Europe 1940 shows up on Wizards site…with screenshot

@Imperious:

You’d figure they could at least find one intelligent person to do these things.

They don’t care. They do the minimal crap to just get by. The picture is like some idiot took it from his cell phone and posted it. They probably don’t have any decent cameras. Look at the script on the advertisement… its a total joke… looks like its written by someone who has no clue what AA is about.

And you know very well that the game will be shorting some pieces… i just can’t wait for the latest mistake… you know its around the corner… some huge gaff, typo, or only 6 German stukas?, or 6 Mech infantry?  Something is definatly going to be wrong… it has happened too many times before and it will happen again…

We already know of one thing… India does not match up with the other board… It will look like the bottom of a milking cow. ( two peaks)

It just never ends because these people are true minimalists who have every excuse for every occasion. Man i wish i was in charge of that office… id fire everyone and deny severance and pension to all past employees.

Seriously?

Look, Wizards certainly made some serious errors with AAP40, and I’m sure they will have new and improved errors with AAE40.

BUT!!!

Nothing about this image is an error.  There’s a reason (as has been discussed elsewhere in this thread) that every single box back image has a not-even-remotely correct setup.  It’s because they don’t want to let that information out yet.  If they posted a high-resolution picture of the map with the correct setup, there are enough super-excited anal-retentive people on this board (I know, I’m one of them) that we would already have broken down the unit setup to within an infantry or two, and drawn accurate maps of the board.  We would already have games in progress on AABattlemaps and tripleA, and people would be stealing their work resources to print out high-res maps on their large format plotters.  Some people, having gone to the effort of making bootleg copies would not be inclined to buy the real product.  Others who are super excited to see what’s been made will have seen it all, and be less willing to run out and get it right away.  They’ll plan to buy it eventually, but in some cases eventually will turn into never.  Both of these effects will directly affect their sales.  On the other hand, if they build up enthusiasm to a fever pitch with properly timed spoilers, then die hard fans will rush out to buy, and people who are on the fence will get swept up by their friends and the excitement and will make a purchase that they may not otherwise.

Remember, Wizards is selling four things inside the box that you buy:

1. The board
2. The other physical components (pieces, markers, charts, etc.)
3. The rules
4. The starting setup

Now, anyone who bought AAP40 will already have the rules, minus some political rules, national objectives, and technology.  Those additional rules have been spoiled or can be easily deduced in most cases.  Certainly close enough to get a 90% solution
Anybody who has several copies of earlier games (as I’m sure just about everybody on this board does) has enough of the pieces (minus a few Mech Infantry and Tac Bombers that I’m sure they can jury rig out of other parts or painted parts) to provision all powers.
That leaves the board and the starting setup, and a single high-resolution picture of the starting setup would leak that information completely in a matter of hours.

Nothing about this picture is an accident.  They showed us exactly what they wanted us to see.

I’m sure they had a professional photographer take ultra-high resolution photographs, and then spent time figuring exactly how much they needed to down-rez it to show what they wanted.  Similarly, upon consideration, I think that they had someone familiar with the game set it up deliberately so that 1) all countries (particularly the US and France, since they’re one of the new hooks) are represented, 2) the board is “evocative” of what the board will look like in play without 3) looking anything like the actual setup.

This is a movie trailer.  It shows a few big explosions, a couple great one-liners and catchphrases, and makes you want to see the movie/play the game without giving away the farm.

I’m not totally sure yet about if AAP40 is broken (but I only played 3 games until today, take that into account). Anyway I think it’s easier balance AAP40 (if broken) that AA50: for AAP40, I’d add 1 aagun to Szechwan and change the order of turns to make China playing first … that should be enough. In addition, to prevent gamey strats, I’d delete any restrictions to China’s movement, but anyway AA50 also needs that

@purplebaron:

On another thread, there was a discussion about how much time it would take to get German reinforcements (AKA, Rommel) into Africa.  Basically it came down to: T1-capture French TT on Med, T2, build IC, T3 Build transports and units at IC, T4, first opportunity for units to arrive in Africa.  This was deemed long and cumbersome, and people were despairing that Africa would become an Italy-only endeavor.

