My review copy of Axis & Allies Europe 1940 has arrived

@Rednalyn:

It would be nice if one could by the 2nd ed rulebook

Yes it would, printing out the set ups can get messy and lost easily, it would be nice to have a proper book…also a shame about missing out on all the awesome pieces.

Hey guys.  If any of you are still interested, I have a brand new copy of Europe 1940 that I am selling on Ebay with a bunch of extra pieces (ICs, AA, IPCs, units, dice).  I don’t want to post a link here because that might be against the rules, so if you are interested go to Ebay and search for “Axis & Allies Europe 1940” and you will see mine come up with the title:

“Axis & Allies Europe 1940 SEALED plus Many Extras!! Free shipping to USA/Canada”

I’m no veteran, but from my experience you can’t really focus on Sealion AND the Soviets.  Sealion OOB is really quite easy but then you’ve neglected the Soviets and turning your attention to that front while holding London can be difficult.  People have mentioned G4 attack on Soviets and had success but I’ve found with my own games that it’s difficult for me to take them out after waiting so long.  So that’s my suggestion, do one or the other, not both

If you build a factory in Cairo as UK, its great!!  If you can get away with it, which is hard.  The best way to do this is to save your transport, not worry about Greece, combine your fleet, bring up some reinforcements from south Africa, and land as many allied aircraft there as you can by turn 3 or 4.  If you throw down a factory there by turn 3 or 4, then you have Africa and a sizable fleet to help protect India one the good ole USA puts the vice on Italy.

@Bodeacious:

@Koningstiger:

Land three American transports loaded with 3x infantry and 3x tanks in Africa and along with the assistance of the Brits and some token French forces, the Axis will never ever control all of Africa! An Allied player that allows this is defeinitely doing something wrong! ( I agree that Africa is a relative sideshow, but you simply cannot allow the Axis to take ALL the African IPCs!)

The Us can send three tanks to Brazil and pick up the three men there.

Wouldn’t you have to unload at least one of the tanks to claim the infantry? That would then also mean that transports’s move is over since you unloaded. You wouldn’t be able to move that transport again until your next turn. Apart from that that’s a good points. I also go to Africa via Brazil. Again, an Allied player that allows the Axis to completely conquer Africa is doing sth wrong…

@LHoffman:

Interesting, yes… but I don’t think the similarity between the A&A game and Axis pact you reference is intentional. By that I mean it was a total coincidence. Taking into account all of the other errors in Pacific and previous versions, there is no way that the designers paid that much attention to detail. I bet it just looked like a logical place to split the board for them.

Yeah. I think they just split it where China ended, and that happened to be there.

Besides, 10 degrees is a large error.

Yeah but you are trying to just throw a bunch of random countries together to create some kind of Frankenstein country just so that there will be enough IPC’s to make it viable. It is not very realistic and furthermore, we don’t need any more powers.

Meh, really, it simply depends on the Axis’ focus on any particular game.  It looks like Russia only gets a crappy +5 NO once it is at war with the Axis, so compared to pissing off the Americans, war with Russia (only) would be a much more palatable option for Japan.  18 land units, while it is quite a lot, would not be expected to be massed together right at the border with Japan, so they could be picked off a bunch at a time, and definitely doable if Japan gets a major industrial complex in Asia (which it probably will in most games).  Plus, Moscow it so far away that sending reinforcements east is probably not Stalin’s top priority, so Japan could hold onto the Russian IPCs for a long time, gaining back whatever the cost was in killing the units over 3-4 rounds.

Also, it is subterfuge to some extent; forcing the Soviets to respond to threats on their eastern front would pull some attention (and troops) away from the western front, which would help Germany and Italy pull off a successful Sea Lion AND Barbarossa in turn.  Kinda of like not letting your left hand knowing what the right hand is doing.  However, with a Sealion going into action on Round 3 or 4, Japan may be forced to focus entirely on eliminating India so that the UK is incapable of sending reinforcements anywhere else.

I’m wondering what Italy will be required to take in the Med to stop UK air from reaching England.  Definitely Gibraltar and Malta, and all of the African coast, excepting Egypt maybe.  Italy has its hands full.  Maybe it would be best for Germany to ditch Sealion and just go after the Med early and take what it can get?