Thank you for watching our second Semi Final Match of the 2024 Axis and Allies World Championships! Thank you to Renegade Game Studios for sponsoring this video series. Visit Renegade Game Studios to get your copy of this great game and so much more: bit.ly/3HqoFci Find-a-Player or Event for free on our Discord Server! discord.gg/gsR2D3RacJ Join us for our live stream discussing this game: ua-cam.com/users/live8L5FZIjUFQw What questions do you have about this game?
I was introduced to this game my sophomore year of high school over 10 years ago by the best history teacher I ever had. He taught AP European history and AP US history classes and our exams were always a month before school ended, so were essentially done with the class with a few weeks left to do nothing... except play Axis and Allies. I have the best memories of learning this game from him with my classmates and spending hours grueling over our moves, keeping scores on the whiteboard, and constantly smack talking. It's been nice to find this channel and learn more than I ever knew about the game. Thank you Gary and Doug for the great commentary and videos, excited for the finals!
Just want to say, these games have quickly become a highlight I look forward to every week. I'm gonna be heart-broken after the finals next week! I need more!
So glad you enjoy them! In February, we will be back with coverage of the Global final and the US National Diplomacy final. Plus, we will have a number of special events that should also be a lot of fun! Thanks for watching!
@@BoardGameNation Axis and Allies Global is amazing. I still think it is the premium way to play the game, even if it takes ages to finish. Very much looking forward to that!
Great work as always. Recreating the game, running the numbers, and editing in general has to take significant time, but this is high quality stuff. Also, respect to Dave for participating in the video even though he was on the losing side.
Might be the most interesting game to watch thus far! This might be the case study on how to play an offensive Russia - never have seen them do quite this well on this channel
Offensive Russia is somewhat risky, but if the dice help it can win you the game. In this case, it all went well, but I've seen people fail on even a single of those offensive moves and the whole thing can fall apart quickly.
This game also demonstrates the importance of a bid and what could happen without it. Because there was no bid, the bomber couldn't go to Pearl and extra fighters were needed to attack the tiger rather than using 4 fighters for the India fleet. Dice rolling didn't help but the lack of a bid still could have hurt with low-normal dice as well.
I say this every year, but these play-by-play videos are the ones to beat! They're simply the best boardgame videos out there in terms of quality/prod. value and of course brilliantly hosted. No. Notes.
Thank you. It is a challenge, but I have a great team helping me. We have the Finals in the editing bay now and that will be ready to go next week! After that, I will be taking my wife to movie and taking a nap. :) But, we will be back in February with the Global final and the US Nationals Diplomacy top boards! Plus, Gary & Doug vs the World and Theater Commanders. Lots more in store!
The insistence on holding Karelia was really interesting here. In so many of these matches, it feels like the Allies just let that go without even a speed bump there.
Gary, excellent review and summary and actions from the game. Nice to include the final round of dice rolling. Stunned that there were no long periods of bleeping in the last few minutes.
When you showed the in game roll at the end, I noticed how loud it was in there at Gencon. I can see how people make mistakes because that can be disorienting, and it's a long day of playing multiple games. Congrats to the Allies. That turn one loss in China by Japan was killer.
Awesome commentary, love to see these kind of replays! I do stick by my shock about how it seems weighted heavily in the Allies favor right from go, but kudos to the team that wanted the Axis without any sort of bidding since that just seems to play into the uneveness of the setup against them!
Great job as usual guys! Love that you have one of the actual players as a guest commentator. Thanks for all your work! Just want to put it out there, since it bugs me every time. The correct pronunciation of "Ningxia" is "ning-zhuh". The anglicized Chinese "x" is usually pronounced as "sh" or "zh".
You're absolutely correct! I thought I knew how to pronounce it, but now that Google it... well, at least I was consistent! Thanks for watching and for the correction!
With the unit you were missing during.. was it the semis last year?... The two move infantry and the bonus fighter here... It really goes to show how useful it can be to have a super hyper focused player on your team. I know the number of hours played makes this a real grind, so this is definitely not a criticism. But those little odds shifts can be impactful sometimes.
Absolutely! And to be clear, pointing out these instances was in no way meant to imply anything other than basic human errors. Mistakes happen. The question is more about how we handle them when they do. We are going to be talking about this in the live stream tomorrow night. Thanks for watching and supporting the channel!
I only played A&A for a couple of years in the early 1990s, but it was quicky my favourite board game of all time. I even wrote a combat calculator using Watcom C/C++ under MS-DOS. The calculator changed my buying decisions fairly significantly, as I soon realized how much you could do with a meat shield. Much depends on having exactly the right size of meat shield. One strategy I played as the Allies was having Russia do nothing much except build huge stacks of infantry, while the British and Americans landed fighters in Moscow to aid in the defense. Germany in response tended to do nothing much but produce tanks. My opinion at the time was that if the Americans landed fighters in the UK to defend London and the British landed their fighters in Moscow to aid Russia, you could effectively project American industrial power eastward very quickly to neutralize Germany's massed tank attacks. I effectively felt that the Allies had far better options to coordinate their units. When we played with one person per territory, the Allies tended to lose, whereas when I played the Allies by myself, and used the extra coordination, I almost always prevailed. By playing Russia this way, Japan was able to spare enough units in the far east, so it was hard for Japan to make progress in northern Asia, but the Americans were delayed in contesting the Pacific, so the decisive skirmishes tended to happen around Indonesia. In that short time, I got to that weird place I was 50% very advanced, and yet 50% rookie. I didn't have enough miles to know all the things I might be overlooking. Against my own small group, this tactic was very successful. This is really the first time I've revisited A&A since then, so it was exciting to watch the commentary of real experts.
I like reading these personal stories. Some of the more intricate details in how A&A combat math works you can more easily discover in playing multiple versions of the game. The original, 2nd edition, anniversary edition and Global all have different scale and territories. We even played a custom Free-for-all ruleset, that completely ignored any historical realism but used the board as a blank map, it was there that I learned the importance of naval units in logistics and how much more important the middle-east becomes strategically, when vicory cities and production isn't solely centered around their historical points. I think the problem though for casual games, as you said when multiple people contolled the allied factions, usually the players do not help eachother out as much as needed, which is far worse for the allies than the axis. Also, if the USSR is protected by UK and US fighters, the march into their territory can be a very grueling grind for the Germans, but I think you can counter that to some extent by focusing the progression more southwards and simply taking Africa and the middle-east and threaten Caucasus on 2 fronts.
