Noob questions on game and minatures

[LETitRIDE]

Hi All,

So I’m completely new to A&A, but a huge WWII buff. Dad wouldn’t buy me the game when I was little because it was too expensive as far as board games go, but now I’m a grown man and I just bought my first A&A 1942 Second Edition (arriving TODAY  grin) and I wanted to get into painting the miniatures. I’ve painted some plastic ME-109s and Spitfires models as a kid, but never painted miniatures. I was just wondering…

-Do I paint over the plastic pieces that come with the game?

-What if I mess up? Do I just wash the paint off and start over?

-What is the purpose of buying the expansion miniatures?

-Are expansion miniatures already painted?

-Can expansion miniatures be used to play my 1942 2nd ed?

Game questions:

-Is it difficult to learn?

-How long does a came last on average?

-How does A&A compare to say, the hexagonal war games of the 70s and 80s?

Sorry for all the noob questions. Just wondering. I have a friend who’s also never played, but we’re going to do this. I WILL CRUSH HIM.

[CWO Marc]

You’ll find many detailed and valuable discussion threads on painting over here…

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?board=75.0
http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?board=75.20

…where you can check the “Subject” column for titles that include “paint” or “painting”.

[LETitRIDE]

Thanks!

[CWO Marc]

By “expansion miniatures”, I assume you mean unofficial supplementary sculpts sold by companies such as HBG (http://www.historicalboardgaming.com/Battle-Pieces-By-Country_c_14.html).

Neither these unofficial supplementary sculpts nor the “OOB” (“out-of-the-box”) sculpts that come in the official games are painted; they’re simply colour-coded by being cast in different colours of plastic.  Some people (like me) actually like these plastic colours and leave the pieces unmodified.  Other people paint them, sometimes to a staggering degree of fine detail.  The choice is entirely up to you.

Note that there are different official A&A games, and that they don’t all use the same sculpts.  The current in-print games (1942 2nd ed., Europe 1940 2nd ed, Pacific 1940 2nd ed., 1941 and the WWI 1914 game) use different numbers of unit types, and in some cases (1941 and 1914) different sculpts.  For more information, I recommend these two threads (one by knp7765 and one by me):

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=23386.0
http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=31982.0

[CWO Marc]

Regarding the purpose of unofficial sculpts, there’s no single definitive answer…but commonly, they’re used for two purposes.

One purpose is as replacements for the OOB sculpts, if for some reason a player doesn’t like either individual sculpts or an entire national sculpt set.  An example would be HBG’s projected French pieces, which many people are looking forward to because the OOB French pieces in Europe 1940 are (except for the distinct French infantry sculpt) shaped identially to the Russian sculpts.  Another example would be the British-design transport ship and the Soviet-design aircraft carrier from the 1941 game, which I use to compensate for the fact that the 1940 2nd edition games use foreign designs rather than British and Soviet designs for those two units.

A second purpose is to add unofficial special unit types to the game…for example tank destroyers, a unit that doesn’t exist in the official games.  Typically people use these special units in conjunction with unofficial house rules (either their own homegrown ones, or HRs provided by other people).  There’s a whole section of the forum devoted to HRs:

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?board=41.0

There are potentially other purposes too, depending on individual preferences.  They can be used, for example, to add new player countries to the game (like the Axis Minor powers), again under HRs.

[CWO Marc]

By the way, the answers I gave all apply the A&A board games, which use unpainted micro-miniature sculpts.  The (I believe now-discontinued) line of “A&A Miniatures / Naval Miniatures / Air Miniatures” products are a completely different animal; they are large-scale castings, and they’re pre-painted.

[taamvan]

Do I paint over the plastic pieces that come with the game?

You can but the small, soft plastic miniatures aren’t ideal for taking paint.  The ones like the boats with flat surfaces should do fine.  You can prime them first, but its hard to do detail at this scale unless you’re really good.  Another consideration is that you will have to mass produce quite a few minis in order to have full sets for most of your games, otherwise you’ll end  up mixing painted and unpainted stuff which is kind of confusing to the eye.

-What if I mess up? Do I just wash the paint off and start over?

Not after things dry.  You can use the technique of wiping wet paint (I use cotton gun cleaning rag) away from unintended areas, this works like an eraser.  If you recoat/re-dip a small mini like these all your detail will be lost in layers of paint.

-What is the purpose of buying the expansion miniatures?

for fun.  FMG sells a lot of cool sculpts but they are not universally used in AXA, primarily in other similar games (eg Global
War)

-Are expansion miniatures already painted?

No, unless you buy them that way eg Axis and Allies Miniatures Game

-Can expansion miniatures be used to play my 1942 2nd ed?

Yes, but they are only variant sculpts (eg different halftracks, different tank models) or house rules.

Game questions:

-Is it difficult to learn?

Yes, though not for a wargame.  Rules are fairly simple though subject to much interpretation if not read carefully.  Should take 3-5 games to get good then 3-5 years to get awesome.

-How long does a came last on average?

42.2; About 4 hours to surrender, a bit longer until victory conditions.  G40/G42 take more like 10 hours-14 hours.  WW1 5-7 hours.

-How does A&A compare to say, the hexagonal war games of the 70s and 80s?

It is much less complex than a chit game.  Logistics and “rock-paper-scissors” unit balance aren’t in AxA.  Combat and movement are dramatically simplified.    Where chit games (aka Avalon Hill) games are a detailed, complex and abstract slog, axis and allies is a lighter, more “army men” sort of game with the depth coming from repeat play and learning from mistakes.  The quality of the pieces and the layout of the map are a huge draw in comparison to large paper maps, hundreds of similar, boring pieces and rules that are incomprehensible outside the context of each game.    Games like Memoir 44 and AxA try to capture strategy, tactics in a more playable and engaging format than a realistic, unit by unit, “order of battle” style game, but try to be much more in depth than games like Risk where there are no unit types and every team is essentially the same.