/Sweden are neutrals, they will only mobilize 1 artillery each, so there will only be one such shot.
The tanks do absorb a hit in the round of combat that follows.
So, it’s unclear to me whether, under this proposed rule, you can only do one strategic move per turn, or you can do as many as you’d like, provided they all qualify. This rule, along with allowing all ships to move 5 spaces, seems like a radical change to basic game mechanics. (It also makes cruisers even more worthless.)
My impression is that a change is needed, but this seems like a severe overreaction to me. It seems like the much simpler option would be to just allow all ground units to move two spaces, provided that none of their movement was combat-related. So no blitzing, no moving two spaces into combat, if you withdraw from a contested territory you can only move one space. To me that seems to address the basic imbalance in the game without fundamentally changing the nature of the game. Don’t destroy the village in order to save it.
Buy two fighters on R1, then artillery with the rest. Russia with Air Superiority is threat to be reckoned with. I would avoid massing in Poland, it’s just to risky. Attack Mesopotamia, just do it, and attack the cruisers as well, you have nothing else to lose. After than, just play a game of cat and mouse, But if the Centrals provide you with a chance to hit one of their stacks, take it. My first game about 57 Russia units went on a rampage R3, the Austrian player was grouped up in the south but had sent most reinforcments to Italy, so I took the chance. My two fighters killed his one, and then the entire Austrian army of 30 units was outright killed in one round while I only lost 12. The German counter attacked with 35 units but was likewise killed in one round of combat after his plane met a similar fate. Then I killed the Otto/Bulgarian force R4 and marched into Budapest for the lols.
Basically Turtle until the moment to bring overwhelming force to play presents itself.
^^ This.
And so my latest attempt as the CP…
In general, the strategy could be described as play conservatively, hold onto and build up the CP forces, build up the German and AH fleets, and then hit the allies with combined forces to diminish the risk of allied counters (e.g., Germany hits a Russian territory, then AH reinforces before Russia can counter.)  The strategy involved a lot of early CP bluffing, threatening large invasions on all fronts to force the allies to fall back, but then just skirmishing/trading the peripheral territories instead of moving in force deep into France/Russia/Italy.  Both the Germans and AH were able to achieve stand-off with their respective fleets - the Allies were collectively stronger in both the Med and North Atlantic, but the “attack-alone†problem combined with mines meant neither side was in a position to attack.  The CP did much better with this strategy than in my other recent games, and eventually, the CP were able to force Russia into revolution which they accepted, to (more-or-less) close off that side of the board.
And it still didn’t matter.  The Ottomans fell to sustained British assault, the Italians were never seriously threatened, and the western front began to collapse with the allies enjoying a significant economic advantage.  AH managed to essentially check the British advance up through the Turkey, but the British were a monster and dropping steadily into Picardy and then Belgium.  France was as strong as AH, and the Americans and Italians managed to put together decent little forces to harass the CP and reinforce the British and French troops as necessary.
My CP play still wasn’t ideal – the major strategic mistake I made was not pushing harder into Italy – but it’s starting to get a lot closer to ideal.  I can’t blame the dice, in the fact CP on the whole enjoyed better than average dice, particularly in the North Atlantic and against Russia.
All of which is a way of saying I’ve gotten frustrated with this game.  Maybe the new “risk†movement rule will help.  Maybe a bid to play the CP.  But, OOB, with competent play on both sides, and non-absurd dice, I don’t think the CP can win.
The Canadian Transport dies turn one
Kim
Maybe. The Germans can kill it (or at least have good dice to kill it), but in doing so they sacrifice those two subs to the French fleet. I’ve recently been playing around with combining the entire German fleet (BB, 2 CR, 4 subs) against the British primary fleet. IMO it’s a somewhat better move than killing the Canadian fleet; granted no matter what strategy I try the CP ends up losing anyway.
Probably a good rule change, and strange it hasn’t been discussed before, given that it’s an established rule in another A&A property.
Given the high value of some of the neutrals (Spain, Norway, etc.), it probably means neither side ever attacks a true neutral. That probably hurts the CP in Europe (Switzerland), hurts the British in the Mideast (Afghan, Persia), and maybe France.
@Texas:
Can enemy subs pass through the Suez?
No. If the Allies hold Egypt, no CP ships, including subs may pass through. Vice versa if the CP hold Egypt.
