Thanks for the help.  Seems like a nice community to play with.  I will go through the rule book again to kinda clear up a few things, but it should be easier to read now that I know what I’m doing.

Now we are getting two more of our friends in on the game, but it just seems like the game is very lopsided between teams.  Is it very fair for a 5 player game when america, china, and japan seem to be super powerful?  Does that leave Britain and Japan at a larger loss?

Thanks for the help.  Didn’t know that the battleship was basically renewed after taking a hit, thought it stuck with it.  My friend and I just finished the game, and I’m pretty sure we got through without messing up too much.  We did hit a few snags, so I just need to ask a few more things:

AAA Guns:  We understand they can fire at up to 3 aircraft during its attack, but during a whole combat phase, can they only fire that one time?  As in, roll for AAA before you start doing the offensive and defensive attacks and don’t use them again until the whole combat phase is over?

Air Combat:  If you attack and wipe out a territory and only have aircraft left, can they take the territory?  I’m pretty sure I read in the rules you couldn’t, I just couldn’t find the rule again and the rulebook is currently in his room and he’s asleep.  Don’t you need actual ground troops to take over a territory?  That’s how we played (Aircraft cant just land and take a territory).

Anyways, I played the as the allies, and I’m just gonna throw out there it’s a good thing I wasn’t in charge during WWII.  I basically didn’t have any direction or game plan going into it.  My U.S. fleet was split between atlantic and pacific (I now think I probably should have committed to atlantic) russia was probably doing the best, although the tactic seemed fairly obvious for russia, just hold the line, I didn’t really have a strategy with Britain either, and now that I think about it I probably should have considered turning them into more of a major air power since their fleet was destroyed on germany’s turn.  There were a few times when I think a small spot of hope shined, but I quickly screwed those away just by stupid stupid moves which I seemed to realize RIGHT after I completed my turn.  I also learned why it was very important to have a good mix of infantry and tanks to defend rather than ALL TANKS (infantry seemed to be the guys that were demolishing everything during my defense turns).  Anyways, all in all it was pretty fun game.  I think I’ll be better prepared next time.

Also, just a question on the strategy side.  I noticed with fleets that they cant really attack anything but other ships (unless unloading which would be the bombardment),  is naval superiority a huge thing?  Or should I just consider abandoning one of the seas and concentrate on one?  It just felt like I was way to split with America.

@sgtwiltan:

Read that rulebook.
First time I played we didn’t read the rulebook and kinda went along as the game progressed.
My co-ally got so pissed at what the sub was able to do to one of his expensive battleships, he flipped the board over scattering the pieces.
Luckily we were only in garrison with no weapons so only heated words were exchanged. We all read and had a round of questions before playing again.
Only seemed to get a game going in the barracks on a non pay week since we didn’t have money to go out.
Back in 88 on Camp Lejeune.

Well, we read the rule book, and admittedly some of the questions I am asking I could find probably find in the rulebook, there were enough questions that we couldn’t answer from the book that I just decided to either find a FAQ, beginners guide, or get on a forum and ask a lot of my questions to the vets of this game.  I probably could have found the battleship question if I had dug deep enough, but we were already stuck on the first battle phase, so I just decided to unload any questions I had on here as a pre-emptive for our next attempt.

Anyways, thanks for the help.  I may ask a few more questions at some point, but this was the biggest problem for us.  Thanks again.

OK, that clears up a lot for me.  Why didn’t YOU write the rules?! :P

But I’m still kinda confused on what you said earlier about the battleship, how it could take 2 hits.  Is there a chart or something I missed what units can take how much damage?  And when damaged, does that affect their defending or attacking rolls?

How do I know how many hits a unit can take?  Does it matter what unit successfully hits another unit (ex. does an artillery piece do more damage than an infantry piece, or are they both the same, and all that matters is whether it actually lands a hit?)

Also, when I said battleship and 4 hits, I was referring to the game battleship…I should have clarified :P

And If I attack all of the pieces on that territory, lets say I get past 3 of them without getting hit, but I hit them.  Do they all take damage/die?  Or does it work where I can only attack one at a time?..Or (I think I just had an epiphany) I only roll once, and he rolls all of his once, and we just decide that way?

Hey guys, sorry if this is in the wrong category, but I couldn’t find a rules, or faq, or new player category.

I’m currently serving in the middle east, and to break up the monotony I ordered axis and allies 1942 2nd edition.  We have risk, but I’ve never been very fond of that game, seems to simplistic to me.  I’ve always been drawn to the strategic sea battles, bombardments, air battles, etc etc in this game.  So for the first time playing it and reading the supplied rules, we found ourselves scratching our heads at certain points where there seemed to be no direction.  If you could take some time to answer some questions, I would really appreciate it.

1.  During the battle phase, it simply says put all attacking and all defending units on the battle strip.  Does this include every unit in the territory?  Because I was using a fighter, and the space had some tanks and infantry, so would they be thrown on the strip as well to take out my fighter?  That just doesn’t make sense to me so I’m doubting that’s the case.  Also, if I attacked a bomber with a fighter, and the space also had AAA and an enemy fighter on it as well, would the defender use the AAA, fighter, and bomber for defense rolls?  Is the fighter optional?

2.  Do units take any kind of damage counters, or does it work in a way where if they are successfully hit by an attacking force, they are simply destroyed (easiest example to think of for me is battleship…the ship gets hit but doesnt sink until 4 successful hits).  Also on that, if I successfully hit one out of 3 units of the defending force, do I decide what is destroyed, the defender, or do we roll a die or something to let chance decide?

I can’t really think of anymore blaring questions right now, but I’m sure I’ll have more.  Learning this game for the first time with (what I believe) a very vague rulebook is about as fun as slamming my head against a wall repeatedly.  If you guys can help me out (mainly with the battlephase) I would really appreciate this.  If at all possible, just describe the whole battle phase as detailed as possible.  Three of us have been skimming the net to find anything about our questions and our searches have returned fruitless.  I hope that doesn’t just mean everyone else gets it and we’re stupid :P.

Again, thanks for any help at all.