Like Vance said, this new 1941 game is to expand their customer base. G40 is way to complicated for noobies. A game that goes about two hours to introduce AA to the masses is ingenious marketing. Many AA gamers have been playing since the 80’s (that’s when I started about 30 years ago w/classic). When revised came out it re-sparked the game for those of us that played years ago, and introduced it to more ppl. AA50 was really cool, but short lived (no re-print?). G40 is kinda over the top, it is an awesome game, but lets face it who has 2 days (20+hours) to play it (just a handful of us hehe).
Now those 30 to 40 year olds (like me) will get this new 1941 game for several reasons.
- To get the new pieces for house rules etc… awesome.
- To play with their kids, and bring them into the AA world in just 2 hours. The hardest part of games like G40 or even 1942 is it takes to damn long, and youngsters just don’t have the attention span.
- Now these new players will introduce this new game to their friends, and the customer base doubles. Face it, the new generation is the target here (intro), not those of us that want more.
I’ve looked around for AA1942 in big box stores, and don’t find it to often. I think this new 1941 game will be on the shelves of say Target, Walmart, Kmart & Toys R Us. AA1941 will be an inexpensive game that is played in under 2 hours. About the same time frame as other family games like Monopoly, Life, Clue or Risk (little longer to play) or some card games. Even 1942 or Revised can take 8 hours or more, G40 a couple days in most cases. That just don’t fit into family night.
They will be re-releasing the Global series soon enough. I don’t think it will have most things on your wish list though. I do hope that at the very least they put together a down-loadable pdf file for the finished rule book including the newest Alpha on WOTC & Larry’s sites so we can have access to it.
I would love some kind of expansion set for G40 down the road. Instead of it including some of what was mentioned in other posts (TO FIX WHAT WASN’T IN THE BOX), I would rather it went a different route/theme. Add a system for raw materials (like Ages of Empire, or 1602AD). Where you have to gather raw materials to build your units for war. Stuff like merchant shipping (real convoy), cargo planes, oil rigs/coal mines, iron ore/steel, even food to keep your supply lines going. Have certain tt’s produce these materials (somewhat historic, but make it work for game-play).
Maybe introduce a more complex system to mobilize tanks, planes and ships (need raw materials, or say an actual shipyard to build capital ships etc…). Scrap the tech system, and allow a technology tree where you can build better units as you advance (have the expansion pack provide these new units). Maybe bring in some of the old National Advantages from Revised (more to give each power something more unique). Have stuff like fortification/pill boxes and coastal defense etc…
I would like an expansion, but not as a patch for what I might think is broken, or not included to play the game as intended (that I can deal with on my own), give me something new that I can use to actually expand the game. I’m not sure they’ll ever do something like this, because it would be a night mare when you think about new rules and balance etc… would be cool though.