We just played two games over 3 days! The first game ended early with an Allied victory. The Axis just took too many losses taking out France and The Italians lost North Africa and almost all of their fleet by the end of 1940. Given the direction the game was headed, the Axis threw in the towel at the end of 1940 and sued for peace.
The second game was epic. We had to end it after the Summer of 1944 turn without a definitive winner, but probably the Axis would have held enough VPs by the Winter of 1944 to win the game. The Allies were on the continent in Normandy as well as Sicily and the Russians had taken Minsk and had just broken through the German lines on the Dnepr and liberated Kiev. But, the Italians were still in the game and the Germans still had very powerful armies in Russia and France. I think even though the Allies were beginning to drive the Axis back, we were not doing it fast enough to stay ahead of the victory point level. But it was VERY close - so much so we called it a draw since we could not play it to the final conclusion.
I hope you guys have a blast on January 3rd! Please give us an update with pics when you can!
cheers,
Mark