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!

Been a long time

Three weeks ago we got halfway through a game of Second Edition and with the Red Sox coming to town the next week and Fathers Day last week the game stayed set up in the garage. I was Japan and had three mainland IC's prodicing three tanks each AND Industrial Technology. I thought I was set. I was wrong. Germany couldn't pressure Russia enough and they concentrated on the East.
Dan came in to help Ray as Allies for the win Mugsy and I lost.

Next we played another game of 2nd ED. with a new player. My son Jeff has been living in Florida with his mother for the last 8 years and last week moved up here to live with us. He had a rudimentary knowledge of the game and we let him play Japan.
Mugsy was USSR, Me, Germany, Ray as UK, Jeff Japan, and Dan as US.
The only thing I remember from this game was that Germany was collecting a lot but attacked an overly powerful Karelia and failed and was then done. My failure to adequately play Germany lost us the game.

Next we played AA42
USSR: Me
Germany: Dan
UK: Mugsy
Japan: Ray
USA: Jeff
In this game I totally failed as the Soviets, and USA was given some bad advice by myself and worked a little too slowly resulting in a large naval battle that stranded several units on Okinawa.

Bad day for me and the new kid.

We will be going to a two week rotation for a while as the wives are getting a bit annoyed by our weekly games but maybe we can fit in 3 weekends a month.

Only finished one

Last Sunday we played the old second edition. We added labs at a cost of 7IPC's however no one bought any.
I was the Allies and Ray and Mugsy split the Axis, playing Germany and Japan respectively.

 Japan harassed America, taking Alaska after some time but couldn't get the ground game going in Asia fast enough to put any pressure on the Soviets. The Germans had their way in Africa but were stymied in their first attack on Karelia, and did not kill the British navy, opting to throw the Luftwaffe at the Mediterranean and Karelia. After a couple rounds of the UK taking East Europe and the Germans spending much needed troops taking it back the Soviets eventually ended up in Berlin.

We started a second game, all shifting clockwise, Ray took over Allies, Mugsy to Germany, and myself to Japan. personally I don't think this game is worth saving, however Ray does not seem to think that 17 Japanese tanks (costing 4IPC each due to the developement of Industrial Tech) are enough to over run Moscow.

We shall see, but not next Sunday as the Red Sox are in Toronto and there will be no game in the Garage.