Assorted Question for Veteran Players

[Vanman]

Greetings all,

Game Length
-I have played the game over 10 times and have never reached 1944. The early games tended to end based on Manchuria, either Japan collapsed or the USSR was overcommitted and died at 41' Barbarossa (house rules cured this). Other games ceased due to an Oops (Germany in Spain in 41', not enough units on Soviet border, bad die rolls (France held in 40'), personal reasons (family health etc) or people giving up when things went too much in favour of one side or the other. What percentage of your games have reached 1944? Is it a rarity?

Objective Cities (late Axis win)
-To keep the Axis in the late game we instituted house rules where if at the end of July/August 1945 the Axis have >15 objective cities, they win. <15, they lose, = 15 is a tie. At looking at the objectives, that may not be low enough for the Axis to make it appealing. I saw a modification here where if the allies do not take the three horn of Africa Italian Colonies by the end of 1942, it gets reduced to 12 (one per colony taken). This looks appealing and give motivation to actually have conflict there. What do you do?

In the Presence of the Enemy
-Do you use this rule? Does it work well? Certainly creates an incentive to win the initiative so you get to the critical the sea zones first. I have never used it.

Fortifications
-Do you use this option? On one hand i think not, as all the CW has to do to deter the EuroAxis from doing the Med Lake strategy is to spend 2 bps to build a Fort at Gilbraltar (north border). On the other hand I can see Forts being useful for the Axis to utilize to mitigate the many USA offensive chits late in the game.

China Front Options
-We utilize the following house rules: 1) Manchuria border garrison rule is 7:1 in 1939. 6:1 in 1940. 5:1 in 1941 etc. Basically nullifies any early war there. 2) Five Corp/Armies must stay within three hexes of the Manchurian border at all times. 3) Terauchi and Zhukov cannot leave until July/August 1940, taking some of the pressure off of China. 4) No Nationalist attack weakness. 5) No extra Chinese cities.

In my most recent game we used the Isolated Reorg Rule which causes problems for China in that they get cut out of supply very easily as the Japanese units are more mobile. Hence, I think we need to add the extra cities. When utilizing the isolated reorg rule, what options due you use for the Chinese front?

Thanks!

[Joseignacio]

1 In my experience like a 15% or less reach 1944. Usually the game is decanted for a side by when the USA incorporates, so around 1942 is the most frequent surrender date.

2 There is a post (yes, I know it can be a PitA to search here... where somenone proposed that, since there may not be a bid, a certain number of VPs would be considered a win. I dont remember the number but it was close to 15, and I believe it is correct.

3 ITPOTE I almost never use it, but I happen to be using it now. It works well usually but I have found a bug or two occasionally. It makes the GE surface fleet to be of no use before the conquest of France and few useful afteerwards. At the end of the game and, if the JA player has not surrendered, it can disturb a bit the USA operations.

4 Forts are useful but very expensive in large amounts. I have seen them used by USSR in a Barb'42, and would make sense with the Yanks. Gibraltar makes sense if the GE player seems to do what you suggest, although it clearly may not be enough if attacked from Spain and Spanish Morocco.

5 I dislike optionals so, I wont comment.

China:

I have seen Chinese and Japanese isolate each other all around China, till almost no unit could move anymore. But I have always played with extra cities. However, if you play in an orthodox way, it is very unusual to get caught in that. By both sides (the chinese helped by the extra cities).

I enclose an image of my current game, although the units are less organized than usual due to some recent attacks.

Captura de pantalla 2025-06-07 003536.png (554.01 KiB) Viewed 303 times

Captura de pantalla 2025-06-07 003549.png (327.86 KiB) Viewed 303 times

[Centuur]

It is not surprising to see a game ending before 1944, because a side failed a "moral check". But: remember this: it is not unheard of to see the USSR coming back out of the Urals and the Caucasus and still reach Berlin in 1945. The same goes for Japan too. The loss of Manchuria is bad, but it might mean that Germany cannot be conquered by the Allies. An Axis win in this game for me is reached if one of the Axis powers still hold a factory hex in the home country at the end of J/A 1945.

