Yeah. after 1943 the US advance was more slowed down by logistical considerations rather than Japanese resistance.
The War Game - Massive Axis and Allies Variant
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I am hoping to get this in time for my gameday on the 29th if I do I’ll give you all my “expert” opinion. :-D
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Im having lunch with jeff today. Ill tell him to try to send out his orders ASAP
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LOL, tell him the one to Phoenix, the other ones can wait. :-D
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I know you don’t have the exact breakdown for units, but are the nations all the same, or are they realistically structured like AAR; e.g. loads of infantry and very few battleships and bombers for Russia and China?
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Of course some nations have different amounts of certain types of units. China,Soviets,and france have less naval. I don’t have exact breakdown… buy a copy of the game and count to your content.
I own 2 copies and i suggest everybody buy the extra one so they use those pieces for other games and have still one original set. $200.00 is a drop in the bucket.
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But I have to pay to get it shipped over the duck pond. Depending on exchange rates, that can DOUBLE the price.
Plus I have to take out insurance against U-boat sinkings.
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ask or email them how much that will be. Tell them “Imperious Leader said give me a discount.”
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@Imperious:
Im having lunch with jeff today. Ill tell him to try to send out his orders ASAP
Well yo ueither hooked me up or Jeff is just a good guy, I got it yesterday and will be setting it up for a full house on Sunday.
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OK hers a few pointers:
if your Germany you must attack Egypt and Caucasus on turn one. Each turn after you try to grab one additional territory. You must build ships every turn or the allied power will mess you up quick. Finish off Russia by about 5 turns… doing this does not mean victory… the allies often still win eventually.
if your japan you must attack Peking on turn one. Also you should take out the US fleet, but advanced players have other options. Try to keep the fleet balance with USA and Japan. If Japan gets in a hole their game goes bad.
Read and reread the rules many times … if your doing something incorrectly it will dramatically alter the result.
dont forget to tell the defender to make retreat declarations at the start of each turn.
the site has a few player aids to keep track of Lend lease which can be tricky.
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Since your giving tips for axis play can I assume that the odds are in favor of the allies?
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not really, but i figured you as an ‘axis’ type of player.
The options for the allies don’t require any ‘very necessary’ types of moves because they get killed in the beginning.
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Well I do lean a bit axis, agressive tendancies… :D
I’ll let you know how it goes on monday.
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was my post deleted ?
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no i see its right above mine
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More questions about the unit pieces; will they be available per country, or just as a complete set?
And is there any chance we can order them in custom colours, for example Japanese doods in white? Or maybe in “singed tangerine” for incorporation into A&A standard games?
I want Chinese Nationalists in poached Turquoise, damnit!
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We played The War Game yesterday for the first time. Over all I am highly satisfied. We set up a five player game, I drew Germany. My first impression was that is was overwhelmingly complex. After a turn or two with major mistakes I settled in. On round one I lost France and almost lost my capital, due to extremely rapid expansion and getting used to the purchasing process. Fortunately I recovered quickly from that. The eastern front was a slugfest, with Russia coming out marginally better. This was due primarily to massive amounts of lend lease. The up side, if any, was that America played a very minor roll in Europe/Africa. And when they did show up it was weak and late. I was able to turn a drawn out marginal defeat into a spectacular long drawn out toss up, by invading Britain in a surprise sealion that left the allies with little to no counter. I will post pic later. Based on this game I have some comments:
- I can’t say enough about the map. The size is spectacular. The number and layout of the territories make for an intense complicated game. It is easy to get blindsided and at first it was almost overwhelming.
- Easily playable for 6 or even 7 people. Italy is individually playable and Germany can use the extra eyes on Europe. China surprisingly looks playable to me. With Generals and the Infantry placement rules China can actually fight back.
- The income collection puts a stop to trading dead zones. If you don’t keep it for a turn you don’t get paid. There are some loopholes with allied assistance but overall a great improvement.
- The addition of defensive retreat wasn’t used much, but I think that with experience it would be used more and it’s and interesting option.
- Using Generals was a blast, and really added something to the game by giving players the ability to emphasize key battles and territories.
- Naval pass through make it possible to be even sneakier and we had fun with it.
- Artillery, holy crap artillery is awesome in this game. Artillery can target air and really changes the dynamic of battles. Fighters end up being used much more cautiously.
- Naval build strats are quite different. Aircraft carriers are not as dominant as before and destroyers are a great unit. Battleships as well may actually be considered for purchase.
- I do not care for the Neutral rules. I will be playing a couple more games to be sure, but I will probably go to a system of Armies for neutrals. I prefer something similar to the system in World at War.