In my own experience, it’s Entente 2, CP 1.
BUT!!! IMO, it’s still way too early to be making these kinds of calls. This is such a different beast than the other A&A games that it’s going to take awhile before people approach any kind of level of optimal play. I already know, from my three games, that both sides made significant mistakes throughout. Those mistakes and others will be slowly corrected, and eventually we’ll reach a point where enough people know how to maximize their chances on both sides. Until such time, I am very hesitant to reach any conclusion as to whether the game is unbalanced or not.
About the “Turkish” fleet:
In 1914, two German cruisers, the Goeben and the Breslau (somewhat lighter than the Goeben) after being pursued by the British, fled to the Dardanelles. The Ottoman Empire was still neutral at this point, and being courted by both sides (although leaning toward the CP). After some hemming and hawing, the Turks eventually let the German ships in, while denying access to their British pursuers.
At Constantinople, the Germans “gave” the ships to the Ottomans. However, the “gift” was essentially meaningless, while the ships were given Turkish names, they retained their German crews, captains, and most importantly, they remained under German control.
Acting on orders from Berlin, the two ships, bearing Turkish flags, sailed North, and began shelling Russian facilities on the Black Sea. The Turks protested to the Russians that it was the Germans, not the Ottomans, attacking. The Russians responded to the Turks that they could prove their good intent by expelling the Germans advisors in Constantinople and elsewhere in the Ottoman Empire, reparations to the Russians, and internment of the two “Turkish” ships. This the Ottomans could not do, the Entente declared war on the Turks, and the Ottoman Empire joined the CP.
Some stats on naval power in 1914:
Total tonnage of naval strength:
British: 2.2 Million
Germany: 1.0 Million
France: 0.7 Million
Russia: 0.3 Million
Austria-Hungary: 0.2 Million
British military doctrine at the time was to be able to field a navy that was greater than any two other powers combined. (This is partly why the German naval build-up, although still far less than the British naval power, was so threatening.) A&A is a game, you have to balance it and make it interesting, but the lack of British naval power, especially relative to the other powers, is a little bit off.
While the adjacent territory with the naval base symbol is either under the control of its original side or contested, any enemy ship that moves into or through such a sea zone may strike a mine.
The Allied ships should have never been rolling for mines. Mines are only in play when the relevant land territory is controlled by the original power or is contested. When the enemy (in this case the CP) captures the territory, the minefield is gone. If the French march down into Italy and contest Rome, at that point the minefield is back up, and the CP would have to roll for any ships they send into the zone.
So interesting game I’m playing right now (well not right now, but started yesterday to be continued later today)…
Turns 1-3 are pretty standard. In particular, the UK focuses on rebuilding its fleet and begins the alternating Picardy/Belgium drops with Karelia.
On turn 4, however, both the UK, and the US now in the war, shift heavily to taking out the Ottomans. Previously the UK was just playing tag in the middle east, and finishing up the Germans in Africa. Now, for the last several turns, most of the UK income has gone into Inida. Meanwhile, the US ignored Italy, and set up the shuck shuck going from Canada to Spanish Morroco to Egypt.
On the downside, for the Allies, Italy is going to fall in next 2-3 turns to AH.
On the plus side, the Ottomans have a single troop (contesting a large British stack with air & tanks) in Messopatamia and a single troop (contesting a large American stack, air but no tanks) in Trans-Jordan. Other than Bulgaria (and sometimes Arabia) the Ottomans have advanced nowhere else on the board. (They sent some troops into Russia early on, but those troops have since fallen.) They’re reinforcements are less than what the British build each turn, and about on par with what the Americans build. The only plausible scenario for their survival is Germany disengaging from the Russian fight, and heading South to bail them out, which of course would bail Russia out, while at the same time France is beginning to gain ground in the West.
This is a new game, I’m sure both sides did not play this strategy optimally. But the basic Allied strategy of holding fast turns 1-3, then hitting the Ottomans hard with the Anglo-Saxon armies from both sides seems very interesting to me. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
The essential submarine change for ALL A&A games ought to be that the subs must be allowed to make an economic attack in their own turn (like a SBR!).
Roll a dice for each sub in specific SZs of high merchant traffic! The number rolled is the damage (=sunk merchant ships) the enemy has to surrender immediately!
The average per dice roll is 3,5 IPCs so that’s fine in my opinion.
