Howdy! (translated from Texan: Hello!)

I was born, raised and still live in the Dallas area. I received Axis & Allies (what is now referred to as “A&A Classic”) as a Christmas present in 1984 and was instantly hooked. The varied forms of the game have remained with me throughout the years: Europe '99, Pacific '01, D-Day, Guadalcanal and Battle of the Bulge were all purchased for my son and provided us many hours of entertainment and bonding.

After several years away from the game, largely due to life’s various obstacles, I purchased Europe and Pacific 1940 in 2017. It was my wife’s fault - she said she loved playing Risk as a child and responded in the affirmative when I asked her, “How would you like to play a game similar to Risk, but infinitely better?”

Since the Global 1940 game came into my life, I haven’t played anything else. In my opinion, it’s far and away the best iteration of Axis & Allies.

11 JUN 1944: My uncle, Bud Piper, a combat engineer in the U.S. Army, began his second day in France. Like yesterday and tomorrow, he would spend it on his hands and knees, removing mines from Omaha Beach. By the end of the month, 1/3 of his unit would be killed or wounded by mines, booby traps, snipers or German artillery.

@ABWorsham4 The more I read, the more I learn that American neutrality pre-Pearl Harbor was extremely nuanced, to say the least. Very interesting stuff.

You can also see this table in a couple of General Hand Grenade’s videos. Here’s the latest:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_EhZXv11Hs

I can’t speak to any game other than G40, but I’m not convinced a Zero Round of purchases would have any effect on balance, since Axis and Allies alike can spend their full compliment of IPC. That said, I really like this HR, but with a twist:

All powers make their purchases and determine new unit placement in secret, then reveal them simultaneously.

If you take it a step further and eliminate standard new unit placement restrictions, you can open the door to potentially game-changing scenarios, such as a German aircraft carrier in the Med to protect the Regia Marina from Taranto, an American “Fortress Philippines,” etc. This could be a lot of fun, and has the potential to ruin the standard G1 and J1 openings while forcing the development of new strategies on the fly.

Missed it by a few days, but: 75 years ago last week, my uncle, Bud Piper (a U.S. Army combat engineer), visited Paris…which wasn’t liberated until 24 AUG 44. His story, which I have no reason to doubt, is remarkable.

At the time, American engineer units were “free agents,” for lack of a better term - they would be temporarily attached to this brigade to build a bridge for them, then reassigned to that battalion to clear a path through a minefield for them, and so on. In between assignments, they had down time. My uncle compared it to firefighters at their station house, waiting for a call.

During one of these periods of down time, Bud said, word reached his unit that Paris had been liberated. They were only about 30 miles from the City of Light, so my uncle and a handful of his buddies hopped in a truck and headed down the road.

As Bud explained, “unlike WWI, the front line was riddled with gaps, and some of them were pretty large. We didn’t see any live Germans along the way.” Upon reaching Paris, they drove straight to the Eiffel Tower, parked the truck, got out and started taking pictures, like any other tourists. They got a few strange looks from the locals, Bud said, but they were used to strange looks from the French. While snapping photos, they saw a squad of Germans - still armed - marching a few hundred yards away. “We assumed they were marching off to surrender,” stated Bud.

One of Bud’s squad mates wanted to get his wife some “real Parisian lingerie,” so they set out to find a shop. “We didn’t speak French and couldn’t find anyone who would admit to speaking English, but we managed to find a lingerie shop nearby,” said Bud. “While we were inside, we saw another squad of Germans march right down the street, past the store. At that point, we figured the story about Paris being liberated was just a bullsh*t rumor and high-tailed it out of there. A week later, Paris was liberated for real.”

Hard to believe? Yes. Crazy enough to be true? Yes. My uncle has never been prone to embellishment, exaggeration, etc., so I have no choice but to accept it as true.

In a recent live G40 game, I (as the US) attacked the Japanese fleet in SZ 6 with the following:
2 FTR, 2 TAC, 10 STR

Rolled this in the first round:
FTR = 1 hit
TAC = 0 hits
STR = 0 hits

Pro Tip: After you soak the dice in lighter fluid, scrub your hands thoroughly with soap before striking the match.

@CrazyIvan An individual transport can only offload into a single territory per turn. If you brought two transports, however, one can offload into Norway while the other offloads into Western Germany. If TripleA won’t allow that, it’s a glitch.

@Imperious-Leader said in HR skip movement phases in first round:

If you engage such a round and the purchases were secret, Germany could do a G2 Sealion

That’s certainly a possibility, as long as France still falls in the first round…which might not be automatic, especially if the Brits choose to reinforce Paris.

I see so many possibilities. This really could be a lot of fun. I think I’ll have to try it.

@ABWorsham4 I’m not familiar with False Flags, but I’ve read Mrs. Ferguson’s Tea Set, Japan and the Second World War: The Global Consequences Following Germany’s Sinking of the SS Automedon in 1940 by Eiji Seki. It’s an excellent account of the exploits of the German commerce raider Atlantis, and I found it fascinating as a Japanese perspective of WWII.

@AndrewAAGamer I’m not suggesting players should only buy battleships; I’m just saying they still have value in the game. My personal preference is for a balanced navy. While I still buy 3-4 times more carriers, I like BB for amphibious assaults and to absorb the first hits in any battle.

