Posts made by iwugrad

Thanks SS.  I re-read the report: minor clarification:  It looks like I’m recommending that Britain can’t be attacked at all R1, but actually meant that Italy specifically needs to wait until R2 to attack (preventing the total annihilation of all UK forces from the mediterranean on R1).  Also, I thought there was little the UK could do with these house rules to prevent a takeover if Italy was allowed to attack the UK in R1, but this was assuming Italy could set up their fleet and transports to attack England on R2 with Germany, but skilled Allied players could put naval ships in the path to block Italy from joining in on R2.  With that, I think it’s appropriate to play that Italy can attack the UK on R1… especially since the Italian player only earns 10 IPC’s at start and with no National Objectives, it could be a slow climb to more income if Britain has a chance to maintain it’s fleet and holdings in Africa.

Nice!  Great bunkers, pillboxes, and painted pieces.  I know the amount of time and work that goes into doing that, so the price is very reasonable considering.  I’ll think about the radar and maybe some pillboxes down the road.  Thanks for posting.

@simon33:

Even 9 to 6 is a pretty fast game.

Normally takes us about 20 mins to set up. Once you remember where all the bases are you can put them down in one go. Similar with multi unit counters.

Yeah, it’s fast because we play that all the Axis nations play at once followed by all the Allies playing at once (and no national objectives or neutral rules): plus we have overlap, where when one side is making their non-combat moves, the other side can start purchasing units (if it doesn’t cause their opponents to make different non-combat moves).  So far the Axis have won once and the Allies have won once: not 100% sure which side has the advantage and it’s pretty fun figuring out new strategies that could be a little different to strategies with the regular rules.

That’s a great idea about putting all the unit counters down at once!  That would probably make setup faster than having to stop to find the unit type and place it on the stack and move to the next: just pull out all the counters and put one less than the chart says so you can go in later and add the unit type (I think that’s what you’re suggesting?).  I definitely want to try that next time.

This looks cool, but when I click on the link to the site, it says “Safari can’t find the server”.

Ha!  Yes, I agree.  We started right after lunch, but it took me about 2 hours to set up even with some help.  I’m planning on having another get together that would start at around 9am (with the game already set up) and end at 6.

I just played the most awesome A&A game of my life a few days ago: I didn’t take any pictures, but thought I’d share here.  This was the 2nd game of a house variation of A&A Global.  The first one was last year and I had pictures and a detailed report in a thread called “Game Synopsis with Pictures” (http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=38574.msg1582369#msg1582369) on this Forum.  For this game, we had 8 players and divided the countries like this:

Player 1: Russia
Player 2: Germany
Player 3: UK Europe
Player 4: Italy
Player 5: US East Coast
Player 6: US West Coast and China
Player 7: Japan
Player 8: Australia, France, and India.

In this variant, all axis nations play at the same time and then all allied nations play at the same time.  There are no national objectives.  Players 1, 4, 5, and 6 were playing their first A&A game of any type.  Player 3 was playing his first game of Global.  Players 2, 7, and 8 were playing their 2nd, the first being the one linked above.  Unlike the previous game though, we didn’t restrict Italy from attacking England on the first round.  This turned out to be a good idea because the Allies won anyways (Axis won the last game of this variant) and at least the Italian player was able to experience some victories.  The Italian player said he wanted to play again but would want to play a country that makes more income.  An experienced player though would’ve began receiving a huge income in a few turns with these house rules.  Also unlike the previous game, I had all the cruisers painted along with several other units.  Another change was that we used a war movie soundtrack rather than the A&A youtube song list we used last time.  This worked out pretty well and I’m not sure which I like better.

Germany launched a huge invasion of the UK after the 3rd or 4th round with tons of airplanes and just one loaded transport along with the BB and Cruiser for bombardment.  It looked like they were going to take the UK, but they had some bad rolls and that was where Germany’s game took a turn for the worse.  A horde of Russians was bearing down towards axis territory and it looked like they would’ve taken much of Europe, though Germany took the northern Russian factory.  Really, if Germany and Italy had veterans playing these house rules and made perfect moves, there’s little the UK could do to keep from falling in the 2nd round, but with a new guy on Italy, this wasn’t any danger.  With 2 Axis Europe veterans, I’d recommend the rule that you can’t attack the UK on R1.

