After Action Reports

Title:  Technology Rules? Yeah, Okay. (1941)
Date:  February 23, 2009
Special Rules: NO and Tech.
Victor:  Draw. An Allied player dropped out so we stopped.
Game Length:  6 hours - 4 or 5 rounds.
Bias:  About Even, the two veteran players were split up. Me as Axis was paired with newbie.
Description: 
      The Germans exploded out, gaining all thier National Objectives, and kept them for the remainder of the game. They kept major pressure on the Russia by streaming forces across the Eastern Front. Besides a horrendous first turn at Sea, the navy recovered later in the game. Not much ground was taken after reaching the gates of Moscow due to the stacking, but Caucasus was taken late in the game but returned.
      The Russians did well to stem the tide of combat. They got Rockets in the middle of the game which was an annoyance to placing troops into Karelia. They stemmed the Japanese tide at Bury and never relented.
      Japan expanded a lot but played a more conservative game. They ended up with a nearly destroyed China and a weakened British Empire. Their fleet was growing quite large and prepping to engage the US fleet.
      The Brits had a shamble of a game. They did good to protect their empire, but made some bad attempts in France and the Atlantic, losing their fleet towards the end to German Bombers and the Italian navy.
      The Italians did good, without ever really expanding into Africa. They helped support Germany in France and were a pain in the British side.
      USA Did well, building up a large navy and prepping it for the assault on Japan. They made a late game mistake, wasting 15 IPCs on an IC in Brazil for no reason. They used their Bombers to harass the German economy, but to no real effect.

Observations/Recommendations:  This game, although every major power bought it, there wasn’t much tech until later in the game, and only the Allies were successful with it. The NOs really add something else to the game, and allow for more interesting games. I was amazed at how much money Germany could make with it’s NOs. I was so glad to be able to pump out so many troops.
          On a side note, Could the AA gun in Caucasus (If Russia has rockets) fire upon the IC in Rome?

To destroy a large portion of the British fleet. I know it’s usually bad news to have them leave the Med, but it was a gamble that worked in the end.

Long time reader, first time poster.

Title: Smoked Out ('42)
Date: 2/25/09
Special Rules: Tech, yes (USA: long range, Japan: Heavy Bombers, Italy: Advanced Art); NO, yes
Victor: Axis, concession
Game Length: 6.5 hours (with cigarette breaks streching it out a bit)
Bias: Japan player’s first game, but his Axis partners were experienced and guided him through.  Russian player was inebriated, but never did anything that would indicate an unstable state of mind, so to speak.

Description:

In the Pacific Japan got off to a slow start like you’d expect from a new player, but got a major break on turn 2 with heavy bombers.  Though America had taken every island except for Japan and Iwo Jima plus S/E Asia the US still had to tiptoe around the Pacific trying to avoid the 5 bombers that were teched to high hell.  Eventually US thought his navy would withstand the bombers and brought it out to the Carolines where it was crushed.  America was making 70 IPC’s a turn so it definitely could’ve eventually taken Japan but by then the UK had fallen in disrepair and Russia was toasted.

Europe was bad.  Russia did not have the success it needed on it’s first turn losing a lot of tanks in it’s attacks to create a buffer zone around the production facilities.  Russia being Russia the funds were never around to rebuild those tanks.  The UK held Africa, India and Australia to the bitter end (mainly because Japan had to spend 110% of it’s money to keep up with the Americans even with Heavy Bombers) but Germany had far too much money after taking Russia and launched an overwhelming Sealion.  America ignored Europe almost completely because it had to spend a lot of money to counter the Heavy Bombers with cannon fodder destroyers and free hit battleships.  Help came far too late for mainland UK which survived 2 consecutive German invasion attempts before finally falling.

Observations: America was far too preoccupied with the Pacific and although it gained a huge edge in production Japan’s heavy bombers cancelled it out alone.  Long Range aircraft weren’t enough to get all the planes from the pacific onto the UK.  Japan simply played the game to survive eradicating anything that got within bombing range while Germany smashed Russia.  Italy had almost no success in Africa and shifted all it’s resources to claiming some of Russia’s carcass.

