Let me reintroduce myself I’m GeneralHandGrenade from Prince George, BC, Canada. I like long walks on the beach and singing in the rain…oh wait this the wrong site for that.

I’ve been playing A&A since 1984 and been a member of this site for about 2.5 years. It’s great to see so many more new players getting into the game. I’ve noticed it not only on this site but on Facebook and YouTube as well. One of my favorite things to do is play with little plastic army men on the internet. I get such a kick out of knowing that over a quarter of a million times people have watched me do that over the last 2 years.

My go to game now is HBG’s Global War 1936-1945 and I’ve seen a large growth in that game over the last year. People keep asking me what they need to play the game so now that I’ve been playing that for awhile I’m going to put together a comprehensive list over the next week or so and release it on my channel. Unlike any version of A&A there isn’t a complete game that you can purchase, you have to build it yourself. Look for that before the new year as well as a continuation of the game that I’ve been playing for a few weeks now.

Here’s hoping we can throw some dice together sometime!!!

There is no guarantee that any of the French territories will become Free French. The only place one of their proposed capitals could be safe is London, but of course you can’t move any French units there until both them and the UK are at war. That’s why it’s important for the Germans to take France all in one turn. Well, that and so Britain doesn’t drop units into France.

I did have one game where France survived the whole game but that was because Germany smashed Russia instead. It was a brilliant move by them though check it out;
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXHm3hvGKezi3Skboy4wiUQciDYU_-sqb

While most Allied strategies are reactionary, the US is a nation that you can actually build a strategy for from turn 1 and stick to if you think it is being effective. When I’m playing the Americans I will almost always start the game with the London Calling strategy. The strategy only lasts for the few 3-4 turns and it’s purpose is to prevent an early game Sealion. It’s also a trap for the Germans and will lead to the likely demise of the German player if they insist on doing Sealion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0ZYQ-C4i28&t=19s

Assuming that Germany doesn’t fall for that trap and they head east, that’s when you transition the American units into another strategy. It’s good if you don’t do the same thing every time especially if you are playing against the same players for the most part. If I choose the Europe side then I will set up a floating bridge to the Med and combine forces with the UK to take out Italy as quickly as possible. The trick is to meet in SZ 95 on the same turn to build a larger defensive shield for the transports. The US takes out either Northern or Southern Italy and the UK takes out the one the Americans didn’t take. That leaves no possibility for Italy or Germany to liberate Italy. From there it’s on to Berlin. After Italy is gone it might be advantageous to move both fleets out to the Atlantic to continue the assault from the UK.

The other choice is move most or all of the American fleet from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The Japanese might be thinking that they have an easy road and weren’t in a hurry to take advantage in the Pacific. Now all of the sudden every penny that that the US has spent is on it’s way across the Pacific. Neither strategy has to be reactionary but at the same time you have 3-4 turns to decide which direction to go. You can even decide to split up the forces but that hardly ever works out well against stiff competition.

@TheAandAClassicDude No not at all. Feel free to use mine to add the new units that you haven’t listed. The more materials we have out there for players the better.

The mechs can’t get to Southern Italy if you also take Northern Italy on the same turn. That’s the whole point of doing the double landing on the same turn. If S. Italy is stacked that early in the game then they couldn’t have accomplished anything in the game. I also try to have at least 2 landings from the UK ready to go (the first from Egypt when the UK fleet enters the Med and the second waiting in Libya) and of course unlimited amount of landings from the US. Italy is easy to to take out, Berlin not so much. The hope is you can get there (Berlin’s doorstep) before Moscow falls so you draw German resources away from Russia. If you’re going for Europe then you only send enough to the Pacific to keep Japan off of Hawaii. You can’t do both.You have to choose.

@AdmScuttlebutt We all go through our ups and downs throughout the course of our lives. Your spirit seems unbreakable and I have little doubt that these trying times are only a temporary setback for you and that you will be back stronger than ever and rolling one’s like a vampire on a day pass. Take care my friend and if you ever make your way up to my neck of the woods I’ll share my little plastic army men with you. Merry Christmas!

Under the current rules it doesn’t say that you can’t do it. However, V-3 rules have a separate reference card for Free France which states that Free France cannot research Technology.
That’s not the only change. It says that FF can place units at any Allied factory and that FF can invade Vichy territories.

The London Calling strategy all but guarantees that Germany will lose their entire navy and eventually London if they are foolish enough to go Sealion on G3 or G4. Combining it with Randy’s strategy would allow the Allies to make early landing in Europe on the western front. What concerns me though is leaving Italy to fester instead of putting them down early in the game. I’ve always been a Kill Italy First kind of player on the Europe side of the board. I have found from past experience that taking Rome out before Moscow falls gives me the best chance for victory when I’m playing the Allies. This is why I advocated earlier in this thread to take the UK out with the Germans. By leaving the Italians with a navy things will get out of hand quickly for the Brits. I like Simon’s suggestion of strafing the fleet with the Italians and then mopping them up with Germany. Depending on the rolls that might just work.