Meanwhile, on the Pacific board, I got to play Australia and India and it was a blast.  I usually play one of the larger powers, but it was really nice to take it easy and allowed me to help explain rules as we played.  It was refreshing for a change to have to manage relatively small resources against an overwhelmingly powerful enemy.  I just kept taking chunks out of the money islands and used the Battleship Repulse to knock off a Japanese Cruiser that strayed from their fleet.  The Repulse paid the iron price, but was able to provide a hedge of protection around the island Australia took (the real purpose of attacking the Cruiser, since the income from the islands 2 rounds in a row makes up for the value difference of the Battleship for the Cruiser).  The US and Australia managed to distract the Japanese fleet westward and Australia held 2 valuable Dutch islands for some extra income (not sure if the official rules allow allies to take Dutch islands for income, but we played that way).  India teamed up its fighters with the Chinese soldiers and fighter to take Japanese territory and stop them cold in Asia.  China was getting up there in income.

The game lasted from about 3pm-9pm.  Of course it wasn’t over at 9, but we called it quits because people had to go.  All of the players enjoyed it and those that didn’t have to leave were wanting to keep playing… unfortunately, I had to get back home and didn’t want to leave all my painted pieces over there where many curious 4-7 year olds would probably have them all over the house the minute the board was unattended.  This game was definitely tons of fun and since all Axis play at once followed by all Allies, it’s fast paced and even the smaller countries are entertaining to play.  I could’ve had a good time playing with either Australia or India by themselves.

With experienced players using these house rules, I’d bet you could get a full Global game in within 6 hours… with the new players, we had to explain rules and use the battle boards, but with vets, we could leave the pieces on the board and roll them and I think the purchases and combat moves would’ve been a lot faster too.

Moderator’s edit: added tag [Global 1940] to title

I think you could just announce that it’s a recon force and which ships would be passing through if it succeeds… maybe put the recon force into the territory for combat and the rest of the fleet could be put on the line between the territories until combat is resolved.  If the recon force takes out the blockers in the first round of combat, the ships on the line could then pass through the territory or use their shore bombardment in the territory: but the recon force could not pass through with them and could not bombard with them (they would be out of position, expended munitions, etc.).  If the recon force fails to take out the blockers, then the remaining ships may join the combat or they could stay in the previous zone and either way can’t pass through or bombard the shore.  The recon force would then have to continue to engage in regular combat or retreat.

I played a game with my brother in law where I was Japan and he was the Allies.  We played that all Allies play simultaneously and Japan must take a country to win (No VP win option). Japan still won and took both India and Australia before the Allies resigned.  That being said, my brother in law is less experienced than me, but doing that may help swing the balance towards the Allies?  This is similar to what we do with A&A Europe (1999), which was always a German victory.  We mainly did this to speed up play, but it also helped with the balance to where the Allies usually, but not always, win.

Regarding the sub stalling: I read a thread related to A&A 1940, where it was proposed that Cruisers could have a special ability of a recon attack, where they could be used to attack blocking DDs.  If they took out the blocking DD, you could then either pass through the zone or use your shore bombardment with the other ships.  Using this idea, since Pacific (2001) doesn’t have cruisers, you could use Destroyers and/or subs as a recon force, where if they took out the sub, the rest of the fleet could pass through/bombard.

Hopefully I can remember enough to add a quick finish to this after all this time.  Basically, Churchill’s morale was broken after England fell and realizing the mistake of thinking India’s IPC’s were England’s, so he went off to play cards.  Roosevelt took over control of all of the remaining Commonwealth nations and military forces.  Stalin still felt optimistic that he could push back the Germans.

The following summarizes R4+5 (I think it was 5 rounds at least)

Japan and the US clashed around the Caroline Islands in what was the largest naval battle of the game.  Japanese battleships Yamato, Musashi, and Nagato joined the carriers Zuikaku, Shokaku, and the Kaga complete with full loads of Tony, Oscar, and Zero fighters as well as Kate and Val bombers along with 5 destroyers against a multinational fleet consisting of US and Royal Naval forces lead by the “Big E”, the USS Enterprise loaded with Wildcat fighters and Dauntless bombers (still in their 1940 pre-war livery), the carrier USS Lexington with a Wildcat fighter group and Devastator bombers all in Battle of Midway camouflage, 5 DD’s, a sub and a bunch of transports, with the BB USS West Virginia not able to join the battle in time. The overwhelming Japanese force was successful, with the bulk of their forces surviving with battleships damaged.  Encountering success everywhere, they also wiped out the last remaining Chinese resistance.  On the follow up turn, an Australian tank corp raced across the country to defeat the sneaky Japanese and their infantry unit’s beached was eliminated.  The few surviving Mongolian troops and the Allied powers had little to celebrate.

Roosevelt took huge morale blows with Churchill’s resignation and now this catastrophic naval loss, but he was still hanging in there by a thread.  The Japanese were pretty much the masters of mainland Asia.

