Ridiculous! I mean seriously, I bought my first one for under a hundred bucks when it came out! Clearly people want this game. It is my favorite board. It has the most elegant design and the most adaptive potential for my purposes of any mapboard to come out in the last 10 years.
Its sad that such a solid and popular A&A game is so difficult to acquire at a reasonable price. Sad that this is the one gameboard for which clone sculpts or replacement pieces are basically impossible to find.
Has anyone heard any murmurs or rumors lately on a reprint? I expect I already know the answer, but honestly, its such a no brainer. Just reprint the contents, keep everything the same except for the cover of the box.
All my best experiences teaching new people have come on this board. 1942.2 and 1941 just pale in comparison to what you can do with AA50. The 1940 games are substantially different, in terms of the gameplay, the gamelength, and the learning curve. AA50 fills the gap so nicely, between a Classic-1942.2 style basic game, and a Global 1940 hopelessly advanced game.
So yeah, once again, lets get some jumper cables and a car battery on this dead horse, shock a heartbeat, and see if we can’t Frankenstein it back to life!!! :) I mean, right?
@MidnightExpress:
It’s been a couple of months since I opened the box but aren’t the pieces basically the same as 1942 first edition, along with the China infantry later used in AAP40 and Italy units later used in AAE40 (second edition, minus the mechanized infantry and tactical bombers)?
Anniversary actually has even less than that. It has no anti-aircraft artillery sculpts, and except for the tank unit the Italian equipment pieces are a bizarre mixture of German and Japanese designs. Some of the sculpts are older models of designs which have since been refreshed; for example, the German cruiser has a transom stern and the German battleship is the small-sized version rather than the bigger one introduced later.
There’s a conceptual problem (in any context, not just in A&A) with producing a new issue of something which was originally released on a one-time basis to mark a one-time event (like an anniversary). For one thing, it can be argued that the new version isn’t authentic because it was released after the fact. Furthermore, from a collector’s point of view, the new versions can potentially decrease the value of the original versions that people bought at the time on the good-faith assumption that they were getting something special that would never be repeated.
As Midnight Express says, someone who wants to re-create the Anniversary gaming experience today will have no problem getting the required pieces from Global 1940 Second Edition (which, in fact, will provide more units than are needed). The rules can presumably be downloaded from somewhere. The map is the only problematic part.
I down loaded IL’s Anniversary map and had it printed up on 3’ x 6’ vinyl. I believe its the same map as board map.
It bums me out, because I know they’ll never reprint it, for all the reasons CWO Marc outlined, and yet the game was solid and satisfied so much of what I want out of standard world board, without all the extraneous material and cumbersome rules introduced in G40. I think it would probably have made an ideal long term standard game, over say 1942.2, but fewer and fewer people will get to experience it on the real board as time goes on. I sympathize with collectors, but the populist in me wishes more people had a chance to get it.
The design was elegant and well integrated, and the packaging and materials were so much nicer than much of what you can get your hands on lately A&A wise. Basically it was the total package, even down to the unit boxes. It had the legit IPCs (no silly tracker) and plastic factories, and it gave you a simple 6 man gameboard.
Sure G40 has it beat on total sculpts and total scale, but AA50 had a much smoother and more cohesive feel than the joined 1940 games do. It’s nice to see that people still have the option to create a throwback by cannibalizing Europe 1940 or printing custom maps, but its still not really the same.
I think many people perhaps don’t know that the “Anniversary” being celebrated in AA50 wasn’t anything to do with Axis and Allies necessarily, or World War 2, but simply marked 50 years since Avalon Hill was founded. They did one for Diplomacy as well. So of course it will probably never see a reprint. Alas
Sssshhhh…… don’t tell the company types, but I always felt like taking the final playtest map that I have in digital form and printing up copies to make AA50 bootlegs.
Unfortunately, they would quickly track me down and sue my pants off. :roll:
A reprint would be so easy. And they could package it a bit differently so that the box isn’t as ungainly (from a shipping point of view). Just stack half of the trays on top of the other half and fold the map panels in half. Do the measuring yourself- it works.
You’re right- this should be the base game. They have been scrambling ever since this came out to get an entry level version that has the rules introduced in this game. Unfortunately, they never quite work since the spacing on AA50 is tailored to those rules. The smaller games can’t handle the newer rules and 42.2 is a lame attempt to come close to AA50.
AA50 (with some rules tweaking) is my favorite edition.
Black Elk,
I agree…the closest I got was a $240 item on ebay!
So I did the next best thing…I adapted my 1942.2 game to emulate AA50 :)
I transferred some german real estate to Italy, and added some FMG and HBG units to create Italy.
I’m thinking about adding in the NO’s but it gets tricky with Japan already owning so much in the Pacific (on the 1942.2 board that is).
I’ll be sure to post a play through once my group gets down to it.
-Soup
As an owner of AA50. It’s not all that special (physically), and certainly not worth what some people are willing to pay to own it. Just get Global and print an AA50 map. Download the rulebook and you’re set.
SE42 is a good game too so no need to snub it either. As for money I like my $10 Walmart poker chips better than IPCs. HBG’s battle bucks are nice if you want paper money.
As far price goes, just get a custom AA50 map and global. This game is not worth some of the ridiculous prices some are asking for and you’ll have a better set you made yourself for less money.
Speaking as a collector, I’m glad I own it. However you can get the equivalent or even better experience by simply “building” it yourself.
One of the better reasons why we have people who can make credible maps for overpriced games.
@MidnightExpress:
I just saw two AA50 auctions on ebay sell for $185.02 and $201 plus shipping so it’s not an unattainable game.
Yeah…but did you notice that it was the same person that won each of those items?
http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=231322439104&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2765
http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=251630644174&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2765
k***y must have really wanted two copies @ a total cost of $410.32 (shipping included), or maybe they were just shill bids? Who knows…but it was those two auctions that directly led me to simply purchase some HBG and FMG Italian units and augment my 1942.2 game :-P