I really like this idea, with possibly the added caveat of disallowing the economic attack if the enemy has any warships present in the SZ.
So, of course, I agree attacking Spain was crazy dumb. :mrgreen: I doubt that will happen again.
Tank building (for those it didn’t work out for) basically boiled down to “tank too early”. On the Eastern front, the Russian seized the initiative and dealt a serious blow, so the Germans were mostly playing defense/falling back (and obviously tanks don’t help with that). On the Western front, the British built tanks before they had a good and sizeable infantry force to support them, and the Germans were able to cut the force off and destroy it.
Early games, much learning remains to be done.
Game Report #2!
As you may or may not recall, the CP suffered a quick and crushing defeat in our very first game of A&A 1914. Luckily, they were able to press the “reset†button and try again! Once again, RR rules were NOT in effect.
The overall strategy of game on could be summed up as “Russia Firstâ€. Given how terribly the game went for the CP, you might have expected wholesale changes. Strangely, however, the CP proved mostly stubborn, and only made one significant alteration to their strategy. In the 2nd Game, rather than having AH focus on Russia, AH sent a token distraction force East, and instead spent most (70%+, more as the game went on) trying to take Italy.
Turn 1 –
AH – Once again, attacked both Serbia (curse that rule!) and Venice, leaving Romania alone. Serbia falls, Venice hangs on. Decides against the Tuscany AA this time.
R – Russians fall back, activate Romania, and reinforce Ukraine. Sends the southern destroyers against the Ottomans, with the end result being everyone is wiped out.
G – The German navy took out the SZ2 fleet without casualties, but managed to take out SZ 9 at a high cost – only a (damaged) German BB survived. Because buying navy on G1 is dicey (risks getting hit by the Russian BB, assuming you attack SZ9), the German fleet was crippled by the end of its first turn. German armies attacked West, taking Belgium, ignoring both Switzerland and Holland.
F – Activates Portugal, attacks and digs in Belgium.
UK – Plays more aggressive in the Mideast, attacking Trans-Jordan and Afghanistan (if only conquering Afghanistan was that easy in real life) to open up a relief convoy for Russia. Activates Arabia. Rebuilds its fleet.
O – Activates Bulgaria, pushes troops in Arabia and Trans-Jordan, both remain contested.
I – Does what it does, turtles and prays for help.
US – There’s a war?
Turns 2 – 4 –
AH – Begins to make progress in Italy. Contests and then takes Tuscany. Trades Piedmont back and forth with both the Italians and later the French. (Switzerland remains neutral almost the entire game as neither side wants to activate it against them.) Picks up the random undefended territory in Russia here and there. Income begins to grow.
R – Dances back and forth with Germany. Loses some territory in the South to AH/O in order to conserve forces.
G – Continues to send “just enough†troops to the West. Majority of fighting takes places in Belgium, with some lighter fighting Lorraine and Picardy.
F – Slogs it out with Germany along the border. Occasionally fights in Piedmont to contain the Austrians.
UK – Reinforces both the Russians and the French. Plays hit and run against the Ottomans.
O – Constantly pressed for troops, can never seem to break out, always seems just a couple turns away from doing so.
I – Gets pushed farther and farther back. A single hold-out in Tuscany remains at the end of I4.
US - ??
Turns 5 – 7
AH – Reinforces its fleet and begins making tanks. The allies have an assortment of ships in the Med, but because of the attack alone/defend together rule, and effective stalemate ensues. The starting transport is used to ferry 2 troops a turn from Trieste to Tuscany, getting them a turn earlier. AH makes an initial attack on Rome on turn 6, and comes agonizingly close to taking it on turn 7.
R – Germany wandered too close, and gets hit hard in Belarus, nearly wiping out the German forward army. Luckily the Germans (barely) survived, and were able to thus delay Russia a turn. Two stacks in Poland (plus a few stragglers and token AH support) deterred Russia from pressing further, but Russia remains secure.
G – The Western “Lesser†front goes better than expected, as the Germans outmaneuvered the British, and destroyed a trapped BEF in Belgium. The French remain strong. The Eastern “Primary†front goes poorly, as the main force gets slaughtered in Belarus, and the Germans must fall back.
F – The fighting with Germany is going well, but most divert some of its forces to help prop up the Italians, both in Piedmont as well as Rome (via the French navy, stationed in the Med).
