Axis & Allies Global 1942 Set Up

[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)