Alpha 3 Completed (Sort Of)

30-November Ray and I started a game with me as the Axis and he, the Allies. The opening round found the Germans destroying the entire UK home fleet but mutual destruction in Paris left it in the hands of France.

Meanwhile Japan prepares to head straight down to India. The Marshaling boxes came in handy.

The USA stages their fleet off the coast of Queensland while still Neutral, seems hinky but a check of the rules and it appears all good. Prior to the invasion of India Japan developed jet fighters and it's a good thing because I got 12 hits in the first round, UK countered with 10 hits of it's own. Japan took India but lost a ton of planes. By Round 4 Germany decided to hit Leningrad instead of UK
The US brings a huge fleet to the Sea of Japan but I am in range to hit it back next round. After all is said and done I am left with 2 damaged battleships.

Germany holds the north in force but USSR is very strong in Caucasus and Moscow, they also invade Korea and crush. This spells the end of the Japanese mainland campaign. This was the scene when we had to call it for the week to continue on the 11th of December.

The Germans moved a huge fleet down to Bessarabia to make a push into Caucasus and Stalingrad. Russia spends 6 bucks on a sub in SZ6 which costs me 6 in convoy disrupts including the French Destroyer off India. That destroyer also sunk 3 Italian transports and the French fighter from England hit 3 German transports. The French did pretty well in this game. The Soviet money spent in Korea, I believe lost USSR the time they needed but cleared out the last remaining Japanese in Manchuria and eventually China passed Japan in income holding 37 IPC at one point.

Meanwhile ANZAC was sneaking up to India and took it leaving one Artillery and no UK collect income meant Japan's re-take gained nothing.

Italy never did get into Egypt but Germany came into Moscow hard and took it. USA amassed a huge fleet and took a few shots at the Infantry pile in Japan. After Convoy raids Japan was left holding less than 10 IPC 2 rounds in a row.

Germany, after collecting from Moscow holds 120 IPC while Japan has 5. I believe in 2 rounds Germany can take Egypt from south Russia. Ray's ride showed up so we had to call it. No sense continuing as we can't play again until 8-January. With Germany's cash flow they can easily defend their 7 Victory Cities and swoop down to Cairo.
Axis win.

This is, of course just one game. Many people think the game is skewed towards the Axis in this rule set however I think this particular game could have been saved by the Allies spending less money in the Pacific. Once Japan was on the ropes and only holding the home island the USA should have been pumping all income into Europe. Russia should have left Korea as a stronghold and spent all money in home defense, if they did Germany would have been one or two rounds behind in taking Moscow and the Allies would have had a better chance.

Ray and I

Yesterday we finished the game we started on Remembrance Day where I was the Allies and Ray was the Axis. Germany was very strong at the outset and looked to be able to hit Moscow if the 6 Japanese tanks on the east side of it attacked first off but Ray felt it would weaken things too much and sent the tanks down to India and built an IC as well as bringing the fleet to home waters. This forced Germany to split up and attack Karelia and the Caucasus as USSR could now afford to fan out and create buffers around the capital. Meanwhile the USA brought their fleet in to attack the entire Jap fleet at Tokyo and was about to re-grab the islands to the south when Ray pointed out that he couldn't believe I wasn't attacking his capital with the four Infantry I had in range. He had only two Inf at home so I said sure, why not? the result was the picture below and we set up again.

We switched sides and played the same game and set up: Anniversary 42.
I started this game off with a factory in Manchuria and a sweeping attack outwards from there. No Pearl Harbour but a buffer into Buryatia, and Chinese territories. Germany took everything it could reach the Cauc with and hammered it for one round then withdrew into Ukraine and brought in reinforcements. Russia took Finland but did not take out the German transport so Germany took it back. UK and USA kept hitting West Europe and France but stayed out of the Med and Germany hit the Caucasus again and took it for good. Japan kept up the pressure on China untill it was eliminated and then took India and brought the entire fleet home and kept building navy waiting for the USA which never came in force as it spent most of it's money on navy at Brazil. After placing units in the Cauc for one round Germany made it's attack into Moscow.

The Soviets had no way of taking it back but Britain and USA took out the massive transport fleet I bought for Germany in the Baltic thus could have maybe got a foothold however they did not follow up and eventually all Russian units were taken off the board and all Japan had to do was wait and build navy. Germany never got into UK in time though as Ray's ride showed up at 23:00.
Bad day for Ray as he got crushed twice.
Hopefully Mugsy can make it next week and we can try out Global 40 Alpha 3.

Remebrance Day!