O - Constantly pressed for troops, can never seem to break out, always seems just a couple turns away from doing so.
I – Clinging to life in Rome.
US – On turn 5, the US decided to attack Spain. Why? It seemed like a good “shuck-shuck†location, and the additional 4 IPCs would allow the US to add/upgrade fighters and armor to its usual 4 inf/2 art buy. Bu the downside was the US didn’t take Spain on US5, which mean the US couldn’t reinforce Rome on US6. The AH7 attack on Rome left 1 Italian troop standing. The US quickly disembark reinforcements into Rome on US7.
Turns 8 and beyond –
A lot of things going on here, but most of it is the status quo. With British help, the Russians managed to regain control of most of their territory, but could never really push West. The Germans fought both the Russians/British in the East and the French/British in the West to a more-or-less stalemate. The Ottomans made slight inroads into Africa, but never seriously threatened India.
Where the game turned was in Italy. The Austrians had strengthened their fleet to the point where any attack by the Allies would have been suicide absent major additional naval investment, which the Allies could not afford. The attacks on Rome began drifting away from the Austrians until two things happened: (1) some bad “defense†dice by the Allies and (2) Austrian tanks started showing up. The Allies never counterattacked (being from multiple countries would not have worked out well), and the Austrians began taking less and less casualties on their assaults. This was helped out by some bad Allied “defense†dice, but IMO that just sped things along. Eventually the Allies could not hold out, and Rome fell.
After Rome fell, and was sufficiently secured, the Austrians began redirecting West. Austria was now badly out producing everyone else (including Germany) and the Allies couldn’t keep up. The allies sued for peace before Paris fell, on turn 17(!)
Some thoughts –
The Germans, British, and Austrians all purchased large numbers of tanks, but only the Austrians benefited from them. (On the other hand, the tanks basically won the Austrians the game.) Tanks seem most useful to overcome the “attack alone, defend together†problem (for the attacker obviously).
The Germans basically lost their fleet by the end of their first turn. Because I don’t buy fleet with Germany on G1 (as anything less than a BB+Sub buy is asking for the Russian BB to attack), I never spent any money on German fleet. On the other hand, Germany was able to (just) keep both the Eastern and Western fronts alive with a steady trickle of reinforcements, so perhaps not buying any fleet at all was a good thing.
I’ve only played two games, but the Allied victory was fast, and the CP victory dragged on and on. Sure, we were still learning rules, and things should go faster in the future, but this is a rough game to play in one setting. I already find myself looking forward to some sort of Triple A/online version.
I was constantly running out of German Infantry and Tanks sculpts, as well as chips generally. Thankfully, I had other versions of A&A to raid.
The Western front (and Italy) is way too crowded and the board seems seem to be strategically placed for maximum frustration.
Overall, I like the game a lot. I think it needs some tweaks, but this is the best I’ve felt about a new A&A game since Revised came out.
8/10
Two more game reports:
As if you didn’t already have enough game reports, here’s another one! I actually played two games recently, as the first ended up being very short. Here’s a report of the first game with some thoughts afterward.
Game One:
CP Strategy was to crush Russia first, then Italy/France second. Russian Revolution rules were NOT used. Overall assignment of responsibilities/tactics:
Germany: Main force heads East into Russia via Poland. Navy delays British relevance as long as possible. “Just enough†forces are sent West to stalemate France and the British as they arrive. Reinforcements are split (roughly) 60/40 East/West, subject to changing with game conditions. Africa units dance around as long as they can.
Austria-Hungary: Main force heads East, eliminating Russian client states of Serbia and then Romania. Unify with Ottoman force and push into Ukraine. Secondary contingent heads West into Italy. Capturing Rome would be ideal, but strategic objective only requires drive into Italy in order to divert Allied resources/attention while Russia falls. Reinforcements to be spread roughly 50/50 between Western and Eastern fronts.
Ottomans: Dispatch two invasion forces into Russia. One from Istanbul + activated Bulgaria troops unifies with AH in Romania. The second attacks from Mesopotamia into Sevastopol. Intent is for Ottoman forces to distract Russia, reinforce AH or Germany as needed, and capture lightly defended or conceded Russian Southern provinces, not to seriously threaten Moscow itself. In addition the Turks must to defend themselves from British-Indian forces, and would like to be able to divert some British resources.