Japan would’ve fallen a few turns earlier to the US who would’ve plowed tanks straight through to liberate Russia.  The German player probably could’ve taken the US alone but the UK was turning into a bit of a threat by the time Russia fell.

It looked like the Allies were going to win that exact way until the bombers eliminated any chance America had at working it’s way through Asia.

@Nickwins89:

On a side note, Could the AA gun in Caucasus (If Russia has rockets) fire upon the IC in Rome?

Could anyone answer this question?

It can do: Black Sea, Central Mediterranean, Italy: 3 spaces

Thanks for the clarification on that, because we didn’t really look up the rules until we got the tech, so I was skeptical of it’s validity.

I’ll post my thoughts on 2 games played here on the boards.

Title: Axis start slow, finish strong (Me vs. Funcioneta 1941) Date:  jan-feb 2009
Special Rules: NOs and Techs
Victor: Axis
Game 11 rounds - allied surrender with axis about to take moscow
Bias:  Advantage to Allies - this was my first AA50 game and I definitely made some early mistakes

The first couple rounds, things were really breaking the allies way.  Germany got chewed up on the eastern front in the opening salvos (although it took egypt without bringing the bomber) and foolishly left FRA poorly defended early-on before I understood the importance of the NOs.  Uk got Improved Factories on the first round and started cranking 4 units from johannesburg so the axis never controlled africa.  Japan got Shipyards on rd 1, but didn’t maximize it’s NOs early on because I was still learning the options. US got LRA on turn 2 and sunk a loaded jap carrier with minimal losses.  I think the italian fleet went down to a slew of LR air on US4.  With the exception of a few units and air support in Eur/Afr, US went almost entirely Pacific.

Around turn 4 or so, the russians had a spate of bad dice and I started figuring out the axis.  From that point on, it was a fairly slow churn as germany methodically massed forces and moved on moscow while japan moved up with tanks from the east.  The allies couldn’t make any serious headway in europe without US support and Japan was able to hold them off in the pacific.  Towards the end, the US started making headway in the pacific while japan tried to split its focus but it was too late.  Once the med fleet was gone, italy turned to churning out most of the defenders for france and a few units to the eastern front, allowing germany to focus almost entirely to the east.

Title: Axis Romp  (me vs. DarthMaximus 1941)
Date:  jan-feb 2009
Special Rules: NOs but no tech
Victor: Axis
Game Length: 7 rounds - allied surrender with moscow surrounded by overwhelming force from all 3 axis powers.
Bias:  Axis - DM is flat out better than me, plus he had more experience in aa50.  My 2nd aa50 game, and first as allies.

Germany pushed hard on russia, and I started giving too much ground too quickly.  Around round 3, russia tried to make a move toward retaking Karelia, but instead got its forward stack completly crushed by the germans in Bel. From that point on, Russia just tried to survive as long as possible.

US tried to engage in the pacific, but was hardly even able to mount a minor nusiance campaign.  I tried to divert a few us troops to support the UK in africa and europe but most investment was in pacific.  As the game got to the end, A small us fleet got the Japanese to split their navy attempting to protect both the islands and japan and the US was able to score some damage to part of the Japanese fleet, but there wasn’t enough US firepower left to finish the job.  But at least there was potential to do damage to the japanese. UK had an IC in s.africa but the Axis were able to seriously threaten it (but not take it, although it took a good portion of the RAF to secure it.) with combined german, italian and japanese forces.  Even with the US pressuring the pacific, japan could afford a small fleet to help out africa.

DM could probably give more insight to the axis perspective, but it was just an axis rout from the get-go. Japan exploded as usual, and Germany in particular was not at all contained.  The only question was how long could the allies prolong the inevitable.

I invite both DM and Funcionteta to add their perspectives to this.

