Axis and Allies - Rules and Gameplay

Kenji,

It's Italy's turn... yep, all three of your defenseless transports are at the bottom of the Med sea.
The Med is free of allied war ships as Germany sank the French destroyers and chased the USA transports back.
Your lone infantry unit in South Africa is dead but he took some of the British with him.
Your lone armored unit next to Russia can still blitz north but Stalingrad is protected now.

Kenji/ Arthur,

Here are some rules we've been doing wrong...

Kamakazi attacks only work if the Japanese player is on defense, sorry Kenji.
The impassable areas of the board CANNOT be flown over.
You cannot fly over neutral countries.
AA units cannot capture friendly allied territories.

More stuff we've been doing wrong...

Strategic bombers can bomb factories and bases.

Tactical bombers can bomb ONLY Air bases and Navy bases, Tactical bombers cannot bomb factories. This makes Strategic bombers a little more valuable.

So, there are two very good Axis and Allies 1940 2nd Edition Global, (the game we play) optional setups. One is A&A 1940 2nd Edition - 1941 Setup and 1942 Setup. Both of these use the same game board we use but the starting units and placement are different. What both of these set ups try to do is portray the board in a balanced way as if three or five turns have past.

This makes for a shorter game that can be played in a formal tournament setting.

What do you all think?

Kobe and I have now completed two full, 1942 Bloodbath Axis and Allies games. Uses the 1940 set up but we only play a set number of turns (eight turns for us). At the end of eight turns, if the Axis does not hold 11 victory conditions, then the Allies win. If the Axis does hold 11 victory conditions, then the Axis win. Victory conditions are more than just victory cities... brings the whole board into play and puts a limit on how long the game is.

Kobe won both games playing as the Axis player... both games Kobe had a small handicap and the second game was so close, there were four battles on the last turn where each side had only a single unit left against a single enemy unit. Since each of those battles was over a victory condition, it doesn't get much closer than that.