A&A G40 Essential Customizations (video)

I like playing A&A with paper money, but I wanted to make my second table different from my main table… so it will be interesting watching the game played using the poker chips. The chips I have are a bit expensive, but I also want to host some Texas hold em in the future and these chips are absolutely perfect for that (classy materials all the way).

:-D :-D :-D :-D

@Young:

Yes, as of November 28th, there will be 2 Global 1940 games playing at the same time, in the same game room…. should be fun.

You could call this “A&A Multi-Global 1940.”  Or perhaps “A&A Global 3880,” the number you get when you multiply 1940 x 2.  :D

But seriously, one interesting option that your set-up might make possible would be some kind of simultaneous-move, semi-blind variation in which some of the game actions by the Axis team are carried out in ways that are not visible to the Allied team, and vice-versa.  You’d need to have some sort of cubicle-type vertical divider panel set up on wheels, which ought to be easy for you to put together because you’re handy with tools.

The general idea would be that the two tables are initially set up identically, and the divider is then placed between them to conceal them from sight from each other.  The Axis players congregate around one table and make all the combat moves of their units, while the Allied players do likewise at their table.  Once both sides are done, the divider is removed and the players replicate on one of the tables (let’s call it Table A) the opponent moves that were made on the other table (let’s call it table B).  Combat is then resolved at Table A.  Some of these battles could be conducted simultaneously to save time.  Players who aren’t engaged in combat at any particular moment would be kept busy by being given the job of replicating on Table B the results of combat on Table A (which would also save time).  Non-combat moves could be handled either in the same hidden manner as combat moves, or perhaps handled openly on Table A and replicated on Table B.  Once the next combat-move phase arrives, the players would once again handle it on separate tables, and so forth.  All of this might not necessarily take longer than a conventional game, since the time-saving elements (simultaneous moves and simultaneous battles) might compensate for the elements that add time.

Note that this isn’t the same thing as the concept of a double-blind game that’s handled by a referee who acts as a middleman between two rooms.  The players themselves would act as their own middlemen, serving both as actual players and as “inter-map situation-replicator staff” (something for which we’d need a better term).

Great video.  I love using dividers as well.  It really does cut down on time and helps new players pick the correct unit they want.

Great video!  Compartmentalization of sculpts is a subject that’s dear to the heart of a piece junkie like me. :)

Thanks for the new video!  Your custom map has nice features, for instance the extended income tracker and the information on the map itself that says which sea zones on the map edges connect with which othe sea zones.  Great customization job.

@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.