In Europe, Iraqi soldiers were charging towards India, backed by their Italian friends.  Germany kept pressing towards Russia.  They bought another carrier and a Destroyer to further intimidate the Americans, who were still equally distributing their money to each front, with some money left over given to land units to maintain parity with Stalin, with the idea of spending everything to land units against Russia on the following turn.  Italy steamed the Battleship Littorio, a cruiser, DDs, and subs past the “Pillars of Hercules” to further intimidate the Americans from making a move.  The naval intimidation moves succeeded on Roosevelt who decided to capitulate as he didn’t want to dare move the US fleet in range of all of those Axis ships, especially given all of the airpower that could support them.  Stalin tried to convince him to fight on, but after the demoralizing Pacific defeat, he didn’t have the heart to see the USS Ranger, California, and Arizona at the bottom of the sea (yes, the USS Arizona was stationed on the East Coast for this alternative history).  The Allies were essentially defeated and it was game over.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1eWPStTU4pgFqS3rN8NnCtVlTJzmcFZnSHA
Pacific after the Allies capitulated

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Htmx1y4AuE4X81l1iBdf0bU8wiABqjiTxQ
Europe after the Allies capitulated

I’m betting this variant is not balanced, but there were so many mistakes and the skill level was so unbalanced between the Axis and Allies, that it’s hard to say that it favors the Axis.  It seemed like Sea Lion wouldn’t have worked with England collecting the proper income and making more strategic decisions such as supporting with Canadian troops and not scrambling all of their air force in the initial attacks.  The drawback of simultaneous play was that the newer players couldn’t be monitored as well as when play is one country at a time.  Perhaps playing one country at a time for the first round may be the way to go when there are new players, so they can be watched and have their questions answered.

I posted this last year, but in case anyone didn’t see it or wants to find it again (wish there was a stickie that appeared each year after Thanksgiving and disappeared after Christmas), here is a World War 2 Christmas themed playlist to play as a background to your A&A games:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHdtjQ501JyX4TbHlIOfjfYjzD11CVhtQ

I’ve also found it to be a neat thing to play in the background while hanging around the house, though my wife’s not too fond of it.  Enjoy!

Wow, great looking pieces: how did you get the lines so even and straight on the carriers?  Were those decals or did you use a painting technique?

Painting all the global '40 pieces is the modelling equivalent of running a marathon.  I don’t think it’s robbery to claim that because I feel like if I had spent as much time running as I did painting, I probably could’ve been in good enough shape to complete a marathon  :lol:

For Axis R3:

Looking at the pictures, Germany’s soldiers and artillery that were purchased in R2 didn’t seem to make it on the board.  This was largely due to the fast pace of this game: it was not a sit back and have some pretzels kind of game with this variation.  There could be a few conspiracy theories about this (lots of toddlers around, desperate Allied players snuck them off the board hoping the Axis wouldnt notice…).  This was the second big blunder of the game (the first being England thinking the India income went for both UK and India).  Germany continues the fight with absolutely nothing purchased from the previous round.  Could this swing things back in favor of the Allies?

Germany and Italy were faced with this setup in Europe (German units and Belarus Russians were on the battle strip near the mobilization zone): https://goo.gl/photos/Mv7ZNhxrWVSfZQgx6

Germany takes over Scotland and sent one of it’s subs off away from the pesky Russian Red October and destroyed the sacrificial Canadian transport next to Scotland.  The remaining sub took on the Red October and missed.  The Russian sub submerged.  Germany (along with an Italian tank and bomber) decided to hit Russia hard in Belarus.  They were victorious.  Here’s a close-up of the forces involved in what was the largest battle on the Europe board along with unit purchases for Italy and Germany: https://goo.gl/photos/FBpRP7TWvDWqfQmKA
Germany bought a stack of Tigers (tanks), a mobile infantry, and a couple infantry.

Italy bought all subs in order to deal with the threat of the US fleet moving into the Mediterranean.  The Italians and Bulgarians invaded a Russian territory due to the tempting cluster of unprotected Russian tanks.  They were supported by the Regia Aeronautica (Italian Air Force) and German Panzers.  The Italians also invaded Syria while enlisting the help of the Iraqi army.  A primary goal this round was to take Gibraltar in order to destroy the US units so that they couldn’t mount an amphibious invasion on Vichy France or Axis England.  Little did Italy know that the US was actually planning on punching into the Mediterranean.  In any case, US hopes were dashed when the Italians re-took Gibraltar.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, a very wealthy Japan purchased the battleship Musashi, a destroyer, a sub, and tanks.  They kept aircraft carriers Shokaku and the Kaga along with their massive submarine force around mainland Japan to protect against catastrophic loss while moving their south Pacific fleet, led by battleships Yamato and Nagato along with aircraft carrier Zuikaku into a position to box the allied fleets out of the money islands.  In the characteristic Imperial Japanese style, they launched an aggressive sneaky invasion of western Australia.  The goal here was to distract and put Australia on their toes so that they might start building more defenses and focus their strategy on the defense of the mainland and not invest as much into boats.  Since Germany seemed to be doing well on it’s own, rather than punching straight into Russia with their forces in China, Japan decided to worry about themselves and take out the Mongolian hordes first.  They did have an armor division though that continued pushing towards Moscow from the north.