…And if you’ve never gone up against a misguided player, you really need to meet my friends.

@AndrewAAGamer @Saber25 This game does a good job of illustrating the rise of the aircraft carrier and corresponding decline of the battleship in WWII. Andrew’s example (9 BB vs. 5 CV & 10 fighters) reinforces the idea. That said, battleships are not the overpriced underachievers one might think, and can be quite dangerous when employed by a savvy admiral.

Take another look at Andrew’s example. It seems BB are no match for CV and fighters, right? In a fight to the death, yes…but if I’m sending 9 BB up against 5 CV + 10 fighters, I’m only going to do so under the following conditions:

1. CV must not be within one space of a friendly territory (so the fighters from damaged carriers have no place to land and must be eliminated), and
2. BB will attack for one round, then retreat.

On average, 9 BB will score 6 hits in the first combat round, while the defenders will score 8. In this scenario, the defender knows he’ll lose 2 fighters for each CV that takes a hit, so his least bad option is to lose 4 fighters and 1 carrier. Meanwhile, my BB absorb the 8 hits without any change to my attack or defense strength and I retreat, safe in the knowledge that with just 6 fighters and 4 carriers, my opponent is unlikely to counterattack.

The moral of the story: Undamaged carriers with aircraft are quite valuable and dangerous, while damaged carriers are essentially overpriced, empty transports. Damaged battleships, on the other hand, are still battleships.

The issue with targeting ANZAC is, for me, an economic one. For Japan to acquire ANZAC’s 10 IPC/turn, they have to capture a total of seven territories. On the other hand, just four territories - Sumatra, Java, Borneo and Celebes - will net 20 IPC/turn for Japan. My alternative to your scenario is this:

J1 Move one transport and one sub from Japan to the Carolines.
J2 Declare war, then use transport + 1 INF from Carolines to take New Guinea. Also take Malaya as soon as possible (these actions deny ANZAC National Objectives, costing them 10 IPC/turn). Use naval forces in Carolines to take out ANZAC fleet.

On subsequent turns, park subs in sea zones 54, 62 and 63. This can reduce ANZAC income to as little as 3 IPC/turn, virtually taking them out of the fight without investing a significant chunk of the Japanese navy, as well as ground forces.

@SS-GEN I can’t remember where I read it, but it’s my understanding that one infantry unit = 25,000 men.

@Mr-Kell It said “Inspired by actual events,” which means, “something somewhat similar to this really happened, but we think our story is better than the truth.”

Greyhound, Tom Hanks’ adaptation of C.S. Forester’s The Good Shepherd, was originally supposed to be released last March. The wait is almost over: Greyhound hits theaters in North America on June 12. The trailer is below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwmbK3TW1vk

1. This question is rather ambiguous. If you’re attacking with aircraft only (no land units), it’s not an amphibious assault. If you mean, “Can I conduct an amphibious assault without cruisers or battleships for shore bombardment?”, the answer is yes, you can.
2. When conducting an amphibious assault, you have to choose which aircraft will participate in any naval battle and which will participate in the land combat; they cannot do both. Any naval battle must be resolved before amphibious landings can take place.

@ABWorsham4 The more I read, the more I learn that American neutrality pre-Pearl Harbor was extremely nuanced, to say the least. Very interesting stuff.

@crockett36 said in Allied Playbook Draft v1.0:

Less the grab Solomons, Gilberts, Marshalls, Marianas. More the 800 ships with a ton of sailors and 10000 marines. The strategic objective part is that you are putting so much pressure on the Japanese navy, fighting, losing, fighting, losing, fighting, winning that they cannot do what they usually do, infect the map like a virus. It’s the piece meal approach of Midway versus the “wait until I get a navy big enough to demolish the IJN.”

This is assuming a non Sealion game. This might look like an invasion of Iwo Jima. Collect a navy there. Get some bombers to harass the island and voila it’s the front line! Waves of metal coming at them every turn, with the advantage that you are able to land on the island and lose the carriers. Subs in reserve to take down the cap ships.

Russia can be assisted by the British because pressure is not as great as it normally is?! Could call it the Nimitz. He wanted to go directly to Japan.

Assuming the Japanese move in predictable ways (into China, SE Asia and the DEI), I like to do a limited island hopping campaign like this:

1. Take the Marshalls. This protects American transports off Hawaii from Japan-based bombers.
2. Take the Carolines. This forces the Japanese to take a more circuitous route to Australia and can be used by the Allies as a springboard to the Philippines, Borneo, FIC or Japan.
3. Take Iwo Jima. Build an air base on it, not for bombers (which don’t need it), but for fighters to protect the American fleet. Stack bombers on Iwo and hit the Japanese IC every turn.

While I’m doing the above, I also gradually build up a good-sized sub fleet to strangle Japan via convoy disruption…and you can usually accomplish steps 1-3 with about 3 fully loaded transports (plus the necessary surface warships, of course).

@ABWorsham4 I’m not familiar with False Flags, but I’ve read Mrs. Ferguson’s Tea Set, Japan and the Second World War: The Global Consequences Following Germany’s Sinking of the SS Automedon in 1940 by Eiji Seki. It’s an excellent account of the exploits of the German commerce raider Atlantis, and I found it fascinating as a Japanese perspective of WWII.