The setup on the image we’ve seen gave me a thought (with all the caveats on the unreliability of the image as a representation of the actual setup).  Even with Germany having no territories on the Med to start, it would be perfectly reasonable and even likely for the Germans to start with a transport and a destroyer in the Med (Relying on Italy for protection).  This way, the Germans could start shuttling units over on turn 2.

Problem is that Germany doesn’t start with any tt bordering Vichy, so it’ll either be taken by Italy or by Germany on G2. Also, Vichy may only be 1 ipc.

@purplebaron:

Nothing about this image is an error.  There’s a reason (as has been discussed elsewhere in this thread) that every single box back image has a not-even-remotely correct setup.  It’s because they don’t want to let that information out yet.  If they posted a high-resolution picture of the map with the correct setup, there are enough super-excited anal-retentive people on this board (I know, I’m one of them) that we would already have broken down the unit setup to within an infantry or two, and drawn accurate maps of the board.  We would already have games in progress on AABattlemaps and tripleA, and people would be stealing their work resources to print out high-res maps on their large format plotters.

Revealing the setup will be only bad for them if the game is broken. If setup is OK, then people will have more desire of buying it. If setup is broken (as Classic, AA50 and maybe AAP40), people would have less desire of buying it. If undecided, I can still wait a couple of months for someone deveploing a AABattlemap module and then decide. I’m not itching anyway to buying the game the very first day. As much, this type of bad treatment to the customers is giving me less desire of buying future A&A games, and it’s pretty probable that AAE40 is the last buy for me. It maybe intentional, but I think that is damaging them

My bet is that they failed to test the game enough just to save money (again), they have or suspect have a broken setup and so they don’t want reveal it

Also, I’m wondering why they released the game in such odd date: students are going to be studying for September exams, workers are going to re-start the work soon… it would be better releasing it now so we can play the game this summer (I doubt they are going to change much the setup from today to late August)

@Funcioneta:

@purplebaron:

Nothing about this image is an error.  There’s a reason (as has been discussed elsewhere in this thread) that every single box back image has a not-even-remotely correct setup.  It’s because they don’t want to let that information out yet.  If they posted a high-resolution picture of the map with the correct setup, there are enough super-excited anal-retentive people on this board (I know, I’m one of them) that we would already have broken down the unit setup to within an infantry or two, and drawn accurate maps of the board.  We would already have games in progress on AABattlemaps and tripleA, and people would be stealing their work resources to print out high-res maps on their large format plotters.

Revealing the setup will be only bad for them if the game is broken. If setup is OK, then people will have more desire of buying it. If setup is broken (as Classic, AA50 and maybe AAP40), people would have less desire of buying it. If undecided, I can still wait a couple of months for someone deveploing a AABattlemap module and then decide. I’m not itching anyway to buying the game the very first day. As much, this type of bad treatment to the customers is giving me less desire of buying future A&A games, and it’s pretty probable that AAE40 is the last buy for me. It maybe intentional, but I think that is damaging them

My bet is that they failed to test the game enough just to save money (again), they have or suspect have a broken setup and so they don’t want reveal it

Also, I’m wondering why they released the game in such odd date: students are going to be studying for September exams, workers are going to re-start the work soon… it would be better releasing it now so we can play the game this summer (I doubt they are going to change much the setup from today to late August)

No, if the setup is okay, people will start playing on ABattlemap instead of the real board.

No one is perfect - but $60-70 is what Axis & Allies games should cost nowadays (the old 2nd edition game was $45 back in 1996 - adjust for inflation).

It was going for £65 or more over here. I’m not sure that $100 plus shipping is good value for money. Especially not in a game with barely enough units, no paper money, and no factory units. If I see some good write-ups for Europe - I’ll get both. If not - neither, and Anniversary will be the way to go.

@purplebaron:

Nothing about this image is an error.  There’s a reason (as has been discussed elsewhere in this thread) that every single box back image has a not-even-remotely correct setup.  It’s because they don’t want to let that information out yet.  If they posted a high-resolution picture of the map with the correct setup, there are enough super-excited anal-retentive people on this board (I know, I’m one of them) that we would already have broken down the unit setup to within an infantry or two, and drawn accurate maps of the board.  We would already have games in progress on AABattlemaps and tripleA, and people would be stealing their work resources to print out high-res maps on their large format plotters.  Some people, having gone to the effort of making bootleg copies would not be inclined to buy the real product.  Others who are super excited to see what’s been made will have seen it all, and be less willing to run out and get it right away.  They’ll plan to buy it eventually, but in some cases eventually will turn into never.  Both of these effects will directly affect their sales.  On the other hand, if they build up enthusiasm to a fever pitch with properly timed spoilers, then die hard fans will rush out to buy, and people who are on the fence will get swept up by their friends and the excitement and will make a purchase that they may not otherwise.

