Played up until turn 4. Germany’s Sealion attempt has 5 INF, 5 ART, 1 Bomber, 3 TAC and 4 FGT vs. 11 UK INF, 1 French INF, 3 FGT and 1 SB. AA gun did nothing. First round dice rolls were par. Second and third rounds NONE of my German planes hit. NONE. Germany built 4 transports first round. By the end of turn 3 the Germans had no fleet other than a couple of Subs as a result of Sealion failing miserably when I TOTALLY should have taken it, but at this point it’s game over as the UK player had been building up his fleet in New Brunswick and the Americans were following suit.
Only positive affect of this was that the UK did not go for the Italian Fleet in UK1 and as a result the Italians were kicking butt, with their full fleet plus an additional transport. By the end of Turn 3 they had the all of North Africa, plus TJ, Syria, South France, Egypt, Bulgaria, Greece and Iraq and were collecting 36 with NO.
Meaningless though. In a game were the Axis start off with less money from the start and it takes so long for the Axis to catch taking territory - which takes so much longer in this game, I’m really looking forward to seeing my first post where somebody claims to have acheived Axis victory. Even if the Germans were successful with Sealion in this game (which they should have been - read above and do the math) it still doesn’t matter because despite the extra IPCS from taking Britian they have wasted so much money that should have gone towards beefing up the Babarossa offensive - and this was in a game where the Japanese declared war on Russia straight away and had units in Yukuts by turn 3.
1941 finally resolved the 3 on 2 flaw that all the other incarnations of AA had by bringing Italy into the game and making it a proper 3 vs. 3. 1940 has gone back on this and made it 6 vs. 3. France doesn’t really count of course, but despite the massive fleet and air power the Japs have they have WAY too much to do on the mainland and the Atlantic and the American NO just adds insult to injury.
We never played with NO in 1941 after a couple of games because we found that it favoured the Axis too much. Without favours the Allies but it was more balanced as a result because the Allied strats were harder to coordinate. We found it made for a better game despite Italy seriously struggling for income.
After a few more games of 1940 we might be coming to this same conclusion. America can never be taken - EVER, unless of course everybody else is out of the game, so the last thing they need is +30 IPCS per turn. Long term without the NO Normady will happen in 1944 - when it should have happened. So far in this game, and again I admit my experience in this one is as limited as everybody else is, I see the Normady campaign happening WAY earlier and there is absolutely nothing the Axis can do about it.
2 cents.