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!