Finally played this map. This is the first time we’ve played with something other than the supplied boards. It’s been a long time since our group played A&A together, so this first game was a little rough (1 guy hadn’t played since the Milton Bradley days…). Needless to say, I left Neutrals out of this game altogether. But once we got rolling, everybody enjoyed the breadth of gameplay the map offers.
Axis won - but I think this had more to do with a long hiatis for the Allied players than game imbalance. Japan rocked in the 1st round - hurting China and US Pacific fleet - and taking Manila and Hong Kong. Germany also had a stong 1st round against Russia - managing to take Leningrad and hold for the game - and the U-boats did some work in the Atlantic. I must say, as it was our first time, Italy was fun to play. Their navy managed to link up with German ships and this put the UK on the defensive the whole game.
Allies managed to clear Axis from Africa (one Allied player always tries to follow the history books - bad strategy :-)) and UK Pacific (Australian and Indian forces) brought Japan back down to earth with some amazing rolls.
In summary, our comments are similar to oldsalty - Europe map density is tough given the amount of action. We also used some blow ups to “clean up” the board. Only other comments would be to use a dotted line rather than a solid line for sea zone borders to give the board a little softer feel and different shade of orange for Japan - but not major issues that affect playability. Its a great map and offers the opportunity to add any special rules along the way (To this point I have prepared a version of the set up sheets which include Cruiser, Fortification and Mechanized Infanty units - I can list in another post if interested…).
So if you’re wondering - yes - it’s worth the cost to print…even our Milton Bradley guy was considering getting one made and getting back into regular playing mode!
Again - thanks for the efforts.