VERY minor (and perhaps silly) rule correction: On Pg. 22 the rule book says, ‘In the event that you purchased more units than you can actually mobilize the excess units are placed on your future Mobilize New Units phase.’ -When this was done with the infantry on UK4, you said the U.K. player ‘gets 3 IPC’s back into their treasury.’ But the way I read the above rule, the UK is not allowed to get the IPC’s to spend however they want on UK5. Instead, that money is still required to be spent on the infantry, but the unit is set aside in reserve until it can be placed on UK5. Obviously not an issue since they were all friendly and infantry were purchased on UK5 anyways. But I wanted to note that for viewers who are learning the game.
It looks like you are correct! I was incorrectly referring the rule from 1942.2. I just pulled up the 2024 version of the AE40 rulebook and here is the exact language: "In the event that you purchased more units than you can actually mobilize due to production limitations, the excess units are not lost. You can place them on one of your future turns during your Mobilize New Units phase." I am intrigued by the use of the word "can" in the second sentence. "Can" is different than "must." It implies a choice. So, can I choose not to place the over purchased unit? What happens if I do? Not a silly correction at all! It shows a potential exploit in the rules. I can think a dozen ways this could used to change the purchase after combat has been resolved. I am going to reach out for some clarification. We might be crediting @davidHellbound with an errata! Thanks for sharing your find!
@@BoardGameNation There is certainly potential for strategic loopholes as the rule doesn’t specify situations or limits to its use. That aside, your excellent points did trigger a thought. Because page 13 basically says that purchased units stay in the Mobilization Zone until they are “deployed,” I will cautiously offer this interpretation: The unit(s) indefinitely stay in the Mobilization Zone until you choose which “one of your future turns” to place it. -Anyways, I just think this is a good example of how wonderful it is that you are building an infrastructure that gives the A&A community another avenue to engage and discuss these topics. Thank you for all the fun and enjoyment you and your team are bringing to everyone 🙂
Thanks for all the effort you guys put into making these recaps. Even with the odd error, it makes what can be an incomprehensible game to the outsider actually really easy to follow.
It is easy to follow, but also tends to unfold as a story, a story of the game itself. This is as close as you can come to playing the game yourself, without actually doing so.
This is a fun game, some of it is very non-typical from what I've seen so far. I think both teams played well, only a few minor mistakes, or sub-optimal plays along the way. I think the main problem for the Axis was a not so gentle snowball during the entire game, where early losses cascaded into a very slow progression of their offense. As Axis and especially Germany, things need to be rolling so you get stronger and slowly but surely become too strong to handle in the mid to endgame. Even if that doesn't happen, you can have a very strong Japan threatening and weakening the USSR from the back, while not being in any danger from the US and then the Germans have to hold on and simply stay in the game being reasonably strong. Neither really happened this game, Germany never got a foothold into USSR territory and Japan basically never really got into the ground war on the asian theatre. If anything could have affected this game strategically, it could have been the Italians. They were the only Axis power that was largely left alone and never really did much besides breaking Africa open and take a largely empty India. I think they could either have been more aggressive, or much less ambitious and leave most of those territories to the Germans, who could have used those IPC's quite well. Since Italian forces can be a little out of position, centered mainly around the mediteranian, I don't think it is always great to have a very strong Italy, as opposed to a stronger Germany. For sure in Axis&Allies Global, a stronger Italy is great to have, but that game has much more territories to take and way more strategic options for Germany to get their economy elsewhere, as that game is more open than the anniversary edition. Thanks for posting this very well made video, covering the semi-final 2 in great detail. I really love this visual style and it gets the A&A juices flowing, making me want to play the game again.
Great attack from Russia turn 1, makes the board look difficult for Germany. I still want to see the Commonwealth do something really good, fingers crossed.
A pity A&A tournament happens only once a year! Great coverage, BGN. I wish more games would be covered like that (both A&A and other - Twiglight Imperium perhaps?), your production value and explanation is great. I becane a better player thanks to you.
We are working on spreading the word on current A&A events and building more of them. Join our Discord to learn more! I have been wanting to get into TI:4 for years, but haven't had a chance. Love to make it happen!
I'd rather prefer to see a numeric vision than a board vision. It's a lot clearer and easier to follow. You can see number of pieces, you can see moves with arrows, you can see stats too. Think about it. TripleA would bee a great visual in my opinion.
I’m starting to wonder if the UK rule of thumb should be: if the flying tiger survives J1, don’t build an India complex, but if the flying tiger does not survive, then UK should build the complex. It feels like you need someone to split the Japanese attention between the land and the US at sea, and you might only need the punch of the Flying Tiger or the India complex to do that.
I love this game! A&A have also various games, in one of them you could spend IPCs to develop your weapons! Another feature is: each power have a possibility of up to 6 different abilities which made it different from other powers, like german subs attacking with 3 instead of 2, when at least 3 subs take part, or russian iron winter, you could made it once in a game and all your infantry defending with 3 instead of 2 only in russia colored region! I appreciate to have more A&A videos!!!
Research and Development is also part of the rules for this version of the game, but they aren't used in tournament play. They can be a ton of fun in casual play, but the huge luck factor involved give them too big of an impact in tournaments. Glad you enjoyed the video! Thanks for watching!
Really interesting game and great video, as always! It definitely hurt the Axis how well Russia and China held their own. Germany in particular seemed like it was playing from behind from the beginning - losing a lot of its offensive combat power without economic gains. Agree that UK's decision to invest in the European theater rather than an India factory (which by itself has no combat value) played a big role. Enjoyed it from beginning to end! As an aside, one of the interesting things about A&A to me are the decisions made for game balance, in ways big and small. Slightly shifting the positions of countries (such as the UK) on the map, for instance. Or the fact that the economic output for the US is only slightly greater than Germany - when in reality, the GDP of the US in 1939 was greater than all the Axis powers combined, and the gap only widened over the course of the war.
