Release Date?

@Cromwell_Dude:

@CWO:

The reaction of novice players will be especially interesting since one of the avowed purposes of this particular edition is to introduce new players to the A&A line.

Well said.

I would also be quite interested in the reaction (and gaming background) of the novice and new players experience.

I’ll post the results and reactions of the players and whether they like it or not.  The Novice player has played A&A once and was France just so they could watch and try to learn.  It was way too much for them for a first time and they felt lost and kind of walked away thinking they didn’t like the game.  I’m hoping this new game will help ease them into the rules.
The new player is more of a monopoly/trivial Pursuit type game player.  The closest they have come to a A & A game was “Zombies”.  Which is a fun game in itself, but nothing like A & A.  So not close at all actually.  :roll:

UPS says it is sitting on my front pourch right now!!  Let the game begin!!!

Just ordered it off Amazon. Looking forward to it.

Hey Guys,
I got my 1941 game today. Haven’t had time to play it yet, but I checked everything out. Below is a pic of all the game components laid out. The board is about the same size as Spring 1942 board. It folds/unfolds kind of weird to me. The cut in the middle goes lengthwise through the middle section and one end section. It works okay, just seems kind of weird to me.
The cardboard pieces (Control Markers, Battle Board, Casualty Strip and Stacking Chips) are significantly thinner than the pieces from Europe 40 or Anniversary. However, they are a little thicker than the pieces from Pacific 40 and Revised. Not crazy about them but I suppose they will work decent enough. I won’t use the cardboard stacking chips, I can tell you that right now. They come in 3 colors: Grey = 1, Green = 3 and Red = 5. One, Three and Five!? Are we playing RISK now?
I flipped through the Instruction Book and found no reference to the missing 2 IPCs from United States IPC chart. In fact, in the section in the front where it states the starting amounts for each country, that also says United States starts at 15 IPCs. So, I figure it is either a mis-print in the book and perhaps they simply missed a couple of small territories when counting up USA’s starting IPCs. OR it could also be a mis-print on the map itself. Perhaps Hawaii and the Philippines are not supposed to be worth anything instead of being worth 1 IPC each. Most of the other islands are not worth anything in this game, including New Guinea and New Zealand. Borneo is only worth 1 and East Indies is worth 2. So, maybe when the printed the map, they gave values to too many US territories by accident.
I don’t know if there is yet a FAQ/Errata page for this game, but when there is, I imagine that will be one of the first things covered.
One other important feature of this game is no new ICs. What is on the board is all you are going to get. Also, no SBRs. It is truly a very simple game, but might be fun none the less.

Way to go Amazon!!!  Can I get “Dark Knight Rises” on blu-ray by Monday???

Now here is a couple of pics I think a lot of us have been waiting for: Comparisons to current A&A pieces.
First we have Infantry and Tanks. The new Infantry look identical to what we currently have from the 1940 games. I can’t tell any difference at all.
The new Tiger tanks are pretty cool. I was looking closely at the Tiger next to the Panther tanks and they seem to be in perfect proportion to one another. In case any of you didn’t know, the Panther tank was actually a little bit longer than the Tiger tank, although I think the turret on the Tiger was bigger.
The IS-2 tanks look really cool too. I didn’t realize the IS-2 was built so low. I just thought it was bigger, but these pieces seem to be in proper proportion.
While I don’t care for the Tigers in Japanese Orange (Japanese Tiger Tanks are ridiculous, IMO), I kind of like the IS-2s in American Green and British Tan. Somehow they just look better.

Next we have the Air Units: Fighters and Bombers.
The Fw-190 and P-40 Fighters came out really good I think. These even rival HBG’s versions from Axis Minors and US Supplement sets.
I’m not so sure about Japanese Fw-190s but the P-40s work good for all the Allies. I know the US sent several to Russia and I think England used some too.
Really like the He-111 Bombers, if just to get some new German bombers for variety. I was pretty fine with the Halifax so I don’t have much of an opinion on the Lancaster Bomber. I do think it is more of an iconic bomber for Britain and WOTC did a great job sculpting these as well.

Naval vessels in next post.

Now here are the Naval pieces.
First the Battleships and Carriers. I still find it odd that they chose a Soviet carrier for the Allies, but I also think it is cool. Even though the Soviet Union didn’t have much of a naval presence in the second world war, it’s nice for them to be represented anyway.
The Kongo and Hood Battlecruiser sculpts look really good. Not crazy about Germany having an IJN Kongo or American having an HMS Hood, but cool looking pieces none the less.

Next are the smaller ships: Destroyers, Submarines and Transports.
I really like the new sculpts for all of these and think they show much more detailing than previous WOTC pieces. The Japanese Akitzuki class Destroyer is really a skinny little ship. It kind of reminds me of the skinny little destroyers you would get with Xeno.

Well, enjoy the pics everyone.

Excellent post!!  I’m really looking forward to these new pieces.

Thanks for the much needed details. Greatly appreciated.

Thanks for the pictures.  Let us know how your first game turns out.

LMFAO!!! I Love two things about this pic…

1. you bought a TABLE FOR THE GAME
2. Underneath are countless HBG boxes that were used for delivery. I got a pile of them myself

That is funny. I got the same thing going for me. A table I bought for A&A set up with a map on it and 50 little white boxes underneath. They’ve been there forever, but it’s like out of sight, out of mind.

Firstly, much kudos to knp7765 for his hard work on this. Pictures and details were amazing.