Here was Asia towards the end of this round: https://goo.gl/photos/xnJ5te8W7oWq9M9H9

At this point, we all took a break, ate dinner, went swimming in the pool (we were on vacation), the boys played some video games, and then we came back at night.  Worth mentioning is that throughout the game, we were listening to the Axis and Allies YouTube playlist, which turned out to really enhance the game.  It was even left on during our break and lasted past the end of our game!  This is the playlist we used:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHdtjQ501JyXxuc-MWcyClKfa59Rc8HP7

Here was the board after this turn and after the Allies R3 purchases:  https://goo.gl/photos/ZxVP66Zo72WDGfze9

My 2 cents after only playing one game (which is why it’s only worth 2 cents) is that it works fine if you can attack any true neutral nation and you’re only at war with that nation, even with only as many soldiers as that nation starts with according to the official rules.

I think it depends on what appetite your group has for rules.  I played with a group of young gamers (video gamers that is) who had less appetite for complexity and rules and preferred speed over accuracy.  The attack any neutral without consequences rule made it much more fun for this group: it’s fun to take over countries, plain and simple.

If you were playing with a bunch of guys like me (which you probably never will since I’m a little uncommon), then the best would be to have each country’s neutrality rules follow the treaties and obligations that country had during world war 2.  Additionally, their military would be the relative size that it was as compared to the playable countries in this game as/of the starting setup (I’m afraid I wouldn’t have an appetite to adjust each countries military as the game went on according to the size it was at each time period, so a starting 1940 setup would remain throughout the game).  You’d follow a chart showing the alliances.  For instance, you want to invade Spain, you look on the chart and it mimics their treaties during the war:  it says if you invade, you’re also at war with Portugal and their colonies in Africa (maybe there were more treaty obligations I’m unaware of).  Additionally, if the invasion of the neutral country failed or if that country was liberated, a factory would be placed on it (major or minor depending on that country’s relative industrial capacity. The relative industrial capacities would also be listed on the earlier mentioned treaties chart, which may indicate that country may produce more than it’s territory value in units each round) and the aligned/liberating nation could place units on that country each turn.  That country would have it’s own income though and would not go to the aligned/liberating nation’s pool of cash.

With the rules for a bunch of guys like me, yes, the allies may invade Spain with regularity, but they’d be taking on a large military as well as Portugal and it’s colonies.  They’d also need to make sure their invasion stuck, otherwise, if the Axis liberates Spain, they will have an operational factory pumping out a pretty good amount of units each round.  This inverse is true with potential Axis invasions such as Turkey, Sweden, Switzerland, etc.

…not sure if anyone’s reading this, but I’ll try to make it less wordy.

For Allies R2:
US bought battleships on both fronts and a transport for Europe.  India bought tanks.  Australia DDs.  Russia bought a fighter, two artillery, and a factory.

US supported Brazilian forces took Gibraltar with the intention of the US Navy breaking into the Mediterranean, attacking the Italian fleet, and taking the soft underbelly of Italy.  The Brazilians took Gibraltar without a loss.  A multinational fleet headed up by the carrier USS Ranger delivered the Brazilians and hoped to obtain entry into the Mediterranean.

For the English: a couple of brave Scotsman went toe to toe with a battle hardened German artillery crew to liberate England.  The Scots lost.  A brave sacrificial Canadian transport dropped off a brave sacrificial Canadian tank in Scotland.

Russia struck back at the Germans by taking their territories form the thin line of German soldiers used as blockers.  They crushed the Finland-German horde that was creeping in. They left the massed group of Germans that were pressing in on their northern factory untouched.

In the Pacific, the Australians took a small fleet up to Palau and captured it from the Japanese.  India and China had already dispelled the Japanese southern Asia invasion force and simply held their ground in the south.

The US operated a successful amphibious invasion with a fairly large fleet headed up by the “Big E”, the USS Enterprise, landing three soldiers and an artillery unit.  A second fleet headed up by the USS Lexington and loaded with Wildcats moved into Hawaii.

