in my table top test of Anniversary edition, which I just got, i have only needed the battleboard a few times, when units greater than 10 on attack and defense.
It’s interesting how bad dice rolls can doom a larger attack force and reshape the game drastically. In this game the dominant countries have each had a really bad turn of dice rolls change their fate. Another thing for dice is the technology rolls, so far, only 1 country has one and many many IPUs were spent trying to get them, which also affected the games early stages for Germany.
History of the Design?
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Apologies if this has been answered already or is in the wrong place, as this is my first topic.
A&A has been around a long time and I remember the days when there were various websites and forums dedicated to the game. Not sure how many of those are still around, but it got me thinking if anyone has attempted to document the history of the various editions and spin-offs of the game. I’m mainly interested in design/balance considerations.
If anyone has links to share, that would be very appreciated. I’ll continue looking around the internet myself and report back if I can find anything.
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@anikom15 said in History of the Design?:
Apologies if this has been answered already or is in the wrong place, as this is my first topic.
A&A has been around a long time and I remember the days when there were various websites and forums dedicated to the game. Not sure how many of those are still around, but it got me thinking if anyone has attempted to document the history of the various editions and spin-offs of the game. I’m mainly interested in design/balance considerations.
If anyone has links to share, that would be very appreciated. I’ll continue looking around the internet myself and report back if I can find anything.
I am interested in hearing what you might have to say. I’ve a collection of A&A games, unofficial A&A game expansions, and a stack of similar-to-A&A games that might be used to expand your A&A play. The history of WWII fascinates me, and the history of A&A and its take on WWII fascinates me as well.
As for some links…
Don Rae’s A&A Strategy Essays:
http://donsessays.freeservers.com/axisand.htmMIT A&A House Rules:
http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~gc00/reviews/ana.mit.htmlThrasher’s A&A page at Wargamer.com {curtesy of the Internet Archive }:
http://web.archive.org/web/20020203145924/http://www.wargamer.com/axisallies/default.aspThe Internet Archive is a great place to find things that used to be on the Internet - like the rules for the old Table Tactics A&A expansions:
The old Tabletactics.com website
-Midnight_Reaper
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Hi anikom,
We have played Axis & Allies since 1993 - and we have all original Axis & Allies games as well as most of the expansion sets that were sold back in the 90’s.
Considering game design and ultimate play balance, you might find some inspiration at this forum - look for:
- Axis & Allies Global 1940 House Rules Expansion
- Axis & Allies Global 1940 Basic Expansion
- Axis & Allies Global 1943 Expansion
You’ll find them under the House Rules section - they are all linked in:
- The Captain’s Global 1940 House Rules Collection
Good luck & have fun :+1:
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@the-captain I think that @anikom15 is more interested in how the different A&A expansions from the 90s, in and of themselves, were balanced. I’m sure the answers vary from “not really” to “laughably unbalanced”, but I’m not an expert on the matter.
As you seem to have a background in those old expansions, what do you have to say about the game balance of, say, The World at War or WW2, The Expansion?
-Midnight_Reaper
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We found tons of fun & challenge with the expansions (1+2+3) from Gamers Paradise - and World at War from Xeno Games.
Our play group (Play Group West) at that time (1993-1995) was a mix of soldiers, craftsmen, academics & others.
So we had perfect options to get the best out of all expansion rules - and create the foundation for even further Expansion Developement.Remember:
This was before the internet was available to us. In the Gamers Paradise Expansion Set there was an example of how to Play by Phone. We used that occasionally - it was fun - and expensive…Both versions brought new dimensions to the Axis & Allies Classic game. And these rules inspired us to create even more rules, to reflect WWII History and give players more options.
This was how it all started.
I recall the play balance to be acceptable. Anyway - it mostly depended on players’ choise of strategy.
Some of these expansion rules are even part of the Axis & Allies Global 1940 House Rules Expansion today - albeit in a modified version.
As the Axis & Allies Revised version emerged, the Classic version was stored on the shelf - and has been there ever since.
But our Expansion Rules Developement continued in step with the release of new Axis & Allies versions.
Today, our main focus is the Axis & Allies Global 1940.