Axis & Allies Global Confict - 3rd Edition Released

Are the Blockhouses worth purchasing for Germany?

To answer this question, I devised an experiment.  What would be the best 30 IPC defense against an allied amphibious landing of 4 infantry and 4 tanks?  For 30 IPCs, I tried the following defensive purchases and ran a simulation to check the odds of a successful defense:

10 infantry defend 77% of the time.
6 tanks defend 24% of the time.
6 blockhouses defend 41% of the time.
3 blockhouses and 5 infantry defend 70% of the time.  This mix has a huge variance.  If the 3 blockhouses get 2 preemptive hits, they defend 85% of the time, but if they only get 1 preemptive hit, they defend 56% of the time.

My conclusion is that infantry is a better defense than blockhouses on a cost basis.  The benefit of the blockhouse is that it can be built in place, where the infantry have to be built at a factory and moved.  However, this is offset by the fact the infantry have the flexibility to be redeployed if Germany determines that a shore defense is no longer wanted.  The blockhouse cannot be moved.  The inability to move is a significant deterrent to the blockhouse purchase.  For example, if the allies land in Normandy, the blockhouses in the Netherlands and Germany become mostly worthless fodder.

I ran the same experiment with blockhouses costing 4 IPC instead of 5.

7 blockhouses (28 IPC instead of 30) defend 78% of the time.
4 blockhouses plus 6 infantry defend 98% of the time.

At 4 IPCs the blockhouses become about equivalent of infantry defense on their own, but become a great defense when added with infantry.

We will start playing Global Conflict on May 20th, so I am preparing all the game components and carefully reading the rules.  I’m guessing at a cost of 5 IPC, Germany won’t buy any blockhouses, but at 4 IPC, Germany may be enticed into purchasing some.

The rulebook discusses the Panama and Suez canal on page 3 and 4.  Is the Dardanelles straight between Sea Zone 43 and 44 considered a canal?  Does one need Turkey’s permission to move boats between these two sea zones?

Historical Reason: The Dardanelles straight connects the Sea of Marmara to the Agean Sea, and the Bosphorus strait connects the Sea of Marmara to the Black Sea.  Both straights require submarines to surface due to the shallow depth, and both have bridges over them.  With even the most primitive weapons, those on shore could prevent a boat from traveling through if they so desired.

Game Play Reason:  By calling the Dardanelles and Bosphorus a ‘canal’, it gives an additional strategic reason for Germany to invade Turkey.  In the Global Conflict rules of neutrality violation, Turkey should be an easy conquest: 0 value for Western Turkey and 1 for Turkey.

My opinion: I slightly favor making it a canal, but do not have a strong opinion either way.  My most important goal is to understand the rules so when we play on the 4 Tuesdays starting May 20th I know the rules and can explain them ahead of time.

BTW, in reading through the rules today, you have done a spectacular job in writing very clearly and organizing the rules overall.  I think you have done a great job combining well known rules into a huge game.  The more I tell my friends, the more all of us are looking forward to playing.  Thanks for all the hard work you have done so far, and for taking the time to answer all my questions.

Yet another question  :-D  I am just so excited to play this big Axis and Allies variant.

The victory conditions seem incredibly for the axis to meet.  To get 10 victory cities, Japan would have to take everything from China to India, to Australia, to New Zealand.  That certainly seems like a large task.  Germany can take the entire Soviet Union, and that only gets them to 8.  I’m guessing 9 and 10 come from India, or China, or England.  That’s seems very difficult indeed.  To get a combined 20, I’m guessing Italy takes all of Africa for 5, Germany takes 2 in the Soviet Union for 6, and Japan takes 9?

From people that have played, have you seen an Axis victory?  How did it happen?  Which victory condition was met?  What victory cities were conquered?

Thanks again for you commentary!

Craig

The rules for Transports on page 8 states:
Transporting Multinational Forces
   Transports belonging to a friendly power can load and offload your land units. This is a three-step process.
1. You load your land units aboard the friendly transport on your turn.
2. The transport’s controller moves it (or not) on that player’s turn.
3. You offload your land units on your next turn.

When playing simultaneous movement, does this mean the German transport that starts in sea zone 38 can move to sea zone 39, pick up an Italian infantry and tank in Northern Italy, move to sea zone 30, and drop off the Italian infantry and tank on Malta to attack the British fighter?  Can the Italian battle ship provide shore bombardment for this amphibias invasion?  Is this previous three step process now a one step when playing with simultanous movement?

Craig

On page 14 of the rules, under “Submarines” it states “Die rolls of two and three for fighters and two, three, or four for bombers must be assigned to surface naval vessels.”