The only time I've ever played as the Allies on Anniversary 1942. As the USSR I had the worst luck. Every single turn I had good odds of going to Eastern Ukraien and winning I did it three time in a row and every single time the dice annihilated me.
Only 28 likes!? Oh...yeah, okay. Maybe I should give it a bit more than 15 minutes. Also now that we're getting into it this appears to be one of the most extreme and hardcore games you've covered, and I'm super here for it.
Those are mostly from the members that got early access to the game. Plus, it is still early. Hopefully, as more people watch it, that will tick up. Thank you for leading the charge! :)
@@BoardGameNation Well yes, of course more upvotes will happen after the first 15 minutes, that was the entire point of my comment. But also you and your team display excellent professionalism, and I wanted to compliment you on it.
@@jaiclary8423 It takes a little time for people to be able to watch an 1.5 hour video. I suspect most people will save it until at least the weekend to watch it (like I did myself). I think in general these videos do age very well and being longer is good for UA-cam monetization too. It is not about the sprint and going viral, it is about the long haul and reaching the core audiences.
No problem. "Holdings" is what the power currently has in the treasury. "Production" is the how many IPCs that power is producing at the end of that round of play. The second stat is important because it is the tie breaker if the time runs out and the the victory city count is tied. I hope that helps! Thanks for watching!
After winning against the odds in China round 1, i'm surprised UK didn't build an IPC in India to capitalize. I don't think Russia's first round was so strong that it presented an extraordinary opportunity for the Allies against Germany. Also, for next year's championship, it might be worth soliciting the services a game judge for the "playoff" matches. Great job on the end-turn recaps
I hope folks don't read the comments before they watch to the end but I'll put in extra spacing to help conceal an implied spoiler... I know Dave said they won back-to-back games as Axis to get into the Semi Finals, but the Allies win rate on BGN videos is getting pretty extreme.
I think the sample sizes here are extremely small. They've covered maybe under a dozen games so far. In this game it was the cascading effect of losing too many units over several battles, including that key Flying tiger surviving in China. The Axis always start being behind, which is normal, but they have the initiative and can swing the game slowly but surely in their favor. Another advantage for the Allies besides a larger economy, is that the USA and even the UK are basically not at great risk during the game. They can afford buying more expensive units and keep trading their resources with the Axis to help the more endangered Russia and China stay alive.
Regarding the "late" combat moves, who you play matters. If you are a poor sport don't expect your opponent to allow you to correct a missed combat error. If you are genuine and you allow your opponent to fix intended moves they will likely do the same for you. It's a matter of courtesy.
Personally, I think that you should not want to correct your mistakes, as then you do not learn from them. Not asking for take-backsies is also a nice thing to do, as it does not force your opponents to make a decision between being friendly or more competative about such a thing. In the end though, the friendly atmosphere should be most important during the game, making it enjoyable for both teams. If you have nice opponents, it makes losing far less of a problem as well, even in an official tournament.
In fact it is both an AA gun and an Anti-tank gun, or at least in practice it was used as both but with different ammunition. As most german guns, it was extremely reliable and effective and used throughout the war until supplies hampered it's use at the very end. I think it is iconic, although it can be a bit confusiing due to it's look.
Another great recap! I agree - the USSR should be aggressive. I always buy a fighter (sometimes a bomber) on Round 1. Keeps the Germans honest, especially with only putting single units on the front lines. Keep that back and forth trading going, and give the UK time to build up a solid D-Day. Transports are easily the scariest units on the board. Ugh. Definitely on my bucket list to get to a high-level A&A Tournament someday...probably after retirement.
TY for the videos! Interesting to see that those experimented players made a zero bidding! Is it because the players don't have enough references regarding this version yet? Or is it because this version is perfectly balanced?
I think the game is very balanced, but I also think Dave and Keith really wanted to play the Axis. So, they made a very early offer that was accepted. Still, even without any bid, they would have been seriously favored in the attack on Yunnan (85%). Seems like they just got really unlucky at the wrong time. Thanks for watching!
"And the X decides to do an ... interesting move in this turn". At this point this is just code for "doing something ill-adviced". Personally, I always do the interesting moves as well.
Dang after seeing the allies get free units, territory, and movement that they technically weren't supposed to get i was really rooting for the Axis to win but hey still a good game thank you for another great video
italy R2 i build 2 subs and then utilize that italian fleet on turn 3 onwards to really control the atlantic and make it difficult for the UK to feel comfortable landing
Loved the match, good to see an aggressive USSR, I haven't seen that before but kept Germany out of the game. Love the works fellas, I will be watching Friday.
Hi BGN!. I would like to ask a question about time. I have watched all the 3 games up to now and it seems that a 5 hour tournament (like it is for the 1942 second edition) is ok for thia scenario . Maybe it is not necessary to play for 6 hours since rhe games are ending at about 5 hours of play. What do you guys think about it?
So there is a little confusion of the move of US2 sacrificing so many IPCs to take France and Northwestern Europe. If I were the Allied player here, my thought process isn't necessarily about trading IPC vs IPC. Looking at the overall strategy of the Allies here, America has decided to dedicate 100% of it's resources to the Pacific theater. Russia at this time is doing very well and Britain/Russia have a plan to take back Karelia without a big need to the four US ground troops. The idea is that you want to collect the 8 IPCs and "transfer" them to the Pacific theater, because those 4 land units in Europe would not be able to make it to the Pacific. America has no plans to build and transfer any more units to Europe in this strategy, so the fate of the transports after isn't relevant, since US has no more ground troops in the Atlantic. This move was about siphoning off 8 IPCs from the Europe theater to use against Japan, which could mean an extra destroyer or an extra infantry/artillery to fill up a transport in the Pacific.
Greetings from germany! And thank you for your excellent content. Maybe we are able to put someday a german championchip together. And the winning team will pay you a visit.
