The Global 1942 setup had a tourney at this past weekend’s GenCon.
I have to say it’s quite different, especially in terms of the turn order. However, I must say I really enjoyed it and will probably prefer playing it over Alpha +3 1940. My gaming partner and I played twice and won twice as the Allies. Both times he was the USSR, USA, and China whilst I was Britain, ANZACs, and France. In the first game we were given a bid of 10 IPCs; we put a British tank in Egypt and a British artillery in Burma. The second time we were given a bid of 8 IPCS; we kept the artillery in Burma and put an artillery in Egypt instead of the tank.
I found the Japanese are very powerful and demand almost the full attention of America’s first 1-2 buys. If Japan wants to truly threaten taking BOTH Sydney and Hawaii, it can, but it must almost ignore India in terms of purchases. In the first game Sydney was lost but America was very well positioned to take it back whilst British India was starting to roll and liberate much of China. In the second game Japan never took a victory city; it first lost Hong Kong and then Manila. The game was called after that, especially since the Soviets were on German original territories and the British had taken the Balkans–despite having London occupied by the Germans. Since it’s quite difficult to threaten Sea Lion, I found Britain could devote almost all of its money toward Africa. In both games I bought a factory for Egypt and sometimes shuttled troops from South Africa to India. I paid for it in the second game when Germany did a late Sea Lion and BARELY took London. He paid for it, however, as the Soviets were soon knocking.
I would NOT say the 1942 setup is faster or accelerated in terms of how much time you will sit and play the game. Instead, the benefit is that everyone is at war from the start, so for the American and Soviet players there is no buying and waiting. Both games at GenCon were almost all-day affairs which could have been longer if one side had not decided to concede after careful deliberation.
Next time, I would say the Allies deserve a bid of 6 IPCs to see how it unfolds.