@Craig:
The LHTR are here. And further more, they are the basis for everything moving forward. (Yes, I have an inside line on things. 8-) )
To me, there is ONE basis for “everything”, and that’s the official FAQ released on the Avalon Hill website. LHTR is not on there. That’s all there is to it.
DAAK, Axis and Allies Org, the Larry Harris forum, US tournament scene - all that’s fine and good, but I really don’t give a d*** about them. As fine as all those organizations are, they do not speak for Avalon Hill.
If you’ve really got an inside line on things, Yoper, put it where it counts - get a final revision of LHTR put up on the Avalon Hill website. Then LHTR will BE official. It won’t just be “oh, it ought to be official shoulda woulda coulda blah blah balance blah blah original designer blah blah”.
BTW, I support LHTR. I think they’re fine changes, particularly with NAs (although I think they may need a bit more editing before final release). But I generally DO NOT USE LHTR.
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BTW, Cmdr Jennifer, don’t bother telling me how me and Mazer are the only ones that play OOB-variations, and how Everyone and their Mother uses LHTR.
You walk into a store, you pull out Axis and Allies Revised. At least nine times out of ten, nobody’s going to say “You got a printout of LHTR 2.0 with that?”
If you’re playing with a buncha noobs that don’t know any better and have never seen the rulebook, you can use LHTR, because they don’t know any better. But the moment one of 'em buys the game, he’s gonna have some questions about why the rulebooks look so different. Unless YOU explained LHTR to him/her. That’s how it works. People don’t know about LHTR. They just don’t.
Most people that play boardgames in the United States of America are not members of DAAK, most people in the United States don’t go to the World Boardgaming Championships. Those are pretty much given, but I am going to go farther and say that MOST PLAYERS OF AXIS AND ALLIES DO NOT USE LHTR. Substantiation?
You’re new to the game? Maybe you go on Wikipedia. No mention of LHTR there (although you DO find TripleA). Maybe you go on the Avalon Hill website. No mention of LHTR there. Only if you hit the forums a lot or attend the World Boardgaming Championships or such, or if you’re a member of DAAK or one of these other clubs that uses LHTR - only THEN do you use LHTR.
Almost two million copies of Axis and Allies Revised printed. Let’s say just 100,000 sold. Let’s also say that you have 1.5 players of Axis and Allies per board game. So that’s 150,000 players. You want to tell me that 76,000 of those players KNOW LHTR 2.0?
96 members at DAAK. Contrast that with 120 ACTIVE members at TripleA Ladder. (They just pruned their inactive members, killing my first account in the process :|) So non-LHTR beats out LHTR already for the two big online clubs that I can think of offhand.
564 members at Larry Harris Game Design forums. Let’s say each of those 564 members plays Axis and Allies Revised, doesn’t know any of the others in real life, and has six other people that they play Axis and Allies with. Even with this inflation, it’s still 3100 some people.
Okay, let’s blow up DAAK some. Multiply them by ten. So with 960 added, you have 4100 people playing LHTR.
Now let’s take the WBC. Let’s say they had . . . 640 players! More multiplication by ten. It’s a trend, why ruin a good thing?
So you’re looking at 5000 some people, and I’m already multiplying by ten all over the place. Well, although I’ve mentioned some of the major groups that play LHTR, and multiplied by ten, and assumed that NONE of the players overlap, I’ll even multiply by five again. That’s 25,000 people, and I think it’s pretty obvious that’s very likely to be considerably inflated.
If my figures are wrong, please feel free to correct them, but I still don’t see how you’re going to hit 50% of people playing by LHTR.
Unless . . . you recruit teh jenforces! :wink: