[Global 1940] Battle Report

I just played the most awesome A&A game of my life a few days ago: I didn’t take any pictures, but thought I’d share here.  This was the 2nd game of a house variation of A&A Global.  The first one was last year and I had pictures and a detailed report in a thread called “Game Synopsis with Pictures” (http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=38574.msg1582369#msg1582369) on this Forum.  For this game, we had 8 players and divided the countries like this:

Player 1: Russia
Player 2: Germany
Player 3: UK Europe
Player 4: Italy
Player 5: US East Coast
Player 6: US West Coast and China
Player 7: Japan
Player 8: Australia, France, and India.

In this variant, all axis nations play at the same time and then all allied nations play at the same time.  There are no national objectives.  Players 1, 4, 5, and 6 were playing their first A&A game of any type.  Player 3 was playing his first game of Global.  Players 2, 7, and 8 were playing their 2nd, the first being the one linked above.  Unlike the previous game though, we didn’t restrict Italy from attacking England on the first round.  This turned out to be a good idea because the Allies won anyways (Axis won the last game of this variant) and at least the Italian player was able to experience some victories.  The Italian player said he wanted to play again but would want to play a country that makes more income.  An experienced player though would’ve began receiving a huge income in a few turns with these house rules.  Also unlike the previous game, I had all the cruisers painted along with several other units.  Another change was that we used a war movie soundtrack rather than the A&A youtube song list we used last time.  This worked out pretty well and I’m not sure which I like better.

Germany launched a huge invasion of the UK after the 3rd or 4th round with tons of airplanes and just one loaded transport along with the BB and Cruiser for bombardment.  It looked like they were going to take the UK, but they had some bad rolls and that was where Germany’s game took a turn for the worse.  A horde of Russians was bearing down towards axis territory and it looked like they would’ve taken much of Europe, though Germany took the northern Russian factory.  Really, if Germany and Italy had veterans playing these house rules and made perfect moves, there’s little the UK could do to keep from falling in the 2nd round, but with a new guy on Italy, this wasn’t any danger.  With 2 Axis Europe veterans, I’d recommend the rule that you can’t attack the UK on R1.

Meanwhile, on the Pacific board, I got to play Australia and India and it was a blast.  I usually play one of the larger powers, but it was really nice to take it easy and allowed me to help explain rules as we played.  It was refreshing for a change to have to manage relatively small resources against an overwhelmingly powerful enemy.  I just kept taking chunks out of the money islands and used the Battleship Repulse to knock off a Japanese Cruiser that strayed from their fleet.  The Repulse paid the iron price, but was able to provide a hedge of protection around the island Australia took (the real purpose of attacking the Cruiser, since the income from the islands 2 rounds in a row makes up for the value difference of the Battleship for the Cruiser).  The US and Australia managed to distract the Japanese fleet westward and Australia held 2 valuable Dutch islands for some extra income (not sure if the official rules allow allies to take Dutch islands for income, but we played that way).  India teamed up its fighters with the Chinese soldiers and fighter to take Japanese territory and stop them cold in Asia.  China was getting up there in income.

The game lasted from about 3pm-9pm.  Of course it wasn’t over at 9, but we called it quits because people had to go.  All of the players enjoyed it and those that didn’t have to leave were wanting to keep playing… unfortunately, I had to get back home and didn’t want to leave all my painted pieces over there where many curious 4-7 year olds would probably have them all over the house the minute the board was unattended.  This game was definitely tons of fun and since all Axis play at once followed by all Allies, it’s fast paced and even the smaller countries are entertaining to play.  I could’ve had a good time playing with either Australia or India by themselves.

With experienced players using these house rules, I’d bet you could get a full Global game in within 6 hours… with the new players, we had to explain rules and use the battle boards, but with vets, we could leave the pieces on the board and roll them and I think the purchases and combat moves would’ve been a lot faster too.

Moderator’s edit: added tag [Global 1940] to title

Ha!  Yes, I agree.  We started right after lunch, but it took me about 2 hours to set up even with some help.  I’m planning on having another get together that would start at around 9am (with the game already set up) and end at 6.

@simon33:

Even 9 to 6 is a pretty fast game.

Normally takes us about 20 mins to set up. Once you remember where all the bases are you can put them down in one go. Similar with multi unit counters.

Yeah, it’s fast because we play that all the Axis nations play at once followed by all the Allies playing at once (and no national objectives or neutral rules): plus we have overlap, where when one side is making their non-combat moves, the other side can start purchasing units (if it doesn’t cause their opponents to make different non-combat moves).  So far the Axis have won once and the Allies have won once: not 100% sure which side has the advantage and it’s pretty fun figuring out new strategies that could be a little different to strategies with the regular rules.

That’s a great idea about putting all the unit counters down at once!  That would probably make setup faster than having to stop to find the unit type and place it on the stack and move to the next: just pull out all the counters and put one less than the chart says so you can go in later and add the unit type (I think that’s what you’re suggesting?).  I definitely want to try that next time.

Thanks SS.  I re-read the report: minor clarification:  It looks like I’m recommending that Britain can’t be attacked at all R1, but actually meant that Italy specifically needs to wait until R2 to attack (preventing the total annihilation of all UK forces from the mediterranean on R1).  Also, I thought there was little the UK could do with these house rules to prevent a takeover if Italy was allowed to attack the UK in R1, but this was assuming Italy could set up their fleet and transports to attack England on R2 with Germany, but skilled Allied players could put naval ships in the path to block Italy from joining in on R2.  With that, I think it’s appropriate to play that Italy can attack the UK on R1… especially since the Italian player only earns 10 IPC’s at start and with no National Objectives, it could be a slow climb to more income if Britain has a chance to maintain it’s fleet and holdings in Africa.