- Bombers in the base rules are very nice and I anticipate the allies particularly US making more Bombers in future games. We need more games before I start using the advanced rules.
- The potential lend lease to Russia is really tough for Germany to overcome. But this bears more study.
I am no expert yet, but I can try to answer questions and offer oppinions on how the rules work and playability.
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More questions about the unit pieces; will they be available per country, or just as a complete set?
And is there any chance we can order them in custom colours, for example Japanese doods in white? Or maybe in “singed tangerine” for incorporation into A&A standard games?
This will never happen unless you buy 2 copies of the game yourself. I told you if you sit on the fence and wait for nation specific units… then you will wait forever…
And as i told you earlier and jeff… don’t sell any pieces separately until you recoup your original investment. He is going to follow this to defeat the people who think…" gee ill just do what i want anyway and wait for the pieces to be sold separately and get out of buying the game…"
I can promise you if i keep hearing this i will use all my power to make it never possible to buy “just the pieces”
Just buy the freeking game and get over it.
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9. I do not care for the Neutral rules. I will be playing a couple more games to be sure, but I will probably go to a system of Armies for neutrals. I prefer something similar to the system in World at War.
Jeff is working on something for that. His original intention was to keep them out of the game and only allow the neutrals under German occupation to have any play.
The neutrals should have their own armies. I have some house rules for them and ill post that soon when the forum goes up.
I would stay away from advanced rules until you got your strategy down.
on the lend lease remember only USA can do it and they are limited to 1/3 of their total income… the first 15 IPC spend can be infantry but the 16th IPC onward must be ‘hardware’ —no infantry…
USA can play a strong role against Japan. Also, you have to keep the German and Italian navy ready to counter the allies as they approach Europe… keep buying those subs and destroyers. USA can upgrade the factory in Alaska and build a huge 1 turn fleet to attack Japan. Watch that.
Get some more D12’s and use the long box to roll. Its perfect for a dice roller
I really think the game is a great value for what you get. Especially for such a small time company.
And now you also have nice tiger tanks for Bulge and for house games.
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Ok, here’s a brief summary of my thoughts on the rules after reading through them again.
For this post I’ll refrain from commenting on the map, except to ask why Eire has a Union flag printed on it?
PLUS POINTS
Italy added as new player. Good selection of colour, no nasty yellowy-greeny-tanny rubbish. I prefer Italy to have it’s own turn, but I suppose this might handicap the Axis in Europe.
Japanese & Soviet Xenophobia implemented.
Collect income first. As mentioned above this makes much more sense.
Artillery support shot. I’ve long advocated this, although for a heavy artillery piece.
Battleship rules, i.e. damaged fight at 1/2, repair at IC/Naval base. I’d dump the roll a dice for damage bit, though.
Pass-through rule. Makes sense, but not sure it needs to be quite this complex.
Staggered arrival in battle, i.e. amphibious invaders held up by naval battles arriving late. I use rules like this for Napoleonics and stuff, that is units in territory adjacent to a battle can attempt to march there to engage, and might arrive very late in the battle. Not really applicable in WWII.
MINUS POINTS
(Note that these are not all criticisms, just a comparison with how I’d do things.)China added as independent power. Can’t buy the idea of China building battleships. Even if we use the fiction of a United China, it was far from an industrial power. I much prefer the idea of rival Chinese factions controlled by the USSR and USA respectively.
No Japanese-Soviet non-aggression pact. This is essential if you want a game playing out anything like WWII.
Major and minor factories. Don’t see the need for this, just limit production to IPC income of the territory.
Building factories; using captured complexes. Just both completely wrong. When France was liberated the new French army went back to war using American uniforms, vehicles and equipment. It was more efficient to ship them across the Atlantic from established production lines than re-establish French production.
Lend-Lease. This seems too powerful, I prefer a more risky transport-IPC-via-convoy system which the Axis can actively intercept.
As I’ve stated many times before I don’t like the non-combat-movement phase. In war ALL movement of war material is a combat move. I would limit this purely to aircraft landing, and train movement.
Different unit costs per nation. I prefer to reflect this in base IPC income levels.
Artillery/AA gun hybrid. No, sir. The principle role of artillery was to soften up land defences, not shoot down aircraft.
Tank blitz. Can’t believe Jeff couldn’t come up with something better than the obsolete blitz move from official A&A. As I’ve detailed elsewhere something along the lines of a pass-through move for tanks simulates blitzkreig warfare nicely.
Stop-drop transports. Another hangover from ye ancient A&A manual that makes no sense. WHY can’t a transport unload into two territories if able?
Why can’t amphibious assaulting units (or defenders) retreat to sea if they have available transports?