I think my hangover is officially gone now 5 days later. We hit a lot of speed bumps that day, didn't get started until 11:00, lost a player to an emergency at home, re-started then didn't finish the 2 player game. Also killed a bottle of Vodka and many many beers of the world. As it stands Ray as Axis, me as Allies and into round 5 or 6 of Anniversary Edition '42 set up. The Germans are outside Moscow in force and the Japanese are on the other side with 6 tanks. If the Soviets can withstand this assault however they are in good shape as the Japanese have nothing else coming and are in very rough shape. The US Navy is all over the Pacific and Japan is collecting no N.O.'s and have none of China.

I just read that the rules in the Alpha 3 thread of the Harris Design Site are pretty much final. Hopefully we can get a game in soon I really want to give it a go. Might have a game this Sunday and might not.

Only America Was Safe

Yesterday we got in two games of Axis & Allies 1942. In the first game:
Mugsy and Ray were Allies
I was Axis

Japan had no pressure from UK and USA was contained with a navy that was just large enough. I failed with Japan to crush the fleet at Hawaii as I used my ships elsewhere but was still good enough as USA built mostly in Atlantic. These facts allowed me to send 4 fighters to Caucasus which sealed Russia's fate.

Germany built a factory in Norway to keep a supply of fighters surrounding UK and this mostly worked, they took Western Europe once but did not hold it. I managed to keep most of my aircraft throughout the game and rolled pretty well when the time came to invade Moscow.

With no hope of retaking, it was time to set up again.
Ray and I as Allies
Mugsy as Axis

Mugsy had bought an Aircraft Carrier first round for Germany and that was it. Ray failed to hit it in time and Germany invaded by round 3 with only 1 transport but a shit tonne of fighters.

USA took it back but as soon as UK collected income again the Germans re-invaded same as before with their one transport, 5 Fighters and 1 Bomber. This time their were no Allied units in range to retake it and Germany planted some Infantry and the game was over.

Washington was the only Allied capitol that was not plundered this day.

Our next game will fall on Rememberance Day in less than two weeks I'm hoping to have a finalized Alpha 3 to set up and we will be starting early, around 08:00 or so. 

Global Continuation and Classic

Yesterday we finished the game we started last time of Global Alpha 3.
Mugsy as Axis
Ray and I as Allies
When we stopped last week Japan had amassed a large fleet at home and Germany was close to Moscow. The Germans continued on and the Soviets kept placing blocker units in the way and for one round bought some mech and tanks to counter attack with. This became a problem when an Italian tank came up and killed the blocker in front of Moscow leaving room for 8 Panzers to hit the Soviet capitol. First combat round killed two AA guns, in the second round of attack this was Germany's roll:

Yahtzee! and that's the end of Nazi aggression in Russia. In the West the Americans got a stronghold in Normandy and liberated France only to have the Italians take it back.
Japan took Sydney and this Battle was about to occur:

But the towel was thrown in.

After this we set up Classic.
Mugsy and I as Allies
Ray as Axis
UK was the major aggressor in this one as Africa was quickly cleaned up and much money was taken from Germany. As, Almost, always, Japan was huge but after Germany fell they were not quite in position yet to take Moscow.

Global Alpha 3

We had an aborted game on Sunday just passed. Mugsy had to take off at 20:00 but we got 4 rounds in and it's looking pretty good, Mugsy is the Axis and Ray and I are the Allies. Germany didn't go for a Sea Lion attack and went into Barbarossa mode in round 2. Japan also attacked the Allies in round 2 but didn't get too much going on the mainland. He has a pretty good navy and could hold off the USA for 4 or 5 more rounds I think. He's most likely doing this to kill time (and US cash) to get into Moscow which with these tanks he should do in a couple or four rounds.

We'll be continuing this game on the 16th as we have moved to a two week schedule. Kinda sucks as I would have liked to finish a Global game in one day but, whatayagonnado?

1941

It's been a while for me as it was my son's birthday last Sunday and I took him to Night of Champions in Buffalo. No Zach Ryder but it was pretty awesome anyway. Even though CM Punk lost he went top rope onto Triple H on the announce table! Wicked.
While we were there Ray and Mugsy got into to it with Anniversary edition 1942 set up with Mugsy cleaning up as the Axis. They started a second game playing the same sides with the 1941 set up but didn't finish.

