Hey Captain! Your House Rules are absolutely magnificent and outstanding. You are right that once your play with your set of HR, it’s impossible to go back to OOB. Have been enjoying playing G40 with my 14-year old son who has declared this to be the greatest game in the world with no close second! Thanks to how your HR have inspired him, he is now devouring world geography and world history from that great conflict about 80 years ago and teaching his friends about both as well. We do have a question though that we can’t find answer to in this forum. With regard to the Non-Aggression Pact house rules on page 22. Are these in addition to OOB or replace them? For example, would a Japan attack of Amur in Late 1941 only result in a 7 IPC penalty or would Soviet Union also receive the 6 infantry in Mongolia? What about a Japan attack of Kazakhstan in Late 1942? Would that only result in a 5 IPC penalty since not adjacent to Mongolia? Thanks

The House Rules Expansion fixes this

@The-Captain Trout and his teenage son Mussolini Pizza Emperor plan to attend from the USA if the dates are not an issue for Pizza’s High School schedule.

@Cornelis-Post Thanks CP! Excellent advice. I was not aware of the Greece Airbase idea but yes, that is brilliant and will incorporate going forward. I was doing hybrid a bit for German strategy with 5 U-Boats a turn, building landmines on G1 to get them dug in at Normandy before US Navy arrives but getting diced badly on G1 in every battle resulted in me needing to build 2 fighters and nine U-Boats. So with purchasing first PG, the U-Boats, landmines, and replacing Luftwaffe losses, the little bit of money left went to building some infantry in France as there were none there after the G1 dicing and he had UK paratroopers sitting in London after UK1. Update on my current game which is at Italy 6:

Germany: Took Novgorod on G5 along with dropping a para in Caucasus to grab the 7 IPC’s. But not moving past Eastern Poland except for holding Novgorod with help of the Baltic fleet. Med is lost and with his chosen Allied strategy was never a possibility. Was only able to get the bonuses from Gibraltar and no Allied Med ships for one turn.

US: Pacific strategy unchanged with starting navy assets in SZ10. 100% of his purchases going towards Italy invasion. He currently has North Africa and Gibraltar but has not invaded the mainland yet. Took Brazil on US3.

UK: Continuing max infantry in India. Took Iraq and destroyed Italian forces in Tunisia on UK5. Combined US/UK Fleet parked in SZ’s 91 and 96.

Soviet Union: repositioned his forces to take away another Caucasus para assault. 85% of his forces in Bryansk to cut off any advances across the front.

Italy: started building all infantry in Southern/Northern Italy on I4 which has resulted in holding off invasion for now. Did take Greece on I2. Could have done it I1 but wanted to wait until air forces could participate. No forces in East for can-openers as invasion is imminent so all ground forces in homeland except one infantry in Greece and 2 AAA in Paris. Moved the Strat Bomber to Western Germany so that it lives on after Italy death.

Japan: J5 took Singapore, last money island, Gilbert Islands, NG, and DNG then J6 repositioned navy to Carolines, built IC in Korea and transported Combat Engineers to China for future movement of minor complexes to Yunnan and western China provinces. My current plan for J7 is to take Hawaii and start mass production of 6 tanks per turn in Korea.

@Cornelis-Post Hey CP. I am back online now from summer vacay with wife & kids. The end result of our game was that Axis did win. Japan became a monster, Germany turtled and survived. We have been playing the HRE without landing craft. Combination of not being clear on how to use them and then had to figure out what units to use for representing them because all of our games are with the OOB board using OOB pieces. So we have an amateurish system such as using French infantry as paratroopers and putting roundels under infantry to designate an elite infantry. I have an A&A Classic game so we are going to use the Classic transports as LCV’s going forward. We are going to play a few games with the LCV’s and after we get used to that. I will post a game thread with pictures etc. Probably this Fall sometime. A few things that are still head-scratchers for us as we learn HRE are:

1. I never have success with Japan without taking money islands but it seems as if you guys don’t always focus on capture of them.

2. We never have success with Barbarossa. It always ends with Germany unable to make much progress as long as Allies play reasonably well with UK/USA in continental invasions, etc. Our only Axis wins come from Japan eventually making a two front war that SU can’t keep up with when their income drops below 20.

3. USA focusing most resources on KGF and UK piling as much stuff on Calcutta as possible to include 10 LM’s seem to be strategies that play well. But it’s really hard for us to determine how to play ANZAC and Soviet Union along with the fact that to a large extent they are having to react to what Axis are doing.

Bottom-line the HRE is possibly the best WWII board game ever. Too bad Captain can’t monetize that in a huge way because I think he deserves some monetary benefits for his outstanding efforts with this. OOB G40 just isn’t even fun anymore.