I assume if the defender has fighters on an aircraft carrier, those fighters could also be chosen as casualties instead of only surface naval vessels as written.  I suggest re-writing this sentence to “Die rolls of two and three for fighters and two, three, or four for bombers may only be assigned to defending units other than submarines.”  I recommend changing the word ‘must’ to ‘may’ because it is possible that three aircraft all roll 2, but the defender only has 1 sub and 2 transports defending.  There is to unit to assign the third hit, therefore it ‘must’ not be assigned.

Bob. Thanks for the updates.  I like the change made where players collect income at the before combat.  This means they must hold a convoy box to collect its income.  I think that will make play much more interesting.  Now you have to hold territory to get the income, not just conquer it.

I really look forward to playing in a few weeks.  I pick up the map at the printers tomorrow!

Craig

Special Cash Advance:  I would be very interested to hear where the special cash advance has been spent by those who have played this game.

For the Axis, it makes a lot of sense to give it to the Japanese.  All units, except Russia and China, defend on a 1 against the Japanese the first turn.  That extra 12 production in the Japanese hands should be able to do the most damage.

For the Allies, it would make sense to avoid putting the extra 12 production where the Japanese can kill it.  I am guessing that the best places to put the extra 12 production is in either the Russian front against Germany, in Northern Africa for the UK, or in China.  For Russia, 4 infantry could really slow down the Germans.  For the UK, North Africa is nice because its hard to get units there and it will slow the Italians down significantly.  In China, 4 more infantry would significantly slow down the Japanese.  Perhaps even buy 2 tanks in China to give all that Chinese infantry some offensive power.

How have you seen the 12 extra starting production used?

Craig

The French setup chart lists 1 Infantry in Egypt.  Should this be Central Egypt or Northern Egypt?  I put the units in Northern Egypt.

The Italian setup charts lists 2 Infantry in Lybia.  Should this be Western Lybia or Cryinia?  I put the units in Cryinia.

The United Kingdom setup chart references sea zone 48 twice; once with a transport and a second time with a destroyer, submarine, and transport.  What United Kingdom units should go in sea zone 48?  I put the destroyer, submarine, and transport in sea zone 49 because it is listed on the same line as land units in Souther India.

The setup charts posted April 26, 2008 were used.

Craig

Computing Out Of Supply:

In previous posts, it has been indicated that Italian East Africa is out of supply at the beginning of the game.

However, supply can be traced to Northern Italy via this route using the v3.1 map on April 26, 2008: Italian East Africa -> Sea Zones 47, 57, 58, 32, 31, 29, 27, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Sea Zone 40, Southern Italy, Northern Italy.

How is Out Of Supply computed?  Clarification will help us avoid arguments during the game.

Craig

Thanks for the update Bob.  I’m mostly ready to play.  I’ve made some nice accessories.  Here are some pictures:

http://www.craig-bartell.com/images/map.jpg
http://www.craig-bartell.com/images/setup.jpg
http://www.craig-bartell.com/images/battleboard.jpg

Craig

The updated rule book lists Battleships as costing 22, yet the updated setup charts list the Battleships as costing 20.  Which is correct?

I’d be happy to send you the collateral I’ve made to include in the distribution package of Global Conflict.  I can’t wait to play!

Craig

It seems a change was made in how Supply Tokens are collected.  Some clarification in the rules would be helpful.  In the updated rules section titled “Phase 1: Purchase Units & Collect Supply Tokens” it no longer says to collect Supply Tokens as the title suggests.  In the section of the updated rules titled “Phase 6: Place New Units & Supply Tokens”, under “Place Supply Tokens” it says to “Look up your power’s national production level… and collect that number of supply tokens”

It seems there is a small conflict between the Phase title and the instructions in the phases.

Personally, I very much like collecting Supply Tokens in Phase 1.  I think it makes the convoy boxes much more interesting because they must be controlled from the end of last turn to the start of the next turn to collect the revenue.  With collecting Supply Tokens at the end of the turn, the allied team can just park a $6 transport to collect the $5.  It is much more interesting to make the transport live for a turn in order to be able to collect the income.

Miscellaneous questions and comments:

Blockhouses - Should the number of blockhouses built in a single location per turn be limited?  For example, should the USA be able to build 5 or 6 blockhouses on a pacific island in one turn?  Or is this not an issue and does not need to be addressed?

Can land units walk from Western Turkey to Turkey?  Especially since the Dardanelles is not a canal.

We plan on playing with the rules as written with one exception.  I am thinking about simplifying Cruisers to always get a 4 in the first round of combat.  Mostly because its simpler and I will never be able to remember the scenario where a cruiser gets a 4 and where it doesn’t.