New player needing advice on what extra pieces to purchase.

Battle bucks, Monopoly Money, or poker chips would all be good tools for the game IMO to track each powers income, and the extra chips will come in handy. As for buying infantry for the neutral territories, this you can do without IMO.

There are pro-axis, pro-allied, and strict neutrals in the game. All these neutrals have their standing armies silhouetted on the map, so you don’t have to reference anything to see what is there.

I would suggest you keep the strict neutrals off limits for the first couple games so you can focus on the normal game mechanics and rules. There is also a rule that says if you attack any strict neutral that all the other strict neutrals will join the other side (become pro your enemy), so things can get pretty strange. Mongolia has it’s own set of rules that makes them different, and can be activated w/o changing the stance of the other strict neutrals. It is generally the Japanese breaking the Non Aggression Pact (NAP) that activate Mongolia and you would use Russian inf for the Mongolians if that happens.

Most of the pro axis/allied neutrals are activated in the first round of play starting with Germany’s turn who goes first. So Germany could be attacking pro-allied territories during the combat phase, or integrating pro-axis territories during the non combat move phase (NCM).

Example, Germany attacking a pro allied neutral:
Say the Germans want to attack Yugoslavia that has 5 inf silhouetted on the map. The Germans set-up the attack during their combat move phase, and attack during combat. You can just remember that Germany needs to kill 5 inf in the battle, or you can use 5 gray chips to represent the Yugo inf (the Yugo inf will get to return fire). If the Germans kill all the Yugo inf and take the territory then there is nothing else to worry about. If for some reason the Germans don’t finish the job and leave 2 Yugo inf alive (Germany retreats) you would just place 2 chips in Yugo so you know how many units they still have. Although these 2 units are still there they aren’t allowed to move so you would not use UK inf (use the chips). However if on UK’s turn they non combat move a ground unit into Yugo they would get the 2 Yugo inf (replace the chips with UK inf). See next example for more on bringing a pro to your side neutral into your camp.

Example, Germany activating a pro axis neutral:
On G1 you may want to activate the pro-axis territories of Finland and Bulgaria (both have 4 inf silhouetted on the map). You would non combat move (NCM) a German ground unit (not AA gun) into those territories, and place 4 German inf in each to represent the standing army that the Germans gain. You don’t need a neutral color because you will use German inf. You also would claim the income for the territories that you control.

The same thing goes for all the powers. Italy may attack pro-allied Greece on their first turn. The UK may activate pro-allied Persia during the NCM to gain the 2 inf there (would need to transport a ground unit to Persia). So you really don’t need neutral inf to play the game, because you can use chips in the rare cases when a neutral is activated and not wiped out. Plus most of the pro axis/allied neutrals will be decided early in the game. Even the strict neutrals can easily be identified, and once they are attacked you can use the same as above.

We always run out of Japanese mechs, so I found a cheap way to make more: buy orange popsicle sticks from the dollar store, cut them up, and glue the pieces together. It looks like a mechanized infantry truck!

How do you insert an image in these forums?

@madscientist:

We always run out of Japanese mechs, so I found a cheap way to make more: buy orange popsicle sticks from the dollar store, cut them up, and glue the pieces together. It looks like a mechanized infantry truck!

How do you insert an image in these forums?

I upload to tinypic.com and put the link for direct layout into the following code (remove the spaces in the brackets): [ img ]<insert link=“” here=“”>[ /img ]</insert>

Alternately, expand the Additional Options (located below the text box when you reply to a post) and use the Attach function to attach a jpg image file.

With as many units as you’ll end up having after combining 1940 Europe with 1940 Pacific for the Global game, one thing you’ll definitely have is a LOT of units and you’ll probably want a better way to store them than what is provided with the game… you might want to look into some compartmentalized nut/screw or fishing tackle trays from your local hardware store. I used one screw tray for each country… all depends on what size tray you wan’t/get, so that you can keep planes/ships/tanks/etc separate and easier to grab. I included a picture of some examples of what you can do with nation trays using compartmentalized trays.

Also, I highly recommend either battle bucks or poker chips for money… depending on how much you want to spend, the battle bucks are cheap and a very good solution, though I found them a bit “action stiff” to hand out (which I would imagine would get better with wear)… you can either use generic poker chips, or you can try some custom A&A IPC chips that you can get from IWNGU’s site (which you can find easily enough) if you’re willing to spend a bit more on custom A&A chips. Anything is better than doing nothing in regards to in-game currency. I started off with Battle Bucks, but later upgraded to A&A IPC chips… there’s no wrong way to go here short of not doing anything for currency.

You’ll probably want extra dice too… once again, anything more than nothing is better… you can go down about three paths here with dice… 1) just more dice period, anything is better than nothing… 2) order some generic dice of specific colors and hand them out to certain countries… 3) the Combat Dice you can find with specific A&A markings, though a brief word of warning, if you try and get them from FMG, that company has extremely questionable customer service… look around the forums before deciding to do business with them.

Anything you order from HBG or IWNGU is a good deal though, both those companies have very good reputations.

Here is a picture of making more mechs out of popsicle sticks

You can take an egg carton for a dozen eggs, cut off the top, place it inside one of the plastic boxes the pieces come in (it fits perfectly) and you have a cheap and quick way to comparmentalize your pieces.  It took a few months to get all the ones we needed based on our egg eating rate. :)

We use two for the U.S. (including the Chinese pieces) and two for England.  We use two more to hold the roundels, industrial complexes, ports, airbases, ect.