Detailed Drawing of Global Map & Global Map with Alpha Plus Setup

@shadowhawk I can’t argue with that.Take out india 1st and then go toward Egypt and middle east to obtain victory on the Europe side.

I would really like to here the communities take on this subject. Praises and criticisms. I realize I’m late to the ball, but here I am and I’ excited about getting into this game.
Here is my take.

This board and map are great.

I love the hugeness of it; this thing is just massive.

The geography and how that effects play was very well thought out. Africa is squashed down abut as much as possible and there is more room available in Europe as one could have reasonably made without completely distorting the world map. The point being , the map still looks like the world while still being able to provide effective space for game play- that is a tough balance to achieve.

The idea of making the Himalayas and Sahara impassible was inspired. Of course they are impassible to large armies. If the Axis want to do damage to the British Empire in Sub Saharan Africa, they need to either turn the corner at Alexandria or win the Atlantic or Indian Oceans.

The neutral spaces are very well done. More on that when I review the Neutral Countries.

But the main thing the map gets right is what it’s supposed to get right, it provides the right geometry to promote good game play. Their are major regions and regions within those regions and each set has its own keys to being manipulated for offense and defense. That makes for interesting game play.

Even better, I haven’t found any rinky dink ways of manipulating the geography in ways that don’t feel true to the intent of the game/WW2. The space in the Pacific is an obstacle. The Space of Russia is an obstacle. As they both should be. The benefit from gaining Scandinavia is big, but its not a game changer. The Far East or the Black Sea can’t be used as some unanticipated flanking move. One doesn’t want to be tied down to replaying WW2 as accurately as possible, but one doesn’t want to completely break with reality either.

Every game I play I learn new things about this board. I’ve played 4 intensive games with myself and am still feel like I am a long long ways from mastering the geography of this board. That is a good thing.

Certainly there are things I could quibble about.
The names for the Chinese Provinces could be better. In that , as someone who lives in China, I would prefer the proper current Pinyin names for them, A westerner defiantly made this game. But I understand they are trying to keep with the Pre 1949 feel for the region and using the terms the west used back then; so ok.

Having Kazakistan so far south is a bit weird.

There are times where I wish certain spaces were larger; I’m looking at you Bessarabia and SZ110. But most of my spatial problems stem from my style of game play which is still rooted in monolithic stacks of enormous proportions which worked well in the Axis and Allies of old.

Which brings me to my biggest opinion about this board. This board is infinitely superior to the previous incarnations of Axis and Allies.

This is a very good and interesting game and it starts with the map.

What are your thoughts?

http://www.harrisgamedesign.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=9936

The rules are the same on this point in both editions.  See the Official Europe & Global Rules Clarifications.

@suprise:

The A +3 seems to make it easier for the Allies than the A +2
  Still more testing to be done. the Axis could use 24$  extra at the start to share or give to one and place the pieces before the purchase  or include with the purchase and put them out at deployment something an extra little kick or something
  I was hoping for a more balanced game  but that was just the 1st one
  More testing still to be done

I don’t know about an extra 24 ipcs, im thinking maybe a bid for axis that starts at like 20-24 is best.

I might be able to play against your axis too otahere. if you don’t mind little long waits between some turns.

This is all there will be in the way of official errata for the box rules for a while.

as italy i got attacked by uk and uk-planes landed on cyprus. kind of annoying those islands. that´s why i occupy them if necessary just for protecting unprotected italian transports. helped a lot letting survive them.

but: it is no standard move to get these islands, though the denial of the NO is a good point to consider… :D

Yeah, I don’t know about Global, but I love it in Pacific. It removes the extreme Japanese advantage from a J1 attack (although I havn’t actually tried that, but seems pretty obvious).

A J3 attack should go Japan’s way if you don’t make any errors and dice are even, but only just. This setup was way more enjoyable than any original setup game I have played.