@Chacmool @Randy_Randelman1234
Thank you for your interest. I’ve finished the 1914 map, but haven’t had much time to work on the AAZ map. I’ve managed to retouch about 20% of the folds I guess, but don’t know when I have more time at hand to finish the work.
Subjective Complaints about AAZ (Zombies are stupid thread)
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Why make a game which will suck and everybody but you knows it will suck? The reason is future AA games will have no future, like a franchise killing movie that costs 200 million to make and sells 3 tickets…
The whole AA thing is being handled by monkeys who work at WOTC and have no idea what their doing because Larry Harris team was not involved and they have no Historical backgrounds. They just play fantasy, read fantasy, live fantasy and wear diapers for the most part.
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To be fair to WOTC 42 and 41 are trash, 42SE is mediocre, and 1914 is a disappointment from a purely gameplay perspective. Additionally, Larry didn’t have a ton to do with Revised, which is one of the better entries in the series. And that’s not even getting into the depressingly bad spin-offs from the early 2000s (Bulge, Revised, Guadalcanal).
That being said, he deserves most if not all of the credit for bringing us A&A (both Classic and the franchise as a whole), AA50, and G40 (which as I said a few posts up is basically his masterpiece, war room be damned).
Re: Sales. I have no sales data to back this up, but I seriously doubt A&A, other than the original Gamemaster Edition, has ever been a serious needle-mover in terms of sales figures. It falls into an unfortunate grey-area of being too complicated for casual gamers (think stupid young people who will only play on their phones, or folks who think Risk is “too hard to understand”), while being too abstract for the serious wargaming crowd (i.e. people who play A World at War, Advanced Third Reich, etc.). Additionally, other than the abysmal 1941 edition (and possibly the Gamemaster Edition, but I don’t remember 100% so don’t quote me), the game has only really been sold in dedicated hobby shops and online, which definitely limits its marketability.
A&As main niche is WW2 history buffs, which is a relatively small one in this day and age. I’m not making excuses for or defending the poorly thought out decision to put Zombies in the game, but there’s a clear reason why the decision was made. If you don’t like it, just don’t buy the game. There’s always War Room (Larry’s project, due out later this year, although I’m not sure you’ll be able to get a copy if you didn’t back the kickstarter) and the Global War line. Both of these have their own sub-forums.
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Iey Clutch Cargo is a history buff.
:-D -
@SS:
Iey Clutch Cargo is a history buff.
:-DWhile I agree with most of this, I do think BotB and D-Day were good games. It is a shame the line wasn’t extended more to say Stalingrad (urban fighting block by block) or North Africa.
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@SS:
Iey Clutch Cargo is a history buff.
:-DWhile I agree with most of this, I do think BotB and D-Day were good games. It is a shame the line wasn’t extended more to say Stalingrad (urban fighting block by block) or North Africa.
I always like d-day. Just havent gotten around to it to add more small things to game like trucks for supplys, amo depots and something to that affect.
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…but there’s a clear reason why the decision was made.
That decision comes from naked ignorance of what AA or wargames in general deliver and require some measure of knowledge of what WW2 was. The new cadre of WOTC are holdovers of D$D: they know nothing of what AA is about and i’ts not about zombies. They just took a 1941 board, made a few changes to that map and dropped “zombie” rules using Larry’s rules from past games ( 1941). Its pretty funny actually like when AA miniatures basically stole the AA name but has nothing to do with AA.
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I mean, you’re not wrong about the thing being a cash grab. I doubt anyone disagrees with you on that. I mean, Activision’s been putting “nazi zombies” into Call of Duty for like 10 years now.
I guess I just have thicker skin/care less. If I want to honor veterans I’ll volunteer at a VA center or watch a WW2 documentary. To me, A&A is just a board game set in a certain historical time period, not a means of honoring anything.
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@DouchemanMacgee:
Previous two posts
I would say something, but for berevity’s sake, I’m in 100% agreement with DouchemanMacgee’s last two posts.
He’s spot on with my own observations and take on this.
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My thoughts are:
AA Zombies but STILL no AA Stalingrad! That’s just… ugh. Terrible.
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It would be hard to replicate the urban fighting in Stal.
The river crossing could be easily abstracted with die rolls.
Germans would have tanks, art. and inf. while the Russians would just have inf and maybe a little art.
Not a great balance.
A game on the Med. would be great though.
Naval land and air units. Spain to Iraq Italy to Egypt.
Americans come in late like in 1914. Germans/Italians/British/ANZAC/Neutrals, hell even Russians and if the map stretches east a bit, the battle of Stalingrad :evil:
Maybe I’ll look at making a map this coming winter…
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I’d love to see a combined Battle of Britain/Battle of the Atlantic A&A game.
Britain getting squeezed, needs to decide to invest in destroyers, planes, or transports/land units for an attempted invasion.
Germans need to decide to invest in subs, planes, or transports/land units for an attempted invasion.
America limited in its ability to support. Maybe a 3rd player.
Russian Front (or perhaps the tip of Africa) a wild card; as, if the Allies can successfully shift troops to either, the effect on Germany would be akin to an outsized Industrial Raid, simulating German forces pulled to other fronts.
