Posts made by elzario

I usually would go J2 just for the extra logistical movements and getting some early hits done in China.  I haven’t played Japan too often so that’s just my humble opinion :)

@Young:

Don’t stress the strategy aspect to much, seriously… they might feel that they are being directed, and if you constantly point out bad moves, they won’t come back.

I might not of pointed this out in the initial post, but this is exactly the approach I am taking.  Trying to give them the rule basics and them learning the ropes.

@captain:

As far as strategies go, I would just impress upon new players that, not only should they try to hold the territories that they have, but also try to gain more territories. After a few rounds of combat, they’ll decide if they’re going to play defensive or aggressive.

This is a great reminder!  At the end of the day, keeping and gaining territories is what it is all about.

@captain:

I’ve also found that new players aren’t really that concerned with having some kind of “grand strategy”…because they don’t know wtf they’re doing. They’re more focused on getting good dice rolls.
And when it comes down to it, that’s what really wins the game.

That is good to hear, that is really what I wanted reassurance about, that they don’t NEED long term strategy for their first few games

@Cmdr:

A) Remove Artillery, Mechanized Infantry and Tactical Bombers from the game.  I view these as more “flavor” units.  That is to say, I see them as units that can be removed from the game without significantly changing things.

I think I might do this, understanding units and rules associated with them can be confusing.  This might help flatten out the learning curve on the first game.

@Tall:

I believe most of us would agree that this game is best when players are required to THINK for themselves.

Without a doubt, this is exactly what I want them to do.  Play their own game and maybe I can learn something from a few of the freshmen!

@Tall:

––Anyone in NorthEast Texas/NorthWest Louisiana up for a f/f G-40 game???

I am in Australia, so is probably a bit of a hike for me to get there :)

Thanks for all the suggestions guys, most of it reaffirms my thoughts to not push anything much on them, mostly just basic rules and unit abilities.  I am going to try and simplify the game a bit too, maybe take out tactical bombers, arty and mech - although I like to use inf + arty a lot so will see :P

I have recently been able to wrangle together 6 of my friends who are up for playing G40 regularly.  Now 2 of us have played a dozen or so times, one of them once before (Pacific), and the other 3 haven’t played at all.

I have been hoarding as much resources and information to help them ease into the game, and am hoping the first game won’t be too slow, and not too much “holding back on the new guys” occurring.

Now I am not sure how much information I should try cramming down their throats at this point.  I want them to not make too many rookie errors, but I am a huge advocate of players experimenting with strategy rather than following an “Accepted strategy” for a Nation, even if that means they take longer to arrive at the same conclusion.

So far I am trying to avoid any move specific, or purchase plan strategies for Nations.  Am trying to go for more basic strategy concepts like linking units inf and art together can be just as viable attack option as a tank.

Now what I want to ask, is what are some BASIC strategy concepts that you would consider are valuable to teach newbies?

At the moment the only write-up I have done is survival rate estimations (eg. 3 destroyers are generally a better investment than 2 cruisers if you look past the first round of combat and cost to replace) and hit/cost estimates (estimated IPC value of each kill you score).

I have also done up an FAQ sheet (http://www.elliottfox.com/files/AA_FAQ_1.pdf forgive me for typos!) for Rule clarificatons.  I made this by trawling the first 30ish pages of the Global Forum and collating them into a basic QA format.

Any tips and advice on initiating new players would be great!  I would love to keep these guys playing so we have a more consistent playing group!

@Eqqman:

@cenator01:

To get to your point:
invading with 2 infantry against 10 Infantry would economically be prefareable with crusier bombardment and not by sending in planes. Thats what I wanted to say.

If the whole purpose is to merely inflict casualties via bombardment, why even send 2 INF?  One would suffice.

My guess would be because you can only bombard once for every ground unit you are attacking with.

Wow, that is exactly what I was looking for!  Thank you very much  :-D

Once I get my pieces painted and mounted I will throw some pictures up.  Still unsure of if it will actually solve any issues of crowded countries, and planes on carriers is going to be an issue.  But may just do half mounted / half normal to give the option of both.

I have been looking at moving my plane pieces to be on stands to give the game a little more height and general aesthetics.  I had thought of buying them and then later though it might not be too hard with nimble fingers to just super glue them to an existing stand.

I would of thought someone had done this previously with AA (Global 1940 in my case) but can’t find any examples or information on it.  Is this something that doesn’t work out and is a pitfall I am best to avoid?

@Gargantua:

You’re the Axis, I’m the Allies.  Let’s see if your strategy leads to as much of an unbalanced game as you believe.  May the better General win.  Start the game anytime, and send me a PM.  It’s on! :P

Watching with interest

Paint up some models in plebian outfits and stick some pitchforks on the end of the guns.  “Civilian” units are massively under represented in AA… probably with good reason, but Russia should get to use them too.

All movement must be done in Combat, or Non Combat phase.

so no

We play with a “bid” for UK (Europe) which we call the Churchill rule.  This usually helps defend Sealion

You have to recite at least 3 lines of Churchills infamous speech at the start of your turn, (sometimes flexible on the amount recited depending on alochol consumption) then for each infantry purchased, you get a 2nd infantry free.  (Half price infantry).  We limit it usually to no more than 10 units, but we sort of just play it by ear when we use it.

An engineer friend at University and myself were looking into designing digital table top games.  Its an interesting field and obviously would be a whole lot of fun!

My interest in developing an A&A one was mainly so that when tiny little territories were holding massive amounts of units you didn’t have that ambiguity of cramming a bunch of stuff overflowing into neighbourign territories - you cuold have the digital screen pop out and in to “view” territories.

Its an expensive escapade, and at the end of the day computer games are a viable alternative so wont be mainstream for a while!

Pip Pip! Top Draw old chap!

these have been very handy

we played a game the other week that you could move your capital when captured (not for victory conditions, just for building and production) to any territory you had an IC on, Major if you had it, or choice of minor otherwise.  While it certainly added a different aspect of allowing you to continue to build, it resulted in nations never being defeated.

In the house rules of G40 that my friends and I play, the income is generated seperatley, but money can be transferred through transports.  we use green and yellow tokens to denote 5 and 1 IPC respectively and can be moved like units on a transport ship.  We don’t play with a limit cause its fun watching stacks of IPC get captured if Uk tries to go through the mediteranean.

We find this encourages UK to pay attention to the pacific as if they control a route to London the IPCs can help fight the germans