Yesterday we played Anniversary: 1941 Set up
Me and Mugsy as Allies
Ray as Axis

Germany's first move set the tone for them the entire game as they didn't take one Soviet territory (bad dice) and left much of the UK fleet

After that it was only a matter of time before the Russians got to Berlin but Japan constantly hounded Alaska but not Asia

In the end we played after the game was won and USSR took all of Europe and dropped a really sweet fleet on the Black Sea

Hopefully we can play Global 40 Alpha 3 next week, see you all then!

Axis & Allies 1942

This week marked the release of AAG1940 Alpha 3 by Larry Harris. I made up some sweet set up cards but my printer is down and I couldn't print them up, also after less than three days of being out I assume they will be updated as game reports come in. My first impression of the Alpha 3 rule set is that it is very off center. Many of the new rule changes don't seem in line with balancing the old Alpha 2 such as the National Objective for UK and USA occupying France. I was under the impression that the new N.O.'s were going to be an incentive for USA to go into the European theater more heavy but it seems that this N.O. is not enough. The new Anti Aircraft Gun rule is also very strange at first look. Most capitals start with more than one now and they can be taken as casualties and their ability to attack planes has changed. Each AA may fire up to 3 times each depending on how many planes come in but may not fire more times than there are planes. This I like but taking tham as casualties is totally against every rule so far. As I said these are my first impressions and once we play test them the situation may be totally different, either they will have changed, or my impression of them might. Don't knock it till you try it seems the best approach.

On to today's games:
AA42 Game 1
Ray as the Axis
Me and Mugsy as Allies

Ray tried something completely different for him and bought a Battleship round one for Germany.
It was sunk immediately and the metal would have been better served making Panzers!

He later bought a factory for Norway and as you can see it fell right into the hands of the USA. A desperate push into Moskva occurred prior to this photo and failed miserably.

Germany surrendered though Ray thinks the Japanese could have kept things alive, this photo says otherwise.

The second game would prove to be way more interesting.

AA42 Game 2
Mugsy as the Axis
Ray and I as the Allies

In this game I tried something different with Russia. I bought only infantry the first round and concentrated all my forces into West Russia, crushing and forming a wall of infantry that marched all the way to Berlin. Before that happened though, and I should point out that we were playing with the cards that we some times use in the Second Edition game, Germany managed to take Berlin and collected 64 IPC (plundered income and collected income) the next round I went into Berlin with everything I had and was so excited to do so I forgot to make my purchases. I defeated him and left 2 Inf and 2 Tanks in his capital and collected 46 IPC + the 64 he collected and the 40 I didn't spend.

Lucy for me I had some non combat moves that saved me from the humiliating fact that Japan could have pulled the triple wammy and took the German money AND the British money, as My lack of purchase left Moskva empty. We had time before the guys ride got there and played it out a bit allowing me to place 4 bombers and 8 tanks in the capital and Caucasus, as well as a Battleship, Aircraft Carrier and sub in the Baltic Sea.

Axis surrendered for the second time today and our next scheduled game will not see me participate as I have tickets for my son and I to see Night of Champions in Buffalo in two weeks. Victor (my son) is so excited, it's his tenth birthday and we're going to a WWE pay-per-view! Live! I hope C.M. Punk kicks the crap out of Triple H!

Global Alpha 2

Posting a bit late in the week but better late than never.

We played AAGlobal Alpha 2 last Sunday with the following set up:
I was the Axis
Mugsy and Ray were the Allies

I got my ass handed to me. I cannot blame the dice, as I made several mistakes early and often. I tried to set up Sea Lion but did not have enough soldiers to bring in as Germany. I set my Japanese navy up to crush India but kept hammering at the Burma road and thus did not have enough troops for the transports to carry in and lost the fight. Meanwhile the US had built up a hefty navy at Alaska ans on the East Coast and in my last purchase as Japan put what I thought was enough troops on mainland Japan for the invasion (6) had I brought in the 3 fighters from Manchuria I would have held them off but the result was thus:

Yeah, that's the extra Guinness from the four pack that went to the winner. As I said I made several foolish strategic decisions that cost me the game and I regret that it will be a long time until I play as the Axis again in this game to recover my honor.

In the second game we played 2nd Edition with the cards that Ray came up with a long time ago and it was pretty fun. At the end of the night we had to call an Allied victory but it could have gone either way. Germany was surrounded and perhaps with a few well time cards they could have pulled it out but we called it Allies!
No ending pic but this was the set up pic:

This game was Mugsy and I as Allies and Ray as the Axis.

Next week will be a down week but I hope in two weeks we will get in another game of Global, hopefully with the new Alpha 3 Set up!
You hear me Mr. Harris?
Alpha 3 needs to be GO in 2 weeks.

London Falls Twice!