@The-Captain Looks interesting! One clarification question. If Army Group is active in attacking or defending a territory, can an Air Fleet be active as well?? I would assume yes but please confirm. Thanks!

Hi everybody! I am brand new to the forum and may be posting in the wrong place. But do any of you have any experience with the Renegade Game Studios’ enlarged map for G40 which they offer commercially? Is it good quality? Would you recommend? I see it as potentially a less robust map than the print shop options discussed on this forum but way more cost-effective; if the map has great quality. Would appreciate any thoughts or advice before I potentially lay down some cash and purchase it. Thx!!

I am struggling as Axis playing when my opponent does an all-out KGF strategy almost completely ignoring Japan, except the 20 IPC’s in Calcutta each turn. I am assuming that there is a game thread somewhere where somebody has successfully countered such a strategy. If so, can someone please be so kind as to point me to that so I can review? Thanks much.

@Krieghund I think your response is correct but I am sure there are alot of people from Cartagena who don’t appreciate that :)

@Cornelis-Post On schedule for that. In a nutshell:

1. Following Captain’s Strategy Guides
2. Got diced badly on G1 but I am thinking can be overcome by ignoring Japan surely not being a winning strategy. Dicing summary: Lost all U-Boat in SZ 106 with no UK casualties, lost U-Boats and two fighters in SZ 111 before clearing UK boats. Lost all normal infantry, two mechs, and one tank in the three France attacks plus took four casualties in Yugo.
3. In Pacific, J3 attack on two money islands, Guam, Hong Kong, Indochina then J4 attack killing off China, and capturing one more money island plus Philippines. Plan for J5 is take last money island, Singapore, NG, and DNG then prepare for capture of Hawaii, Midway, Wake. His strategy is max landmines and infantry buys in Calcutta while US navy camps out in SZ 10. His UK navy withdrew west on first turn to ensure Axis navy and army cleared from Africa/Med ASAP.
4. On US3, he took Gibraltar and US4, he moved to SZ 95 to destroy remains of Italian navy. I have 9 U-Boats in Med but those will be gone after UK4 as he is following up the US attack in Med with UK attack from the fleet he built since game start in SZ 106 that is currently in SZ 90.
5. So current situation is Italy going down soon, and my Eastern Front forces not super strong from having to replace Luftwaffe and UBoat losses on G1. Barbarossa launched on my G4. Have two Panzer Generals in Eastern Poland and 4 paratroopers in Romania awaiting Deep OPS in Caucasus/Volgograd when opportunity presents itself but overall not a strong Barbarossa.
6. Can’t figure out how to improve where things are and how it got here since Japan can’t move any faster than it is right now.
7. So decided to reach out to the experts for advice/resources on COA going forward. Intellectually, I am convinced that ignoring Japan is not brilliant but I can’t figure out how to stop it.

Global 1940, Game Report:

Global 1940 two-player game conducted with Triple A which ended yesterday as follows"

Players:
Axis: Trout
Allies: Barnee

Germany captured all French territories and was able to reduce the UK navy in the Atlantic to one destroyer, one transport, and one cruiser at the close of Early 1940. UK had a very strong counterpunch which reduced the Regia Marina to just its SZ 95 fleet in addition to destroying the Italian Army in Ethiopia and sinking the German battleship in the North Atlantic. In Asia, Japan’s Strategic Plan called for an initial focus on turning China completely yellow which did happen by the end of Fall 1941.
The very effective UK1 turn caused Germany to scrap its initial Strategic Planning and instead conduct Luftwaffe air raids in the Mediterranean, launch the Bismarck from Kiel and the Graf Zeppelin from Marseilles all in Late 1940 in order to replenish the surface assets of the Kriegsmarine and try to stave off utter early destruction of its Italian neighbor.
In the Pacific, Japan opened hostilities with the Western Allies in Fall 1941 with successful attacks on Philippines, Hong Kong, and FIC.
Meanwhile, the Soviet Union decided to re-write history and instead conducted a surprise attack on Germany in Fall 1941. The Soviet Union would remain strong all game as the Nazis never were able to push into Soviet territory past E. Poland for the entire game.
Japan captured all DEI in Fall 1942 and that extra boost to their economy would contribute to them having a strong position in Asia and the Pacific for the rest of the game although the vital Allied locations of India, Queensland, Midway/Wake/Hawaii remained in Allied hands for its entirety.
If there was a turning point in the game, it may have been the year 1943 in the Mediterranean. In the Fall of 1942, the USA made their first strong Atlantic moves with the USN moving into SZ 91 in force and capturing Morocco as well. The Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe however were able to destroy that USN Main Fleet in Spring 1943. Germany had sustained heavy losses in that battle so it took over the Italian government in Spring 1944 which allowed them to use all Axis forces to recapture Morocco that had a strong combined US/UK contingent of land and air forces and boost their income substantially.
After that, Germany focused on rebuilding the Luftwaffe and landing a large force in Syria for a planned conquest of the Middle East. However, the Allies responded in strength and the Axis were never able to advance past Syria. The war dragged on for a few years afterwards at close to a stalemate. The Axis had firm control of the Mediterranean and Japan maintained a strong position on land in Asia as well as on the high seas in the South Pacific. Meanwhile the Soviet Union remained in a strong position and the Allies never relinquished Egypt, India or the Middle East besides Syria. In addition, Japan was never strong enough to start pushing into the US Pacific territories other than Philippines and Guam.
To break the stalemate, Germany in the Spring of 1947 relocated the entire Luftwaffe to Western Germany which by that time included four jet fighters and both Heavy Bombers, withdrew forces from Syria and invested all IPC resources in transport production at Kiel. The UK was caught unprepared and a successful Sea Lion attack ended the game in the Fall of 1947.
Photos to follow from Barnee in next few days if not later today.

