Any After Action Reports Yet?

[Real Life Rorschach]

While my game is still in delivery I was wondering if you lucky ducks who got your games early have any reports from the front?

[keplar]

my group played the global game friday night. it truely is awesome!!!

it took a little to get going with the political situation and questions about neutrality but after a 2 1/2 hour round 1, we finally got our groove on. the game is still going on, we’re playing again thursday night, and we got through 6 turns i think.

i am playing as the axis and my 2 friends are the allies, we’ve all made some mistakes. mine was foolishly attacking pearl harbor instead of making him attack me at caroline (and scrambling fighters). Italy is doing pretty well but can’t get out of the med yet. germany just took over the northern USSR factory so i’m looking forward to that aspect on thursday.

[calvinhobbesliker]

Can you take pictures?

[keplar]

i could, but not til thursday. the game’s at my friend’s house.

[Dylan the Canadian]

@keplar:

my group played the global game friday night. it truely is awesome!!!

it took a little to get going with the political situation and questions about neutrality but after a 2 1/2 hour round 1, we finally got our groove on. the game is still going on, we’re playing again thursday night, and we got through 6 turns i think.

i am playing as the axis and my 2 friends are the allies, we’ve all made some mistakes. mine was foolishly attacking pearl harbor instead of making him attack me at caroline (and scrambling fighters). Italy is doing pretty well but can’t get out of the med yet. germany just took over the northern USSR factory so i’m looking forward to that aspect on thursday.

How did you split the Allies?

[keplar]

just like it suggested in the book:

UK (both theaters), ANZAC, and France

US, USSR, China

we will prob change it next time

[chompers]

Played 3 games so far.

First one was an allied win.  90-100 pt USA crushed Italy and was poised to make its way into Germany while Japan was still trying to get it together.  Japan player was still pretty new to the game so made it especially hard on Axis.

2nd on was called a draw.  Pretty much boiled down to Super USA and its sidekick Britain attacking a turtle Germany who had 45 inf 25 tanks and 8 planes in Berlin while Godzilla Japan was moving about 50 tanks and about 20 mech inf/ 20 planes across Asia to attack roughly 100 Russian Inf stacked in Moscow.  Game was pretty epic but lasted 14 or so hrs and all parties involved agreed to start a new one the following day.

3rd one was another allied win.  G1 saw some terrible Axis dice luck (all subs and half the air force died attacking the British fleet in the Atlantic while only killing 1 Destroyer 2 cruisers and a transport).  G3 sea lion attack failed miserably.  Japan tried to pressure US by taking hawaii and threatening mainland USA but couldn’t distract US long enough while the planes that should’ve been aiding Japan in grabbing IPC’s throughout the Pacific and Asia were instead relegated to garrisoning Hawaii’s airbase.

Seems pretty balanced to me currently although Allies seem a bit more straightforward to play and therefore might be a bit easier to win.  Planning on playing another couple games this week at least.

[calvinhobbesliker]

Interesting. Good thing the board is big, but you need at least a weekend to finish a game, apparently

[Plasticdeathbydice]

Plan on lots of time, nourishment, and caffiene……this is an all day affair kiddies…the first few rounds are a killer time wise…starts to speed up say, 8 rounds in?

[MarkVIIIMarc]

Four rounds into a game. It is a big fun map!

Who knows what strategies we overlooked but i can say:

Sea Lion is a real possibility! European England needs to concentrate on ‘how many transports can germany buy with all their plundered french money’. That is way more important than using that fun new South African complex.

18 infantry is not an invincible stack. On J1 is is very possible to kill it for the loss of only 6 Japenese infantry.

Destroyer crews are my sacrificial lambs. I am always putting them in the way of different fleets to slow em down.

Even with that GREAT exchange rate killing the 18 inf might have been a bad idea somehow. Looosing that turn moving on china and india sucks.

[Seven_Patch]

@Plasticdeathbydice:

Plan on lots of time, nourishment, and caffiene……this is an all day affair kiddies…the first few rounds are a killer time wise…starts to speed up say, 8 rounds in?

