Has anyone played a full game yet ...

[The Rat King]

With all the anger over the lack of pieces and storage trays etc, one thing seems to have become lost in the launch weekend frenzy. Has anyone actually played a full game yet? I'm curious to know how it played out. Did the new rules create a huge shift in strategy? Who won?

Please post some session reports if you have them.

[V-Disc]

My first game was victory for the Allies. Gameplay was very similiar to the "Europe" and "Pacific" games. Strategies that work in those versions, would certainly be effective in the revised game.
The 3/3 tank {which I initialy had my reservations about} has a substantial impact. Masses of armor are now defensive and offensive.
The increased capacity of transports is a great asset. Initial setup, especially The British South Pacific/Indian Ocean Fleet, presents a wide range of options. Germany has the most immediate and crucial strategic decisions to make. Russia has a either/or choice to make {a pretty simple one actually}
We used the follwing optional rules/National Advantages: (from die rolls..not picked}
Russia - Mobile Indusrty {didn't need it}
Germany - Dive Bombers {somewhat effective}
Britan - French Resistance {this was good..timely reinforcements}
Japan - Banzai Attacks {fearsome and crudely effective}
United States - B-29's {hurt, but did not cripple German industry}
The next time I play; I'd like to try a "straight"/no option game...just to see how a basic game would unfold.
All-in-all I'd say the revision enhances just about every aspect of the game. I'm satisfied.
For those of you who have yet to get the game; your patience will be rewarded.
For those who have gripes or misgivings; that's your right and preogative. But I'm still glad I got the game the day it arrived, minor flaws & all.

[Krieghund]

We chose to start of with 2 random optional rules for each power. I got Panzer Blitz and Fortress Europe for Germany and Tokyo Express and Banzai attacks for Japan. He got Russian Winter and Salvage for the USSR, Radar and Joint Strike for the UK, and Island Bases and Marines for the US.

Of course the first thing my worthy opponent tried to do was break the game. As the Allies, he completely ignored Japan (except for a token defense of China and a small Soviet force in the east) and sent everything at Germany. During the course of the game, Germany developed Rockets, Japan developed Long Range Aircraft and Heavy Bombers, and the US developed Long Range Aircraft and Combined Bombardment.

The result of this was that the Allies were defeated. Since Japan was unharried, I did the tried and true Russia squeeze with great success. Germany was hard-pressed but not seriously threatened, since the German rocket attacks and the Japanse bombing weakened the USSR significantly. There was a scary moment when the Joint Strike occurred, but the dice were a little in my favor.

The Panzer Blitz helped Germany quite a bit, as did Fortress Europe. The Tokyo Express was useful for Japan, as the US's Long Range Aircraft made short work of my transports (NOTE TO SELF: Always assume LRA, whether they have it yet or not, when determining "safe" ranges.), but I never used the Banzai Attacks, since I always had air support.

The Russian Winter turned out to be not much of a factor, since my attack on Russia was kind of a surprise (I rolled heavies for Japan the turn I attacked), and the Salvage didn't help that much. The British Radar made no difference, since the only territory I attacked with an AA gun was India, and no 2s were rolled. The Joint Strike was very helpful though. It was the only thing that kept him in the game. The Island Bases were completely useless for the US, since he ignored the Pacific, but the Marines helped a little on D-Day.

All in all, I enjoyed the game. It has a bit of a different feel than the MB version. The spectre of tech looms a little larger, so you can't really leave fronts weakly defended or you might get into trouble fairly quickly. It also really pays to tailor your strategy to the optional rules you are using, as if that weren't obvious.

It's hard to tell after just one game, but I think I may like this one better than the MB version. I was not real crazy about some of the changes initially (and I'm still not about some of them), so I was pleasantly surprised. Of course, that may just be the newness talking. For now, I am passing no judgments. More games are required!

[pagan]

HAd a first game. Strategy was the basic ALLIES WIN strategy with a triple team against germany.

Japan's tactics have changed slightly. but without pressure from USA, who has the option to really harry japan away from asia, japan ran amoke. also buying dice rolls for heavy bombers. it took 35IPCs for japan to get heavy bombers, but by then it was in the high 40s pushing on 50 IPCs.

Germany made a wall of men.

Allies kept france and tried the double whammy on berlin. It wasnt close with the inf + tank buys there were alot of 3s to defend.

japan is pushing on moscow, moscow retreats with germany crippled. with heavy bombers Japan forces USSR to lose 12 IPCs each round (4 from cascus & 8 from moscow) tanks and a bomber are all japan buys.

SIX japanese heavy bombers base themselves in berlin and begin to devastate the uk/usa navy.

japan builds only bombers for the rest of the rounds.

germany recovers its territories and defends. USSR finally falls do to lack of production ability.

No pressure on Japan (even without Heav Bombers) is not a good idea.

[Grimwyrm]

We had a marketably different game from the above examples.

Germany built nothing but infantry and planes. He then used the planes to supplement the infantry attacks against Russia. The U.S. and the U.K. concentrated heavily on the Pacific campaign and so most of the really big battles occurred there.

