New to AA- need quick start!

[stylef]

Got AA-Europe for my 15 year old son. He’s daunted by the encyclopedia-like instructions (video-game generation!).  :?  Is there a way to quick start without reading all of it!? I’m mom & not into war games. Wish there was an online video tutorial! That’s just what his generation needs.

[Krieghund]

None that I’m aware of for this particular game.  However, if he has questions, there are resources readily available.  There is the official FAQ (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=ah/faqs/axiseurope), and there are lots of friendly folks around here that can answer them as well.

There is also an on-line demo for Axis & Allies: Revised (http://www.wizards.com/avalonhill/AA_demo/axis_and_allies_demo.asp), which is a similar game.  At least he’ll get the basic concepts from it.  He’ll just have to be aware that there are some differences between the two games, which he can sort out by reading the rule book.

Hope this helps!

[frimmel]

Frimmel’s Quick Start Rules for A&A Europe.

Object of Game
For the Allies they must eliminate all German in units in Germany and still have some of their land units remaining and must hold till their next turn
For Germany (Axis) they must capture Moscow, London of the United States and hold till next turn. (Strategy hint: US is pretty much uncapturable. Go for Moscow)

Set-up
Each Country has a Reference chart. This chart tells you what units to put on the board and where to put them. It also tells you how many IPCs (Monopoly Money) each side has to start. Use the Gray and red chips to save space. 1 grey chip under 1 Infantry piece is 2 Units, 1 Red chip under 1 Infantry piece is 6 units and so on. No stacking limit a territory can have any number of pieces in it.

Use the Production chart to ‘keep score’ everytime a country loses or takes a territory adjust chart accordingly. There are indicators for who starts with how much.

Once all that is set up. Give each side 12 IPCs. Germany spends or saves those IPCs. They may buy additional units for territories where they already have units per costs on Ref charts or the bottom left corner of the board. (Europe isn’t my strongest game but units in Libya or on the Eastern Front is a pretty good idea.) They may also add them to the IPCs they have at the start of the game.

Then give the Allies 12 IPCs between all three of them. They do the same. (No US units in Russia territories though. US in US and so on.)

A turn
The Germans are first, Russia second, UK third, US last

1st thing. Purchase units. The player buys reinforcements. Use your IPCs to get additional units and place them in the box on bottom left part of gameboard. These units will be your replacements for what you lose or to build up what you want to have more of to forward your strategy. Plan accordingly.

2nd Thing. Combat Movement Decide where you are going to attack the enemy. Move units into enemy territories or sea zones from territories or sea zones you control that border them. How many you ask? Well that is the hard part. Each unit has attack values and defense values. These are on your reference charts. That value is what you have to roll or less to hit an enemy unit and eliminate it. Infantry for instance aren’t very strong. When attacking they need a 1 or less when you roll a six sided dice but do a bit better on defense needing a 2 or less. Bombers need a four or less when attacking.

Some units can move to the battle from further away than right next door to the territory or sea zone you want to attack. Tanks for instance can move thru an empty territory or territory you control to the fight. Ships and planes can move further to. Look at the ref chart under movement. Remember though that planes need to save some moves to find a friendly place to land. A bomber can move six spaces but it can’t go to a fight six spaces away because it won’t be able to land there. You can’t land planes in territories you just captured.

3rd thing. Combat. Pick a fight.

Use the battle board. Move the units in the fight to the appropriate spots on the battleboard determined by their combat values (or the silhouettes on the board.) Attacker rolls dice equal to the number of units that fall in the spot on the battle board. Roll all the dice for one of the values. Everything that is that number or less is a hit. The defender selects a unit for each hit and moves it to the casualties area underneath its defense value slot. Continue till you have rolled for all units.

Then the defender rolls and the attacker removes hit units to the casualty area. When all dice are rolled remove the units from the casualty area. They have been removed from the game. Return them to the storage tray for use later as newly bought reinforcements.

Now a couple things might happen at this point.
Result 1: All defenders are destroyed.
A) If the attacker has land units left (Tanks, Artillery or Infantry.) The attacker conquers the territory. Adjust the income chart accordingly (up for the winner, down for the loser) and place a control marker (the cardboard discs with each countries logo) in the territory. This is sometimes called flagging. You can only capture the territory with land units. At sea in the convoy zones you only adjust the chart down if it is lost or up if it is freed for the country whose zone it is. At sea you only have to flag the convoy zones.