Title:  Kill Italy First, then Lose
Date:  2/27/09
Special Rules:  Yes to both NO’s + Tech
Victor:  Axis Victory > Allies Concession
Game Length:  10 full rounds, concession on UK turn of round 11
Bias:  Best player in our whole group on USA, very good players in all other positions, slight allies bias in skill.
Description:
Allies: Kill Italy First
Axis: Japan runs rampant in Asia, begins a Moscow steamroller than cannot be stopped.
Observations/Recommendations:
Our game group is about 40 players strong.  Of those, 13-18 show up on any given Friday.  This last game was our strongest player in our group on USA.  I mean the dude is a strategic machine – recorded independently by our group as being 50+ wins to only 2 losses.  Incidentally those 2 losses were as Allies on 41 with NOs, once as KJF and this time as KIF.  The rest of our players are also strong players who understand the game in detail: how to manage deadzones, planning builds turns in advance, consolidation of forces and logistics.  A strong group, in general.  We’re testing the balance of 41 with NOs and a Kill Europe first strategy.

Here is the breakdown of economics by turn, plus a recap of the major events of each turn.  All players played strongly.  The conclusion of this game is that against strong Axis players 41 as Allies with NOs is near impossible as strong or stronger Allied players.  Sure, I know you think you know better cause you kicked your little brother’s a$$ as Allies one Saturday, but we’ve got it sorted out and it’s true and you know it - face facts.   :-D :-)

Economics:

2/27/2009	1941 Setup with Tech and Nos				General Strategy: Kill Italy First		
	Ger	Russia	Japan	UK	Italy	USA	
1	45	31	41	42	15	48	
2	53	33	53	32	23	48	
3	43	32	59	29	24	44	
4	48	27	62	30	24	43	
5	45	38	64	38	21	44	
6	33	28	67	29	23	45	
7	39	23	72	43	11	45	
8	44	19	75	35	9	57	
9	51	17	77	42	0	58	
10	50	9	91	39	0	53	
11	48	0	100+	Game Conceeded			

Major Events
1 Germany gets Rockets + takes 3 Rus Territories, UK takes Norway, Japan sinks all US fleet but Carrier and Destroyer
2 Italy take Egypt, Japan take Australia, Russian counterattack, UK takes Finland
3 US lands Morocco, Japan take India
4 Italy takes back Morocco, Italy loses fleet to USA, Japan starts landings in Northern Russia
5 US retakes Morocco, UK lands token to take France, Japan reinforces India + builds IC
6 Russia advances into Persia + scares Japan out of India, US eliminates Italian forces in Africa, Africa saved
7 UK lands token force taking France, Italy retakes France strongly, Japan retakes India as Russia withdraws to Caucus
8 Russia takes Romania/Bulg, UK takes France, UK takes Balkans/Italy with 12 Trans, Germany paratroops Nor/Fin
9 Germany retakes France, UK retakes Nor/Finland, Baltic, Karelia via sea, Japan presses Moscow
10 Russia abandons Moscow in face of overwhelming odds, heads west to Germany, Germany turtles, USA holds Italy
11 Germany takes Italy and France, Japan defeats Russia in Belorus, Japan sends 5 fighters to Germany, Allies Conceed

Hope you enjoy the technicalities!

I see two mentions of techs and they are both fairly powerful techs for the germans (rockets turn 1 and partroopers).  Did anyone else get techs?  How much did they play a role in the outcome.  Germany with rockets can quickly start hurting the allies to the tune of several ipcs per turn, and paratroopers open up a whole range of possible avenues that might not have otherwise been accessible.

Guys, I’m really glad you enjoyed the game report.  People seem to be responding well to it, so I think I’ll do more.  It helps to keep track during the game too, to see if your side is winning economically too.  I just jot down these notes on paper or my laptop as we play.

So here are the answers to your questions:
@TG Moses: We are from Portland OR,  every other Friday we have 3 games going simultaneously.  USA built a large force to contain and then invade Italy, I agree.  Perhaps you are right, maybe we waited too long to sink the Italian fleet, USA turn in Round 4.   Perhaps sinking the Italian fleet is best done by UK on Turn 3 or even Turn 2.  At any rate, the economics of the Axis overwhelmed us, even though we took Italy and held it for a couple of turns.  By the way, the USA invasion force of Italy was 12 fully loaded transports, plus air power.