The Mongolian hordes moved towards the Japanese territories… looks like we still hadn’t placed the chips under some of them.  USSR built a factory there (not yet pictured, but you’ll see it on the board later).
Here was the board after the Allies weren’t quite done with their turn:
https://goo.gl/photos/RST8jftuGoFUL1Tn9
Europe:
https://goo.gl/photos/P2cuAemQWf5wgWB46
Pacific:
https://goo.gl/photos/WVBuewmgK4S8BVc47

Some good ideas here.  This got me to thinking… if someone really wanted to play France as a country, buy units, etc.; then you could play it this way:

French player starts out with the Allies, but once Germany takes the capital, they play with the Axis.  The capital and all territories remain in French hands and they still retain their income and build on their factories.  When/if the Allies liberate Paris, the French player then joins the Allies.  Each time Paris in taken, any French units in territories occupied by other nations remain Allied and usable by that nation (like the French fighter and soldiers in England and boats in the same territory as the British).  If the Allies take Paris, any French units with German/Italian/Japanese combat units in Russia/Germany/the water/wherever are usable by that nation.  The rules are mirrored for if the Allies take Paris: France retains control of their income and all their territories that they control and simply fights with the Allies.

Aspects of this would actually be similar to how it was in the war.  Although you didn’t have stacks of French soldiers defending Normandy from Allied invasion (though some French soldiers fought for the Axis), you also didn’t have the French Mediterranean fleet, Morocco, and southern France fighting against the Axis after France capitulated.

I’m not sure if this might even be balanced or whether it might swing to Allies or Axis.  The push towards Russia would be hampered as some units would need to come all the way from France and those units would attack out of turn from Germany, but on the other hand the Axis would have more total income and a D-Day invasion would be much harder.

We always play with all the Axis playing at once and all the Allies playing at once, so that would likely give the Axis an advantage, but you could compensate by giving the Allies more money.

As an optional rule, you could allow the Japanese player to conquer French Indo-China (just as in the war and just to spice things up) or leave for the French player (maybe France could build a factory there?).  This decision could be strategic by the Japanese player: allowing money to flow where it’s most needed, or it could be cordial: gentlemanly to leave it to your new co-belligerant, or it could be playfully poking fun: haha, it’s mine and you can’t do anything about it.  It might make the Japanese player less ‘lonely’ to have some interaction with their co-belligerants.

The French player might have some disconnection with who wins (or might slightly favor Axis since that’s where their reputation as a skilled player is on the line), but on the other hand, it might be a happy ending to be on the winning side no matter which side won the game.  Another plus is that for a Europe only game, the sides would be an even 3 on 3 for the nations for most of the game and it might allow you to have a 6th player on the Europe only board.

Here’s a game synopsis of a House Rules variant of A&A Global 1940.  Thanks to everyone who contributed ideas to this a few years ago in this thread: http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=34581.msg1333593#msg1333593.  You may notice I took a lot of your advice.  I’ve included links to pictures and you’ll notice custom painted pieces were used.

We played with 5 guys with varying levels of A&A experience.  4 out of the 5 of us really enjoyed it and the guy that didn’t was up for playing one of the boards by itself in the future.  All of us had played A&A Europe (1999 release) at least once with this house variant: http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=38107.msg1553054#msg1553054.  This was the first time any of us had played any A&A 1940 version.  Veterans may find the unique moves interesting and possibly get a laugh at all the errors, but we still had a good time.  All in all, I believe our game lasted roughly 7 hours (not counting setup and cleanup).  If we play a few more games or play with more people, I imagine this time would be reduced.

Here were the rules we played by:
No National Objectives
No playable nations are neutral.  You’re allowed to not attack anyone, but that’s your choice.
You can build factories anywhere.
Since I don’t have all of the cruisers painted yet, we substituted and/or had cruisers play exactly like destroyers.
Anyone can attack any true neutral nation and will be at war with only that nation.  If the attack fails, any surviving units from that neutral nation are available for the opponents immediate use the next round.
1. All Aligned Nations Have Simultaneous Play
The turn order and rules would be:
a.  All Axis nations play simultaneously:  Italy may not attack the UK or France on R1.  Use whatever historical excuse you’d like: didn’t have plans in place as/of May 1940, troops weren’t in position, etc., but killing the entire UK navy and taking Egypt with ease is not much fun in the Mediteranean.  They may attack neutral, allied neutral, or incorporate Axis aligned nations.  Germany and Japan can attack anything they want.
b.  All Allied aligned nations play simultaneously and can attack anyone they want.
(there are no neutral playable nations)

2.  French Units are pro- either after the Fall of Paris
a.  Starting in the turn after Paris falls, French units are unaligned, unmovable, and could be co-opted: isolated French units would defend with a roll of “1” in situations where the attacker cannot incorporate them and wants to prevent their enemy from doing so by attacking them with aircraft (ending an aircraft’s combat movement over the territory doesn’t incorporate them).  Any side that ends it’s combat movement with combat units sharing a sea zone or territory with isolated French units incorporates those units to their side.  
b.  French units already stationed in the same territory as Allied units would start the turn incorporated and could be used immediately by the Allies and would defend at their normal roles in the event of an Axis attack.