Gameplay –
Turn 1 –
AH decides to not attack Romania on turn 1, focusing its effort on Serbia/Venice, and a naval assault into Tuscany. Serbia and Tuscany fall, but Venice holds on, and the Italians inflict decent casualties in return.
The Russians fall back from Poland and concentrate their forces in Romania and Ukraine (leaving behind token defenders wherever appropriate). End of R1 sees 14 inf & 5 art on Romania and 20 inf & 7 art on Ukraine with a newly built fighter in Moscow.
Germany marches into Poland, Belgium, Holland, and Switzerland, while sending its navies against both British (Atlantic) fleets. The fleets off of SZ is destroyed without incident, but the battle in SZ 9 is particularly bloody, as every ship scores a hit in the first round. The Germans are left with a damaged BB and two destroyers in 9 and 2 subs in 2. Belgium and Poland are taken, but Holland (!) and Switzerland (!!!) manage to hold out due to overstretched German lines and some bad dice.
France uses its navy to take out the two German subs in SZ2 and activate Portugal, moving troops Eastward and contesting Belgium.
The British begin rebuilding their fleet (2 BBs and a TRN) in SZ 8, activate Arabia, and attack Trans-Jordan but fail to capture it.
The Ottomans attack Sevastopol and Trans-Jordan, but decide to leave Arabia alone for lack of troops. They fail to reclaim Trans-Jordan and don’t get a single hit on the lone defender in Sevastopol. The force from Constantinople activates Bulgaria, leaving a force of 11 inf & 3 art there.
The Italians move in force into Tuscany, recapturing it.
The Americans are shocked to hear that a war has broken out in Europe.
Turn 2 –
Both Ukraine and Romania look too intimidating for the Austrian forces, so the Eastern contingent stacks at Budapest while the survivors of the Serbian assault reinforce Bulgaria. The attack on Venice is redoubled, and this time the territory is easily taken.
The Russians consolidate their massive forces into Ukraine. The Ottomans are driven from Sevastopol.
Germany takes Belarus with a light force (2 inf) and moves strongly into Livonia with their initial invasion force. The first wave of reinforcements hits Poland, leaving two strong German stacks in the East. Switzerland finally falls (!) as does Holland, but there are no reinforcements to Belgium this turn. What remains of the fleet retreats to SZ10, where they are joined by a newly manufactured sub.
The French troops from Portugal land at Picardy, and the Germans are pushed out of Belgium on G2.
The British continue fleet construction and land a token force to assist the French in Picardy.
The Ottomans attack into Romania, Arabia, and Trans-Jordan. Romania and Trans-Jordan are taken, Arabia remains contested.
The Italians reinforce Tuscany and activate Albania to annoy the Austrians.
Americans attend the premier of “The Birth of a Nationâ€.
Turn 3 –
The Austrians make their fateful decision, and fully reinforce Romania. Troops in Trieste, slotted for Italy, are redirected into Albania, which they narrowly fail to capture. The assault into Tuscany is a wash as neither side manages to shoot straight.
Russia gambles, and sends the bulk of the Ukraine monstrosity into Romania. Two Infantry are set into Belarus (which has a single German defender) and Moscow is reinforced. The gamble pays off. While no one manages a hit in Belarus, the Russians can’t miss in Romania, and completely annihilate the combined Austrian and Ottoman division, while suffering only minor casualties.
Germany, “chained to the corpse [of Austria]†launches a desperate attack against Moscow, despite poor odds and gets wiped out. The CP concedes.
Brief thoughts –
The RR rules being what they are, we’ve decided to not play with them for the time being. Having said that, while they certainly are open to abuse by the Allies, I think they on balance favor the CP. In this game, Russia was able to maneuver its forces away from the core territories and inflict a strategically devastating blow on AH/O. After this, despite having vastly superior forces present, Russia would have run the real risk of being forced into revolution were we playing with those rules. (The Germans held Poland, Belarus, Livonia, could have easily taken Karelia, and while their odds at taking Moscow were slight, the Russians actually got a bit lucky in wiping out their attackers.)
Attacking Holland & Switzerland with Germany in a “Russia First†campaign turned out to be stupid. A Paris or bust strategy probably could use the expanded front, but even at 1 & 2 values, the German forces were so spread out, they were taking too many gambles, and just a couple of them coming up wrong spelled disaster for the CP.
More thoughts after I post the results of our second, much longer game.