That's funny! I was just talking to someone about a very similar idea! By the way, we have a number of German A&A player in our Discord that are looking for other folks to play with. You should come by and say hello. Here is the link: Find-a-Player or Event for free on our Discord Server! discord.gg/gsR2D3RacJ
Commenting early here as not watched to the end yet, but an "error" resulting in the allies getting a free plane is obviously going to swing things. If Axis + artillery is considered a fair matchup, then Allies + fighter is a significant handicap.
That's exactly what I got. Statistically, they should have gotten 9-ish hits. So, 11 hits isn't any kind of huge anomaly. Thanks for watching and supporting the channel!
My 1st question is that during tourney play, is the "scramble" rule from Islands only, just to amphib's only or can it be from any adjacent area? After playing Triple-A online, I wonder what y'all use as a rule in this version? #2 How was the illegal Chinese Inf move handled? Can players in the Tourney complain and force the unit back to where it should have been, or if you don't speak up right away, is it ignored, and play continues? #3 The U.K. Ftr. in Archangel seems like a 2nd "Cheat" move to me by the Allied side. #4 @51:00 Playing for a Championship game, sorry, no do-overs from me, if you forgot a move, oh well.
1) The scramble rule isn't part of the Anniversary Edition (that's in Global). I think you might be referring to the "Escort & Interceptor" rule that pertains to fighters coming to the defense against bombing raids and fighters escorting bombers on IC raids. While that is in an optional rule in Anniversary, it is part of the tournament rule set at Gen Con. 2 & 3) The Chinese unit's double move wasn't noticed by anyone during the play of the game. I saw it as I was watching the video to rebuild the game. As for the fighter, I don't think any one "cheated." I think it was an honest mistake. These things happen and everyone at the table agreed to add the fighter and move forward with the game. 4) We are going to talk about this (and other etiquette issues) in the live stream, but I am with you. Attention to detail is part of the game. Casual play with friends on a Saturday... new players... of course. No problem... But for a championship match. I don't think so. Hope to see you tonight. Thanks for the questions and for supporting the channel!
@@BoardGameNation Yes Sir Thank you, I will join you & Doug tonight. I really love how you both share the commentary and your excellent editing skills. BGN is one of my favorite channels to watch and I am hoping Renegade doesn't screw up the Stalingrad game as I am an expert on that battle, and it has been my main focus of my eastern Front studies for 50+ years.
@@Sugarmountaincondo - Great! I am going to start a Stalingrad channel in the strategy section of our Discord. I'll drop everything we know so far in there and you can take a closer look. See you tonight!
There was human error on both sides. I watched this video very closely and I'm 100% certain that any game play errors were unintentional. Thanks for watching!
Something I think is important for the live stream. Subs don't help much on defense. And they can't take land. So unless you are really sure you are going to be attacking with them, don't buy them. JMHO.
It’s always tough to recall what we were thinking at the time. I probably did some pip/hp math and this might’ve been slightly better. We were also a bit despondent at this point due to the perception of bad dice. It defined affects decision making.
Subs are the cheapest cannon fodder on naval defense and pretty solid at attacking, especially in this specific situation where the USA didn't have many ships to begin with it wasn't too bad of a choice.
@@DavidJensen47 - You should watch our live stream from Friday. I wondered about this sub vs DD purchase. I ran the math about 5 different ways and turns out... you were right! You had roughly the same chances of defending with the subs and saved two IPCs at the same time. You should check it out.
Yea I think the original poster overestimates the strength of the Axis here. I think they are close, but the overall consensus is that the Axis are at a slight disadvantage in Anniversary Edition.
Hey, I love these Axis and Allies breakdowns. These as much as last year's! Does someone perhaps know if the Online version on steam plans to add italy and other changes? I'd freaking love it. ❤️
So glad that you enjoy the videos! Sadly, I haven't heard anything about Beamdog (Steam) making any additional A&A games. There are a lot of people that would lover that! Thanks for watching!
Thank you for watching our second Semi Final Match of the 2024 Axis and Allies World Championships! Thank you to Renegade Game Studios for sponsoring this video series. Visit Renegade Game Studios to get your copy of this great game and so much more: bit.ly/3HqoFci
Find-a-Player or Event for free on our Discord Server!
discord.gg/gsR2D3RacJ
Join us for our live stream discussing this game:
ua-cam.com/users/live8L5FZIjUFQw
What questions do you have about this game?
I got a fever… and the only prescription is more BGN Axis & Allies videos.
Haha! Happy to help!
Lol, me too! More vids & more cowbell!
I put my pants on just like the rest of you -- one leg at a time. Except, once my pants are on, I roll hits.
I was introduced to this game my sophomore year of high school over 10 years ago by the best history teacher I ever had. He taught AP European history and AP US history classes and our exams were always a month before school ended, so were essentially done with the class with a few weeks left to do nothing... except play Axis and Allies. I have the best memories of learning this game from him with my classmates and spending hours grueling over our moves, keeping scores on the whiteboard, and constantly smack talking. It's been nice to find this channel and learn more than I ever knew about the game. Thank you Gary and Doug for the great commentary and videos, excited for the finals!
Dave is a great dude and his site is a great resource for a&a players of all skill levels.
Absolutely! We loved having him in the video.
Just want to say, these games have quickly become a highlight I look forward to every week. I'm gonna be heart-broken after the finals next week! I need more!
So glad you enjoy them! In February, we will be back with coverage of the Global final and the US National Diplomacy final.
Plus, we will have a number of special events that should also be a lot of fun!
Thanks for watching!
@BoardGameNation ohhhhh!!! I LOVE diplomacy! Can't wait for that! Very exciting.
@@TheEarlofBronze1 I've seen Diplomacy make a grown man cry. Will never play that game again.
@@BoardGameNation Axis and Allies Global is amazing. I still think it is the premium way to play the game, even if it takes ages to finish. Very much looking forward to that!
Great work as always. Recreating the game, running the numbers, and editing in general has to take significant time, but this is high quality stuff. Also, respect to Dave for participating in the video even though he was on the losing side.
I've been playing since 94 and this is the best gameplay footage / explanation I've ever seen. very amazing guys. love the channel
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching!
Might be the most interesting game to watch thus far! This might be the case study on how to play an offensive Russia - never have seen them do quite this well on this channel
Agreed. I love the Russian play here, but it needed the support of the UK to get off the ground.