First country to land troops on the other’s beach and hold for one round wins? Or maybe just if Britain holds out for x amount of turns? Maybe both?
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Not sure that the A&A format really works well with the scale and vision of the game you propose… there’s only so much detail/focus that the A&A format works with.
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A China/Asia Theater of Operations game could work, as a different take on the usual PTO game.
Factions:
Axis: Japan
Allies: Nationalist China/UK-India
Communist: Communist ChineseIdea would be that Allies and Communists are fighting Japan as their primary objective, but can also fight each other. Once time expires, whichever Chinese faction holds more IPC/Victory Points/whatever in China wins. Japan wins if they can take certain objectives and hold them until time expires.
It always sort of bothered me that China in A&A is portrayed as this perfectly unified anti-Japan fighting force when in reality the Chinese were led by two main competing factions (along with several local warlords that I’m not going to bother getting into) that had only begrudgingly put their Civil War on hold to deal with the Japanese invasion.
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@DouchemanMacgee:
It always sort of bothered me that China in A&A is portrayed as this perfectly unified anti-Japan fighting force when in reality the Chinese were led by two main competing factions (along with several local warlords that I’m not going to bother getting into) that had only begrudgingly put their Civil War on hold to deal with the Japanese invasion.
Yes, that’s the reason I gave the ChiCom forces a roundel in Shensi on my customized G40 map (see the “8 Pacific Left Panel.jpg” picture here: https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=32700.0). In fairness, however, I don’t think that Mao’s forces during the Japanese occupation of China were as strong (in either size or equipment) as they were during the Chinese civil war which followed WWII. They had taken greatly depleted during the Long March, and I think that biggest operation they managed to pull against Japan was the Hundred Regiments Offensive.
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I think people are overeacting to this.
At it’s worst, it’s a hilariously out of touch bid to increase the game’s fanbase by WOTC (seriously, the zombie theme is roughly a decade old). From what we’ve seen, it looks like an updated version of 1941 with more playability (the inclusion of cruisers and artillery is welcome), and the awkward addition of Zombies. Having played '41, I doubt the game itself will be that interesting, but it’s compatability with 1942 2nd Edition is definitely promising should the zombie thing actually work. I’m waiting on feedback before I invest.
As for it’s ‘disrespect towards ww2 veterans’, I’ll risk riling people up by saying that’s nonsense. It’s obviously not done in any air of disrespect, and will undoubtedly get some kids otherwise uninterested in history an unconventional, but still informative look at the war. I’ve taught a few history lectures, and I always try and find ways of packaging the material in a way that will resonate with the targeted audience, whether it be maps, videos, memes, etc. Heck, even the government during the war got it, look at their partnership with the rapidly growing comic book industry, which created some truly bizarre stories involving Superheroes and villains fighting on the front lines. If you think the zombies thing is new… well, check out DC Comic’s biography on Adolph Hitler’s fictional history, it basically implies he was tricked into starting the Second World War by a supervillain looking to create zombies.
http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Adolf_Hitler_(New_Earth)
That aside, I’m definitely hoping this is a one time thing, and the creative heads at WOTC look towards different time periods for variety instead. I mean, come on, I would play A&A: 1861 to death.
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This is all a bunch of reacting in a vacuum. You know that the person chosen to do this game would make their best attempt at making a fun new game. They did that, and its different and fun.
Buy it, try it, stop reacting to the concept in isolation without understanding that the axa franchise, ruleset, and decision tree is solid but tried and a bit tired, and needed a shakeup that will make this a legit use of your money, time, and strategizing.
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Quitting some amazing games because of one game that has the potential to be a flop is just nonsense to me. Quit whining about it and think rationally for once.
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My thinking is this: Zombies, really zombies, you have got to be kidding me! There is a 0% chance I will ever play this game with zombies on the board. The only chance in the world is if zombies get switched out for partisans, because zombies are F***ing stupid.
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My thinking is this: Zombies, really zombies, you have got to be kidding me! There is a 0% chance I will ever play this game with zombies on the board. The only chance in the world is if zombies get switched out for partisans, because zombies are F***ing stupid.
PS…. All that is the nice way of what I have been saying out loud to my wife about the game. She’s laughing at me so hard she’s going to pee herself.
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Ok, first granted that AAZ is a bit silly and very pop-cultury.
However:
1. So what? If you don’t like purple, don’t use the purple crayon.
2. Having been at the preview last night, it’s great game for Halloween parties or after big games when no one wants to leave but everyone wants to play something fast.
3. If for every 100 zombie fans that play because of zombies ten of them buy the game, Hasbro/Wizards gets to keep chugging along. You may not like all their products, but many of us are a fan of at least some of their products and want to see the lines continued.
4. If for every 100 zombie fans that play a few of them pick up other A&A variants because they discover an interest in strategy games, Hasbro/Wizards gets to keep chugging along.
5. If even one of every 100 zombie fans that play starts playing other variants, you get to meet new and interesting people.So yeah, it’s a bit silly. Who cares? The world can use a little more silly from time to time.
Marsh
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