Regarding the optional rule "In the presence of the enemy". Gerry and I use it. This rule also makes it important to keep naval units at sea at the end of the turn. I like it.

We also use the rule of the fortifications. However, we don't seem to build them. A close the Med can still be played with that rule in place. Sure, it makes taking Gibraltar more difficult, but not impossible.

On the Manchurian front: I will refuse any house rules regarding a USSR-Japanese garrison treaty. It doesn't matter to me if I'm playing the Axis or the Allies. The reason is that it is possible for the Japanese (with or without those extra Chinese cities, that doesn't matter. However, the Chinese have a better chance to survive with them) to conquer China and the only major power who can prevent this is the USSR. But to do so, the USSR needs to be able to declare war on Japan when it wants to do so. The uncertainty for the Japanese player is a main thing in this game and woe to either the Axis or the Allies if they don't garrison the area properly.

[rkr1958]

Ok, I spent most of today going down the rabbit hole on my MWIF Global War gaming history and thought I'd share it with you.

GW Game List.

2025JUN09-GW-Game-List.png (132.11 KiB) Viewed 195 times

GW Gaming Summary.
(1) I've started an estimated 33 global war scenarios.
(2) Of those 33, 21 were solo and 12 competitive (i.e., vs another player).
(3) That's a breakdown of 64% solo and 36% competitive.
(4) I've managed to play 38.1% (or 8) of my solo games to the bitter end (i.e., 34 - 43 turns).
(5) My longest solo game was played for 43 turns (ND46).
(6) My longest competitive game; however, was 24 turns (JA43).
(7) On average, my solo games have turn 18.3 turns and my competitive games 10.9 turns.
(8) I've played an estimated total 516 turns or 3664 impulses.
(9) Finally, 2/3 (or 66.7%) of both my solo and competitive games have been, or are being, captured in an AAR.

2025JUN09GW-Gaming-Summary.png (23.62 KiB) Viewed 195 times

AAR List (just realized that one can't click on AAR lists embedded in the first graphic) -- here's the raw info, including AAR links.