Thanks for watching!
Offensive Russia is somewhat risky, but if the dice help it can win you the game. In this case, it all went well, but I've seen people fail on even a single of those offensive moves and the whole thing can fall apart quickly.
This game also demonstrates the importance of a bid and what could happen without it. Because there was no bid, the bomber couldn't go to Pearl and extra fighters were needed to attack the tiger rather than using 4 fighters for the India fleet. Dice rolling didn't help but the lack of a bid still could have hurt with low-normal dice as well.
Agreed. We will be talking a bit about this tomorrow night. I laid out some math that I think is pretty interesting.
I say this every year, but these play-by-play videos are the ones to beat! They're simply the best boardgame videos out there in terms of quality/prod. value and of course brilliantly hosted.
No. Notes.
Mad respekt to publishe a Video every week with this much effort❤️🤟
Thank you. It is a challenge, but I have a great team helping me. We have the Finals in the editing bay now and that will be ready to go next week! After that, I will be taking my wife to movie and taking a nap. :)
But, we will be back in February with the Global final and the US Nationals Diplomacy top boards! Plus, Gary & Doug vs the World and Theater Commanders. Lots more in store!
Have fun then❤️ i am very exited 🎉
Best AnA channel! These games are so well done; I can’t imagine the time it takes to recreate the games.
It's certainly a labor of love and a full time job! Thanks for watching!
The insistence on holding Karelia was really interesting here. In so many of these matches, it feels like the Allies just let that go without even a speed bump there.
Gary, excellent review and summary and actions from the game. Nice to include the final round of dice rolling. Stunned that there were no long periods of bleeping in the last few minutes.
“The Undead Fighter” … I can play A&A as a Necromancer now!?! YES!!!
@@leifbuckner1491 - Haha! Great.
When you showed the in game roll at the end, I noticed how loud it was in there at Gencon. I can see how people make mistakes because that can be disorienting, and it's a long day of playing multiple games. Congrats to the Allies. That turn one loss in China by Japan was killer.
Awesome commentary, love to see these kind of replays! I do stick by my shock about how it seems weighted heavily in the Allies favor right from go, but kudos to the team that wanted the Axis without any sort of bidding since that just seems to play into the uneveness of the setup against them!
Great job as usual guys! Love that you have one of the actual players as a guest commentator. Thanks for all your work!
Just want to put it out there, since it bugs me every time. The correct pronunciation of "Ningxia" is "ning-zhuh".
The anglicized Chinese "x" is usually pronounced as "sh" or "zh".
You're absolutely correct! I thought I knew how to pronounce it, but now that Google it... well, at least I was consistent!
Thanks for watching and for the correction!
Really nice recap on round 1!
Nice to see the IPC recap!
With the unit you were missing during.. was it the semis last year?... The two move infantry and the bonus fighter here... It really goes to show how useful it can be to have a super hyper focused player on your team. I know the number of hours played makes this a real grind, so this is definitely not a criticism. But those little odds shifts can be impactful sometimes.
Absolutely! And to be clear, pointing out these instances was in no way meant to imply anything other than basic human errors. Mistakes happen. The question is more about how we handle them when they do. We are going to be talking about this in the live stream tomorrow night.
Thanks for watching and supporting the channel!
I only played A&A for a couple of years in the early 1990s, but it was quicky my favourite board game of all time. I even wrote a combat calculator using Watcom C/C++ under MS-DOS. The calculator changed my buying decisions fairly significantly, as I soon realized how much you could do with a meat shield. Much depends on having exactly the right size of meat shield.
One strategy I played as the Allies was having Russia do nothing much except build huge stacks of infantry, while the British and Americans landed fighters in Moscow to aid in the defense. Germany in response tended to do nothing much but produce tanks.
My opinion at the time was that if the Americans landed fighters in the UK to defend London and the British landed their fighters in Moscow to aid Russia, you could effectively project American industrial power eastward very quickly to neutralize Germany's massed tank attacks. I effectively felt that the Allies had far better options to coordinate their units. When we played with one person per territory, the Allies tended to lose, whereas when I played the Allies by myself, and used the extra coordination, I almost always prevailed.
By playing Russia this way, Japan was able to spare enough units in the far east, so it was hard for Japan to make progress in northern Asia, but the Americans were delayed in contesting the Pacific, so the decisive skirmishes tended to happen around Indonesia.
In that short time, I got to that weird place I was 50% very advanced, and yet 50% rookie. I didn't have enough miles to know all the things I might be overlooking. Against my own small group, this tactic was very successful.
This is really the first time I've revisited A&A since then, so it was exciting to watch the commentary of real experts.
I like reading these personal stories. Some of the more intricate details in how A&A combat math works you can more easily discover in playing multiple versions of the game. The original, 2nd edition, anniversary edition and Global all have different scale and territories.
We even played a custom Free-for-all ruleset, that completely ignored any historical realism but used the board as a blank map, it was there that I learned the importance of naval units in logistics and how much more important the middle-east becomes strategically, when vicory cities and production isn't solely centered around their historical points.
I think the problem though for casual games, as you said when multiple people contolled the allied factions, usually the players do not help eachother out as much as needed, which is far worse for the allies than the axis.
Also, if the USSR is protected by UK and US fighters, the march into their territory can be a very grueling grind for the Germans, but I think you can counter that to some extent by focusing the progression more southwards and simply taking Africa and the middle-east and threaten Caucasus on 2 fronts.
VERY minor (and perhaps silly) rule correction: On Pg. 22 the rule book says, ‘In the event that you purchased more units than you can actually mobilize the excess units are placed on your future Mobilize New Units phase.’
-When this was done with the infantry on UK4, you said the U.K. player ‘gets 3 IPC’s back into their treasury.’ But the way I read the above rule, the UK is not allowed to get the IPC’s to spend however they want on UK5. Instead, that money is still required to be spent on the infantry, but the unit is set aside in reserve until it can be placed on UK5. Obviously not an issue since they were all friendly and infantry were purchased on UK5 anyways. But I wanted to note that for viewers who are learning the game.
