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Renegade Con Virtual: Axis and Allies
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Rigid map panels at A3 (like the paper size) would be pretty clutch. I mean it’s the name in the name right? haha
I just think that’d be a great way to present this stuff, like the OED or the Encyclopedia Britannica, except all emblazoned with A&A on the binding.
Maybe some of that cool filigree in the embossing, something fancy like that. I’d really go for a map ‘book’ that recalls the 1940s, like a period piece. Keep the badass cover artwork obviously, but instead of doing a highgloss D20-RPG style sourcebook, have it look more old school.
Top Secret mission dossier. Flat folder, maybe with a string to wrap it closed perhaps? hehe Just that kind of look. I think the box that holds the sculpts should also present like something you’d want to leave out on the shelf as well, rather than sticking in a storage closet or under the bed or wherever. Stuff that looks great for marketing on the shelf in a store, sometimes not quite as slick once you got it home. Especially if you have half a dozen already hehe. If the box was more cubic in shape and designed to hold all the plastic sculpts and pylons, dice, chips, towers, perhaps leave one plane of that box more plain lookin? You know instead of having the graphic flare lighting up on all 6 sides of the cube, leave 1 plane of the box that looks more simple, so that side can face out too.
Then sell the maps separately as campaign books. I prefer rigid panels to rolled mats. I have many mailer tubes and poster tubes, but these things live under beds or in the garage or in closets. If the maps stored more like a book I think it be would a lot easier to justify swooping yet more and more, or pushing them out in smaller editions.
Like you keep the starter set big-box edition in print much longer, but the add on maps can be printed in runs. Like do one every couple years even, tournament time, like the Olympics ya know. Keep the torch burning like that. Then we could collect them like Records. Fav album covers, that sort of present.
ps. one last idea for boxing, this may sound nuts, but organize the sculpts into boxes by unit type, rather than nation/tint color. All infantry of all colors in one box. All tanks of all colors in one box etc. It’s easier to fish by color than by type. It’s just as easy to clear the board for casualties when the units go back by type rather than color. I think players follow the convention of sorting units by color/nation because that was how it’s been done. But if the convention was switched in the initial packaging I think that method of unit storage makes the game faster to play, and easier to pick up.
Instead of the national set up cards drawn on the unit boxes, these boxes might have a larger graphics of each nation’s sculpt/equipment type with some details about it. The attack/def cost values of that unit on the box. When units die and need to be returned to the box, or purchased and need to be fished from the box, if these are already sorted by unit type, it’s very easy to just find your own color among the 6 others. Whereas if you have to dig around in your all-one-colored tray to fish by type this takes a fair bit longer. It’s worth trying if you never have before.
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Axis and Allies Renegade Virtual Con
Within minutes we will know - hopefully - what the next Axis and Allies game will be.
Please follow here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOT09Yv9Vpk
UPDATE: Winner will be announced TOMORROW!
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@thrasher1 And we are LIVE!
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Renegade: “It is Friday now!” :)
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Pick Your Battle: 4 options for the next Axis and Allies game!
https://discord.com/channels/702536469365129256/1063162359968964641
UPDATE:
Winner will be announced TOMORROW!
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Releases in MAY and AUGUST!
Games released in May:
1941
1942
Europe 1940
Pacific 1940Game released in August:
1914 (WW I)
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ALSO:
Bigger Global map. Rolled-up.
Limited. -
Tomorrow:
The winner of the New Axis and Allies Game Contest will be announced.
So NOT todasy. Sorry!
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@thrasher1 i hope the judges use the Benny Hill criteria for picking the winner :)
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@barnee Which are?
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I’m glad to see these back in print!!! I pine for 3rd editions for 1942 and G40 with A3 panels that stack, but I will take it for sure hehe.
