Axis & Allies Global 1942 Set Up

[QuakerGeneral]

My gaming group generally has about five or six hours to play Axis & Allies once a month.  We were very excited about the Global game, and we knew the game was going to take a while to play, so we dedicated an entire Saturday after it came out.  We left that first session impressed by many things about the game and love the boards and map.  However, there was a general consensus that that the game took too long to play (for what it is and for who we are).  Also, there was general frustration with the political rules and the fact that some countries could not do much for the first few hours.  I should note that we tend to play with relatively large groups of people and enjoy the social aspects of playing on a team with someone.  I realize that the political rules would be less bothersome in a game with only 2-4 players (as opposed to our 6+).  Given that the Saturday “all day” session was an exception, we immediately began thinking about how we could play the game in our normal time slot.  We settled on altering the starting point from 1940 to 1942 and began adjusting the setup.  I drafted this new set up for the combat forces, and we playtested them for the first time last night.  Although it is still very early, the changes seemed to work for our group.  We finished the game in four hours having played four full turns.  We could have played another two turns before reaching our time limit.  Folks seemed to enjoy playing, and the game seemed up for grabs and even leaning Axis until some Axis mistakes allowed the Allies to claim victory.  We had quite a few players who wanted to get in on the game, more than an ideal number.  Some folks were even sharing one country (two people ran Japan for example).  The final big item to mention is that our group always plays Axis & Allies double blind, which I believe allows the game to go a bit faster because one does not have to wait for another country’s non-combat movement, etc. to begin purchases and planning your combat moves.  All of this has just been a preamble to invite you to read, borrow, critique, etc. our 1942 setup.  It is available as a Microsoft Word file download at www.meetup.com/glassboroboardgamers.  Check under “More” and “Files.”  I would appreciate any feedback that you might have.  I will post a separate reply with some of my design philosophy, if you can call it that, so you can have an idea of my sub-goals with the set up.

[QuakerGeneral]

Design Goals/Philosophy

Main Goal:  Be able to play a fulfilling version of the new Global game in 5 or 6 hours in which all countries are in play from the first turn.

Sub-goal #1:  Hew as closely as possible to earlier 1942 setups.  Axis & Allies Anniversary was my first point of reference in this regard.

Sub-goal #2:  Balanced play is more important than historical realism but blatant historical inaccuracies were to be avoided.

Sub-goal #3:  Reduce the total number of units on the Global boards because one of the time-killing aspects of the game was that many countries had so many units (Japan, I am looking at you) to move that even semi-veterans were trapped in analysis paralysis.  Fewer units means quicker turns.

Design Decisions

1.  Leave all Industrial complexes, naval bases, air bases, anti-aircraft guns as in the 1940 setup.
2.  Start with the 1942 Anniversary edition units placing them as closely as possible on the new map.
3.  Fill in the remaining empty territories that clearly should have units.  Add equal number of IPCs to each side (not country necessarily).
4.  Add in some of the new units (mechanized infantry and tactical bombers) as seems best using 1940 rules as a partial guide.
5.  Reconfigure the turn order to allow for 1942 play and to allow for maximum speed of play (in our game last night Japan and Italy basically went simultaneously because they were in different theaters and right after one another).
6.  Balance the IPC production at the start so that the Allies have an advantage comparable to previous 1942 starts.  I found that this was only possible if I gave the countries their National Objective bonuses at the start of the game.
7.  Create a minor victory condition to go along with the OOB victory conditions.  For us, it is 12 VCs after 5 hours.
8.  Reconfigure the IPCs for UK Europe and UK Pacific to give the UK Pacific player a bit more at the start, even though they are still in sad, sad shape in a 1942 setup.

Ok, that is what I remember off the top of my head.

I look forward to comments, changes, suggestions, and criticisms.  If you find the set up helpful, even if just as a starting point for your own thinking and set up, I am happy.  Thanks to those in my own group, especially Justin and Todd, for their help in the drafting process so far.

Bill Carrigan

[Funcioneta]

AA50 was fabled by being unbalanced, giving big advantage to Axis, so it’s not a perfect setup to take as model. But it’s possible that the new ICs at India, Sydney and SAF and also the additional IPCs to USA can balance that

Also, I’d still make some class of non-agression pact USSR-Japan (breaker must pay money and interacting with China’s limitation of movements - maybe canceling them if Japan DOWs USSR). France could use a rule to deploy Free French units

Very good idea deleting all those japanese planes, it was much needed. Also, good point with the VCs … it sounds that could be a great setup to play face to face, as you try

Keep us informed

[Bruda_Iz]

exactly what does blind play mean?

[marechallannes]

You have to change the order of play.

[MarkVIIIMarc]

I commend you. Whenever i finish my current game of global i will set yours up and try it.

[QuakerGeneral]

@marechallannes:

You have to change the order of play.

Why?

[Gharen]

Double Blind means these guys ran at least 2 full global boards simultaneously if I am not mistaken.  For example, if you are the Axis, then you only see Axis units on your board, and you can send planes out to recon areas which will then show what Allied units were there when the recon happened.  It really brings a whole new aspect to the game which I really want to try myself but I don’t have 6 friends around to play this with me :(.  You could also have a 3rd board with a judge who can see everything and adjusts it to make sure everything is fair and correct.  Its very true to real war where you need intelligence and you need to have intuition on what your opponent may do.  I do agree that it seems really boring for Russia and the USA if they don’t get attacked at all for the first several turns, but, that means they need to be making preparations to weather the onslaught once it ensues.

The things I can see that would help speed up the game are:

1. Have a dedicated person tracking IPC’s with a photo copy of the page in the back of the book so you can get rid of the bank.  The monopoly style money system just adds more time to the game which already takes way too long to set up and play.

