Anyone played (just) A&AE40 with alpha2 yet?

[Sergente_nella_neve]

Too many time requested to play Global. I prefer Europe OR Pacific only.

[vontysk]

Well, ignoring Gargantuas fantastic contributions to this thread and focusing on the actual question: I take that as a no then. Or at least not many people have tried alpha+2 out for just Europe?

[Pop]

Just started one. Had to change rule for england to allow all fighter’s to scramble to make sealion more difficult as we only play low luck. Otherwise sealion is a forsure. Will let you know how it goes only on turn 3.

[Gargantua]

Low Luck is a TOTALLY different game.  So your comments regarding balance cannot be considered I’m afriad.

No, I haven’t even heard of someone playing Europe seperate from Global, save BRAND NEW players / beginners so they can learn the game basics.  And at THAT stage, balance is irrelevant, because of the copious amounts of mistakes that will be made by either side, that will screw them for the game.

[jim010]

Low Luck is a TOTALLY different game.

Agreed.

I like low luck, but I do agree that it changes play.  I no longer need to go in with overkill to ensure a win, which frees up units for other attacks.  Does change how much you can do.

[Axisplaya]

I played 4 games of E40 with Alpha +2 .
All games were won by Axis after a Sealion, but it doesn’t mean the game is not well balanced, it might just mean we are not playing the allies well enough.

The IC in UK not downgraded to Minor IC makes the UK impossible to be taken back by the US if Germany doesn’t want to, but since the US don’t have to deal with japanese, they can just let it go and hit Italy or Germany as hard as they can.

[Gargantua]

You just have to make Sealion so impossible / painful, that the Germans don’t even want to attack. There are ways to get it done.

[acampo22]

Agreed with Gargantua - as UK your top priority is to make Sealion unreasonable for Germany to attempt.  Especially with the increased income to the Soviets, if Germany does not launch Barbarosa early the Red Army becomes very formidable and, draw too many resources and take enough time for U.S. to swoop in.

[Axisplaya]

@Gargantua:

You just have to make Sealion so impossible / painful, that the Germans don’t even want to attack. There are ways to get it done.

Yup, i agree. In one of these 4 games, berlin fell on 6th turn against the big russian stack but was liberated by Italians, and then keeped for the rest of the game. Berlin fell because Sealion cost too much to Axis. That was just a matter of luck that the player was able to get Berlin back and keep it.

[Krieghund]

@Axisplaya:

The IC in UK not downgraded to Minor IC makes the UK impossible to be taken back by the US if Germany doesn’t want to, but since the US don’t have to deal with japanese, they can just let it go and hit Italy or Germany as hard as they can.

Captured major ICs should be downgraded in the Theatre games also when using Alpha.

[Axisplaya]

@Krieghund:

Captured major ICs should be downgraded in the Theatre games also when using Alpha.

Oh, ok. I knew something was wrong  :roll:

I guess we will see less and less Sealion now !  :-D

[ozimek1]

I’ve played one game of Europe with Alpha+2. Worked pretty well. You can see the session report over at boardgamegeek, here:
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/618278/europe-only-first-game-with-alpha2-setup

[Rednalyn]

@ozimek1:

I’ve played one game of Europe with Alpha+2. Worked pretty well. You can see the session report over at boardgamegeek, here:
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/618278/europe-only-first-game-with-alpha2-setup

Ozimek1, do you have a list of alpha+2 for europe only, or du you just use the global alpha+2 and disregard anything about the pacific theater?

[ozimek1]

@Rednalyn:

@ozimek1:

I’ve played one game of Europe with Alpha+2. Worked pretty well. You can see the session report over at boardgamegeek, here:
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/618278/europe-only-first-game-with-alpha2-setup

Ozimek1, do you have a list of alpha+2 for europe only, or du you just use the global alpha+2 and disregard anything about the pacific theater?

it was almost the same setup. Changes (as proposed by Krieghund) were:
The two ANZAC inf in Egypt were replaced by one UK inf.

Russia gained 9 IPC’s extra per turn to simulate “SFE” income.
We played that they had to placed in Novosibirsk, but that may be wrong. (?)

US ignored objectives from Pacific.

Worked pretty well. Much better than OOb anyways.

[Krieghund]

@ozimek1:

Russia gained 9 IPC’s extra per turn to simulate “SFE” income.
We played that they had to placed in Novosibirsk, but that may be wrong. (?)

The IPCs may be used normally.

[Antonescu]

We played 3 games of AAE40 with alpha +.2, all won by the Axis.

As far as we could tell, the Allies didn’t make any major or minor mistakes, maybe they were just overly cautious.  Russia just turtled, built only infantry.  The UK was lost once.

The problem was that the Axis can now take their time to build up forces that totally wipe out Moscow.  They are under no pressure to attack, they can repel any landings in France and/or Italy and then go back to Russia.

Italy is also out of control, it always had Africa, the Middle East, Persia and India.  In all games it threatened Stalingrad.  At one point, Italy was outproducing the US!!  With all these IPCs Italy is more than capable of protecting southern Italy.

[Rednalyn]

So all the changes (beside the modifications of the rules) to Europe 1940 made by the Alpha +.2 is essentially:

9+ IPC to Russia
+1 UK infantry in Egypt
NO Germany: +5 while not at war with Russia
NO Russia: +5 when at war with Germany

Is that really all?

So, if I’m gonna play by the Alpha +.2 in a Europe 1940 game, the above listed 4 changes and the rule changes is all?

Damn it would be nice with a complete list, i.e. “Alpha +.2 for 1940 Europe” - no fancy graphic layout, just text explayning how to set up and play :) Really hope someone will make that. And if no one has made it, by the time I figure it out, I will make it :D But I’m making only small progress here :)

[Swift7]

I soooooo agree with Rednalyn…its really confusing when players keep referring to changes to Alpha+2 from Alpha+1 versus OOB etc…

[Rednalyn]

I just discovered, that there is many more differences to the startup, than I previous stated.

I will update my findings in a couple of days, when I have added it all together :)

Kriegshound, is USA really down to only getting +10 IPC when at war? (of the NO’s in alpha +.2, it is only number 1 that US can be achieved in Europe!)

[Krieghund]

The US can collect NOs 1 and 5, for a total of 15 IPCs.  Just ignore the Pacific map territories referenced in NOs.