Armoured Cars are not going to be added to the base game this time. I think they felt that it was more of a WW1 thing than WW2. That doesn’t mean that you can’t add them into your game though. The rules for them are already in the Expansion sets.

SPA will play like a regular artillery with 2 exceptions; 1. they move 2 spaces and, 2. they can pair with a tank to blitz. Of course they will cost 5 instead of 4 too.

The Gurkhas are mountain infantry that will also have first strike in jungle terrain.

You still track the Vichy income on the income tracker. However, the money goes to the conquering nation (Germany) every turn. The Vichy units are only able to defend if attacked. If they are attacked, all remaining Vichy units and territories join the side that didn’t attack them (Free France or Germany). They would become active again at that point. In Version 3 they experimented with allowing Free France to wage war with Vichy France but it didn’t work out well. Basically it gave the Allies an advantage because they could attack the Vichy with no recourse for the Axis and it wasn’t a fair fight between the FF and VF. Germany could do nothing but watch their Vichy colonies get picked off one by one.

The list of income-determined actions were meant to be a list of the things the US can do. The rules were written that way instead of creating a list of dozens of things that they weren’t allowed to do. We have clarified it for you in the errata;

United States Reference Sheet:
Income-Determined Actions:

Add: “The United States is very restricted at the beginning of the game. They can only move within their Home Country, until they reach a certain income level:”

At 35 IPP they:
“May move ships, build facilities and reinforce Pacific Islands. Ships must end movement bordering US land zones. May perform Escort duty for Allied Convoy Lines in the Atlantic Ocean within 3 sea zones of US Home Country.”

Changed from:
“May move ships in the Pacific and build facilities and send units to Pacific Islands. Units moving to Pacific islands must end movement in or bordering US land zones. May perform Escort duty for Allied Convoy Lines in the Atlantic Ocean.

@jbuckbuddy In both cases the winner gets that free infantry for the rest of the game. It says that right there in the rules for the Spanish Civil War.

@hbg-gw-enthusiast Thank you I appreciate your feedback.

To address your first paragraph I did review the first video with Morten and talked about things we could do differently. The rustling sound you heard was apparently a rainstorm in Denmark. Morten’s game room is located in his attic so the sound of rain hitting the roof just above him came from a combination of that and a cross continent phone call. I have noticed in my earlier videos that when I play with dice or chips or something while I’m taping that it seems magnified on camera as my hands are closer to my camera than anything else in the room so I try and be cognizant of that now. I also noticed how when I moved the camera around it was difficult to hear Morten so on the second video I tried to move the phone every time I moved the camera. I only missed that a couple of times in the second video. This is a new way of making videos for me and I’ll get better over time.

The next thing we are going to cover is the improvements made in the Political aspects of the game. The Vichy rules, Spanish Civil War, China, and the relationship between the Allies and the Comintern. A lot of the questions we get are related to these changes so people may find them revealing as far as interpreting those rules are concerned.

@manincellv No.

You could deny the 2 IPP that Russia receives by placing an Axis Submarine on the Arctic Convoy Line. The American player could also deny the Russians the 2 IPP just by stating it verbally. That’s one of the reasons why I always say in my videos that the Russian player needs to be a dick to win but they can’t be too much of a dick. They have to cooperate with the Allies to certain extent without helping them win. It’s a delicate balance between the players that doesn’t exist in A&A.

But no, you can’t actually raid the Arctic Convoy Line.

OK so the rules says that the Manchurian and Rehe territories start the game as Japanese so they aren’t technically “recaptured” as per rule 9.20. The Russian player has the option to give them to CCP or keep them for Russia. He is putting a note in the FAQ to reflect this.

@manincellv Yes they become KMT.

The way I read it they would have to give it back to CCP. As you said it is considered part of their Home Country. The rules also say you must give recaptured territory back to a member of your alliance. It shouldn’t matter if the CCP has no territories at the time because they never surrender.

On the KMT sheet they take the time to mention that KMT has a choice whether or not to return Hong Kong to FEC so that seems like a special exception to returning territories to alliance members in China.

I’ll ask the rules guy next time I talk to him. I think our next Chronicles video is on the Civil Wars so we’ll be covering that anyway.

I want to point something out. One of the differences between the Version 2 Reference Sheets and Version 3 Reference Sheets is that the nations that don’t require to be at a certain level to declare war don’t have a Wartime Income. If you look closer at the sheets you’ll notice that the column lists “Total Value of Land Zones” rather than “Wartime Income” that you see on the Allied Reference Sheets.
In other words, Germany, Japan, Italy, and USSR don’t have a Wartime Income. The Axis Powers are unrestricted in when they can DOW and the USSR simply has to wait until a certain date. They do have a Wartime Bonus Income but that isn’t the same thing. Those are the bonuses listed on the sheet that they can collect if they achieve specific goals while at war with another Major Power.

I hope that helps you to determine quickly if the nation you’re playing can declare war or not.

@noneshallpass The only restriction they have is that they have to wait until July 1939.

@insanehoshi They are on the Atlantic side of the Straits in sz13 even though it might not look like it depending on where you place your ship on the board.