Best posts made by TheMarshall

Hello all,

I’ve been working on creating some custom reference cards for the 1940 games.  My goal was to create a single set of references that could be used for Pacific, Europe, or Global.  I also wanted the cards to fit the motif of the game, so they wouldn’t stand out as obviously being an add-in.  I designed these to fit on cards measuring 5"x7" or less, so that the cards would fit into the storage boxes that I use for my pieces.

So far I’ve created setup card and politics cards, which I’m intending to be two sides of the same card.  I’m working on finishing up some general reference charts and national objective cards.

Here are the results of my labor so far.  http://www.mediafire.com/folder/6xmoz7a93pgff/A%26A40_Reference_Cards

As you’ll see, these references should work for all three versions of the game, although it might require you to ignore information that doesn’t pertain to a particular version.  Where required, I’ve explicitly annotated where information is different between versions.

My plan is to get these printed onto 5x7 cards at boardgamesmaker.com.  If you’re interested, here’s the link to their custom cards: https://www.boardgamesmaker.com/print/fi-8977.html

Thoughts and suggestions are welcome.  The remaining cards will follow soon.

My general German strategy is a G1 purchase of 4 transports.  This forces UK to spend resources shoring up its homeland.  I might be able to capture Britain G2 if I catch the British player with their pants down, but more commonly I wind up using the transports to attack Novgorod on G3.

I take France and Normandy G1, along with crippling the British navy in the Atlantic.  I like to attack the Canadian fleet with a couple subs, since that prevents Britain from bringing those Canadian units as reinforcements, and the subs do some convoy disruption as well.  I also usually attack the two fleets in SZ 110 and 111.

I then follow up with an attack on the Soviets on G2.  My goal is to capture Leningrad on G3, which is usually pretty doable.  From there, it’s a forceful push to Moscow.

My Italian strategy is somewhat dependent on what UK does on their first turn, by my overall goal is to capture Egypt and push into the Middle East to gain the bonus IPCs from controlling that region.  If the UK doesn’t devote a lot of resources defending Africa, I like to build an IC in Egypt to solidify control of Africa and the Middle East without requiring a navy.

I also try to maintain control of Gibraltar, but this can be difficult once the US gets in the war, since they can dump troops directly from the US into Gibraltar.  If the US decides to focus its efforts on the Mediterranean, I usually find it turns into a game of delaying the US until Germany can capture Moscow.  If the US turns its efforts to Germany, Italy can usually take over Africa and build itself a significant industrial base.

That’s my 2 cents, anyway.  I’ve won several games with the Axis using the strategy.  The biggest thing that can go wrong with it is if the British player has a hot dice hand on G1 and wipes out a lot of your air force.  It’s possible to come back from that, but it makes things decidedly more challenging, since you don’t have the extra firepower against the Soviets, and it is more difficult to suppress the British and keep them from building a navy.

I’ve added some general reference cards to the link above.  These will be 2-sided, using the same printing link above.

Back of reference card

National Objective cards can be found here:  http://www.mediafire.com/?sgz3gr48qxs6l

Most of these are designed to be printed two-sided, so that you can flip the card over to indicate that you have accomplished the objective.

I will print these on 2.25x3.5 cards: https://www.boardgamesmaker.com/print/bridge-size-blank-card-4332.html

The finished product showed up in the mail today.  Boardgamesmaker did a fantastic job.  These turned out really well.  The cards are thin, but have a durable plastic feel to them.  The reference charts are 5"x7", so shouldn’t take up a lot of table space.

I also had them print me some additional Italy and Germany control makers, as well as some task force markers and cards.  The whole setup ran me about $50, including shipping.  Probably not the cheapest option, but I’m quite happy with the product.  If you’re looking for something similar, the links to my source files, and the respective links to the products at boardgamesmaker.com are in the thread above.

Reference charts

Setup/Politics charts