We used the starting setup for A&A Global Second Edition:
https://goo.gl/photos/oiMSEgbW7nK5GLKx5

Player 1 was Germany and Italy.  Player 2 was Japan.  Player 3 was US east coast, US west coast, and China.  Player 4 was England, India, and Australia.  Player 5 was USSR and France.

For Axis R1:
Germany was going for Sea Lion.  They invaded Paris with only ground units.  The Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe were focused on destroying the English fleet.  Germany also plunged a little bit into USSR by taking just one territory where the danger of counterattack was minimal.  Germany purchased a carrier and transports.  Since German carriers weren’t yet painted (waiting on HBG Germans), an Italian carrier was used.
Italy conquered Yugoslavia and Greece while getting the Bulgarians to join their cause.  They purchased artillery and a tank.  Their goal was to take Egypt and then focus on crushing Russia.
Japan’s strategy was going to be focused on getting units into Russia via China in order to not activate Mongolia.  They wanted to gobble up USSR territory and force the USSR to fight on two fronts; possibly making them retreat to their capital and keep units there as Germany advances.  They built a factory on the mainland and planned to pump out tanks and mobile infantry for a fast advance into USSR.  With their fleet, they planned to take the money islands and fend the enemy off as long as they could from those islands. Japan bought a minor factory to be placed on mainland Asia and a tank and mobile infantry.

France rolled well, but the rest was pretty average.  Germany took some Luftwaffe casualties in order to maintain a sea presence and for convoy disruption of England.  England opted to scramble fighters, which decimated the RAF.  Germany’s battleship Bismarck was tipped and exposed.  Normandy was not taken in order to incorporate French units, but this was likely a mistake as the tipped Battleship couldn’t be righted.  Japan made huge expansions everywhere and took the Philippines

Here was the global map after Axis turn 1 (you can click on these photos and then you can zoom in further from there).  I still needed to add chips to the neutral nations, but I was a very busy guy: https://goo.gl/photos/W9oEvt1GTKoqggT77
Europe after Axis 1 with Allies beginning to make combat moves: https://goo.gl/photos/eYcTuBXweWEQzSz8A
Pacific after Axis 1 (some allied unit purchases are in the mobilization zone.): https://goo.gl/photos/G7X5zwDQgieKdAxX8

For Allies R1:
For the Allies, the US player went with primarily carrier/Destroyer/fighter mixes on both fronts.  The Russian player bought primarily soldiers along with a tank first round.  The English player bought a bunch of anti-aircraft and placed them on England.  This was the first of three blunders I made of not explaining the rules very well to this player and not overlooking what he was purchasing.  A second was that I didn’t know that he didn’t know that South African units and the factory there were his.  He ended up having way more AA on England than were needed to shoot at all of the potentially invading aircraft and would’ve done much better to buy anything else.  In the Pacific, he bought very little: I wasn’t looking closely, but I think a tank for India and a DD for Australia.

The Allies saw that Germany was going Sea Lion and knew this never worked in A&A Europe (1999 release), so they smelled blood and USSR went aggressive.  The England player sent his fleet through the Suez canal and defeated the Italians on Ethiopia.  They also sent one destroyer (which was substituted from the cruiser due to the above rules) to add the two French DDs (one was substituted for the cruiser, also according to the above rules) off Southern France to their cause (Italy should have employed DD blockers and then added the French to the axis on R2 if not destroyed by the RAF).  Additionally, they sent their South African ship into Madagascar waters to enlist that French boat into their cause.

In the Pacific, the US pooled their navy into Hawaii.  The US Pacific plan was to send their fleet in one large lump through the Philippines and into Asia to wreck the Japanese’s Asia mainland back door and take over islands on the way there.  USSR attacked nothing and instead turtled while simply shuffling forces around.  They moved their northern sub (painted as the Red October) to the Norway convoy zone and took a buck from Germany. The US East coast sent a transport to Brazil to enlist them in their cause.  In the Pacific theatre, the Allies pushed back on all fronts.  The USSR congregated all of their east Asia forces just north of the Manchurian border. I didn’t get a chance to take pictures of the end of Allies R1.  I had way too much going on at this time and we were on a tight timeline.  My wife and her Mom (the Mom of some of these guys) wouldn’t have liked it if this game went too long because we were all at a beach vacation.  In the Pacific, it looked like it was going to be inevitable that the Japanese line would crumble and that they wouldn’t have enough to back up the line that seemed due to be overwhelmed.