Remember, Wizards is selling four things inside the box that you buy:

1. The board
2. The other physical components (pieces, markers, charts, etc.)
3. The rules
4. The starting setup

Now, anyone who bought AAP40 will already have the rules, minus some political rules, national objectives, and technology.  Those additional rules have been spoiled or can be easily deduced in most cases.  Certainly close enough to get a 90% solution
Anybody who has several copies of earlier games (as I’m sure just about everybody on this board does) has enough of the pieces (minus a few Mech Infantry and Tac Bombers that I’m sure they can jury rig out of other parts or painted parts) to provision all powers.
That leaves the board and the starting setup, and a single high-resolution picture of the starting setup would leak that information completely in a matter of hours.

Nothing about this picture is an accident.  They showed us exactly what they wanted us to see.

I’m sure they had a professional photographer take ultra-high resolution photographs, and then spent time figuring exactly how much they needed to down-rez it to show what they wanted.  Similarly, upon consideration, I think that they had someone familiar with the game set it up deliberately so that 1) all countries (particularly the US and France, since they’re one of the new hooks) are represented, 2) the board is “evocative” of what the board will look like in play without 3) looking anything like the actual setup.

This is a movie trailer.  It shows a few big explosions, a couple great one-liners and catchphrases, and makes you want to see the movie/play the game without giving away the farm.

Now, I agree with just about everything here… All I was saying is that to a trained or even mildly educated eye, the board looks kind of ridiculous at times (as promo shots). Like Imperious Leader said though… they probably just don’t care… No… they OBVIOUSLY don’t care. I guess that we need to consider the fact that they don’t really have to care. I mean, they are still selling games. And does it matter to all of us in the long run: NO. We take the game 99.5% for what is inside. That other .4 % is probably the box Art, as we have seen (ha, ha) and the remaining .1% is the back of the box. So all this jabbering really doesn’t matter in practice. It only matters in that it lessens our belief in the company that puts it out there.

I would agree that they do not want to give too much away… that is good marketing. They want to draw interest, as they have with all of us here. And I do believe there are people out there who are already trying to develop strategy, unit placement, map features etc… (many of the people here) and bootlegging is a legitimate problem. They have to protect against that. I don’t think they should give us everything now… In fact I don’t even want it, nor would I take it if it were offered. Unfortunately, not everyone is patient enough to wait. Don’t get me wrong… like everyone else here, I will look for what I can get now, because I know they won’t give us too much.

But for those who are trying to figure every little thing out now… I think you can over analyze a bit too much. For me, most of the fun and excitement is taken away when you see and know too much before the game is in your hands. I don’t know why some people cannot delay their gratification… I for one enjoy doing it. It makes the final experience so much more enjoyable.

I would not totally agree with the statement that, “They have shown us exactly what they want us to see.”, because for my 2-cents I think part of it is ignorance on the part of some dopey chimps at WOTC or Avalon Hill or wherever. But I would say that probably more than 60% is for marketing purposes. My main message was that they coould have at least had someone take an intelligent picture of a plausible setup… it would just show that htey are thourough and interested in details.

However, we have seen in the past that those at WOTC are not totally thourough…

@calvinhobbesliker:

No, if the setup is okay, people will start playing on ABattlemap instead of the real board.

Most important reason to not play on board is not having time or not having rivals. If I can choose, I always prefer real board over my PC screen

@Funcioneta:

@calvinhobbesliker:

No, if the setup is okay, people will start playing on ABattlemap instead of the real board.

Most important reason to not play on board is not having time or not having rivals. If I can choose, I always prefer real board over my PC screen

Perhaps, but some people don’t mind it if they save $60-90

@calvinhobbesliker:

@Funcioneta:

@calvinhobbesliker:

No, if the setup is okay, people will start playing on ABattlemap instead of the real board.