If you captured an enemy capitol take any IPCs they have and add them to your bank. They are yours. The spoils of war. Now you just have to stay there till it comes back to your first thing again and you win.

B) All the attacker has left are air units. The defender keeps the territory.

(You will sometimes have a tough choice. Take a plane as a casualty or not capture the territory.)

Result 2: Both Sides have units left
A) The attacker may retreat. They may return their units to a friendly territory touching the territory where the battle was. Planes may go to any friendly territory they can reach but land units must go to a territory where at least one of them started at.
B) Go back to the Third Thing but the units are already on the battleboard. That was round 1 in the lingo. Big battles with a lot of units can take several rounds.

Result 3:All the attackers are destroyed
Well that’s the way the dice roll sometimes.  :cry: Or maybe you just didn’t pick a very smart fight or didn’t send enough units or something. It can be hard to tell at first. :|

Do the above till you have fought at least 1 round every place you have chosen combats.

4th Thing. Non-combat Movement.
Find safe places for your airplanes to land. A friendly territory you held since the start of the turn is “a safe place to land.”

Also you may move units that were not in a combat in the Third Thing to different territories you control (even those just taken.) You will have to move units closer to the battle to bolster your forces. You can use your transports to move land units by sea getting them places faster than they could get by marching.

5th Thing. Build new units
After you have redeployed your forces you but the units you got in the First thing into the territory with your Industrial Complex. (You did see those on the ref chart right? The gray things that look the same for everyone? Sorta like those Anti Aircraft guns?) Sometimes you might capture an enemy complex (usually a Russian one.) If you controlled that complex when you bought the units you may place units there.

Land units and aircraft go in the terrtory with the complex. Sea units go into any sea zone touching the territory with the complex.
6th Thing. Collect IPCs Collect IPCs equal to your place on the production chart. (You did adjust it when you captured territories right?)

7th Thing. NEXT!
Move on to the next countries first thing. Repeat till victory is achieved.

There you have it. Well not really. I left A LOT of things out (Amphibious Assaults and Submarines and bombing the enemy IPCs and that you can land Fighters on aircraft carriers and Middle east oil money) but they are in the rule book and you can fill them in as you get more comfortable.

You might post in the Find players forum for a mentor in your area. Or look around for a games day event like I was at yesterday the one mentioned on this page: http://www.eonsreach.com/gasp/news/news.html

Lots of info on these boards as well.

Remember. Relax, don’t worry, it is just a game.  :-)

[Gewehr]

…Well gee wis, might as well read the book frimmel.  :-o

[frimmel]

@Gewehr:

…Well gee wis, might as well read the book frimmel.  :-o

:-) Well I just typed up how I would have explained it to a new person face to face. I’ve been hoping to make some time to do a second draft that would be shorter and more polished that you could use for Europe, Pacific, and Revised/Classic.

I think it could be condensed a bit but when it comes down to it A&A is a complex game and while I subscribe to the River Runs Through It school of writing, “Again, half as long.” There is only so short it can be.

[Antholin]

On a side note about begginers to the game. My buddy keeps insisting that you have to leave at least one unit in your starting territories to get the IPC’s from it. However, when starting as Germany on A&AE you have three different territories, such as Vichy France, that contribute to your total IPC that you do not have a presence in.  Units that are in those territories are sorely needed in other spots of the board.

Also in Revised the rules state that you can blitz through a territory with a tank, claiming it for your IPC value, as long as there are no enemy units in the territory. I am led to believe that you only need to maintain a presence in a enemy territory that you have conquered to gain the IPC’s. However, your starting territories, excluding industrial complexes, you don’t need to have any unit there to collect it’s IPC value.

Thank you for any and all feedback. I just want to make sure that I have the IPC/territory values correctly figured.

[Pervavita]

you don’t have to have units in teritories to claim the IPC from them.
the closest i can think of that would come to this is that if you are attacking a teritory, you need to move a ground unit there to claim it, but after that you put a marker there and you can move on.

[Antholin]

Thank you very much. That clears up a lot for my gameplay. Now, I’ll have more units available for combat actions.

[stylef]

thanks for all the advice. my 15 year old still resists playing something he has to work hard to understand but my 11 year old is interested. I like the idea of finding a game night … do you know an online search for local venues?
.
Also We’re wondering if there is a shorter version of the game. Is it supposed to take 3-4 hours?

[Imperious Leader]

Play the game over at gleemax. Its free and you wont have to figure out too much because the program does everything for you except buy, move and place new units.