I just recently bought a house and As I was going through my parents attic, I found my original version of axis and allies. probably from around 1985. It is missing some pieces so I decided to look on google to aquire maybe a used set on ebay or something. I had no idea how big this game is. I was quite amazed. Then I noticed that they were releasing a “new” version in august 09, My local target had it and I just had to buy it. Now I havent played this game in probably 10 to 15 years, but this is what I noticed. The actual playing area compared to my old version is a lot smaller. I have heard people complaining about the money. I don’t believe the original version had money either so I wasn’t disappointed about that. The peices look great, Germany looks black to me, no longer grey. The Development card is no longer in the set(weapon research) The set up cards and the attack board are smaller. The ipc’s are located on the board. The board is really nice but it does not have extra areas to store battalions like the old version for places such as germany, the UK, and Japan. Overall I am quite excited for tis version, it was a game I played a lot as a kid and know I will enjoy as an adult. maybe if I new about the other versions in years past, I might not appreciate this one as much. I just ordered Battle of the buldge and D-day. anyway
Enjoy it for what it is, Probably one of the best board war games I have ever played
IMS