That’s for sure.  I know from playing all the Pacific Allies that usually I’m planning what each power is going to buy and general combat/non combat moves while the Japanese player is on his/her turn.

I can only hope this will help speed things up for Global but I imagine it will take several rounds before I get used to the game.

[cond1024]

For those that have played, is the J1 attack on US/UK being done consistently?  How is that playing out with US in war quicker?

[chompers]

J1 attack was done 2 out of our 3 games so far.  Japan needs to kick its economy into overdrive ASAP in order to be able to smash the Russians as quickly as possible IMHO.  It seems to me the US reaches critical mass in units around t4 or t5 tops almost regardless of whether it collected its extra IPC’s the first 3 turns or not and therefore its worth the risk of seeing the US in Europe a turn or two early because you need the Japs knocking on the door to Moscow in force when the US is finishing off Italy and preparing to push to Berlin.  Japan can’t do this if its IPC’s are hanging in the 30’s its first 3 turns.  Just my 2 cents.

[MarkVIIIMarc]

I turned into a J2 or J3 attacker kn Pacific40. Just seemed there was more to do in asia killing chinese and getting to the doorsteps of india.

Most folks just go all out with japan and with plenty of success. Its very difficult to cordinate the multi national forces in the pacific. Makes the US player happier i am sure just to have dice to roll.

In europe i dunno how i will ever get around to attacking the brits or americans. Russia keeps tempting me i to slaughtering their 16 to 18 inf on the first round. I cant resist even though it greatly slows me down in india and china.

[UN Spacy]

Can anyone share how the French units contribute to their games?

[MarkVIIIMarc]

its handy to have extra units on the board that move after the opposing team. The french navy can be put in the way of an amphibious landing easy enough. I also leave their inf behind in africa to prevent blitzing when retreating.

Similar to real life the French arent storming the beaches at anzio or normandy but especially when i am playing england we’re not turning down free hel

[UN Spacy]

@MarkVIIIMarc:

its handy to have extra units on the board that move after the opposing team. The french navy can be put in the way of an amphibious landing easy enough. I also leave their inf behind in africa to prevent blitzing when retreating.

Similar to real life the French arent storming the beaches at anzio or normandy but especially when i am playing england we’re not turning down free hel

Free French forces were the first Allied troops in Normandy.  :-D

[Chompers2]

I have had a lot of fun playing the first 3 games with my friends but we are noticing some trends.  If the US player is determined to shoot through the Gilbartar and then to Italy it can crush the Italians as easy as Japan can crush India in the Pacific.  If the US player is doing this is it leaves no choice for the the Germans but to call off Sea lion and give up on driving deep into Russia.  They then have to go into defensive mood and hope Japan can clear a path to Moscow before America and Britian seize Berlin.

There seems to be no incentive for the Americans to really spend any points in the Pacific.  Taking Japan would be a huge task almost impossible and in this version the islands are far away and America is not allowed to build factories on them.  I still have much to learn but it seems to me by far the best path for america is to seize Rome or possibly shoot up to Norway, capture it and build a major factory there.

I am curious to take the axis out for a spin because I have been allies the first 3 games.

[Real Life Rorschach]

I was actually fairly worried about that strategy of wiping out a weaker Italy with a 100 IPC strong United States.  At Maximum Italy will only make about 30-40 IPCS which is not half of what America makes.  I was planning on doing this my first game as America and not buying anything for the pacific and just working to smoke Europe with some serious funds. 
What turns has Japan declared war against the allies, is it still a majority J1 strategy?  I would assume that depriving Asia of 20 IPCS in the DEI is more worth it than keeping the American income down.  I mean during those turns America will be buying transports and troops and shipping them to the borders of Britain and Gibraltar immediately.  It seems like in turn 3 they can just unleash what they have in the North African area and the Italians are then in serious trouble.

[mike b]

A J2 or J3 dec of war would keep the USA from demolishing Italy so easily I would assume.