@knp7765:

I flipped through the Instruction Book and found no reference to the missing 2 IPCs from United States IPC chart. In fact, in the section in the front where it states the starting amounts for each country, that also says United States starts at 15 IPCs. So, I figure it is either a mis-print in the book and perhaps they simply missed a couple of small territories when counting up USA’s starting IPCs. OR it could also be a mis-print on the map itself. Perhaps Hawaii and the Philippines are not supposed to be worth anything instead of being worth 1 IPC each. Most of the other islands are not worth anything in this game, including New Guinea and New Zealand. Borneo is only worth 1 and East Indies is worth 2. So, maybe when the printed the map, they gave values to too many US territories by accident.
I don’t know if there is yet a FAQ/Errata page for this game, but when there is, I imagine that will be one of the first things covered.

I actually think you’re right on the money there, mate. I also thought that the U.S. territories of Panama and West Indies were incorrectly given IPC values of 1, when I first saw the map. But we will find out soon enough I’m sure.

@Lozmoid:

Firstly, much kudos to knp7765 for his hard work on this. Pictures and details were amazing.
I actually think you’re right on the money there, mate. I also thought that the U.S. territories of Panama and West Indies were incorrectly given IPC values of 1, when I first saw the map. But we will find out soon enough I’m sure.

Thanks for the kind words Lozmoid. No, Panama nor West Indies have any IPC value. Here’s a list of the US Territories with IPC values:
6 = Eastern US
6 = Western US
1 = Brazil
1 = Alaska
1 = Hawaiian Islands
1 = Philippine Islands
1 = Szechwan (Southern China)
That totals 17 IPCs. It’s anybody’s guess which 1 IPC territories weren’t supposed to have a value. My guess is still for Hawaii and Philippines.

Philippines should be worth something. I’m thinking Hawaii and Alaska should be 0 if anything.

I don’t think the 15 IPCs for USA at start is mistake.  My understanding is that USA is supposed to start with 15 IPCs for balance purposes, but collect 17 IPCs (or whatever current total is) at the end of their first turn. This reflects to a small degree that the USA is just starting to get its war economy in motion.  In Conquest of Nerath, an A&A style game set in DND universe, Wizards of Coast uses this mechanism (start with different amount than what your “base income.”)

So you think that you start US at 15 and after the first round automatically move them up 2? Well, I understand what you are getting at, but that wasn’t anywhere in the rulebook either. If they are going to do something like that, it should be laid out in the rulebook. After all, this is supposed to be a beginner level game and people just starting out with this kind of game will get confused if it isn’t laid out nice and simple in the rules.

By the way, played my first game today. Axis won everything in 7 rounds, although by the rules (2 capitals) they actually won in 5 rounds. Germany captured Moscow round 2 and London round 5.

It seems as though the game is Axis slanted, but would have to play more to be sure. England really seems to have gotten the short end of the stick. England is only worth 3 IPCs and therefore can only place 3 new units per turn. In this game more than any other, once the Royal Navy is taken out, England is almost defensless.
For example: Germany attempted Sealion with 2 inf, 2 tanks, 1 fighter and 1 bomber. England had 4 infantry plus 1 US fighter. Both sides were wiped out. However, Germany still had it’s transports, a brand new bomber purchased this round, another fighter brought back from Russia plus 2 more inf and 2 more tanks waiting for another assault. On England’s turn, they could only place 3 new units on England. That’s the limit. Unfortunately, the US didn’t have another fighter to send. So, next German round, of course England falls.  I know this sometimes happens even in Global 40, just with more units on both sides, but it just seemed so weak and almost easy for Germany.

I will say the extra UK factories in India and Australia gave Japan some trouble. The actual unit limitations sure told itself. At one point I needed a 3rd UK destroyer but the game only comes with 2. I was able to use one from my regular A&A pieces but if someone only had this game, they would have to write UK Destroyer on a piece of paper and put it on the board. I also came very close to running out of German inf and tanks even though I was using chips everywhere I could. Personally, I would prefer to buy 2 of this game, one simply for extra pieces, then the game could be played properly.

Overall, I think this is a pretty cool game. While I’ve gotten used to Global 40, it’s refreshing to play a much simpler game once in a while. No SBRs, No AA guns, No shore bombardment. Yes, this is a very simple version, but still fun and not so time consuming as a game of Global or even 1942. This game took us roughly 3 1/2 to 4 hours, and that was with a couple of breaks in play and playing the game in a very leisurely pace. I would guess it was more like 3 hours of strict gameplay time. You have to keep track of IPCs on a sheet of paper, but that’s not so bad. I have designed some simple worksheets for just that purpose. I will try to attach one.

IPC chart 1941 page 1.xls

Well, I tried attaching one of my IPC worksheets but couldn’t get it to work. I designed them using Microsoft Works Spreadsheet. So far, I only know how to attach pictures which are “jpeg” and these worksheets don’t have that ending part. I can’t figure out how to attach one of these spreadsheets so you guys can see it. Oh well, not a big deal. I’m sure most of you will figure out your own way.

Thanks KNP for the game session report!  I am looking forward to playing for certain.  I agree that the 15/17 IPC thing is a problem. It must be either a typo (should be 17 starting income USA, etc.) or they left out a note explaining that USA starts with two less than their base income.

Update…

Order status: Shipped

Delivery Estimate: Wednesday July 18, 2012

Get in!  :-D