I kinda got my hopes set on North Africa honestly. Like don’t get me wrong, firing up a Bridge too Far for Market Garden sounds fun. Or going all Enemy at the Gates Eastern Front or Stalingrad has appeal as well, although current events might have that last a bit charged. One reason I like North Africa is cause it kinda syncs up nicely with the 1942 starter board, whereas the others would feel a bit further along in the timeline of the war. Starting earlier for a tactical board might be cool, cause if they decide on releasing the others later, they could just do it chronologically. North Africa/Med first, then Stalingrad/Eastern front (could maybe be the same game right?) for the end of 2023. Then for 2024 an updated D-Day/Market Garden campaign and have that one hit on the 80 year anniversary. That would be a nice touch
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@black_elk said in Renegade Con Virtual: Axis and Allies:
I kinda got my hopes set on North Africa honestly.
ditto :)
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map ordered.
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The winner of ‘Pick your Battle’ is:
North Africa
https://renegadegamestudios.com/blog/axis-allies-pick-the-battle-vote-results-are-in-/
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Black Elk wins !
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@thrasher1 said in Renegade Con Virtual: Axis and Allies:
The winner of ‘Pick your Battle’ is:
North Africa
https://renegadegamestudios.com/blog/axis-allies-pick-the-battle-vote-results-are-in-/
I love this choice. Great theater of operations, tons of active participants, hopefully some new sculpts…
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Sounds cool!
Also, keeping with the theme of watching the first half of the film Patton hehe… a cool way to handle the endgame would be Sicily, Southern Italy or even the liberation of Rome. So instead of just Torch and North Africa, which would start with a lot of Vichy touch and go, and end with Axis being ejected from Tunisia/Libya I guess, the game could keep going to Husky into 1943 for the finale? A proper Sand and Sea campaign for the larger med theater, with some naval action and the big amphib landings as the capper.
Basically the later Stalingrad/Eastern front board could dovetail on this one as the follow up, since the two campaigns would have a bit of overlap in the timeline. Instead of Axis winning by taking Cairo, Axis ‘victory’ could be achieved more by just pushing out the Allied liberation of Rome. Allies win by bringing the hammer down and taking the bottom of the boot. I think that’d be fun!
Guess it just depends on the overall scale of the game, but to me that would make sense for a theater map. Basically left side of the board at Gibraltar/Morocco, right side Greece/Crete/Egypt clipping at Sardinia/Naples/Rome for the top of the Board, desert at the bottom. Then we got some decent room for the back and forth and a thrilling conclusion that scratches the itch with a dramatic finish. Before breaking out the next one in the series hehehe.
Ps. Another suggestion, which is more for the art direction. Try to include within the graphics or manual illustrations a Vera May Atkins type for a French Resistance espionage angle. Rosie the Riviter for a home front munitions liberty ship production type thing. Rita Hayworth and Vera Lynn for the USO inspiring the troops. A badass nurse like Juliette Binoche in the English patient. Just something in the collage montage artwork to bring that element into it. Not like a Lady Luck, or Victoria type tutorial advisor, but more in-theme like the real deal. Code breakers, patch me in ops. Obviously those suggestion tilt towards Allies Hollywood nostlagia, but I think that’s to the good. Hire Becca Scott back on too, and keep that tutorial video series going. Shades of Casablanca noir in the embellishments on the margins. Like just a full 1942 sweep for that. I think that would be nice to see in a theater campaign board with this setting and timeline.
For a board crop, maybe something like this?
I compressed the one from the encyclopedia for a narrower width, but that sort of spread, like on the Med highlight I mean. Could come in a bit tighter on the sides and clipping the bottom fifth off at the desert for the tighter focus along the coast.
Then abstracted and bulked out a bit for housing the sculpts, with Sicily more in the middle for the endgame (center board), but still maintaining some room for a naval game, with peripherals for the stage in. Compress it back down to 1:2 aspect for the table once the TTs are beefed up, so you get a similar view, but a bit wider again after it’s dialed for the unit housing.
