HEY! I am getting old - but that is beside the point. . .
We had a packed table all three days with 6-7 players going at it every day - which was a lot of fun and LOTS of different strategies and priorities - always a blast when you get debate going about what to do and what not to do (well, usually
! )
John hosted the game on Thursday (as I did not arrive until Thursday PM) - so I can't comment on the first game, but I can on Friday and Saturday:
Friday's game was an Allied victory in late 1943. It pitted Chad as Germany, me as Japan, and Paul as Italy against Marty, Tim, Dave, Tiny and John as the Allies. The game had a great start - but I think the British really decided it in the Med. The Axis never really applied much pressure to England and the British empire went on the offensive in North Africa in 1941, pushing the Italians out by early 42 and staging an invasion of Italy. The game was decided on Victory points in Autumn 1943 with the Allies firmly entrenched in Italy, Germany stalled in Russia and the Allies able to commit enough resources (- most of the British fleet and the U.S.) to stop any Japanese advances.
Saturday's game was very close up until 1943. Bob played England, Brent played the US, Sean played China and the US Pacific, Mark Meunch played Russia, Dave played Germany, John played Italy and Tim played Japan.
Like I said the game was very close up until 1943. From my (well. . . pro-allied) referee point of view, I think Germany building two factories early in the game paid off in the long run; Japan went all out and knocked out China (some lessons learned there on what to do I think if the Japanese try that again (i.e. run behind the yellow line));
The Brits did a good job managing everything and keeping the Axis in check (held all the important points (Cairo, Gibraltar, England, etc.), but I think around Spring 1943 the culmination of the extra German production and the Japanese having taken out China began to take its toll. The Germans were able to launch a late all out sub offensive in the North Atlantic which really threw the Allies off for almost a year, and they poured a tremendous amount of resources into Russia which left the Red Army in isolated pockets around Moscow/Leningrad, Baku and pushed back to the Urals. The Japanese threw their army against Russia in 1943 as well - adding more threat's to Tiny's Russia which just could not fight off a 100+ point Germany and Japan - without an Allied Second front (which got stalled due to the U-Boat war and a disastrous assault on a heavily fortified German/Italian defensive position in North Africa).
Even a 1943 Normandy invasion and subsequent liberation of Paris was not enough to save the Allied cause as the Germans had enough resources to put a huge tank army into France and push the allies back into the ocean.
The Germans won on victory points in Spring 1944 (at about 8pm - we absolutely flew through the game - way to go Dave- on playing a very fast Germany).
Overall, GenCon was a blast - the games ended early (no midnight/early morning games this year) but they were all VERY fun - I had a great time and I hope everyone else did too!
Mark