Thanks to both of you.

@Krieghund:

AA fire occurs after the air battle is over, and is resolved only against the strategic bombers, not the escorts (if any).

@Dylan:

They fire after the battle? Is this in all games?

No, just this one (and AAE40).

Will this perhaps replace the AA50 FAQ’s optional Fighter Escort rule?  Currently its AA fire happens before the fighter battle, not after, and the way the rule is written sounds (to me at least) like escorts are also subject to AA fire: “Attacking fighters may escort and protect the bombers … After antiaircraft fire is resolved against the attacking air units, if there are any defending fighters an air battle occurs between the attacking and defending air units.”  It makes a lot more sense that AA doesn’t affect escorts and takes place after any escort/interceptor battle, since that’s how bombing missions actually happened.

For anyone missing anything, BoardGameGeek has 2nd Ed. component pics at http://boardgamegeek.com/images/thing/98/axis-allies&gallery=game

For example, here’s the US reference chart: http://boardgamegeek.com/image/206478/axis-allies?size=large

@Emperor_Taiki:

These are good points, do you think there will be any french units in north africa or syria, as they were also vichy controlled?

I guess it depends how detailed the game will be. The historical Oct. 1941 Vichy forces in North Africa are in this PDF, and the May 1941 Vichy forces in Syria are here.

@allweneedislove:

the game starts before france falls. so there should be french presence in french indo china.

True.  The May 1940 French Indochina force is shown on the last page of this PDF, and the July 1941 Vichy force is shown here.

@Lozza007:

If I recall, the units in FIC were Vichy controlled.  They caved in to Japanese pressure for airbases in FIC

Yes, that’s what happened historically (along with some other effects):

@ABWorsham:

I would try the buffet method, read small amounts over a wide range of historic topics, whenever you find something you really enjoy dive as deep as you can into it. Then move on.

Agreed - that’s a good approach.

@Dylan:

So if anyone know some stuff could you maybe please make a timeline or list of civilizations.

This might be a good place to start: List of Wars

The one on Mr. Harris’s website states that it’s official (which I take to mean just that, though I guess tournament organizers might do their own thing if they want): http://harrisgamedesign.com/pdf/A&A_Anniversary_FAQ.pdf.  It’s a step more up-to-date than the one on the Avalon Hill site and includes the heavy bomber change on page 1.

Interesting ideas - so many choices!  :-o

Thanks for the input, guys.  I’ll try that, then.

As most seem to agree, Heavy Bombers were quite overpowered in the Milton Bradley edition.  In it, other techs added 50% to effectiveness, while rolling three dice for HBs added 200%.  One of the most obvious house rule fixes was to reduce HBs to rolling two dice, resulting in an added 100% effectiveness - still overpowered compared to other techs, but not as bad. And this was what originally appeared in the Anniversary Edition.

The Larry Harris Tournament Rules strategic bombing modification (roll two dice, choose the higher, and add 1), results in a 57% increase in effectiveness (the better of two dice is chosen for unit combat). The Feb 5, 2010 FAQ change uses a simplified version of this which omits the “add 1” (matching the new Pacific procedure), resulting in only a 28% increase in effectiveness for strategic bombing.

One other possibility is to roll 1 die and add 2 for strategic bombing, which also gives a 57% increase in effectiveness (for tactical combat, the FAQ/LHTR approach of rolling two dice and choosing the better is used).

For comparison, here are graphs of these various strategic bombing approaches:

My instinct is that either the One Die Plus 2 or LHTR approaches are best, while the FAQ/Pacific one seems underpowered, but I haven’t played enough to be sure.  What are your experiences and opinions of these various options?