Yesterday we played two games of Anniversary, the result was the same both times. London was taken over in both games
Game 1:
AA50/1941
Ray and I as Allies
Dan and Mugsy as Axis

Game 2:
AA50/42
Mugsy and I as Allies
Dan and Ray as Axis

The most amazing part is that I watched Ray get invaded in the first game and couldn't believe he let it happen and then I allowed it myself. I blame the beers.

Last week Dan and I were away and Ray and Mugsy played a game of AA50/41. I know Mugsy won but I don't know which team he was playing as so I'll score it later.

Smoke Filled Back Room Diplomacy

This Sunday we took the game on the road to Ray's place in the spare room. The heat and humidity would have been terrible in the garage but we have to figure out a better ventilation system what with the super chain smoking that occurs during our games.

We played 2 games of A&A42

Game one was as follows
Dan and Jeff as Allies
Ray and I as Axis

I was Japan and wanted to see how it went with no IC purchase. It worked out OK until a UK AC got at my unprotected transports in the Sea of Japan, but by this time I had taken the UK IC in India. The Soviets had snuck all the way down to French Indochina but with minimal forces.

I was unconcerned as the Us was not pressuring due to my navy. Germany was doing a good job holding off the Allies and that left Japan in good shape. I made my move a couple rounds later taking a transport into Egypt and moving another transport from Solomons into LA. This move also brought the hammer into the US IC in Sinkiang and a large navy into Alaska with loaded transports. Allies surrendered before I even rolled a die.

Game 2

Ray and Jeff as Allies
Dan and I as Axis

Dan wanted to try an invasion of Los Angeles taking Hawaii first. This plan almost worked but the dice gods did not allow it.

 Meanwhile a slow march to the north in Asia would make it all the way to Moscow's doorstep.

 Germany and USSR would battle back and forth for land in Europe all night until the purchase of 9 tanks by Germany would make it all but clear to the Allies they were doomed.

 The depressed UK would look on in horror as they were stymies in Africa, never got a permanent navy in the North Atlantic, and that was all Germany needed to drop this stack of Panzers.

 The march north for the Germans went as well as the Japanese and Hitler celebrates in Leningrad!

 As always, Ray is very stubborn to surrender when there are beers remaining but when the last pint was poured and the Huns and Imperial Japanese Army were knocking on the door, the writing was on the wall.

A good week for myself, a bad week for Jeff. He's getting the hang of things pretty well though and will soon crush all.

We have a family camping trip next weekend so Dan and I won't be playing but I expect Ray and Mugsy will get a game in.

I'm hoping in 2 weeks the heat will have broken and we can get back into the garage and we'll, by then have a new set of rules for Global and we can declare August A&A Global 1940 Alpha 3 month.

Absentia

Last Sunday the guys played without me, I had stuff to do but stopped in to catch an hour of the action.

They played AA42

Dan was the Axis
Mugsy and Ray were the Allies

Ray's new place was nice and cool on that hot day and the fridge was a chair's roll away from the board so the beers were not too distant. The garage would have been too hot.

Not much of an action report but I'm told they only got the one game in and it was an Axis Victory so perhaps Dan is on his way to a new streak.

We'll be playing at Ray's again next weekend but not sure which game.

Two and a Half Games

We started off this past Sunday with a game between Dan and I vs. Mugsy.
Mugsy: Axis
Dan: USSR/UK
Me: USA/China

The game was Anniversary Edition with the 1941 set up.
I made this game from maps and set ups I found on the internet and the USA's Pacific set up does not look right to me. If anyone can tall me either way it would be appreciated.

Mugsy had terrible luck with Germany first round losing all his air force but one fighter. Not much could be done after that. In round 3 the UK took India and that was just aboot it for the Axis. The US navy didn't even leave port  in San Francisco.

Next we played a continuation of a game where Ray, Mugsy and I were the Allies against Dan. The game was AA42 and though Ray wasn't present this day we wanted to put it to bed so we could change Dan's technical 10 in a row to 4 then 5 in a row. This did not happen and the bragging continued, rightly so as 10 in a row is pretty impressive.

We had time for one more so we played AA42 again where I was the Axis and Dan and Mugsy split the Allies. Let the streak end with the following images:

All in all Dan and I had a good day but Mugsy was swept. I feel he will make us pay for this in the future but not next week, well not me anyway as I plan to go see the Hated Yankees play the Blue Jays in Toronto next Sunday. I'm sure the other guys will grab up the gear and play at Ray's new apartment. Here's hoping Dan doesn't start a new streak, he might catch me on the leaderboard!