2. Try to plan ahead on what you are gonna do, like if you are Russia and Germany is playing their turn right now, you need to know what you are buying and have that ready to go and have some ideas of attack moves before you even get to your turn.

[QuakerGeneral]

Gharen is exactly right about our double blind system.  We have two full boards (so two sets of Europe and two sets of Pacific).  We set up the boxes in between to prevent folks from seeing the other boards.  We also use a referee to monitor noncombat movement, sea movement, etc.  We sometimes do without a referee and work on the honor system, but this is less than ideal because of sea movement under this system having to be announced.  There is a “recon” phase after purchases before combat movement that allows for a player to gain critical intelligence but there is always a degree of uncertainty after the first moves are made.  Double blind just opens up all kinds of possibilities in strategy and makes the game much more fun.  Even when you are losing in this system, you don’t know for sure you are losing or you might see a way to pull off the comeback that would never work in a regular game.  All of thatw makes the experience a better one I think.

[Hobbes]

@QuakerGeneral:

@marechallannes:

You have to change the order of play.

Why?

The order of play is used to represent the historical steps/strategic initiative of each scenario and also to balance the game. On AA50’s 41 scenario Germany plays first (representing the start of Barbarossa), followed by Russia (the initial defense against the German attack) and Japan (their entry into the war). On AA50’s 42 scenario begins with Japan (before the Midway attack), followed by Russia (the failed Russian offensive before the German advance on Caucasus) and Germany.

Your turn order for the major powers seems more based on Revised/AA42 than AA50: Russia/Germany/UK/Japan/US. The question is where to include Italy (since it doesn’t appear on AA42) on that turn order. Also, the fact that the UK plays before Japan has more to do with with balancing the Pacific area (since the UK goes first it can choose how to make the Japanese advance more difficult and to prepare an eventual US advance on the area).

Notice that in AA50 Japan plays first than the UK on the 42 scenario. But there if Japan’s position to advance and take territories is limited since it only possesses 1 transport and the US has a bigger fleet. If Japan didn’t had the chance of sinking the UK’s navy on the Indian Ocean then it would find itself hard pressed against the Allies.

My suggestion would be to focus instead on keeping the order for the 1942 scenario of AA50: Japan/Russia/Germany/UK and then all others as in AAG40. That would mean that the UK fleet on SZ39 is doomed but the upside is that a large portion of the Japanese fleet will be far away to move against the US for a couple of turns.

Concerning deployment, I’d suggest a few changes:

• Japanese control marker on the Gilbert Islands (or even an infantry there, along with another one on the Marshalls)
• Change ownership of Tunisia/Algeria/Morocco back to the French (the Germans never took control of those territories) but only place 1/2 infantry on all those territories.
• Add German units to Libya (1 inf, 1 art) and Tobruk (1 inf, 1 arm).
• Switch ownership of Greece to Germany (Italy failed to take it and although the country was split afterwards between German/Italian/Bulgarian areas the Germans kept control).
• Switch Alexandria back to the UK (Rommel tried to reach it but never took it).
• UK control marker on Italian Somaliland/Etiopia.

Other than that, great idea! ;)

[Funcioneta]

@Hobbes:

@QuakerGeneral:

@marechallannes:

You have to change the order of play.

Why?

My suggestion would be to focus instead on keeping the order for the 1942 scenario of AA50: Japan/Russia/Germany/UK and then all others as in AAG40. That would mean that the UK fleet on SZ39 is doomed but the upside is that a large portion of the Japanese fleet will be far away to move against the US for a couple of turns.

Turn order is one of the reasons why AA50-42 is unbalanced: if that indian fleet would have the chance of survive and the chinese would play before Japan, the scenario would be probably balanced without much need of changing the setup. The order for AA50-42 should be:

USSR, Germany, UK, Italy, China, Japan, USA

This way, not only India’s fleet survive, also lots of valuable chinese units, and a J3 India crush start would be impossible. Also, the game should have a non-agression pact USSR-Japan rule or at least give 1 jap inf to Manchuria (to prevent a USSR1 attack on Manchuria)

For your AAG40-1942 scenario, I suggest this order:

USSR, Germany, UK, ANZAC, Italy, China, Japan, USA, France

Same reasons here, but I’ll add one more: Japan and USA must play consecutively, or the aussies will make can opener moves against Japan’s fleet blockers. USA has not the same problem, because it’s very rare that the west axis makes its way to the Pacific Ocean

[McLovin1985]

@Gharen:

Double Blind means these guys ran at least 2 full global boards simultaneously if I am not mistaken.  For example, if you are the Axis, then you only see Axis units on your board, and you can send planes out to recon areas which will then show what Allied units were there when the recon happened.

Isn’t this also know as ‘fog of war’? I like this a lot, changes the game completely I think. Keep you on your toes too!

[RedHunter]

[quote
For your AAG40-1942 scenario, I suggest this order:

USSR, Germany, UK, ANZAC, Italy, China, Japan, USA, France

Same reasons here, but I’ll add one more: Japan and USA must play consecutively, or the aussies will make can opener moves against Japan’s fleet blockers. USA has not the same problem, because it’s very rare that the west axis makes its way to the Pacific Ocean
[/quote]
Why would you weaken the AXIS even more by not allowing Japan to India crush? As it is the game is weighted to the Allies they need no more edges.

[Funcioneta]

Japan should be able of taking India mid-game (let’s say round 5-7), but never as soon as round 1-3, as usual in AA50-42. Also, this thread is about a 1942 mod for AAG40, not for the OOB setup, that it’s still undecided if it has advantage or how many advantage could have

Also, with this order, ANZAC cannot act as can opener for USA against Japan, and that’s a very big aid for axis (and if you’re trying ignore Japan as allies, you’re totally toasted in AAG40, specially with this mod)