First off, Japan (myself) attacked the UK Navy off the coast of Italy. Due to completely lousy rolling Japan was not able to destroy them and had to retreat. Additionally, Japan sent both the aircraft carrier and battleship to Pearl Harbor to take out the AC there, but lost a lot on the counter attack from the battleship and planes coming from Hawaii and the Western US. So by the end of turn two Japan had lost Borneo, was losing Western Indonesia (to the UK troops from Australia) and had to cope with the IC in India pumping out 3 tanks a turn. Turn 3 took resulted in further consolidation of forces and the loss of all Japanese transports. While the US couldn't assault Tokyo they patrolled the shore and thus prohibited Japan from an Asia assault and pressuring Russia.

We decided that possibly building an IC in either Kwangtung or Manchuria might off set that.

[Carico67]

6 Test Games.

In 6 test runs this weekend played between Vecna and I (with minor victory conditions) the Axis triumphed in all 6, even after some poor dice or decisions in some cases. The game has some serious problems with India and not Australia being a Victory territory.

C2

[discojt]

Carico,
Care to explain your reasoning around India vs Australia for victory conditions? Were you just playing the short version? I can see your concern in that case, but for a medium length game I can't see the problem...

[elbowmaster]

our 1st game not using option or tech...

russia, buy inf, kill western russia, hold japan in eastern...place 4 inf in cacausus, 4 in russia, kaz inf help reinforce caucasus...regroup for next round...russian sub joined sz 2

germany bought all inf...normal dead zones happen again...pulled back and regrouped...

set up eastern europe stack...looks like north army group and southern to caucasus...

germ sent sub back to gib bbs, with 2ftr...attack egypt with syria gambit...bomber from germany used as well as...

germany had the chance to try and flee the baltic, but choose not too...may have been a mistake...

uk made a tranny investment, knowing coverage coming from usa on t1, USA decides to not do torch t1 so uk navy is totally safe...

uk navy in pacific was lucky and nasty on poor old japan...sinking tranny at kwangtung with destroyer, and now that figgen pain in ars uk sub is not in med anymore, its in pac...got lucky and hit japanese sub, thus tweeking japan even before they can get going...

rest of uk fleet bailed toward africa, uk tranny took nz inf on a round the world tour...

japan spent money on trannies...and attempted to reinforce mainland...

very slow...that loss of tranny that used to be in phil islands was nasty...

usa shucked the heck out of africa after uk navy was safe/ uk set its shuck to...karelia...DUH...so three big stacks9 once again kill the german machine...uk and russia from karelia, russian usa from caucasus

now uk and russia can cover the north / karelia, usa through africa and germany becomes the similar same old fall back and build...japan did finally get back to nastyness, but that uk T1 really hurts them...especially if both hit, and if they did miss (uk) they still have a nice pac navy...

the polar express on the pac side was tempting, but im still conditioned to the atlantic playout ALL vs germany, just hold japan log enough, which i think is easier in this version...

looks like some axis advantage will be needed...next game we will toy with optional rules...its only one game, but comfort factor on all germany 1st is the way to go as well...

allied victory 1st game...

thats my 0.02

-cheers

-elbowmaster

[Carico67]

Discojt,

Here's thread I have started on the topic if anyone else has input. Here's what it reads:

http://boards.avalonhill.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=10;t=000290

"Well, I can't say the weekend was a success, though I do like MANY things about the game.

We played a total of 6 games so far with Minor Victory Conditions and no optionals, and all 6 went to the Axis. In more than 1 game the allies either outplayed or outrolled the Axis yet with no effect on result. Here are the problems summarized:
1) India as a Victory Country. THIS IS THE BIGGEST AND WORST oversight seen so far. In our opinion (Vecna and I) had Australia been chosen instead of India this would be an absolutely INCREDIBLE game. The other thing we said is to make Australia a Victory territory and make the #9 for a nmonor victory condition (leaving both Moscow and Aus as the 9th. India and LEN should be secured easily by round 4, and WEU covered well enough as well to stop any US counters.

2) 10 Victory cities is NOT going to happen in this game... short of some lopsided tech rolls for the axis and against the allies. 8 Stretches the Axis to maintain as is.

The Australia addition would do 1 thing the current settings do not: Force Japans Navy to be active, and perhaps split in its coverage. The navy pretty much ended in India w/2 BB's bombarding every time, and trans sent to block CM takes of Manilla (allies 2 moves away the round India falls as #8 VC) in the games the allies tried to go Pacific in counter.

As it stood this weekend games are over in 4 rounds max, before the allies can stop Japan taking India as the 8. In the best alllied game Russia had sent 4 Inf + 1 Tank + 2 Ftr's, all 3 UK Ftr's, and 2 US Ftr's all resided in India w/a factory and 6 UK Tanks... so 8/-/7/7/AA and WITHOUT teching for HB's (had 6 dice to rol) the Japs stood a 70% take on India J4 after having suffered severe setbacks by both axis powers to that point.

I have some HUGE concerns with the playtest group if they could not see the trouble of India/Australia and what element the game loses by the decision that was made. I would be very curious to any one else's findings (without optionals) because this matter is of major importance regarding future PBEM play.

Thanks, Chris C"