Changes still needed to the game, IMHO

If the fighters die, Taranto is weakened.

Its a small exaggeration, a couple of my bombers always die, you’re going to want 6.  And I agree with you im building mechs and tanks and going east.

Gargantua said hes buying 6 tanks with Russia, I haven’t tried that.  Seems like so few infantry you only have like 20-23? or so to start with its tiny.

I’m going to get routed south in my current game (167 Axis) but im still going to take novogrod on G3 with ease, whatever his posture that’s a gimme.  Italy has 3 tanks and 3 mechs on the continent.  Attacking the Syrian air  stack left after Taranto wasn’t a good idea I lost 2 bombers.

I wish I could play like that! :)

Hey NavySeal,
I have done the same thing. I am kind of a piece junkie so when new editions come out, I often buy several copies for all the pieces. Of course, then I end up with too many of certain things. Even with the unit sculpts. I will want a lot of infantry, tanks, artillery, planes, etc. but not so much with capital ships, even for US and Japan.
So, I count out what I want to keep for my own games and put the rest on eBay. Sometimes I might lump all the extras in a big lot or make up a bunch of little sets. There are guys out there that are even worse piece junkies than I am and my game pieces pretty much always sell.
As for the extra game boards, instruction books, cardboard accessories and dice, you can put them on eBay as well. Some guys out there have a lot of playing pieces but perhaps missed out on whatever game you are offering, or just don’t want to go out and buy a new one. I found the best way to ship these, especially with the game board, is to use a USPS Large Game Board Flat Rate Box. You can put all the game accessories in one of these along with some packing material to fill in the extra space and the USPS will ship it anywhere as long as it doesn’t weigh over 70 pounds. For shipping within the US, I think it costs $16.95. You should check usps.com to be sure. I don’t know about international shipping because I only ship within the US.
The MOST important part is to price these items to sell. Start low and take the shipping cost into account. If you start out with too high a price, you won’t get any bids and will be stuck with them. Even if your starting price isn’t too high, remember they will have to also pay shipping. So start low. You are probably not going to get what  you paid. The object here is to at least make a little money back on your investment and provide some gaming materials to someone that can use them. Even if you just get the lowest bid, at least you get that amount for yourself and you get rid of the excess pieces.
Another option is to offer free shipping which can draw more looks at your items, but then you have to either start your bidding price to include the shipping costs or take a loss with the shipping charges.
Good luck.

However, my biggest problem is USA being forced to split it’s IPCs between Europe and the Pacific theaters.  What?  Since when did the United States do an even split?  You’re disabling the American ability to flexibly respond to crises as they arise?  I.e., “looks like UK is going down due to Sea Lion and Russia is in deep doo doo.  Too bad we can’t spend more in the European theater, even though the Japanese fleet is destroyed…  Got to build more Carriers in San Francisco”  That’s crazy.

I agree here, I’ve since changed my mind about this.

@hardyworld:

Please tell me that it is actually happening for both games this year!  I’m getting anxious.

See: http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=26719.0

I’m just a regular Joe who is happy someone identified a need and was willing to do the legwork =)

@MarkVIIIMarc:

The red dots are a GREAT idea!

I also used the old school fighters and red but merely painted the wing tips red.  If I make anymore I am going to copy your idea.

Did you paint silver “+” symbols or mini swastikas on the Germans? My modeling skills aren’t that good.  I might get a “+” to look ok.

I have put crosses on some of my non-A&A German units but have done nothing with the original black units so far.

no offence taken.

I too (as you can tell) like the long posts like just like I like the long games of A&A…BOTH show the kind of thought I like to put into things…but than again I’m a game geek as my wife so often and fondly calls me and something about the written word brings out the talker in me (I can’t’ figure that one out yet since I cant spell to save my life and if anything I’m under educated when compared to most people).  ANYWAY…

The points you make (as well as several others that have been posted on this topic) about “flow control” of the game do help.  I’m not saying they don’t.  When you get in a check out line at any store, the line that has “the best checker” is always the faster line in comparison to the other lines regardless of how many persons are in line and how many items they have. in other words how well, the assembly line works is as important to how many parts need to be put on and how complicated it is to put each part on.

The more Powers you have in a game, the more parts in the assembly line.  The minor powers are well…just that…minor parts in the assembly line and in the case of France they take seconds compared to the several minutes that the BIG powers take to do their turn.

However, when you lay out the game in an assembly line with each power (no matter how small or BIG they are) in a line (as the turn order is “out of the box”) that makes the LONGEST critical path possible.

If you can cut the game into two halves (Europe and Pacific) and make them into two separate critical paths, you can shorten the time it takes to play each round by half or more (depending on how many “BIG POWERS” there are in each assembly line). Its a the over lapping of critical path activities where ever possible that will save you the most time.

Example:
If Germany takes 15 minutes to do their turn
And if Russia takes 10 minutes to do their turn
And if Japan takes 15 minutes
UK takes 10 minutes
ANZAC takes 5
Italy takes 5
USA takes 10
China takes 2
France takes 1

Because everyone has to wait in line for each other in one assembly line that’s a critical path of 73 minutes per round (give or take several minutes for slow play or fast play).  Now a good checker could clear that check out line in maybe 70 minutes just buy their skill, so having a banker, a task master and a chess clock to help keep everyone moving through the assembly line can obviously help. But it can only do so much.

Now, multiply that by the number of rounds it takes to play the game of tug-o-war in the examples above at IF the shortest tug of war is 10 rounds, that’s a game that last…700 minutes or 11.66 hours.

Now, break the critical path into two assembly lines and it would look more like this.

Europe Pacific
Germany, 15 Japan 15
Russia, 10 UK, 5
UK, 5 ANZAC, 5
Italy, 5 USA, 5
USA, 5 China, 2
France, 1

41 minutes 32 minutes

You still have the 73 minutes to play “each round, but you did it in 41 minutes on one board and 32 minutes on another board.  You just shorted each round by 32 minutes (73 – 41 (the longest critical path) = 32 minutes).

Now, multiply that by the number of rounds it takes to play the game of tug-o-war in the examples above at IF the shortest tug of war is 10 rounds, that’s a game that last…410 minutes 6.8 hours.

Breaking the game into two critical paths IS more than possible in this EPIC game (IMO) because there really is that much of a separation between the two theaters of war in this game when compared to any games before it.

Players on the pacific should probably wait till the round on the Europe board is finished before starting another round (this will probably help with any “overlaps”). But in short, by having the tow half played at the same time (overlapping critical paths) you just shaved an approximate 4.86 hours off the game compared to the 30 minutes that you could shave off by keeping them in one critical path chain and having a good “system” to get everyone through the check out line faster.

BUT…while this idea has plenty of merit…like in construction, the more tasks you have running at the same time, the more crew you need. So having both half’s of the board being played at one time would require a minimum of 4 players compared to 2 players, so for some people, this idea just wont work because they don’t have the available players.