A&A State of the Union?

[Vital Signs]

Hey guys - After many years of being out of the loop raising a young family, been getting back into playing A&A again. Really enjoy all your feedback, customizations ideas, and incredible passion and expertise. Just curious if you all know what the next step is for the A&A series aside from the Zombies edition release? Are there plans for an updated Golbal 1940 3rd edition, or perhaps another theater? What is the general plan for the franchise from WOTC? Thx again everyone!

[barnee]

@VitalSigns Hi Vital. I think “War Room” is Larry’s latest. Think it’s being fine tuned. Lots of house rules for Global but no update that I’m aware of.

[Midnight_Reaper]

The general plan for the A&A franchise, as held by Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast/Avalon Hill, is to produce more Axis & Allies games after A&A&Zombies. Exactly what that will entail has not been shared with us, but more A&A is supposed to be on the way. In the last couple years, we’ve seen about one release a year (A&A Anniversary reprint in 2017, A&A&Z in 2018). If that keeps up, we’ll have another new A&A game in about 11 months. Whether that will actually happen remains to be seen.

For more on this topic, here are a couple articles on A&A&Z and possible future plans, from the front face of the website:

Axis & Allies and Zombies Questions Answered
https://www.axisandallies.org/p/axis-allies-zombies-questions-answered/

Q&A with Axis & Allies & Zombies Game Designer, Scott Van Essen Part 1
https://www.axisandallies.org/p/qa-axis-allies-zombies-game-designer-scott-van-essen-part-1/

We are still waiting on part 2.

And if that’s not enough, Historical Board Gaming (http://www.historicalboardgaming.com/), the Gold-level sponsor for this website, is starting to produce their own take on A&A through the years. They started with the mid-1930s and are looking to produce a series that spans from the 1860s to the 2050s.

So, yes, there’s still some fight left in A&A yet…

-Midnight_Reaper

[redrum]

@VitalSigns There are also many great A&A-like games available for download through TripleA. You can preview all the maps here: https://triplea-game.org/maps-list/maps/. Several of these are very high quality and arguably more fun and balanced than any official A&A game.

[djensen]

@Midnight_Reaper Heh, sorry. I got distracted by the forum migration. I’ll post Part 2 this week.

[Vital Signs]

Thx so much everyone!

[taamvan]

@VitalSigns

Hey friend!

We are kind of at a turning point, with new products being released, Global 40/42/mod is still of interest, the smaller official games may not capture the same audience while catching a lot of the same criticism (imbalance, sub optimal rules mix etc.)

There is still alot of fun to be had playing live games. I’ve made plenty of friends here, and some of them are traveling a few times a year around North America to play in various homebrewed tournaments and get-togethers.

Here are some possible new avenues for fun

ORIGINS/GENCON/YOUR LOCAL CLUB OR CON
YG DELUXE D8 G40/YG SPECIAL RULES
SIREDBLOOD’S HOUSE RULES
BALANCED MOD, G41, G42
THE MANY TRIPPLE AAA VARIANTS AND FROM OTHER ERAS
PLAYING THE SECTOR GAMES (Guadalcanal etc.) as prelimiaries to a full Global game
AAZ ported to 42.2 and G40
“THE WAR GAME” AN AXIS AND ALLIES CLONE
“GLOBAL WAR” dont know much about this one
“THE WAR IN VIETNAM” KS promises to be “AxA Vietnam”, if it ever gets completed!

also
Star Wars Insurrection (Looks awesome, havent played)
Conflict of Heroes (like squad leader but playable, very nice)
Twilight Imperium (way too complicated IMO)
50 other sweet eurogames I cant get anyone to play (Wasteland Express, Everdell, etc.)

[Vital Signs]

@taamvan awesome - thank you

[A Former User]

Hello all! This my first post and as a new comer to A&A I thought it might be helpful to let all know of my opinions so far. I bought the original edition a year or so ago and liked what I saw very much! Then I looked at what has been published since. Wow is all I can say! Global 1940 caught my attention so I purchased Europe and Pacific 2nd editions. Blew me away! Then I found about Historical Board Gaming. Need I say more?

So, here is what I like and what I don’t so far:

I like the Wizards of the Coast G40 map boards best. I like what Sired Blood did when he added cities for flavor and created fixes for irritating tactics, such as one destroyer holding up an entire fleet move.

I like the addition of terrain on the Global 1936 - '45 map. As well as railroads. Do not like the colors, they are too bright and (now no-one get offended please) the shades are too basic.

I like the original playing pieces. I think the minor powers and basic sets form HBG fit in well with the WOC pieces.

The HBG rules for Global 1936 - '45 are a definite step in the right direction. Rules for railroad movement, terrain, and an increase in the types of facilities and classes of units seem to be well represented in the forums for years.

Unfortunately, family pressures and financial misfortunes, both conspired to cause me to part with all of my games. Things are better now so for Christmas this year plan to treat my self to a copy of Axis & Allies Europe and Pacific 2nd edition! Anxious to be back!

I want to thank everybody that posts on this forum as well as the faithful Youtuber’s who are too numerous to mention, but would not let me forget this hobby and all of the fun it looks like you are having. And a specially shout out to GeneralHandGrenade who’s warm personality I find irresistible, and play throughs very helpful. Thank you all.

AdmScuttlebut out for now!

[taamvan]

@AdmScuttlebutt

We are all saddened that you had to part with any games.

Re; G40 boards; Most players feel that way, Global looks great. Its hard to believe that our own fan-based graphic designers can improve upon it further, but they have. We printed a giant version of a custom map onto vinyl, so it rolls up. Wasn’t cheap, but the board is 11% bigger and its more difficult to dislodge/knock than the cardboard ones.

If you like Siredblood’s mods, and HBG Global War, you might look into YG’s deluxe edition, as well as “The War Game” which is a clone produced by a fan. All of these versions try to tackle some of the big picture things that the G40 games miss, that you mention.

In my personal opinion, the accumulation of many small modifications to an already complex 10+ hour game make it unworkable. While there are a few compromises in the G40 OOB ruleset, most of them have proven to strike a pretty strong balance (scrambling, interception, fleet movement, unit prices etc.)–what isn’t particularly balanced is the overall setup, once you’ve played it about 50-100 times. Most people have at least a few house rules, but at this point, the community has taken over and so the effect down the road may be somewhat like DOTA vs. Warcraft 3—they are based on the same underlying game but if you didn’t know that, you probably couldn’t tell.

[GeneralHandGrenade]

@AdmScuttlebutt We all go through our ups and downs throughout the course of our lives. Your spirit seems unbreakable and I have little doubt that these trying times are only a temporary setback for you and that you will be back stronger than ever and rolling one’s like a vampire on a day pass. Take care my friend and if you ever make your way up to my neck of the woods I’ll share my little plastic army men with you. Merry Christmas!

[A Former User]

Thank you for your kind and inspiring reply. Having watched you all on YouTube for over a year now I have discovered that all in this hobby are just as warm and helpful as you are. I have great news! I just ordered copies of Europe and Pacific 1940 2nd edition. I am back! Can’t wait to unwrap those puppies under our family tree. Merry Christmas to you and all of the wonderful people that make up this hobby. Now back to those how to and strategy videos …

[crockett36]

@AdmScuttlebutt The president of WOC said they want to digitize one of the games for smart phones soon.

[djensen]

And the first step toward that is here with Axis & Allies Online. Although, I’m not sure he wanted to digitize “for phones.” The small format may not be conducive for A&A games.

Also, you all have been super quiet on the news today. What’s up with that?