@Tim - Yes Germany getting rockets turn 1 was totally sucky.  It was, over the course of the game, over $30 lost by the UK and about $10 by Russia.   $30 is two fully loaded transports.  Would that $30 have made a difference?  Probably not.  Germany got Paratroopers late in the game and that sucked when they took back Norway and Finland.  Japan got a technology but I forget what it was, it didn’t come into play - something like Radar or something I forget.  As a last ditch move before abandoning Moscow, Russia spend $15 on technology just to see what would happen, and got Industrial Production - OH THE IRONY!  :-)  No one else bought techs.

Another report, another one of our players made this report of his game.  He is credited with the idea of making these economic report and turn highlights.  His game was a wacky one, with naval arms races in the Pacific and the Atlantic.

Title:  USA vs. Japan 1942
Date:  2/27/09
Special Rules:  1942 – NO’s + Tech
Victor:  Axis Victory > Allied Concession Concession
Game Length:  8 rounds
Bias:  Equal skill.

Economic Report:

	Japan	Russia	Ger	UK	Italy	USA
0	31	24	37	31	10	38
1	43	34	54	36	23	48
2	35	33	52	28	24	48
3	53	29	57	23	25	48
4	54	28	62	20	27	45
5	55	21	55	31	27	45
6	52	30	52	38	26	53
7	57	18	40	42	28	53
8	Allies giving up					

Description:
Major Events

• Japan gets Radar in 1st turn; then long range aircraft in 3rd turn; then jet fighters in 5 turn; then super subs in 6th turn

• UK moves out of India toward Southern Africa.  Axis giving chase, territory by territory.

• US re-occupies Borneo, Java and the Phillipines by turn 6.  Still Japan scores plenty of points by then occupying India and Russian far eastern territories.

• US Airforce destroys main Japan fleet (except for 12 submarines) in Phillipines in turn 7.

• Japanese subsmarines then destroyed US fleet in turn 8.

• Germany built aircraft carrier in 1st turn; destoryed parts of UK fleet in north Atlantic; naval arm race is on!

• Italy took over Brazil in turn 4.

• Italian fleet destoryed by UK air force in turn 5.

• US invaded North Africa in turn 5.

• US atttempted Rome invasion in turn 6 - failed! (Eventual one US tank vs one Italian tank).  But Italian peninsula empty of all forces!

Observations/Recommendations:
Over 7 turns, the axis accumulated +143 IPC more than the Allies - probably not a balanced scenario with the NO’s with teams of equal skill.

Link:  None

Here’s some more economic analysis for us nerds out there (thanks to Microsoft Excel) relating to my game above “Kill Italy First, Then Lose”

Rnd	G	J	It	
1	45	41	15	101
2	53	53	23	129
3	43	59	24	126
4	48	62	24	134
5	45	64	21	130
6	33	67	23	123
7	39	72	11	122
8	44	75	9	128

Axis	350	493	150	993

Rnd	R	UK	US	
1	31	42	48	121
2	33	32	48	113
3	32	29	44	105
4	27	30	43	100
5	38	38	44	120
6	28	29	45	102
7	23	43	45	111
8	19	35	57	111

Allies	231	278	374	883

I calculated the income until round 8, because that was about the time the game got decided, but we kept playing for 2 1/2 more rounds.  As you can see the Axis led the Allies by 110 over the course of those 8 turns.  Only once did the Allies have the lead, Turn 1.

A couple things:

• These values do NOT include the fact that Germany was rocketing UK and to a lesser extent Russia.  These values are the money received at the end of each turn by each player.