Order of battle. Can’t find this in the rules, but why not just let the defender choose the order in which combats are resolved? OK, after a few plays most people will dump the battleboard, but simultaneously fighting all adjacent battles must get hard to track, especially when considering pass-throughs. Defender decides first eliminates the flanking attack menace much more simply.
Infantry placement seems very powerful; I severely limit this ability with only a few designated depots to be used.
It occurs to me that building ships at sea is absurd. Ships should be built at an IC same as any other unit. The NEXT turn you can “launch” the ship into a neighbouring sea zone, together with cargo if applicable, thus simulating the longer build time of warships.
I agree with Dezrtfish, the pay-money-for-invading-neutrals rule seems like another vestigial leftover from classic. We want neutral armed forces.
The idea of tanks being wiped out by viscious sand dunes and angry mountain ranges is hilarious. Prefer defensive bonuses in combat.
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China added as independent power. Can’t buy the idea of China building battleships. Even if we use the fiction of a United China, it was far from an industrial power. I much prefer the idea of rival Chinese factions controlled by the USSR and USA respectively.
They cant build those ships unless they spend all their money on a major factory and then spend all their money on the battleship that is more expensive than anybody else and will in fact require 2 turns to do it. Thats 3 turns no builds of infantry…and by that time Japan wins the war in China… THUS that is NEVER done or even CONCEIVED. and we dont want to not allow what potentially could happen… nor do we want to piss of the Chinese.
No Japanese-Soviet non-aggression pact. This is essential if you want a game playing out anything like WWII.This is true. I have house rules to cover this. Jeff has some too and he will post them.
Major and minor factories. Don’t see the need for this, just limit production to IPC income of the territory.
NO not true its very important because the types of units are limited by them and also that would not solve Germanys problem when they are left to bunker… if the IPC thing was imposed they would be left with more money and no place to build units.
Building factories; using captured complexes. Just both completely wrong. When France was liberated the new French army went back to war using American uniforms, vehicles and equipment. It was more efficient to ship them across the Atlantic from established production lines than re-establish French production.
each turn is 1/2 year in that time it could get back to normal real quick. don’t agree.Lend-Lease. This seems too powerful, I prefer a more risky transport-IPC-via-convoy system which the Axis can actively intercept.
Yes but the game is not world in flames either . its introductory with a few new ideas.As I’ve stated many times before I don’t like the non-combat-movement phase. In war ALL movement of war material is a combat move. I would limit this purely to aircraft landing, and train movement.
Thats what it becomes anyway
Different unit costs per nation. I prefer to reflect this in base IPC income levels.
NO because it does not reflect that nations actual ability to raise infantry based on its population . A Russian life is cheaper than a British.Artillery/AA gun hybrid. No, sir. The principle role of artillery was to soften up land defences, not shoot down aircraft.
Artillery in this game represent all types of which AA guns are a form of Artillery
Tank blitz. Can’t believe Jeff couldn’t come up with something better than the obsolete blitz move from official A&A. As I’ve detailed elsewhere something along the lines of a pass-through move for tanks simulates blitzkreig warfare nicely.
Blitzkreig rule does not work for territories that are as large as entire nations. Perhaps in an operational level game.
Stop-drop transports. Another hangover from ye ancient A&A manual that makes no sense. WHY can’t a transport unload into two territories if able?
They cannot invade two different territories… they can perform bridging however.
Why can’t amphibious assaulting units (or defenders) retreat to sea if they have available transports?
You cant have everything for 100.00 bucks
Order of battle. Can’t find this in the rules, but why not just let the defender choose the order in which combats are resolved? OK, after a few plays most people will dump the battleboard, but simultaneously fighting all adjacent battles must get hard to track, especially when considering pass-throughs. Defender decides first eliminates the flanking attack menace much more simply.
You didn’t read the rules correctly, The attacker is obligated to ask the defender to make retreat first and the defender can also perform partial retreats. This aspect of the game is very good.
Infantry placement seems very powerful; I severely limit this ability with only a few designated depots to be used.
Whats powerful about it? its basically like Revised
It occurs to me that building ships at sea is absurd. Ships should be built at an IC same as any other unit. The NEXT turn you can “launch” the ship into a neighbouring sea zone, together with cargo if applicable, thus simulating the longer build time of warships.
The game does not feature those dreaded 5,000 ports because its assumed that any SZ adjacent from the factory can support a port and launch ships. Ships are only built at factories, while minor factories cant build carriers and battleships. Its much easier than your system.
I agree with Dezrtfish, the pay-money-for-invading-neutrals rule seems like another vestigial leftover from classic. We want neutral armed forces.
The idea of tanks being wiped out by viscious sand dunes and angry mountain ranges is hilarious. Prefer defensive bonuses in combat.
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