1942 Second Edition Preview 2: Map & Setup

Sweet!  I love the Aussie task force!

Very nice!

I thing we noticed when we played was that the UK now has a viable attack on the Japan fleet off of East Indies - I think you can get 6 attacking units in there against the BB, 2 ftr and the Carrier. I think it was about a 50-50 maybe 60-40 shot - but, if successful can set Japan back a bit on the fleet situation - when combined with a KJF strategy might be effective. The problem though, is that you are probably sacrificing any units which may survive - need to determine if that is a good thing or not.

I could swear as well - we may have missed the IC in India - completely missed it when we played. Will have to double-check on that :)

Also - beware the green chips and thinking they are just one unit, not three. Did that 2-3 times in our game, though I suspect you’d get used to it.

I am getting bummed actually that I cannot play in the 1942 tournament at GenCon at this point - the more I see and remember, the more I really like this new version.

MM

Wow… All I can say is that I can’t wait till I get my copy.  WOOT!!!    :mrgreen:

I’ve counted the German territories a few times and the IPCs add up to 41, but the German setup card says 40. Is this an error?

Yes, it is an error - they start with 41. Similar problem with UK - card and book say 30, they actually have 31….

MM

It’s a shame that there’s a discrepancy in IPC counts for the UK and Germany between the map and the rulebook/setup cards. I know errors can happen but I would’ve expected that something like that should have been checked. It’s a similar thing with Honolulu being a victory city on the map but not being mentioned in the book; I guess victory conditions in a shorter game would now be 9 VC’s for the Axis and 10 VC’s for the Allies (i.e. 3 more than what each side starts with), what does everyone else think? It doesn’t detract from this game being a “must buy” for me but it’s a bit surprising as these are fairly noticeable errors.

I love the new map & setup by the way, it looks like it will give players a bit more to think about for each power’s opening moves compared to A&A Spring 1942. One thing I’ve already noticed is that if Germany attacks Egypt on G1 (a fairly common move in A&A Spring 1942), then the UK player can’t include the bomber from London if they decide to counter as it can’t reach due to there now being 3 territories across the top of North Africa (Morocco, Algeria & Lybia). But there is that extra UK artillery on Egypt at the start so it makes it just that little bit more difficult for Germany to take it in the first place (probably still worth it though as it opens up the rest of the UK’s territories/IPC’s in Africa for Germany to take).

Thanks Dave! Looking forward to more reviews. Can’t wait to get my hands on this game. The first thing I noticed on the map was the difficulty in seeing some of the borders, in particular between trans Jordan and Persia. But that might just be the resolution on my phone. Hard to believe they messed up starting IPC’s again. I like the break up of territories for Japan and having 4 Chinese territories makes a Moscow crunch take a bit longer.

Map looks great!  There are several changes from first edition that should make for interesting game play.

But yes, 41 for Germany?  31 for UK on the map … How could they have missed that?!?  Perhaps there is a reason?

Either way, excited about this new version.

the extra space between Japan & Pearl and Japan & the Solomons is interesting

The map is AWESOME! Cant wait to play it!

No Soviet AAA in the Far East?
Would have thought the addition of some AAA there would carry over from Global, and keep that front a stalemate.

Instead….the orange steamroller will be taking that path to Moscow…not going through China.

Dave,

Thanks, you beat me to posting the setup cards.  Nice job…

Peace,
Greg

This is cool. I didn’t buy the original spring 42 because I have AA50 (and Revised), but will get this reprint. The new map and sea zones are pretty close to AA50 with exception of no Italy (which would be easy to house rule in BTW). I’m looking forward to playing it, and getting the new sculpts (power colored AA looks pretty cool).

I do think they did a good job with the map, errors aside. Imperious Leader will just make a new and improved map anyway, which I will be sure to use. I don’t really like multiple piece maps, if it can be moved, jostled, bumped out of position i’ll do it.

The errors are frankly kind of shocking.  They should’ve quickly recognized the problem on play testing. Seriously, they don’t know how many iPCs the powers make?  Seriously? That’s basic……  :-P

Part of me wonders if some of the errors aren’t intentional.  Keep the hardcore gamers hooked by possibilities of FAQs, clarifications, Alpha rules… blah.

I’m an addict so of course I’ll buy it, but part of me wishes, in a basic artistic way, that they’d stop screwing around and do it completely right for once.

Let us stand in awe Larry… not in befuddlement!

Axis and Allies and mistakes are a common occurrence. It has something to do with the neglect of marketing at WOTC of non fantasy game products and has continued since 2004 after Revised.

Axis and Allies is treated like a second class citizen. I would tend to blame Larry after it happening so many times, if i made the game i would install many checks and balances to make sure these issues never occur. I feel once somebody allocated to work on the game finishes, their is no supervision to make sure the work is complete and that person does not have the vision of what Axis and Allies should be.

Then latter after the game comes out, WOTC sends little packets of shorted planes, and pieces after complaints. What a way to run a business…

Not to be a complete nerd, but this just reminds me of the old Death Star problem:  the engineers probably told the defense coordinators they were placing a venting shaft directly out of the reactor, and when the defense coordinators complained to the general contractor, the general contractor blew them off citing cost overruns that would occur if they put a simple angel in the shaft line so proton torpedoes couldn’t dive straight down. Really?

Avalon Hill can’t spare one person looking fresh at all the game components before they go out to make sure they, like, add up?  Really?