Code: Select all

The Aussie (axis) vs The Yank (allied) g#2	YES*	2	ALLIED	3/29/2025	5.0.0.10	6	JA40*	NO	
A Competitive GW (Solo) Scenario by the Numbers	YES*	1	SOLO	12/28/2024	7.0.1.1	7	SO40*	YES	https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=408179&sid=ae87672404c67a62dbb2c1462588db58
GW Counterfactual Take 4.	NO	1	SOLO	11/5/2024	7.0.1.1 	2	ND39	NO	
GW-2024OCT15	NO	1	SOLO	10/17/2024	7.0.1.1 	2	ND39	NO	
The Aussie (axis) vs The Yank (allied).	NO	2	ALLIED	9/14/2024	5.0.0.10	4	MA40	YES	https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=405912&sid=ae87672404c67a62dbb2c1462588db58
Operation Global War.	NO	1	SOLO	1/15/2023	5.0.0.1	12	JA41	YES	https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=391903&sid=ae87672404c67a62dbb2c1462588db58
Counterfactual History of WW2 Using MWIF (Solo GW)	NO	1	SOLO	9/18/2022	3.2.0	2	ND39	YES	https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=388469&sid=ae87672404c67a62dbb2c1462588db58
GW Counterfactual Take 3.	NO	1	SOLO	3/11/2022	5.0.0.10	37	SO45	YES	https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=393566&sid=ae87672404c67a62dbb2c1462588db58
Global War. Angeldust (Axis) vs Ronnie (Allied).	NO	2	ALLIED	3/2/2022	3.2.0	12	JA41	YES	https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=380229
6-Player Friendly PBEM Global War	NO	1	SOLO	6/26/2021	4.2.2	36	JA45	YES	https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=370471&sid=ae87672404c67a62dbb2c1462588db58
Major vs Jason & Ronnie	NO	3	Ge/It	3/19/2021	4.2.2	10	MA41	NO	
PBEM Global War: Narrative AAR.	NO	2	ALLIED	1/10/2021	4.2.2	19	SO42	YES	https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=361363
By the Numbers: Another Solo Global War AAR	NO	1	SOLO	8/13/2020	3.2.0	19	SO42	YES	https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?p=4685893#p4685893
GLOBAL WAR COUNTER-FACTUAL (W1/Wilhelm vs rkr1958/jp)	NO	4	USSR/CH	6/18/2020	3.1.0.1	6	JA40	YES	https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=346435
Reporting from the Front. A Narrative AAR.	NO	2	AXIS	4/2/2020	3.1.0.2	14	ND41	YES	https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=348072
Axis Only. Ronnie vs Composer99.	NO	2	AXIS	12/23/2019	3.1.0	9	JF41	YES	https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?p=4554098#p4554098
HWIF-2019-12-07	NO	1	SOLO	12/7/2019	3.0.5	1	SO39	NO	
HWIF-2019-09-28	NO	1	SOLO	9/28/2019	3.0.4	6	JA40	NO	
HWIF-2019-09-07	NO	1	SOLO	9/7/2019	3.0.4	1	SO39	NO	
Witness to World War 2.	NO	1	SOLO	1/3/2019	2.9.4	39	JF46	YES	https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=331667
An Attempt to use MWiF to Simulated WW2 Reasonably Historically	NO	1	SOLO	3/1/2018	2.7.5	41	MJ46	YES	https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=322424
The Rematch. GW AAR #2. Ronnie vs Pat.	NO	2	AXIS	12/16/2017	2.7.5	2	ND39	YES	https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=319353
AL vs Johnny	NO	2	ALLIED	10/1/2017	2.7.5	13	SO41	NO	
AX vs Johnny (Mirror Game)	NO	2	AXIS	10/1/2017	2.7.5	12	JA41	NO	
IN-COW Leaked Report on WW II.	NO	1	SOLO	6/11/2017	2.5.0	5	MJ40	YES	https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=312168
Pat vs Ronnie GW AAR	NO	2	ALLIED	6/29/2016	2.2.6	24	JA43	YES	https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=299285
Global War AAR in Pictures	NO	1	SOLO	2/15/2016	2.1.4	43	ND46	YES	https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=293471
GW-2016-2	NO	1	SOLO	1/8/2016	2.1.3	4	MA40	NO	
GW-2016-1	NO	1	SOLO	12/27/2015	2.1.2	3	JF40	NO	
Global War: Japanese Aggression	NO	1	SOLO	9/3/2015	1.4.5	34	MA45	YES	https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=285980
Winston's Soft Underbelly -- A Dream Realized?	NO	1	SOLO	5/11/2015	1.4.0	43	ND46	YES	https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=283258
My Historical Global War AAR #3.	NO	1	SOLO	3/29/2015	1.3.3	12	JA41	YES	https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=279256
My Historical Global War AAR	NO	1	SOLO	8/17/2014	1.2.0.7	36	JA45	YES	https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=263113

[rkr1958]

I wouldn't reach the bottom of my rabbit hole without providing a summary of the optional rules that I've used. First though,

MWIF Default Optional Rule List.

2025JUN09-Optional-Rules-Defaults.png (105.55 KiB) Viewed 194 times

My Optional Rule List

2025JUN09-Optional-Rules-Mine.png (152.51 KiB) Viewed 194 times

[CanInf]

Game Length:
The break point is usually a case of morale, not game mechanics, or probabilities. Prior to the mid point in the game, both sides can usually recover so long as they are willing to redirect to their strengths. Most people plough on with the same plan rather than create a new one, and inevitably they go in to a spiral of despair, because the plan which was failing, continued to fail. If the opponent can re-imagine their options, then you need to be very careful.