For Axis R2: Germany bought mainly soldiers and a few artillery.  These were to be used towards finishing off England if they didn’t succeed this round and if they did, they would be used for the march towards Moscow and possibly a few shoring up France against a US counterattack.  Germany launched a full scale invasion of England and succeeded in planting one artillery on the mainland.  This is where the largest blunder appeared, which was the biggest thorn in the Allied side of this conflict.  After England fell, the English player was asked to hand over their money.  They said they just had a few bucks.  This is where it was discovered that the English player thought that the India income roundel was for all of English territories except Australia, which had it’s own roundel.  Looking back, it’s clear from R1 pictures that in the haste to get going, the England roundel wasn’t set up and it wasn’t clearly explained that India and England have separate incomes.  That compounded by the fact that England bought unnecessary anti-aircraft with what little money they had, caused the Germans to easily roll in.  At this point, the game had too much time invested into it to quit, and it was necessary to press on despite this blunder.

Two of the German subs engaged the Soviet Red October submarine outside of Norway.  They missed and the sub submerged.  The German soldiers and the horde of Finland soldiers they added to their ranks last round broke into Russia and took a territory.  The Germans took all spaces that were one territory deep into Russia.  They left a thin line to block a Soviet invasion with the large bulk of their forces at the doorsteps of the northern Russian factory.  The victorious German conquerors of Paris moved into Normandy and enlisted French support to their cause.  A German soldier also did the same in southern France.

Italy bought mobile infantry and I don’t recall what else.  Through amphibious invasions, they took Egypt and the two territories to either side of it, which removed the threat of the British mediterranean carrier group attacking Italy (which earlier had caused Italy to be guarded by units).  They also took Gibraltar and moved into French north African territory to enlist a French soldier to their cause.  Their tanks, mobile infantry, and soldiers located in Europe along with the horde of Bulgarian soldiers marched east towards Russia.

The Japanese player bought a bunch of subs.  They took over the remaining money islands, destroyed China’s norther forces, and crushed the Russians that had congregated by the Manchurian border.  The Mongolians then all became available to the Russian player (we still needed to put chips under the Mongolians).  The Japanese didn’t threaten the Allied hold on the Burma road in order to advance on the northern half of the board. All in all, they were dominating the Pacific and the seemingly thin line they had turned out to be a behemoth when supported by the massive Imperial Army and Naval Air Forces.  They left two loaded carriers and the subs by Japanese waters because they felt threatened by the large US presence that was within striking distance of mainland Japan from Hawaii.  They crushed the Indian fleet and had a huge naval force sitting just a few squares from India.  This sealed the money islands for them for the next few turns.

Here’s a picture of the board at the end of Axis R2:
https://goo.gl/photos/Pyxan26jWRXPzec2A
There were still non-combat moves to be made and the Allies were already making their R2 purchases and combat movements.  We allowed a blurring of these activities in order to make the game faster.  This game was very fast and very intense.  Simultaneous battles were rolled on both sides of the boards throughout the game’s combat time slot.  A couple of us had headaches (not sure if there was a virus going around or if it was just so much to think about in such a short amount of time).
Europe board around the end of Axis R2/start of Allied R2:
https://goo.gl/photos/WXVzHP8KMr2EAFEy7
Pacific board around the end of Axis R2/start of Allied R2:
https://goo.gl/photos/BNfKWJZUkd9AB9bc7

To be continued…

Italians (Click to enlarge the pic and you can also zoom in from there): https://goo.gl/photos/eCfzVpMVcrZe15pr7

Thanks cyanight!  I studied all I could get my hands on for modeling advice: probably read some posts by you, John Brown, and others on here.  I learned some very valuable and obscure tips that I should post here sometime: using razorblades to make crisp lines (from a very old Boys Life magazine), using feathers with the ends sharpened by a hobby knife to make small details (just figured that out myself when either my 3 year old or dog brought a feather inside), etc.

Thanks John, I appreciate it: don’t let it get in the way of real life, but all the best towards your project.

I’ve been working on this project for 6 years and counting now.  I still need to paint cruisers, German aircraft carriers, and French units.  I’ve been waiting for the new German units and French units to be released by www.historicalboardgaming.com.  For these pictures, I’ve set up the board with Destroyers substituted for the cruisers.  I used 1/72 scale soldiers purchased from online and other custom units.  You’ll notice neutral countries have actual painted soldiers to represent them.  This is my first time using Google Photos for hosting, so let me know if there are any issues with viewing these, such as the pictures not being publicly available, requiring a login, etc.

During this photo shoot, I was on a beach vacation with the family wanting to head out to the beach, so it was a little rushed and I was contending with a 1 year old, a 3 year old, and a 6 year old, who were all eagerly playing with the pieces and had promised to put them back (except the 1 year old)… so you’ll notice they’re not evenly lined up and you’ll notice some oddities, such as Australian fighters being placed with the US units and German V2 rockets being placed with the US units, also some soldiers are knocked over.

