Re: Field Marshal Games Pieces Project Discussion thread

I had a similar idea for my my big variant where that uses some historical and balance modifications. Basically there would be more than just an axis or allies alliance. The game starts in 1919 and carries on into the 21st century and has technological advancement stages and political rules. It has build-up/political rounds and at turn 20 i.e. 1939 the war starts WWII and doesn’t until either the Comitern, Nationalist, or Allied forces lose a super power’s capital. A cold war begins and limited warfare and second build up/political phase begins. The first superpower to make an aggressive action then starts World War III.

Everyone will start out with exactly the same military forces but maintains thier sphere of influence and must choose their alignments and government styles.

The game will be complicated but simple at the same time with most of the luck factor going towards combat.

The US, UK, USSR, Germany, and Japan will be the five major superpowers. The USSR represents all communist aligned powers but may make alliances with either the Axis or Allies. France, Italy and Anzac may ally themselves with any major superpower except Anzac may never go to war against the U.K.

All minors will play a role in the game too with limited but playable forces. Some will literally act as puppet-states to the superpowers.

I would go on further but there are more details im working on and do not want to divert the thread from the original topic. Also my post is just part of a rough draft.

Cannot find many threads that really get into this version of the game in great detail. Played 1 full game of it so far, and love it. (I was originally a Classic player all the way.)

Anyway, few questions to maybe spark some discussion on this:

Which official version is this map closest to? Also which “official” rule set does this variant use? Spring 1942 edition?

Bidding: on the few posts I found on the topic, it seems people think this map favors the Axis and they actually bid allies. Either I am reading posts on a different version or I just suck, because it seems like the Allies are in pretty good shape in this map from the beginning and they can do some things right out of the gate to slow what needs to be a rapid Axis assault. E.g. China being a distraction and the UK being able to defend most of its colonies for at least 3 turns.

I am still not entirely sure what the best opening moves are for the Axis, which is what I would really like to discuss in depth here if other folks have some more experience with this game. For instance, what odds should the German player take to try and take Leningrad first turn? It seems like their Northern fleet cannot last more than a turn against a good UK player, so should you just sacrifice it and take worse odds on a Leningrad assault if the Soviet player leaves you, say, a 70% chance? (I am usually the kind of player that only attacks with overwhelming odds, e.g., 90% and above. Even 85% makes me nervous…) How can the Germans ever keep their Northern fleet alive? Do they need to? (It seems like the English can kill it turn 1 no matter what the Germans do.) If you cannot take Leningrad T1, is it better to instead focus like a laser on a later round (T4 or 5) take over of Stalingrad with a huge mass of tanks and infantry that you slowly plod over there?

Is a rapid take over of Africa impossible against a UK player who adequately defends Syria and Egypt T1 and who rapidly stacks Gibraltar with numerous planes and troops? Should the Italians forego Africa and put everything into a Russian assault? Is Western Turkey a viable take-over to open up another avenue for Italian ships and/or tanks into Russia or Africa?

Do the Japanese sacrifice their fleet to kill the US at Midway or do they ignore them entirely and focus everything on India? It seems like focusing on anything else is ultimately a mistake, at least thats how my last game played out.

So many questions! What do you guys think is the optimum opening Axis move?

Check the links on the right side, at amazon they have the spring 42 version for 28$
It should give you enough spare parts :)

and a green canadian dice too

@Tall:

Axistiger13,

Thanks for the info.  That will certainly be useful.

“Tall Paul”  :

You are welcome!

Irock, Warrior, and Others,

As you may already know by now we are, as we speak, working on a new series of games as I just described below.  The (proposed) name is:

Expanded A&A-The Naval Series with the 1st game to be Coral Sea and The Solomons Campaign.

We’re investigating the possibility that you could play 2 or 3 COMPLETELY separate games on the same map(at DIFFERRENT times).  the Coral Sea naval-air battle, the huge Solomons Campaign, and maybe a Battle of the Bismark Sea scenario, too.

I’ve had so many players express their interest and approval in my stated goal for a game that would be designed based on a “Battle-Specific”(the Solomons Campaign) map, Enlarged to
G-40 size, and utilizing all the new units and their new capabilities.

I think that this would be nothing short of a revolution in our A&A gameplay.

Of course none of this would be the least bit possible without HBG and FMG making available all of the wonderful new units that they plan.  My hat’s off to them for their efforts here.

Tigerman, as an experienced “Map Master”, has agreed to do the map(Haleluyah!!!) which will take a bit of time as what we’re proposing is HUGE!  Not only in the amount of changes, new rules, and improvements(?) that we plan, but in shear SIZE as well.

Stay tuned to the various postings for updates.

And if this seems the least bit interesting to you, get INVOLVED and let us know YOUR ideas or opinions.  We will all benefit from having all ideas considerred.

We’ve started our own thread here in the Variants Section for this game called
Expanded A&A-The Naval Series    Coral Sea and The Solomons Campaign.
Stop in and check it out, ask questions, or offer suggestions anytime.

Like I Say,……What Do YA’LL Think???
                                                                                    “Tall Paul”

You can gauge the size of pieces against the infantry. There is a good set of pics at BoardGameGeek.

Thanks for the welcome, I guess everybodys waiting to see what Field Marshall is going to do , I just thought I missed something.