Simple DIY table top for A&A G40 (video)

My group has taken the ultimate step that many on this and other sites are loathe to do. We have unified turns, 1:Axis 2:Allies. We mainly play a modded AA50 with slightly (5-10) more territories. This greatly increases the speed and playability for several reasons.

Positives
Firstly, the vast majority of the engagements can be done simultaneously without any real issues.

Everyone can purchase simultaneously, and if you are not particularly a-retentive some people can finish their purchasing while others are moving forward with their attack declaring, but please make sure all attacks are declared before any attacks begin, to easy to start conflict there with meant-to/didn’t-do.

The most important factor in time improvement is not the actual simultaneity of the turn but that every turn, every round, attack and defense, involves every player. No one is bored (US/USSR) for turn after turn of waiting to do anything. This engagement greatly increases the camaraderie (heh) and the pressure of the turn. Everyone’s attention is focused. We REGULARLY complete our AA50 to a satisfying surrender in about 3 hours. In fact most of us have young kiddos so we don’t really have a choice.

Another useful point is that if someone brings an uninterested significant other or newbie, Italy makes a great and dynamic option when coordinating with an expert playing Germany. I find that scheduling is one of the hardest issues with getting a group together and perhaps one of the main reasons you would want a shorter game.

Counter points/Solutions
No 1/2 punches with Italy/Germany or UK/US. This might be a bigger problem on Global but I do not feel that it is an issue in AA50. To correct this we use some special rules including a reserved 2nd attack round for unused armies that want to attempt a blitz through/drop past a recently conquered territory or Sea Zone.

Massed Allied navies, especially in Europe. Haven’t really figured this one out, but it is historically accurate and axis can usually get the allies to a surrender point without Operation Sealion anyway. Massed navies is one of the reasons we support the 7/0 Transport rule in the recent editions over the 8/1 of the old editions.

Starting positions for UK and USSR. Since Axis will move collectively ahead of them, USSR and UK might need a little tweaking in the setup. I usually move some of UK’s Pacific/Indian navies one space further from J1. Additionally we give a territory or two to USSR to absorb the assault of G1.

Conclusion
I feel like if you really want to make A&A work for you, it can. It just might take a little more willpower in working through and agreeing to some compromises on OOB rules.

P.S. It always helps if the scheduling problem is with other people, you be the one to set up ahead of time. I always end up falling on that sword.

Thanks Dauvio. I appreciate it.

I’m looking for digital mapmakers and digital publishing enthusiasts to help me develop a new map and professional-looking set of rules for an Axis & Allies homebrew set of rules. Any takers?

@Young:

Thanks CWO Marc, really appreciate your comments… do you play often? I understand there is a lot of players in Montreal, do you have a game group?

For many years I’ve had too much going on in my life, professionally and otherwise, to have had time to do much of anything other than collecting the A&A games.  And, to be honest, I have too many issues with many of the features of the various A&A games that I’ll probably never play anything other than what I’m hoping to create at some distant point in the future when I do have the time for it, which is a completely personalized version of the Global game that, for all intents and purposes, keeps the sculpts and the map board but throws out the entire rulebook and reconceptualizes the game from scratch.  And it’s not even fully correct to say “keeps the sculpts and the map board” either.  I’ll be expanding the number of nations and the number of unit types by making use of the very large pool of A&A sculpts I’ve acquired over the years, for instance the ones from the early-edition games and the ones from 1941 and 1914.  And as I’ve noted in the thread where I’ve posted pictures of my custom table, one of the first things I did to the Global 1940 map was to rework its “under-the-plexiglass” roundel allocations to better reflect the structure of the world as it existed prior to the invasion of Manchuria in 1931, as a starting point from which I can then modify the map (by placing roundels on top of the plexiglass) to represent any subsequent starting date from 1931 onward.  A related project that I worked on to create the infrastructure for this eventual new game was the Global 1940 map inventory, a copy of which I posted over here last September:

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=36590.0

But at this point I don’t have an actual plan for what this reconceptualization will look like.  Nor am I likely to do so until I have the time to work on this project solidly for months at a time…so this may have to wait until retirement (which isn’t for tomorrow by a long shot) before this idea translates into anything concrete.

Nice! I like how you kept some of the original piece color in the mix on the French Navy. Lookin’ good all around!

Wow!  Such cool pieces! (Been awhile Paul)  And there’s others I’ve yet to see that are posted -

Guys,

@coachofmany:

very nice!
**––I’m glad you enjoyed them. Lord knows I CERTAINLY ENJOY HBG’S PRODUCTS!

Tall Paul**

@BluGerman:

today i managed to read through this year long forum thread and I have to ask what happened after November 17th 2011?.. did everybody in this forum mysteriously dissapear? or was it just discontinued? or was it moved to another forum thread or something?.. somebody please let me know because I was really excited to see Allworks whole board with his miniatures (they are awesome!)

In answer to your question- I don’t really know.  :? Allworkandnoclay is an artist who does all sorts of other work for money, not just Axis and Allies. I presume that he moved on to other work, as his Flickr account shows him doing some sculpting and what not. To be honest though, he stopped posting pics, people stopped commenting, and it sort of fell of the face of the earth. There’s some stuff on TallPaul’s page, and there are plenty of other artists with some awesome stuff if you need your daily fix of painted minis!