How many years would you say a turn is?

Interesting question.

If you look at the size of the areas and consider the time it took to conquer them during the real war, then I’d say six months would be quite reasonable. That may seem a little short game-wise though, as it provides for only seven turns if you start early 1942 and end half 1945. But if the real war would have gone better for the Axis, then it could indeed have lasted much longer.

So yes, I would agree with an estimate of six months per turn.

:-D i admire you for asking a most intresting question like that and yes i agree 6-7 month sounds about right. :)

Here are Larry Harris’s thoughts on the subject (from his forums) regarding the 1940 game.  The same principle applies to this game.

“Time” in this game is like a rubberband. I’m not telling you definitively that these events are taking place in June 1940, and here’s snapshot of the military situation. I can’t! It doesn’t work for the Axis & Allies I know and love. If it did, ships would be able to move a lot more than 2 spaces per turn. If it did, aircraft could have made their way around the world a couple of times during a round. I kind of start the game at a stated date, a date with some historical significance. I try to represent the game’s world in its political divides or territories for the stated starting date. You, as the player, can expect certain historical events to be part of the story. Where time goes from there is anybody’s guess. It’s a rubberband. Like a rubberband sometimes “time” is expanded and sometimes it’s contracted. I go from macro to micro in a micro second, if you can measure time in those realms.

Often people ask me what a round represents in time. To keep it simple, I respond that a round is roughly 3 or 4 months. A lot of times the game seems to follow that time logic. If a round really was 3 or 4 months it would take around (6.3 call it) 7 rounds to go from June 1940 to December 1941. Two very distinct dates in this game. I immediately concluded that from an “enjoyment” point of view, 6 or 7 rounds was too many rounds to go through before getting all the powers in the fight. As it is now, the last possible holdout, Russia, can go to war on turn 4 should the Germans not attack them before then. There’s one good example of game-play trumping history/time.

I’m happy if I can get historical events to occur in chronological order. You know… Battle of France, Battle of Britain, Barbarossa, Pearl Harbor and so… I don’t even consider all the powers to be in the same time frame when they are all going through their first turns. I can’t… When Germany takes its first turn in the Global game the clock has already starting ticking. By the time Japan’s first turn comes around the world is already a different place. French Indo-China has no mother country any longer. Who can say what the exact date it is at any given moment?

Often people ask me what a round represents in time. To keep it simple, I respond that a round is roughly 3 or 4 months. A lot of times the game seems to follow that time logic. If a round really was 3 or 4 months it would take around (6.3 call it) 7 rounds to go from June 1940 to December 1941. Two very distinct dates in this game. I immediately concluded that from an “enjoyment” point of view, 6 or 7 rounds was too many rounds to go through before getting all the powers in the fight. As it is now, the last possible holdout, Russia, can go to war on turn 4 should the Germans not attack them before then. There’s one good example of game-play trumping history/time.

The problem with Larry’s own account of time is that its entirely inconsistent.

IN 1940 Germany is at war with Russia on turn X and with USA on turn Y. If you just plug in the turns into a time frame you get 6 MONTH TURNS.

6/1940-11/1940 Germany at war with France
12/1940-5/1941 Germany takes Yugoslavia and prepares for Barbarossa.
6/1941-11/1941 Germany attacks Russia in the game and in history
12/1941-5/1942 Japan attacks USA in the game and in History

He concluded that 6-7 rounds is too much, which would have meant 3-4 month turns, therefore revising the time when Germany takes on Russia ans when Japan takes on USA ALSO changes the time of which a turn is measured. Russia attacking Germany on turn 4 is also historical. Stalin was planing to do it for late 1941 which would be turn 4.

His statement:

There’s one good example of game-play trumping history/time.

Is actually the opposite. Its historical entirely and is totally consistent with “time”.

http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v19/v19n6p40_Michaels.html

This most recent compendium of Russian revisionist writings deepens our understanding of Stalin’s preparations for a military first-strike against Germany in the summer of 1941. The strategic deployment plan, approved by Stalin at a conference on May 15, 1941, with General Staff chief Georgi Zhukov and Defense Commissar Semen Timoshenko, called for a Blitzkrieg:

Tank divisions and mechanized corps were to launch their attack from the Brest and Lviv [Lemberg] tier accompanied by destructive air strikes. The objective was to conquer East Prussia, Poland, Silesia and the [Czech] Protectorate, and thereby cut Germany off from the Balkans and the Romanian oil fields. Lublin, Warsaw, Kattowice, Cracow, Breslau [Wroclaw] and Prague were targets to be attacked.

A second attack thrust was to be directed at Romania, with the capture of Bucharest. The successful accomplishment of the immediate aims, namely, to destroy the mass of the German Army east of the Vistula, Narev and Oder rivers, was the necessary prerequisite for the fulfillment of the main objective, which was to defeat Germany in a quick campaign. The main contingents of the German armed forces were to be encircled and destroyed by tank armies in bold rapid advances.

Three recurrent terms in the mobilization plan of May 15 confirm the aggressive character of Stalin’s plan. “A sudden strike” (vnyyzapni udar), “forward deployment” (razvertyvaniye), and “offensive war” (nastupatel’naya voyna). Of the 303 [Soviet] divisions assembled on the western front, 172 were assigned to the first wave of attack. One month was allotted for the total deployment – the period from June 15 to July 15. Mikhail Melitiukhov: “On this basis it appears that the war against Germany would have to have begun in July.”

@Col.:

Assuming that the war doesn’t have to end in summer of '45 (but probably somewhere near there), what do you guys think is an accurate timeframe regarding a full round?

Six months seems like an easy guess, but I haven’t really played enough games to get a good sample to draw from.

If we’re talking Spring 42, then 2 (possibly 3) turns is approximately 1 year? So if the game is still going after Round 12 its Spring 1948 and the world is drastically reshaped from a conflict twice as devastating as WW2.