Most important reason to not play on board is not having time or not having rivals. If I can choose, I always prefer real board over my PC screen

Perhaps, but some people don’t mind it if they save $60-90

Yes… but in my opinion, nothing could replace the real and genuine thing. I hate looking at computer screens… the board is where it’s at.

@LHoffman:

@calvinhobbesliker:

@Funcioneta:

@calvinhobbesliker:

No, if the setup is okay, people will start playing on ABattlemap instead of the real board.

Most important reason to not play on board is not having time or not having rivals. If I can choose, I always prefer real board over my PC screen

Well, they know people like you will buy it anyway, but other people won’t, and they want those other people’s money.

Perhaps, but some people don’t mind it if they save $60-90

Yes… but in my opinion, nothing could replace the real and genuine thing. I hate looking at computer screens… the board is where it’s at.

@cminke:

how much did they pay u to say that??  jk.  and ur right, i woud be useing my works printer to print my own m,aps

I’m expecting my copy to arrive in the mail on Monday.  :-D

In all seriousness, from reading their Magic articles, I’ve gained some insight into the use of spoilers to promote a product in general, as well as their corporate strategy on the matter, plus I work at a small company.  Though I am an engineer, you can’t help but learn an awful lot about the realities of sales, marketing, management, and finance, and it has been very illuminating and changed my perspective on a lot of things that I used to take for granted or never even give a thought to.

It was going for £65 or more over here. I’m not sure that $100 plus shipping is good value for money. Especially not in a game with barely enough units, no paper money, and no factory units. If I see some good write-ups for Europe - I’ll get both. If not - neither, and Anniversary will be the way to go.

My thoughts exactly, Army of Northern Virginia.

I seems to me that there is 2 infantry (not stacked) in Norway, and a thin white line. It leads me to think that Norway has been split in two. Southern and Northern Norway. This is exiting, both in an historical context and gameplaywise.

Anyone else see this?

@thomashawk:

I seems to me that there is 2 infantry (not stacked) in Norway, and a thin white line. It leads me to think that Norway has been split in two. Southern and Northern Norway. This is exiting, both in an historical context and gameplaywise.

Anyone else see this?

If it were 2 territories, there would be 2 German roundels, of which there are only one.

Finally….IL will be please as i am :mrgreen:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=ah/prod/europe1940

Yep thats a start, a small one.

@Napoleon:

Finally….IL will be please as i am :mrgreen:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=ah/prod/europe1940

So now its not buried in their website.

@calvinhobbesliker:

I don’t think neutrals have logos. Brazil is green because it will join the US

But it doesnt look American green it looks neutral green, like compare it too Spain its fairly the same.

@Dylan:

@calvinhobbesliker:

I don’t think neutrals have logos. Brazil is green because it will join the US

But it doesnt look American green it looks neutral green, like compare it too Spain its fairly the same.

Yea its definitely neutral, I think the washed out greenish color is just the map. S America was the same way in AA50. The Neutrals in the Mid East and Africa are a washed out tan, where Mongolia (Pac) is the washed out green again. There must be markings on them to determine if they are pro neutrals that we just can’t see.

W/Brazil being neutral US shouldn’t be able to enter until its at war, being a neutral itself. Brazil didn’t allow US access to its bases until early 1942 (US at war) and didn’t declare war its self until Aug 1942. There has to be a rule in place to keep UK from activating Brazil as a pro neutral, like the Dutch only allow UK or Anz to come in, not the US. I wonder if the axis take Brazil, if the UK can liberate it keeping the income, like US can liberate the Dutch from Jap and keep it. It looks like Venezuela has an inf shaded in, and Argentina (or Chile) might too, but it looks like Brazil is the only tt worth any ipc’s (probably worth 2, for a minor IC). Can’t really tell whats going on w/Guyana (looks multi-national), may not have ipc value, but it most likely comes with AB & NB at set-up. Looks like it shares the same sz as the northern part of Brazil. That way when US takes control of Brazil, it could build an IC and get use of the bases on Guyana in the same sz. That was good planning if its the case.

Edit tip:
By the way I set the map posted on the Wizards site as my back ground on my desk top. It blows it up (about double) but it does distort it slightly. It is rather nice to just click the mouse and minimize AA.org to see the map for a quick reference.