We played the global campaign yesterday with 4 players. The turns are long (1 hour per turn) but it didn’t feel like there was a lot of downtime as there was always something to do. It was very chaotic. Having to pre-plan all your orders leads to some goofy situations, especially if you bid to go first in the turn. I was playing the UK and the US and on turn 2, I bid to go first with the UK. I sent a massive air raid against the Ruhr. The Germans had ordered a huge naval push into the North Sea along with most of the Luftwaffe as cover. As I’d already committed to my raids, I couldn’t cancel to cover my fleets instead. The Germans, by going later in the turn, had the option of cancelling the orders for the air groups based in the Ruhr to react to me but neglected to do so. The end result was most of the Home Fleet was sunk while the industry and infrastructure in the Ruhr was massively reduced.
We played for 3.5 hours and only finished 3 turns. The Brits were in serious trouble in the Med and facing a possible invasion of the UK but they’d taken back Burma and managed to seriously damage Japanese naval power around Sumatra. The Yanks took the Gilberts and Solomons and had consolidated their carriers into a massive strike force. Troops were en route to England but we’re being menaced by U boats.
Russia was a meat grinder. The Germans took the Caucasus but were then cut off by a Soviet push into Ukraine. Soviets tried for Finland but got chewed up very badly.
The Italians were running roughshod in the Med and tried for Egypt but got stopped cold.
Japan got beat up in the Solomons and in the seas around Sumatra but they absolutely steamrolled China due to the Chinese being overly aggressive and making a risky push into Indochina.
Everyone enjoyed it but all agreed that it’s very long and that strategic bombing seems way too powerful.