It looks like you are correct! I was incorrectly referring the rule from 1942.2. I just pulled up the 2024 version of the AE40 rulebook and here is the exact language:
"In the event that you purchased more units than you can actually mobilize due to production limitations, the excess units are not lost. You can place them on one of your future turns during your Mobilize New Units phase."
I am intrigued by the use of the word "can" in the second sentence. "Can" is different than "must." It implies a choice. So, can I choose not to place the over purchased unit? What happens if I do?
Not a silly correction at all! It shows a potential exploit in the rules. I can think a dozen ways this could used to change the purchase after combat has been resolved.
I am going to reach out for some clarification. We might be crediting @davidHellbound with an errata! Thanks for sharing your find!
@@BoardGameNation There is certainly potential for strategic loopholes as the rule doesn’t specify situations or limits to its use. That aside, your excellent points did trigger a thought. Because page 13 basically says that purchased units stay in the Mobilization Zone until they are “deployed,” I will cautiously offer this interpretation: The unit(s) indefinitely stay in the Mobilization Zone until you choose which “one of your future turns” to place it.
-Anyways, I just think this is a good example of how wonderful it is that you are building an infrastructure that gives the A&A community another avenue to engage and discuss these topics. Thank you for all the fun and enjoyment you and your team are bringing to everyone 🙂
The strategy names are fun--Calcutta Crush, Thorpe Thump. :D
Thanks for all the effort you guys put into making these recaps. Even with the odd error, it makes what can be an incomprehensible game to the outsider actually really easy to follow.
So glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching!
It is easy to follow, but also tends to unfold as a story, a story of the game itself. This is as close as you can come to playing the game yourself, without actually doing so.
Great video again guys, love it!
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching!
This is a fun game, some of it is very non-typical from what I've seen so far. I think both teams played well, only a few minor mistakes, or sub-optimal plays along the way. I think the main problem for the Axis was a not so gentle snowball during the entire game, where early losses cascaded into a very slow progression of their offense. As Axis and especially Germany, things need to be rolling so you get stronger and slowly but surely become too strong to handle in the mid to endgame.
Even if that doesn't happen, you can have a very strong Japan threatening and weakening the USSR from the back, while not being in any danger from the US and then the Germans have to hold on and simply stay in the game being reasonably strong. Neither really happened this game, Germany never got a foothold into USSR territory and Japan basically never really got into the ground war on the asian theatre.
If anything could have affected this game strategically, it could have been the Italians. They were the only Axis power that was largely left alone and never really did much besides breaking Africa open and take a largely empty India. I think they could either have been more aggressive, or much less ambitious and leave most of those territories to the Germans, who could have used those IPC's quite well. Since Italian forces can be a little out of position, centered mainly around the mediteranian, I don't think it is always great to have a very strong Italy, as opposed to a stronger Germany.
For sure in Axis&Allies Global, a stronger Italy is great to have, but that game has much more territories to take and way more strategic options for Germany to get their economy elsewhere, as that game is more open than the anniversary edition.
Thanks for posting this very well made video, covering the semi-final 2 in great detail. I really love this visual style and it gets the A&A juices flowing, making me want to play the game again.
Solid analysis. Thanks for watching!
@@BoardGameNation No problem, looking forward to going into the analysis and livestream from your side and ofcourse the finals!
We are back in the game!
Thanks for being here and supporting the channel!
Great attack from Russia turn 1, makes the board look difficult for Germany. I still want to see the Commonwealth do something really good, fingers crossed.
India is just not as important in this version. 2nd edition it is a key strategy, here it is a distraction!!! Really not sure why!
A pity A&A tournament happens only once a year!
Great coverage, BGN. I wish more games would be covered like that (both A&A and other - Twiglight Imperium perhaps?), your production value and explanation is great. I becane a better player thanks to you.
We are working on spreading the word on current A&A events and building more of them. Join our Discord to learn more!
I have been wanting to get into TI:4 for years, but haven't had a chance. Love to make it happen!
Thank you for your very high quality content.
These are fun, enjoyable videos; thanks, guys!
I am really looking forward to the global overview. This format is so much easier for me to enjoy. Great work overall.
Glad you enjoy the format, thanks for watching!
Great video as always, looking forward to the finals!
I'd rather prefer to see a numeric vision than a board vision. It's a lot clearer and easier to follow. You can see number of pieces, you can see moves with arrows, you can see stats too. Think about it. TripleA would bee a great visual in my opinion.
Thanks for the feedback! We will give that some thought. Thanks for watching!
I’m starting to wonder if the UK rule of thumb should be: if the flying tiger survives J1, don’t build an India complex, but if the flying tiger does not survive, then UK should build the complex. It feels like you need someone to split the Japanese attention between the land and the US at sea, and you might only need the punch of the Flying Tiger or the India complex to do that.
That's an interesting thought! We will discuss it tonight in the live stream.
Thanks for watching and sharing your thinking!
I love this game! A&A have also various games, in one of them you could spend IPCs to develop your weapons!
Another feature is: each power have a possibility of up to 6 different abilities which made it different from other powers, like german subs attacking with 3 instead of 2, when at least 3 subs take part, or russian iron winter, you could made it once in a game and all your infantry defending with 3 instead of 2 only in russia colored region!
I appreciate to have more A&A videos!!!
Research and Development is also part of the rules for this version of the game, but they aren't used in tournament play. They can be a ton of fun in casual play, but the huge luck factor involved give them too big of an impact in tournaments.
Glad you enjoyed the video! Thanks for watching!
Amazing video. TY!
Great battle! Great commentary!
Glad you enjoyed it
The public demands a BGN Axis and Allies AE online tournament!
"Make it so" - Jean-Luc Picard
Really interesting game and great video, as always! It definitely hurt the Axis how well Russia and China held their own. Germany in particular seemed like it was playing from behind from the beginning - losing a lot of its offensive combat power without economic gains. Agree that UK's decision to invest in the European theater rather than an India factory (which by itself has no combat value) played a big role. Enjoyed it from beginning to end!
