How about ADS?

It was a game of Axis and Allies Europe.  I was Germany and had amassed a massive stack of stuff to take down Moscow.  Of my six planes, five were shot down by antiaircraft fire.  I wasn’t too worried though because I still had more units than the Russians, and mine were of higher quality too.

I had something like ninety pips of offense–for an average of 15 hits per round–and managed to score only six hits.  The Russians had an above average roll and it was all downhill from there, and my beautiful stack was wiped out.  After checking an odds calculator I discovered that I had just lost a 99.99% battle.

I remember suppressing the urge to go out to the garage, douse the game in lighter fluid and have an Axis and Allies bonfire, but in retrospect I should’ve just done it because I owned the board and it really would’ve been cathartic.

Stupid AA guns.

have used pencil and paper for about fifteen years now

Well, let’s be honest, we didn’t really need all those pieces anyway.  If they were to take away 100 units and replace them with 50 chips I’d be more than happy.

I’m sure there’s going to be some rules or setup changes to this version of 1942, too, because as it stands under AA50 that scenario is ridiculously difficult for the Axis to win among experienced players (from what I’ve seen).

'41 is better.  '42 is IMO heavily weighted toward the Allies.

I go exclusively Pacific in either '41 or '42.  Always play with NOs.

It’s an interesting tradeoff.  As an attacker you gain from never having a 90% battle blow up in your face, but you lose because you’ll also never have a successful attack that leaves you with “bonus” units that should’ve died had the defender rolled better.  I imagine you’d be perfectly happy with that.

I’d like to try the variant sometime.  It doesn’t strike me as Low Luck so much as Low Frustration.  :-D

Now this is an interesting topic.

The idea of building a factory in Norway is very interesting, but at first glance I don’t see how it would work.  You can only build three units a turn, and I would think Russia would set up Finland as a dead zone so you wouldn’t be able to advance easily.  And then the UK should set up to take the territory as soon as possible.  Has this worked for you in a competitive (tournament) game?  If so, could you share a link?  I’d love to see how it played out.

To me France seems ideal.  After that, spend your first 30 bucks on 10 infantry and any remainder on French armor.  That way you can always have a nice stack going East.  Or if you’re in the situation that so often happens where Germany is waiting for help from the Japanese, never underestimate the ability to draft 14 or 15 infantry a turn to help hold out.

I would think, though I haven’t played enough to be sure, that building in any 2 IPC territory just isn’t going to be worth it (unless it’s Egypt, maybe, where you’re never going to get stuff there ever again otherwise).

@cymerdown:

Who says you need to keep it?

Maybe you don’t.  I’ve played the scenario a few times and I think it very well might be worth trying to save; you can delay British landings for a turn or two and that might be worth the 14 bucks you blow on it.  But I’m not sure.

Excellent job!  Love the planes.