Here is a picture of the starting setup for Global 1940 with DD’s substituted for Cruisers (click on the pictures to enlarge them):
https://goo.gl/photos/oPSAXTKD84VzPRoh6

Here is a closeup of the US Pacific setup.  Note that the naval fighters had yellow wings.  This was done up until some time in 1941 and was used to aid in locating any aircraft that were ditched at sea.  You’ll also notice the old fashioned helmet on the marine, which was common for the US pre and early into the war:
https://goo.gl/photos/V6BDSS862Xw41oLX6

The US Pacific player also has more modern aircraft and soldiers to select from as the game goes on.  Here’s the available US pacific units.  Note the panel lines on the 1942 era Dauntless and bullet marks on the Avenger.  Each unit has been painted to look like an actual unit.  All boats from the different countries have the name of the specific boat painted on the bottom, so you can tip it over and see which actual boat it is:
https://goo.gl/photos/Yiaaow917HyQDT7E6

Here are the Japanese units:
https://goo.gl/photos/WeuhvW6x49u5siYaA

Some pictures of Japan on the board:
https://goo.gl/photos/rUEbbJVAC3RNuNF87
I agonized over getting the right ‘Pearl Harbor attack’ colors for the aircraft.  According to a group of guys who have for decades been obsessed with getting the right color and sharing out what that was and that frequent/host www.j-aircraft.com, the color is what they call “gray-green”, which is not the common grey or white that popular culture has them sporting during the attack.  I used pictures they posted of relics they said matched the color to match the color.  I’m mostly pleased with how they turned out, since they appear grey green in some lighting and tan in others, which is a peculiar effect I noticed from pictures of relics and colors of models these guys approved of.  I do think they turned out a bit dark though compared to some (but not all) black and white photos.  Here is a closer shot of Japanese aircraft:
https://goo.gl/photos/ScoCkr5XUzZwo3Uu5

ANZAC and India units (minus the Australian fighters the kids moved to the US Pacific area):
https://goo.gl/photos/vzEJxDEiv6wQEVUNA

The Australians viewing the threat on the horizon (Japanese carrier and fighters in mid-late war theme):
https://goo.gl/photos/kUY6sUeFNdLYYukv7

My 3 year olds favorite soldiers to play with (at least the ones that hadn’t ‘walked off’ to other areas), the Chinese soldiers.  A couple Mongolian soldiers and a Pilipino soldier also seem to have made their way over to this group:
https://goo.gl/photos/K76dgPk4zEny75R5A

Transitioning into the Europe Theatre…
Brits, Scots, Canadians, South Africans:
https://goo.gl/photos/LPMa6sXghiQNpt9YA
A sampling of British units.  The British employed pinkish-white spitfires for low level recon.  The pinkish fighter was based on a 1941 photo of a recon Spitfire.  Note the panel lines painted on:
https://goo.gl/photos/MFvWBBFhsK4XXqWd6

Sadly, in my frantic rushed photo shoot, I neglected to take a shot of the painted Italian units.  You can see a lot of them though in these shots focusing on the European theatre for the starting 1940 setup:
https://goo.gl/photos/poQVr4wEsv2UsUig6
Another Europe Shot:
https://goo.gl/photos/eDGGgVPhHB3nEdi48
The Italian battleship “Vittorio Veneto”.  Unfortunately the camera focused on the background and the ship is out of focus, but you may be able to make out that life boats were painted on the turrets, there are little details such as anchor chains, AA, windows, and other small marks:
https://goo.gl/photos/ZetP4E9iTShU6z556
The Italian aircraft carrier Sparviero is based on a mid war Italian camo scheme (the actual carrier was never launched):
https://goo.gl/photos/4w9Vp9MadtnFA7ri6

Russians.  Their Carrier was also never launched, but the scheme was taken from a Carrier that Soviet Russia launched post-war:
https://goo.gl/photos/Hixd36Dmq7jkBdk8A

Germans (minus the rockets which ended up with the US Pacific units):
https://goo.gl/photos/v6ypk6kDqgSXFqyE7
A sampling of German late-war units includes Tigers and bombers purchased form historicalboardgaming along with some custom made Me-410s and a FW-190D “Dora” painted based on a mix of color and black and white photos found of the “parrot squadron’s” FW-190D’s:
https://goo.gl/photos/DHBSkfCMuhYMAFg29

US Europe along with some French units.  Notice the “Operation Torch” scheme for the Dauntless and Wildcat and historicalboardgaming units such as the Thunderbolts:
https://goo.gl/photos/fTCMsYeV4FN6ovYA9

A final picture of the Europe theatre starting setup:
https://goo.gl/photos/bfDu97vYEqSx1qmH8

It has been a massive time consuming project which I wouldn’t have done if I knew how long it took and wouldn’t do again, but at least it gave me enjoyment and I hope to enjoy it with my son and friends in years to come.  Hope you enjoyed the pics.