As an aside, one of the interesting things about A&A to me are the decisions made for game balance, in ways big and small. Slightly shifting the positions of countries (such as the UK) on the map, for instance. Or the fact that the economic output for the US is only slightly greater than Germany - when in reality, the GDP of the US in 1939 was greater than all the Axis powers combined, and the gap only widened over the course of the war.
Thanks!
Very kind! Thank you for the support!
Great video as always.
The only time I've ever played as the Allies on Anniversary 1942. As the USSR I had the worst luck. Every single turn I had good odds of going to Eastern Ukraien and winning I did it three time in a row and every single time the dice annihilated me.
Only 28 likes!? Oh...yeah, okay. Maybe I should give it a bit more than 15 minutes.
Also now that we're getting into it this appears to be one of the most extreme and hardcore games you've covered, and I'm super here for it.
Those are mostly from the members that got early access to the game. Plus, it is still early. Hopefully, as more people watch it, that will tick up.
Thank you for leading the charge! :)
@@BoardGameNation Well yes, of course more upvotes will happen after the first 15 minutes, that was the entire point of my comment. But also you and your team display excellent professionalism, and I wanted to compliment you on it.
@@jaiclary8423 It takes a little time for people to be able to watch an 1.5 hour video. I suspect most people will save it until at least the weekend to watch it (like I did myself). I think in general these videos do age very well and being longer is good for UA-cam monetization too.
It is not about the sprint and going viral, it is about the long haul and reaching the core audiences.
Maybe my pea brain is just struggling but could someone explain to me the holdings and production columns of the round recap screen?
No problem. "Holdings" is what the power currently has in the treasury. "Production" is the how many IPCs that power is producing at the end of that round of play. The second stat is important because it is the tie breaker if the time runs out and the the victory city count is tied.
I hope that helps! Thanks for watching!
@@BoardGameNation Oh that makes perfect sense, thanks for the clarification!
After winning against the odds in China round 1, i'm surprised UK didn't build an IPC in India to capitalize. I don't think Russia's first round was so strong that it presented an extraordinary opportunity for the Allies against Germany. Also, for next year's championship, it might be worth soliciting the services a game judge for the "playoff" matches. Great job on the end-turn recaps
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching!
I hope folks don't read the comments before they watch to the end but I'll put in extra spacing to help conceal an implied spoiler...
I know Dave said they won back-to-back games as Axis to get into the Semi Finals, but the Allies win rate on BGN videos is getting pretty extreme.
I think the sample sizes here are extremely small. They've covered maybe under a dozen games so far.
In this game it was the cascading effect of losing too many units over several battles, including that key Flying tiger surviving in China.
The Axis always start being behind, which is normal, but they have the initiative and can swing the game slowly but surely in their favor. Another advantage for the Allies besides a larger economy, is that the USA and even the UK are basically not at great risk during the game. They can afford buying more expensive units and keep trading their resources with the Axis to help the more endangered Russia and China stay alive.
Regarding the "late" combat moves, who you play matters. If you are a poor sport don't expect your opponent to allow you to correct a missed combat error. If you are genuine and you allow your opponent to fix intended moves they will likely do the same for you. It's a matter of courtesy.
We are going to talk about this and other matters of "etiquette" in the live stream tomorrow night.
Personally, I think that you should not want to correct your mistakes, as then you do not learn from them. Not asking for take-backsies is also a nice thing to do, as it does not force your opponents to make a decision between being friendly or more competative about such a thing.
In the end though, the friendly atmosphere should be most important during the game, making it enjoyable for both teams. If you have nice opponents, it makes losing far less of a problem as well, even in an official tournament.
I don't like that they chose an 88 as the German artillery sculpture. Keep thinking it's an AA gun.
I agree with you here. It is a little confusing. Thanks for watching!
In fact it is both an AA gun and an Anti-tank gun, or at least in practice it was used as both but with different ammunition. As most german guns, it was extremely reliable and effective and used throughout the war until supplies hampered it's use at the very end. I think it is iconic, although it can be a bit confusiing due to it's look.
Another great recap!
I agree - the USSR should be aggressive. I always buy a fighter (sometimes a bomber) on Round 1. Keeps the Germans honest, especially with only putting single units on the front lines. Keep that back and forth trading going, and give the UK time to build up a solid D-Day.
Transports are easily the scariest units on the board. Ugh.
Definitely on my bucket list to get to a high-level A&A Tournament someday...probably after retirement.
Hope to see you there!
Did not see a link for the discord
Here it is! discord.gg/gsR2D3RacJ
See you there!
TY for the videos!
Interesting to see that those experimented players made a zero bidding!
Is it because the players don't have enough references regarding this version yet?
Or is it because this version is perfectly balanced?
I think the game is very balanced, but I also think Dave and Keith really wanted to play the Axis. So, they made a very early offer that was accepted.
Still, even without any bid, they would have been seriously favored in the attack on Yunnan (85%). Seems like they just got really unlucky at the wrong time.
Thanks for watching!
@@BoardGameNation TY very much for the answer and for those great videos!
"And the X decides to do an ... interesting move in this turn".
At this point this is just code for "doing something ill-adviced".
Personally, I always do the interesting moves as well.
@@PilgrimEnge - I noticed that, too. It wasn't intentional. Interesting. 😉
Dang after seeing the allies get free units, territory, and movement that they technically weren't supposed to get i was really rooting for the Axis to win but hey still a good game thank you for another great video
italy R2 i build 2 subs and then utilize that italian fleet on turn 3 onwards to really control the atlantic and make it difficult for the UK to feel comfortable landing
Loved the match, good to see an aggressive USSR, I haven't seen that before but kept Germany out of the game. Love the works fellas, I will be watching Friday.
Hi BGN!. I would like to ask a question about time. I have watched all the 3 games up to now and it seems that a 5 hour tournament (like it is for the 1942 second edition) is ok for thia scenario . Maybe it is not necessary to play for 6 hours since rhe games are ending at about 5 hours of play. What do you guys think about it?
Shouldn’t have let them do combat movements after the fortify phase lol. Good game!
So there is a little confusion of the move of US2 sacrificing so many IPCs to take France and Northwestern Europe. If I were the Allied player here, my thought process isn't necessarily about trading IPC vs IPC.