Plenty of space at the bottom left and top left/right for a couple inset graphics. One for each side maybe? Or blown out a bit further to carve stuff up a bit more. Just for the decorative embellishments, you could put that stuff in neutral Turkey or Spain, or the Algerian stretch of the Sahara. I think something like that would be pretty rad. Anyhow just a quick riff haha
I can imagine it where the narrows in Libya, that’s your main choke point, where the line is only 1 tile deep, and the stuff on either side is like your sliding deadzone that changes hands back and forth early on. For Algeria, Tunisa, Egypt have some coastal tiles worth a bit more, but then some interior 'desert; tiles worth less, but which can allow for maneuvering and breakthroughs. The larger islands split up a bit, and same with southern Italy. USA concentrated more on the left out of Algeria/Oran in that corner, UK on the right out of Egypt, like for seats at the table. And they’re trying to meet at the middle and converge in Libya for a springboard. Axis in the middle (seats at the top of the table), trying to hold the wedge at the center.
For Germany, maybe it kicks off with a Tunisian stronghold or a way to paratroop in early on, but always with that tension in the background, ‘like should we really keep feeding units into Tunisia/Libya?’ with the added challenge of guarding Greece and Crete in the backfield, which could be a swing zone. Or same with Sardinia and Sicily vs the main defense of Italy tension. A more abstract tile near the top could serve as a German mobilization point in Italy itself, like troops coming in from N. Italy and France, or over the Alps or being diverted over from Greece. Then you could get something going where Axis try to race to Cairo initially, but if that fails (likely), then it’s a question of when exactly to pull back from Tunisia/Libya in order to prepare the final defense of Southern Italy. Having that as the big mid-game timing decision.
A North Africa board I think has the potential to be a bit more naval amphib oriented, which would be fun to see in a campaign scale game. Could probably still fit quite a few tiles in the Med and really break up the North African coastline and Sicily so there’s a few ways in for both sides. Couple fulcrums for the balance to hinge on.
For a new unit/sculpt, the paratrooper or air transport would be thematic (especially for Axis in this period), which could be introduced here and then really come into play for the follow up Market Garden. Similarly an Army Base unit that either side can use to try and establish toeholds, as a ground base parallel to the Naval Base or Air Base of G40. Some different way to mobilize units that gets around the concept of an IC with something a bit more flexible for this theater, like a logistics hub. A bunker/pillbox fortification unit could work as well, similar to the old ones, just reintroduced. Or a Command unit, where instead of a Strategic Bomber, we get something with similar stats/movement, but which functions more like a general commanding the forces. That could be fun for this one, since it kinda fits the mold with the big personalities.
The tactical bombers of G40 would seem like a better fit than the Strat Bs of 1942 sec edition for the big guns in the air and bombing. An air transport role for the Strat Bs here, instead of a heavy combat role, could work well. Also the Mech would be nice to have for this one. Not sure what they’d choose for a full unit spread, but it’d be cool if they staged in some concepts here too, so the jump from 1942 to Global 1940 in terms of roster/rules complexity can be tutorialized and introduced in stages via the more focused campaign scale boards.
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I think there’s room for two new pieces in this condensed, zoomed in map: self-propelled artillery and tank destroyers.
For the Germans, it would be the SiG 33 and StuG III, respectively, and for the US it would be the M7 Priest / M10 Wolverine. The UK could use the Bishop, and either recycle the M10 sculpt (they used it as the Achilles) or perhaps the slightly later war Archer. Italy I’m unsure of, but I’m sure they have a couple models that would work.
Edit: did my research, for a self propelled artillery piece I’d select the Semovente da 90/53, and for the anti-tank I’d pick the Semovente da 75/18. The Italians called both kinds “self-propelled guns”, hence the similarity of naming.
Also; Vichy France will be in this game, please please give us a French tank!
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@black_elk solid post. I like the wider view of the first map much more, which would allow for ocean at the extreme left - Casablanca has to be on the map, I think, along with Cyprus and Salermo.
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@vodot said in Renegade Con Virtual: Axis and Allies:
@black_elk solid post. I like the wider view of the first map much more, which would allow for ocean at the extreme left - Casablanca has to be on the map, I think, along with Cyprus and Salermo.
Agreed 100% - besides, they can also stretch/skew the map a bit and make it conform to a slightly taller board, rather than one that is wide but narrow. Here’s what I would have as the board:
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