What is your favorite version of A&A?

Voted 42.2.

However, many of these I have yet to play, which is unfair on those options.

Plus I am still learning 1940 - I am a slow learner! - so I am not yet sure whether the layers of complexity add to or subtract from the game.

As per a reply to you elsewhere, the best game I have played thus far was Anniversary board/set up and 42.2 rules. But of course that option is not available to me.

For me it’s a split decision for Global 1940.  I prefer the sculpts from the 2nd edition but I prefer the map board from the 1st edition.

@Charles:

Don’t you like the new setup for 2nd Edition?

It’s not the 2nd edition setup that I dislike, it’s the map itself.  I don’t like the income tracker circles that run across it and cover up part of the actual map, and I don’t like the way BC and Yukon were amalgamated and given one UK roundel rather than two Canadian ones (the roundel change being an error acknowledged in the official errata for the game).  Both edition map are actually great, and I like both of them much better than any other A&A map; I just like the 1st edition one a bit more.

Sculpt-wise I like G40/2 better because it has more nationally-distinct sculpt designs than G40/1, plus the new AAA sculpts.  But having both game is nice because the grey British-design ANZAC sculpts from G40/1 can be redesignated as Canadian units, to complement the grey ANZAC-design ANZAC sculpts from G40/2.  All the Canadians need are a few grey G40/2 AAA units borrowed from the ANZAC G40/2 sculpt set.

Hopefully this poll will make a case for A&A G40 3rd Edition.

I love the complexity of 1940, but hate it more and more I play it, because of the imbalance in German to Russian  NOs and Japan’s Air starting line up.
Anniversary got my vote.

YG is living in hope,  Mr. De Gaulle. There will never be another Edition. Larry (or his sponsors) has given up on us. Sadly, we won’t see any more games of this genre.

@wittmann:

YG is living in hope,  Mr. De Gaulle. There will never be another Edition. Larry (or his sponsors) has given up on us. Sadly, we won’t see any more games of this genre.

One never knows what will happen long-term.  Perhaps Larry / WotC / Hasbro will indeed produce new A&A board games in the future, and maybe even a new edition of Global (which would be nice), or perhaps they won’t.  But even if no new official A&A board games ever get produced by those folks, nothing prevents other companies (both large and small) from producing games of the same genre.  There are in fact several A&A-types that have appeared on the market over the years, going all the way back to the Xeno Games clones of A&A and all the way up to HBG’s various Global War incarnations.  If Larry and Hasbro show no further interest in the A&A product line, and in the fans of the genre which they created, the desire of these fans for more games of the same type will simply get filled by other companies under different product labels.  And as we’ve seen right here on this forum, some enthusiasts don’t even need companies to fill their needs: they simply go ahead and create new rules for themselves (something anyone can do, since typing is the only skill required), and/or create new game maps for themselves (which is more tricky, since one needs a modicum of graphic ability, plus suitable image-editing software, plus access to a commercial printing outlet), and/or create or purchase or customize new game pieces for themselves, or re-purpose the official ones they already have.  There are enough A&A games currently on the market for the product line to have achieved “critical mass” – the ability for fans to sustain and develop the games on their own if need be, even if ideally it would be nice for more official games to keep being published.

@wittmann:

I love the complexity of 1940, but hate it more and more I play it, because of the imbalance in German to Russian  NOs and Japan’s Air starting line up.
Anniversary got my vote.

YG is living in hope,  Mr. De Gaulle. There will never be another Edition. Larry (or his sponsors) has given up on us. Sadly, we won’t see any more games of this genre.

Why is that? Is WWII themed products losing popularity?

You can play most anything on a phone or tablet these days. Young people do not really Want go sit around a table to play something which takes 8 hours. Fact of life, I am afraid.

@wittmann:

You can play most anything on a phone or tablet these days. Young people do not really Want go sit around a table to play something which takes 8 hours. Fact of life, I am afraid.

Fortunately, another fact of life is that young people eventually turn into older people, and that as they grow older their interests change and – at least in some cases – become more refined and sophisticated.  A typical teenager or young adult would undoubtedly have contempt for a board game like Snakes and Ladders because they’d regard it as too childish for them, and perhaps equal contempt for a board game like A&A because they might regard it as being a slow, dull, complicated, no-electronic game suitable only for old fossils like their parents…and perhaps even as being just one step short of contract bridge, i.e. a “game for retired senior citizens.”  Note that I said “a typical teenager” rather than “any teenager” because, if you go to the various gaming / hobby stores in Montreal that have game-play areas in the store itself you will usually find the tables crowded with enthusiasts who are playing any number of board games, customizable card games and collectable miniature games – and let me tell you that these folks are far from being grey-haired golden agers.

when I say 3rd Edition, I am only fantasizing… has there been an official announcement that new A&A game products have been permanently discontinued?

No, YG. Just me anti-fantasizing!

@Charles:

Are you saying that you play Anniversary 1942 with 1942 2nd Edition rules?

Yes C de G - have done so once and hope to do so again :-)

@CWO:

@wittmann:

You can play most anything on a phone or tablet these days. Young people do not really Want go sit around a table to play something which takes 8 hours. Fact of life, I am afraid.

Fortunately, another fact of life is that young people eventually turn into older people

Tell me about it! Where did this grey hair come from? :-(

@wittmann:

Anniversary got my vote.

Mine too (1941 set-up)… With some tweaks.  We’ve made some nice house rules that really add some new viable strategies to the game as well as to give the allies a better chance at actually winning.  Anyone interested, PM for a copy.

@wittmann:

YG is living in hope,  Mr. De Gaulle. There will never be another Edition. Larry (or his sponsors) has given up on us. Sadly, we won’t see any more games of this genre.

Aren’t there already ENOUGH versions of this game?  I guess I would’ve rather seen few versions that enables a larger group of available players.  Oh course this is my personal opinion, coming from a guy who played one version (original/second edition) for 20+ years before the avalanche of new versions became too frequent to keep up with.

Another D-Day type game would be perfect. Have to be set on the Russian Front: Kursk or perhaps  Bagration (44). Stalingrad would be too boring, as it was a siege. We all want manoeuvre.