Looking at the overall strategy of the Allies here, America has decided to dedicate 100% of it's resources to the Pacific theater. Russia at this time is doing very well and Britain/Russia have a plan to take back Karelia without a big need to the four US ground troops. The idea is that you want to collect the 8 IPCs and "transfer" them to the Pacific theater, because those 4 land units in Europe would not be able to make it to the Pacific. America has no plans to build and transfer any more units to Europe in this strategy, so the fate of the transports after isn't relevant, since US has no more ground troops in the Atlantic.
This move was about siphoning off 8 IPCs from the Europe theater to use against Japan, which could mean an extra destroyer or an extra infantry/artillery to fill up a transport in the Pacific.
Certainly a fair analysis. Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts!
I understand the bidding but i'd like to know how it works. Blind bets? They just talk it over? Auction style?
They did a video on it. Can't remember how exhaustively they went thru the details...
@user-wm3hu7lo1g yeah saw it, I think they just talked it over but still not clear, i'd really love to see it in action in a tournament.
Greetings from germany! And thank you for your excellent content. Maybe we are able to put someday a german championchip together. And the winning team will pay you a visit.
That's funny! I was just talking to someone about a very similar idea!
By the way, we have a number of German A&A player in our Discord that are looking for other folks to play with. You should come by and say hello.
Here is the link: Find-a-Player or Event for free on our Discord Server!
discord.gg/gsR2D3RacJ
Commenting early here as not watched to the end yet, but an "error" resulting in the allies getting a free plane is obviously going to swing things. If Axis + artillery is considered a fair matchup, then Allies + fighter is a significant handicap.
Sub par game on both sides imo. Came down to hot dice.
11 hits isn't That statistically above aver right? 56/6=9.3333333etc. I am guestimating using math in my head it is about a 70th percentile result?
That's exactly what I got. Statistically, they should have gotten 9-ish hits. So, 11 hits isn't any kind of huge anomaly.
Thanks for watching and supporting the channel!
I agree. That's what I came up with as well. US was a huge favorite in that battle.
Thanks for watching and supporting the channel!
My 1st question is that during tourney play, is the "scramble" rule from Islands only, just to amphib's only or can it be from any adjacent area? After playing Triple-A online, I wonder what y'all use as a rule in this version?
#2 How was the illegal Chinese Inf move handled? Can players in the Tourney complain and force the unit back to where it should have been, or if you don't speak up right away, is it ignored, and play continues?
#3 The U.K. Ftr. in Archangel seems like a 2nd "Cheat" move to me by the Allied side.
#4 @51:00 Playing for a Championship game, sorry, no do-overs from me, if you forgot a move, oh well.
1) The scramble rule isn't part of the Anniversary Edition (that's in Global). I think you might be referring to the "Escort & Interceptor" rule that pertains to fighters coming to the defense against bombing raids and fighters escorting bombers on IC raids. While that is in an optional rule in Anniversary, it is part of the tournament rule set at Gen Con.
2 & 3) The Chinese unit's double move wasn't noticed by anyone during the play of the game. I saw it as I was watching the video to rebuild the game. As for the fighter, I don't think any one "cheated." I think it was an honest mistake. These things happen and everyone at the table agreed to add the fighter and move forward with the game.
4) We are going to talk about this (and other etiquette issues) in the live stream, but I am with you. Attention to detail is part of the game. Casual play with friends on a Saturday... new players... of course. No problem... But for a championship match. I don't think so.
Hope to see you tonight. Thanks for the questions and for supporting the channel!
@@BoardGameNation Yes Sir Thank you, I will join you & Doug tonight. I really love how you both share the commentary and your excellent editing skills. BGN is one of my favorite channels to watch and I am hoping Renegade doesn't screw up the Stalingrad game as I am an expert on that battle, and it has been my main focus of my eastern Front studies for 50+ years.
@@Sugarmountaincondo - Great!
I am going to start a Stalingrad channel in the strategy section of our Discord. I'll drop everything we know so far in there and you can take a closer look.
See you tonight!
i've never played axis vs allies but i love history! so it was a fun video anyway.
So glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching!
Quite a few "accidents" occurring on the UK side...
right? take notes if you can't remember
Dave knows the players on the opposite team. They were mistakes, not intentional.
@@charlesmichalek3763sure sure.
Exactly.
Absolutely! I watched the video very closely. This was purely human error. Nothing more.
Thanks for watching!
Wow allied players really made a lot of “mistakes”
There was human error on both sides. I watched this video very closely and I'm 100% certain that any game play errors were unintentional.
Thanks for watching!
Something I think is important for the live stream. Subs don't help much on defense. And they can't take land. So unless you are really sure you are going to be attacking with them, don't buy them. JMHO.
We are definitely going to be talking about this tomorrow night. :)
It’s always tough to recall what we were thinking at the time. I probably did some pip/hp math and this might’ve been slightly better. We were also a bit despondent at this point due to the perception of bad dice. It defined affects decision making.
Subs are the cheapest cannon fodder on naval defense and pretty solid at attacking, especially in this specific situation where the USA didn't have many ships to begin with it wasn't too bad of a choice.
@@DavidJensen47 - You should watch our live stream from Friday. I wondered about this sub vs DD purchase. I ran the math about 5 different ways and turns out... you were right! You had roughly the same chances of defending with the subs and saved two IPCs at the same time. You should check it out.
Allies cheating much lol
There is no way you can win as allies without a generous allies bid,you must be playing with a very bad axis player if you win as allies
Allies are favored in this game version. They start with a healthy lead in IPC and victory cities.
It really depends on the version you’re playing whether Allies or Axis have the advantage.
Yea I think the original poster overestimates the strength of the Axis here. I think they are close, but the overall consensus is that the Axis are at a slight disadvantage in Anniversary Edition.
Hey, I love these Axis and Allies breakdowns. These as much as last year's!
Does someone perhaps know if the Online version on steam plans to add italy and other changes? I'd freaking love it. ❤️
So glad that you enjoy the videos! Sadly, I haven't heard anything about Beamdog (Steam) making any additional A&A games. There are a lot of people that would lover that!
Thanks for watching!