@barnee Good Morning. I am chiming in very late on this but confirmed that essentially the Allies lost due to the emotional health of the US Navy leadership in the Pacific and the UK Army/Air Force leadership in India being irreparably damaged. So we had a new HRE victory condition kick in which was Axis Psychological Victory because the Allied Generals and Admirals on one side of the board were sitting in their HQ rooms sucking their thumbs. Unclear if victory due to outstanding psyops is an official way to win but that’s what happened. Congratulations to Barnee for being the first to win HRE by virtue of outstanding tactical prowess which destroyed all of the Allied Strategic Plans in a way that demoralized them beyond repair 👍

This is in response to Game 5 between Barnee and myself posted in Fall 2025

@barnee Rolling for 15 fighters attacking London with Flak Tower during G40 Game 11 between Barnee and Trout

[dice 15d6<=1]

@barnee
Rolling for 5 Tacs and 3 Strat Bombers attacking London with Flak Tower during G40 Game 11 between Barnee and Trout

[dice 8d6<=2]

@The-Captain Okay, thanks. Those Heavy Bombers are awesome. They are expensive but USA has money and it has a solution to USA’s biggest issue which is getting its power across the ocean. But no problem with the Heavy Bombers. They can take off from Washington, DC, bomb SZ 6 or SZ 112, and land in Soviet Union or London. Literally spans the globe. Now with Allied LL, they can start in Washington, Move to London, join the RAF, and bomb Berlin or Rome all in one turn also. Gives an outstanding counter to all of those Nazi superweapons. Thanks so much for investing alot of your life in creating this outstanding game

@The-Captain Okay, thanks. Those Heavy Bombers are awesome. They are expensive but USA has money and it has a solution to USA’s biggest issue which is getting its power across the ocean. But no problem with the Heavy Bombers. They can take off from Washington, DC, bomb SZ 6 or SZ 112, and land in Soviet Union or London. Literally spans the globe. Now with Allied LL, they can start in Washington, Move to London, join the RAF, and bomb Berlin or Rome all in one turn also. Gives an outstanding counter to all of those Nazi superweapons. Thanks so much for investing alot of your life in creating this outstanding game

@The-Captain Okay, thanks. Those Heavy Bombers are awesome. They are expensive but USA has money and it has a solution to USA’s biggest issue which is getting its power across the ocean. But no problem with the Heavy Bombers. They can take off from Washington, DC, bomb SZ 6 or SZ 112, and land in Soviet Union or London. Literally spans the globe. Now with Allied LL, they can start in Washington, Move to London, join the RAF, and bomb Berlin or Rome all in one turn also. Gives an outstanding counter to all of those Nazi superweapons. Thanks so much for investing alot of your life in creating this outstanding game

@The-Captain Okay, thanks. Those Heavy Bombers are awesome. They are expensive but USA has money and it has a solution to USA’s biggest issue which is getting its power across the ocean. But no problem with the Heavy Bombers. They can take off from Washington, DC, bomb SZ 6 or SZ 112, and land in Soviet Union or London. Literally spans the globe. Now with Allied LL, they can start in Washington, Move to London, join the RAF, and bomb Berlin or Rome all in one turn also. Gives an outstanding counter to all of those Nazi superweapons. Thanks so much for investing alot of your life in creating this outstanding game

@The-Captain Good morning Sir Captain. Can Heavy Bombers be part of the Air Lend-Lease? Or only fighters, tacs, and Strat Bombers?

@barnee air both hit. Now rolling for ANZAC defenders

[dice 2d6<=2]