Axis and Allies: Europe 1940
Set aside D&D this Saturday to give Axis & Allies: Europe 1940 a try. I'll had the Pacific 1940 game for a while now, and since the latest version of the Global rules are up, we could have tried that (if we found enough table space...) but we decided to try it with the Out of the Box rules first.
I did have to brave the 6-12 inches of snow that had piled up (plowing happened some time after I arrived), but the promise of chili and A&A was enough to lure me out of the house. Military Channel was on when I arrived, setting the mood.
We did a random draw for sides, placing one player as Russia/France (with the idea that he'd have something to do while Russia waited to enter the war), the second as USA/UK, and I drew Germany/Italy. Probably fair, as I'd spent the most time reading up on the game and had time to think up strategies.
My first turn went great. I invaded Yugoslavia, weakening the defenders for Italy to mop up. I destroyed Britain's fleet, losing all but 1 sub, but keeping my air force intact. Normandy fell easily. I had transports in production to threaten a Sea Lion, hopefully pulling British attenion away from the Mediterranean. Then... my dice started sucking, and would continue throughout the day. Southern France was an attack of greed, and limited on what I could send. The tank and mech infantry scored no hits and were wiped out by the two defenders. Then France itself resisted my attack- don't think I hit a single unit in the first round of combat. I bled them down, but could not take the territory.
British forces in France were then able to seize Normandy. His fighters destroyed my cruiser and battleship, protecting his home island, but leaving France twisting in the wind. Italy was supposed to take France, but also failed. This meant a lone French fighter was still alive and able to destroy my undefended transports and land safely in the UK.
I don't think I ever found my footing after that. The next round, I savagely conquered the French territories and rebuilt the transports. But, the moment was lost. In round 3, I used the transports in my attack on Russia, unwilling to allow them to reinforce for another round. My initial attack was successful against all the border territories, left lightly defended. But, my charade in the water and my delays with France, along with some poor choices in positioning, had left my units out of position to easily follow up. Russia turned into a seesaw, each turn I'd take territory, and each turn he'd take it back. I ran into trouble when he pushed in Finland and Norway, which I couldn't reinforce.
Turn 5 saw the US arriving in Europe, taking Normandy and Holland.
Italy was having great success. The defenders of Egypt had smashed themselves against the incoming Italians and lost everything. UK pretty much ceded Africa to the Italians after turn three. But, there was just too much to cover all at once. I also needed them to defend France. One more turn of build up, and I think they would have been producing enough to secure Fortress Europe (they had the third highest income, switching off some with Russia, trailing Germany, and far behind the US), and there wasn't much the allies could do to stop them in Africa.
I surrendered after Russia's turn in round 6. If I could have held onto my gains that round, the Italian garrisons could have helped secure Germany, giving me a chance to turn back the US invasion. Well, maybe- the US might have been able to drop troops into a lightly defended, Germany.
Despite some bad moves, and some very bad dice, I had a lot of fun. We'll play again in three weeks- if we can get our fourth player in, we'll try the global rules, else we'll slide positions, US/UK taking Germany and me moving into Russia.
I did have to brave the 6-12 inches of snow that had piled up (plowing happened some time after I arrived), but the promise of chili and A&A was enough to lure me out of the house. Military Channel was on when I arrived, setting the mood.
We did a random draw for sides, placing one player as Russia/France (with the idea that he'd have something to do while Russia waited to enter the war), the second as USA/UK, and I drew Germany/Italy. Probably fair, as I'd spent the most time reading up on the game and had time to think up strategies.
My first turn went great. I invaded Yugoslavia, weakening the defenders for Italy to mop up. I destroyed Britain's fleet, losing all but 1 sub, but keeping my air force intact. Normandy fell easily. I had transports in production to threaten a Sea Lion, hopefully pulling British attenion away from the Mediterranean. Then... my dice started sucking, and would continue throughout the day. Southern France was an attack of greed, and limited on what I could send. The tank and mech infantry scored no hits and were wiped out by the two defenders. Then France itself resisted my attack- don't think I hit a single unit in the first round of combat. I bled them down, but could not take the territory.
British forces in France were then able to seize Normandy. His fighters destroyed my cruiser and battleship, protecting his home island, but leaving France twisting in the wind. Italy was supposed to take France, but also failed. This meant a lone French fighter was still alive and able to destroy my undefended transports and land safely in the UK.
I don't think I ever found my footing after that. The next round, I savagely conquered the French territories and rebuilt the transports. But, the moment was lost. In round 3, I used the transports in my attack on Russia, unwilling to allow them to reinforce for another round. My initial attack was successful against all the border territories, left lightly defended. But, my charade in the water and my delays with France, along with some poor choices in positioning, had left my units out of position to easily follow up. Russia turned into a seesaw, each turn I'd take territory, and each turn he'd take it back. I ran into trouble when he pushed in Finland and Norway, which I couldn't reinforce.
Turn 5 saw the US arriving in Europe, taking Normandy and Holland.
Italy was having great success. The defenders of Egypt had smashed themselves against the incoming Italians and lost everything. UK pretty much ceded Africa to the Italians after turn three. But, there was just too much to cover all at once. I also needed them to defend France. One more turn of build up, and I think they would have been producing enough to secure Fortress Europe (they had the third highest income, switching off some with Russia, trailing Germany, and far behind the US), and there wasn't much the allies could do to stop them in Africa.
I surrendered after Russia's turn in round 6. If I could have held onto my gains that round, the Italian garrisons could have helped secure Germany, giving me a chance to turn back the US invasion. Well, maybe- the US might have been able to drop troops into a lightly defended, Germany.
Despite some bad moves, and some very bad dice, I had a lot of fun. We'll play again in three weeks- if we can get our fourth player in, we'll try the global rules, else we'll slide positions, US/UK taking Germany and me moving into Russia.