• If the Allies had attacked Italy earlier and sunk their fleet on UK turn 3 instead of USA turn 4, that might have reduced Italy and their NOs, reducing the Axis income from turn 3 through turn 8 by a total of ~$50.   Granted though, if sinking the Italy Fleet by UK was happening, the UK might not have been invading Norway, Finland and France as much, thereby losing UK money and/or giving more money to Germany.  Net total gain over 8 rounds?  My guess about $25 for the Allies if Italy lost her fleet earlier.  Of course strategically speaking an Italian player with no navy tends to build Tanks and planes and go after Russia, as as it was in our game Italy never went after Russia at all.  I can’t decide what’s worse for the Allies - a rich Italy and more $ for the Axis or a poor Italy with Italian tanks in Russia???  :-)

Title: Whoa, a german fleet!
Date:  3/13/09
Special Rules:  1941 with Tech but not Nos
Victor:  Allies Victory > Axis Concession
Game Length:  5 full rounds
Bias: Slight Allied advantage.
Description:
Allies: Mostly go after Europe, build some forces in Pacific.  Allies go after Italy hard first, then focus on Germany.
Axis: Japan tries to squash Russia, then ends up helping Germany/Italy.  Germany builds carrier and later a battleship and destroyer.

3/13/2009	1941 with Tech but not Nos				General Strategy: Attack Europe			
	Ger	Russia	Japan	UK	Italy	USA		

1	33	29	29	35	10	40		
2	37	27	34	32	10	40		
3	35	28	40	29	10	38		
4	32	34	43	28	9	38		
5	27	32	45	31	15	Game Conceeded		

Major Events
1 Garmany builds carrier, sinks UK Battleship, Japan does not take Philipes, US gets long range Air
2 UK holds egypt, sinks Italian fleet with bombers, Germany and Russia trade territories, Japan IC in Manchuria
3 Germany buys more fleet, Japan takes India, Philipenes, UK/UK combine fleets in atlantic
4 Germans lose in Libya, Russia takes Norway and Finland, Stalemate in Poland, Japan sends planes to Europe
5 UK Sinks german fleet, USA invades NE Europe and destroys 6 fighters and bomber there, USA sinks most of Japan fleet
Economic Breakdown

	G	J	It	
1	33	29	10	72
2	37	34	10	81
3	35	40	10	85
4	32	43	9	84
5	27	45	15	87
Axis	164	191	54	409

	R	UK	US	
1	29	35	40	104
2	27	32	40	99
3	28	29	38	95
4	34	28	38	100
5	32	31	38	101
Allies	150	155	194	499

Commentary:
This game had a slight Allied bias in terms of skill.  However on another table we had a similar setup, but with a slight Axis bias in terms of skill.  Their game the Allies still won, but it took 9 turns.   Too early to tell in my opinion to make a definitive conclusion, but I’d say it’s looking like with NOs 1941 has an Axis bias.  Without NOs a slight Allied bias for 1941.  Can anyone say “variable N.O. value bid system”?

Sample Allies Bid:  “I play allies and I’ll give you 40% N.Os” (this means All IPCs worth 2 IPCs instead of 5 IPCs, with the 10 IPC Russian One being with 4 IPCs)

@Stoob:

Commentary:
This game had a slight Allied bias in terms of skill.  However on another table we had a similar setup, but with a slight Axis bias in terms of skill.  Their game the Allies still won, but it took 9 turns.   Too early to tell in my opinion to make a definitive conclusion, but I’d say it’s looking like with NOs 1941 has an Axis bias.  Without NOs a slight Allied bias for 1941.  Can anyone say “variable N.O. value bid system”?

Sample Allies Bid:  “I play allies and I’ll give you 40% N.Os” (this means All IPCs worth 2 IPCs instead of 5 IPCs, with the 10 IPC Russian One being with 4 IPCs)

So the allies win these last two games and then you proclaim '41 with NO’s are Axis biased?

Perhaps the wild card affected your perspective.
Did tech play a <key>component in the other allied win?  Long range for USA = Killer weapon, especially round 1.</key>

axis_roll, you really make me laugh.  I didn’t “proclaim” anything… you quote my post in order to then misquote me and twist my statement.  Are you really trying to be this unnecessarily negative and/or argumentative?  I hope not.

I said in fact, quite the opposite, that it’s “too early to tell in my opinion to make a definitive conclusion” in regards to bias.   Sure Long Range helps the Allies win, but the other table had an Allied win as well, with an Axis advantage in skill and no tech rolls.

Respectfully and without ill will towards you, I ask kindly to keep it positive and take any negativity elsewhere with someone else, please?  You are welcome for the detailed after action report.