As promised, a report after our group’s first exp. with the new 1939 setup.
There are a few typos/errors in the setup charts. Nothing major. I have contacted HBG so they can be corrected in the next edition. I expect the rules to be continuously updated/improved as people ask questions on the official FAQ-site.
Re. gameplay: we were 3 players. We saw immediate action, as Germany started savaging across Europe.
I’m still not a big fan of the victory point system. For our next game, we will give the Russian player control over France. The Russian/CCP player sees very little action compared to the other two players. It is simply not as fun, when there is very little to do (sleeping bear). Control over the France will engage all players from the beginning of the game. The conflicts with the alliance/victory point system, so we have to play a ‘global dominance’ style game.
As a game take +16 hours, all players should be continuously engaged, or else people will loose interest. We switch which player control which alliance though, but still…
The setup seem very well balanced. The quick action has several advantages over 1936. You get a more ‘real’ WW2 experience, as the forces at the outbreak of the war are placed similar to the historical events. Sometimes when starting in 1936, the map would look very different after 6-7 turns. Another advantage is that the length of the game is 4-5 hours shorter.
All in all a very enjoyable game.
GW1936 beats A&A-G40.
GW1939 crushes A&A-G40.
