Hey Everyone,

As a long time A&A fan, its to my great surprise that I stumbled upon this board and to the Global War 1939 Map and subsequent module here. I’m thinking about buying the map and playing the game with my friends but I’d like to kindly ask for some help from the people here to help me make up my mind and assuage or realize concerns.

To give some background, me and my friends have played A&A on and off for over 6 years now. Our most recent venture was into Global 1940. My attention into the board game has mostly been greater than the others. In any case, I looked at the setup charts and the “rulebook” for 5.0 that’s been posted on BGG and I find the information…  extremely complex and massive. Being one of the more historically knowledgeable people in the group, I appreciate all the minute details the designers have thrown in… but as a player the game is HUGE!!

My gaming group is normally composed of 4 people (maybe 3 but not for Global games) who are absolute veterans of A&A1940 Global. Normally I find calculating all the possible paths fighters/bombers could destroy my fleet in the P1940 stressful. I can’t imagine how much time / micromanagement it would take to play with with 6 people’s worth of units. Of course, playing as Russia is normally less attention draining than playing as Japan/US with fleet/air unit positioning.

The second concern I have is the mass of new exceptions compared to G1940: “fortifications, divebombers, naval bombers, veteran units for every side, Special units, etc.” How do you guys normally represent all these unique units?

Essentially, I want to buy the map and play this game but it looks too complex for people below Hearts of Iron level micro. I’m afraid my group would be stuck looking up rules upon rules for most games instead of enjoying the planning/gameplay; thereby turning me and my friend’s interests away. To those of you that have played it, how does it seem?

Also, it seems like it might take a year to play :P

Hmm, that seems to make sense.

For regards with splitting between Pacific and Europe, I often like making a 1st or 2nd turn buy of a destroyer and 1-2 transports in the Atlantic.  This is simply because tanks don’t work as well in island hopping and the fact in A3 you get 4 whopping Mech infantry at the start. (obviously Mech Inf don’t work as great as they could be on islands). It seems natural to buy another 2 transports and, along with maybe the 1 tank you start with, move 5 transports (3 free inf from Brazil) worth of initial units as a minor relief package into Africa or make a strike into France.

The way I see it, it’ll take some time for your Navy to accrue to a level that can comfortably stack against Japans Navy AND air force without disproportionate transport loss. I’m talking about needlessly losing 5-6 transports at Hawaii/Carolines in a massive combined Navy/Airforce attack because you had too many transports and not enough combat ships.

In the mean time, most of your land forces (the aforementioned Mech Inf and Infantry in Brazil. I count Brazil because it’d take them 3 turns to even get to Hawaii; and that’s only after you’re attacked) will be waiting twiddling their thumbs till turns 4-6 where they can move out safely to assault the DEI, Phillipines, etc which in and of themselves normally have very few units that hold them. (The exception is the 1-2 transports you’d use as bare basic assualt troops)

Are Battleships even a good buy though?  I thought there was this big debate between whether getting a Battleship was worth it or getting a Destroyer and a Cruiser (something about Battleships not being worth the extra hit if they don’t survive).

Anyways, I’ll follow your advice:

Equal Capital ships.
Overflow the remainder with Escort ships
Whole lotta Transports once the above is complete.

Though I’m generally leery of having more than 2 transports with my fleet.  Too many experiences where the transports are sunk because there was insufficient amount of protection (b/c Japan decides to come in with everything before my fleet was ready).  Then again, that might be my OOB experiences coming back to haunt me.

Hey Guys,

Me and my friends are avid A&A veterans and have just gotten back into playing A&A.

I’m normally the American player and I’ve always had doubts with my buys when going for a KJF build. Normally I aim to build up a navy that has 1-2 bombardment dice (so 2 CA’s or 1BB 1CA) to take islands and then focus on a defensive Navy: Full CVs with fighters and nice DD meatshields.  I’ll also take a minimal number of assualt troops made up of 1-2 transports.

My reasoning is that your Navy will always be smaller than Japan’s initial Navy and that you’ll most likely want it defense oriented when Japan’s initial attack hits for fleet trading. Subs with their weak defensive dice just aren’t worth it (4 Subs vs 3 Destroyers) and stacking them to an effective # is just asking to be pre-emptively attacked.

Of course, I’ve been wrong before (I never knew about the power of Subs in Revised until visiting here).  What do you guys suggest?

@Krieghund:

@WILD:

OK, if Japan attacks the UK (unprovoked) it brings the US into the war right.

No.  It allows the US to declare war on its turn.

@WILD:

Does the US have to first declare war in the beginning of its turn, or is it just a formality (purely ceremonial) and isn’t needed.

It must declare war, as it is not yet at war.

@WILD:

In other words on J2 Japan attacks only the UK. The UK & US both have 1 sub in a Jap convoy zone, that Japan can’t kill. In the collect income phase of the same Jap turn, does it cost them 4 ipc’s?

No, it costs 2 IPCs, for the UK sub.  Japan is not at war with the US at that point.

Ok, so basically, if the USA is not attacked, it has to declare war before it can take any war actions.  However, if the USA is attacks (lets say on J2), then it is immediately brought into the war and essentially acts as if its at war starting J2 (meaning, in WILD BILL’s example, if Japan did a J2 and hit the USA somewhere, and there was a UK and USA sub in a Jap Convoy zone that Japan cant kill, does that mean Japan loses 4 on its turn?

Also:

If I’m attacked at Pearl on J2 and I have ships with men located adjacent to Quebec, can I immediately land units in UK on USA2?  If I wasn’t attacked and instead had to wait, the earliest I could move my men would be USA4 correct?  (DOW on USA3, but since no attack has occured, I DOW at the end of my turn and THEN do war moves on USA4).

So I’m confused.  If the French are the “worst army in the world” and “always retreat”, and Italy was beaten in battles by France in WW2 (at least until Germany took Paris) why is Italy never harassed like France is?  I mean I’ve heard of battles where Italy lost over 4:1 against the UK in Africa, Italy surrendering with Pancakes in Southern Italy, etc.

@sschreiner5:

Mine is missing all the UK’s units.  They told me I’d get them in 7 to 10 days.  I’m in Minnesota.

Heh, better the UK than German/Russian/Italian pieces.  At least with UK units you can use the Pacific units.  (90% of the pacific UK units are never used anyways)

Well, my pre-order evidently shipped today (23rd) meaning I’ll get it in “2-6 days”.  Not sure how it works for America but I theorize it will be quicker.

Question, would these changes be balanced for A&A:G1940?  (Assuming we accepted them and found the changes balance the game) Or are they only for Pacific 1940 and it’d mess up the balance for a A&A:G1940 game?

Thanks for the quick response Kreighund. :D