@Krieghund Thank you for the swift reply. I don’t think that thought crossed my opponent’s mind (we usually play Global, so the idea of attacking Germany…and leaving oneself open to counterattack…is not on the radar).
Zombies is a different game.
Not Sure How to Feel
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Maybe Wizards will shock me and the game will actually be awesome, like Naval Minis or the criminally underrated 1941. I’ll give it a try, of course. Just wondering about all of your thoughts on the subject.
Please vote.
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Personally, I’m in wait and see mode. Time will tell.
-Midnight_Reaper
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They wont shock you. It wont look anything like AA. Its just using the name. The only “Zombies” that existed in WW2 were the draft Dodgers from Canada. Perhaps they found a way to fit Canada into the game, which is great.
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Could you explain this please? Canada fielded almost a million men in WWII, mostly volunteers to boot.
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In June 1940, the government adopted conscription for home service in The National Resources Mobilization Act, 1940 (NRMA), which allowed the government to register men and women and move them into jobs considered necessary for wartime production, and allowed for conscription for the defence of Canada, but did not allow conscripts to be deployed for overseas service.[7] The French-Canadian nationalist mayor of Montreal Camillien Houde in a speech urged all French-Canadian men not to register under the NRMA, which led the Dominion government to use the suspension of habeas corpus under the War Measures Act to send the RCMP in to arrest Houde, who was held without charge until 1944.[8]
The NRMA men who refused to “go active” were derisively called “zombies” both in Canada and overseas. The “Zombies” were so-called because they were soldiers who could not fight in the war, making them like the reanimated corpses from Haitian mythology who were neither alive nor dead, but rather somewhere in-between. The “Zombies” were widely hated by the men who had volunteered for overseas service and were referred to as cowards.[9] The Canadian military was divided into classes: the A men who volunteered to go overseas and the R men who were the Zombies.[10] At training camps, officers and NCOs constantly belittled, insulted and humiliated the Zombies to pressure them to “go active”, making for a tense relationship at the best of times.[10]
The fact that King kept the Army out of action for as long as possible to avoid another conscription crisis like the crisis of 1917 caused much dismay among the more hawkish Canadians anxious to see Canada get into action.[11] The Royal Canadian Legion issued its manifesto “A Call for Total War” that was endorsed by some 500 other civic groups across English Canada.[12] Mitchell Hepburn, the Premier of Ontario and John B. McNair, the Premier of New Brunswick both demanded overseas conscription in speeches attacking King.[12] A Gallup poll in November 1941 showed 61% of Canadians satisfied with the war effort, but 60% wanted overseas conscription.[12] On 13 November 1941, King’s old nemesis from the 1920s, the former Prime Minister, Arthur Meighen became leader of the Conservative Party.[11] Unlike his predecessor, “Fighting Bob” Manion who had supported King’s conscription polices, Meighen made a call for “total war” including sending the Zombies overseas the central-piece of his criticism of King.[11] Meighen and King had one of the most famous political rivalries in Canadian history as both men passionately hated one another, and Meighen traveled across the country, accusing King of not doing everything within his power to win the war.[11] After the disaster of the Battle of Hong Kong in December 1941 where two Canadian battalions were lost, a storm broke out in Canada with George A. Drew, the leader of the Ontario Conservative Party urging the Canadian people to “face the shameful truth” that two battalions of badly trained men had been sent to Hong Kong, which was a sign of the failure of King’s policies, and of the need for conscription for overseas service.[13] By the end of 1941, the armies of Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union and other allies were all fighting in various theaters of war while the Canadian Army did nothing, guarding Britain against the not very likely threat of a German invasion.[11] By the end of December 1941, the Royal Canadian Air Force which first went into action in the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940 had lost 1199 men while the Royal Canadian Navy had lost 439 men.[14] At Hong Kong, the Canadian Army had lost 290 men, with 487 men wounded and the rest taken prisoner, to be held under horrific conditions by the Japanese and most did not survive their captivity
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‘[Prime Minister William Lyon McKenzie-]King finally agreed to a one-time levy of 17,000 NRMA conscripts for overseas service in November 1944.’ (Conscription Crisis of 1944)
Note the date and number and compare with the fact that over a million Canadians had been in uniform by the end of WWII. In other words, most were volunteers. Which may be why it’s proving somewhat difficult to find information about the means by which some attempted to avoid being conscripted.
I have heard that at least a few unmarried men would arrange to visit with women with children when they were expecting to be questions by officers looking for conscripts.
There has always been a problem between the French and English Canadians.
Thankfully, we have never “gone to civil war” over it -
Looks like zombies are in today. Zombie Risk, Zombie Monopoly, even the movie World War Z is a board game. I figure it was just a matter of time before we got A&A Zombies too. Guess I’m gonna buy it anyway, as I always do with A&A games, and houserule it to my taste.
I was searching Zombies on BoardGameGeek and it turned out 4 pages of Zombie boardgames. The most promising game was Norwegian SS-zombies, an expansion to Nuke Norway now by a Swedish game designer. This is a WWII game, and it turns out that Vidkun Quisling was successfull with his genetic experiements. So basically, every infantry unit that is taken as casualty, turns into a zombie unit. Hope not this is the road A&A is going too.
oh, and you need flame throwers to kill zombi units. Now I hope A&A goes this way, will get us a new unit
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Quisling is the leader of the Zombies and can even shore bombard the Allies at 5 or less
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Shore bombard with what ? Zombies dont have battleships, they are not good team players. They moan, and bite, thats all
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Ok me Moans at 5 or less
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Personally, I’m in wait and see mode. Time will tell.
-Midnight_Reaper
Yep. Not enough information at this time to make a call.
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I will have nothing to do with the game.
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Yeah, that will all change when we hash out our “Chainsaw Tank Red Skies Canadian Imperial Gambit” strategies a few years from now…
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@ABWorsham:
I will have nothing to do with the game.
The world needs more people like you.
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Can someone tell me why we needed this? I would really like to know. I would buy it for the sculpts if we get any new ones besides the zombies.
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This is a cheap and disgusting ploy for profit. It feels like Hasbro is saying that WWII wasn’t interesting enough on its own merits.
These are historical board games, not history lessons, however they can lead to a greater appreciation of history. They may spark a path to learning about our world in the present. I love the zombie genre on it’s own merits. What I don’t appreciate are crossover ploys, especially ones that don’t involve the original designers or creators.
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Larry was busy making War Room, @Hunter:
Can someone tell me why we needed this? I would really like to know. I would buy it for the sculpts if we get any new ones besides the zombies.
Better than the brand being dead IMO.
I could be wrong though (I’m saving my temper tantrum until we get more info on the game), which is why I haven’t voted in the poll.
especially ones that don’t involve the original designers or creators.
Larry’s gone, man. He’s moved on from A&A to make War Room as a new take on the WW2 Genre.
(Un)fortunately, the A&A brand is with Avalon/Wizards, meaning we still get new A&A games.
…The downside of course, is that we’re stuck with gimmicks like this mess for the time being.
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i think Wizards would have gotten more $$$$ from a Cold War or Ultra modern game or even an American War for Independence, instead of zombies which I can not see any thing positive for using them in a AA game.
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Was anything being planned for Axis and Allies before this? No. This isn’t taking the place of anything. It isn’t preventing something else from coming out. If anything, the failure of this game might be taken as a sign that the brand is dead more than anything else. I would much rather have preferred another historical game but I am going to withhold judgment until we hear more about it.
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I guess it’s time to reconsider making a 1946 scenario for Global: East vs West.
Russian Commies > brainless zombies
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