AA41 Complete Review

[Variable]

@DarthShizNit:

tell us how it goes  :-D

Just finished up another game. Axis win again, BUT it was a very unlikely win. The game dragged on for several rounds with no capitols being captured. Not even Moscow…

Turn 1: The Russians started with a moderate counter to Germany. The Germans essentially put enough into Russia to hold the line while focussing on a fleet for a KEF strategy. In this game, that boils down to buying a carrier and raiding the Luftwaffe for aircraft. The Royal Navy was dispatched easily. The UK seeing no German transports, went to help US with a KJF strat since they get an IC at Australia and India. Japan did their usual land grab for money and Pearl Harbor attack. US could only build and sit as Atlantic was owned by the Germans and the Pacific looked treacherous under the shadow of two IJN carriers and an IJN battleship.

Turns 2-4: Russia and Germany traded hordes of materiel leaving both depleted on the front lines. Germany destroyed anything in the Atlantic above water but couldn’t muster the IPCs to get to an almost empty England just yet. Next turn… The UK had a series of fantastic dice rolls which can really turn the tide in this game (stay tuned!) and had completely routed the Japanese in Asia and the South Pacific. Japan, while grabbing islands and forcing Russia to guard the back door had one key failure when trying to take the money islands… they lost! Bad dice. The US used a modified strat to get airpower to the South Pacific and took care of half the IJN while protecting their own.

Turn 5: Russia stands nearly empty. Germany has almost nothing left but is still churning out units from the factory while holding all of Europe. UK is pushing through Asia taking Japan’s money and (more good dice) have sunk the Kriegsmarine with a submarine force. Japan is turtling hoping for a miracle against the sea of green and tan descending on them in all directions. The US sees an end in sight as they revel in their KJF strat… And then it happens.

Turn 6: Germany hurls everything it has left at the unsuspecting London. A force consisting of 1 infantry, 1 armor, 1 fighter, and 1 bomber takes on the UKs 4 infantry and 1 fighter… and wins with a lone Tiger! The entirety of remaining Allied forces in the Atlantic consist of 1 UK sub and 1 US sub. Russia has no transports to help. End game.

[WILD BILL]

Wow Sea lion with 1 transport, gota love it

[Variable]

Right? This is an interesting iteration. If the game drags on too long, there is literally nothing left on the board if you have two aggressive players. The income can’t possibly pace the losses. Even the richest country isn’t buying more than 3 or 4 units per turn, and that would be mostly infantry.

[Col. Ty Webb]

Variable,

How much time have each of your game been taking, and about how long does each round take to play?

Thanks for all of the information so far, but these are the two biggest questions for me when it comes to getting new players.

[cebrickey]

In the sales solicitation flyer, WOTC stated that the play time for A&A 1941 runs between 1 1/2 to 2 hours.  How long was the playing time for your A&A 1941 games?

[DarthShizNit]

Variable-What was the “moderate” counter to germany on R1 and what “modified strat” did you use to get US air power into the south pacific?

[Variable]

@Col.:

Variable,

How much time have each of your game been taking, and about how long does each round take to play?

Thanks for all of the information so far, but these are the two biggest questions for me when it comes to getting new players.

Since there is generally only 1 or 2 combats to resolve and no complex rules to deal with, each power can do it’s turn in about 5 minutes. So figure on 25-30 mins per turn times 6 or so turns is 3 hours.

[Variable]

@DarthShizNit:

Variable-What was the “moderate” counter to germany on R1 and what “modified strat” did you use to get US air power into the south pacific?

They retook West Russia using the fighter  and infantry, but saved the tanks.

Modified US strat is something new I will make a new thread on…

[Col. Ty Webb]

Thanks.

I think the turn length time is more important than the overall time. As long as everybody is active and the turns go quickly and smoothly, they probably won’t notice if it goes a few extra turns.

[cebrickey]

@Col.:

Thanks.

I think the turn length time is more important than the overall time. As long as everybody is active and the turns go quickly and smoothly, they probably won’t notice if it goes a few extra turns.

Good point. The key is for players to stay involved in the game and maintain a high level of interest / excitement. I believe A&A 1941 will do just that with its faster playing time per game turn.

[WILD BILL]

I just noticed the IC on Australia for 1941 (when Variable mentioned it above).

I know this is off topic, but I wonder why they didn’t include the Aussie IC in E Australia for 1942 2nd ed. It can only produce one unit (1 IPC value). Maybe Japan has a hard time in 1942 game (that’s what I’ve heard anyway).

[mastermind93]

@cebrickey:

Good point. The key is for players to stay involved in the game and maintain a high level of interest / excitement. I believe A&A 1941 will do just that with its faster playing time per game turn.

Yeah, this version is really for less experienced players. I remember pulling an A&A all-nighter with some friends, and because the turns took so long, one of them actually fell asleep. Meanwhile, as the mastermind of the bunch (heehee… get it?) I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of strategizing and trying to outsmart my opponents. I’m just not sure if I could take the simplicity. Either that, or my fellow players would get so fed up with me because I’m taking so long to finish my turn.  :-P

[Cow]

I feel it is a good map for even the most experienced players as well. Sometimes you don’t have all night to play game of global. aa50 can turn into long games too, I had a few 24 hour aa50 games berlin and russia just would not fall, it was crazy.

Most turns take 5 minutes in all axis and allies games minus the rolling dice part. On crossroad rounds it is okay to think about things a bit, because you are deciding on a direction.

If you are take too long to do your turns, people tend to lose interest, get tired, or not have as much fun as otherwise.

If you really want to insist on min/maxing every little thing, I recommend learning statistics and probably on your own time so when you show up you can do the math in your head no problem as you go along. I use the built in calculator in triple a only for big battles in dice games.

Low luck games are another story, you have to do every little thing min/maxed and run every little calc, because you are calculating for next round and the round after usually. Dice games, you don’t know what your casualties will look like so you are always adjusting based on what happens.

[cebrickey]

With respect to the game board, I would have preferred the Chinese territories be divided east / west instead of north / south. Also, given the late 1941 start date for the game, Southeast Asia should have been divided into two territories - British Burma and Japanese occupied French Indochina.

In regard to the setup, why is there no Chinese (American) infantry in Northwestern China? I guess the Soviet player could move some of his infantry to Northwestern China from the Caucasus. I hope this is a mistake that will be corrected by future errata.