AAZ details revealed (May 21 2018)

SWEET ! Zombie dice !!!
:evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:

yea sweet China is 3 areas total. These hobos must play 1941 AA and decided to add Walkers

I’m a bit confused here.

The news article on the front page of AA.org frames this as an expansion to 42SE but the map on the box doesn’t look like the 42SE map.

In fact, it looks like an original map, because I don’t know of any A&A edition where China is 3 territories and the Siberian territories are worth IPC.

I like the aesthetic of the map (I personally dislike the “Earth-like” design they’ve used in every game since AA50) but I can already tell the majority of the community is going to hate the small size.

I’m interested in the zombies as a stall-breaking mechanic, but unless my eyes are failing me, it looks like the IPC values on the territories are going to be severely reduced (a-la 1941), which would make for a pretty stale game IMO, since less IPCs = less variance in builds = less variance in strategies.

I don’t know if it’s simply a flub by the art department, or whether it reflects some aspect of the rules (i.e. perhaps the Axis teaming up with the Allies against the zombies?), but I’ve noticed that even though the front cover (https://www.axisandallies.org/p/box-art-axis-allies-zombies/) is divided into an Allied side and an Axis side, there are a few crossovers.  Montgomery (easy to recognize) and a Russian officer (based on his medals) are on the Axis side, and there’s a German officer (possibly Guderian) on the Allied side.

@DouchemanMacgee:

I’m a bit confused here.
The news article on the front page of AA.org frames this as an expansion to 42SE but the map on the box doesn’t look like the 42SE map.

The article says “the game is itself a standalone game, but also an expansion to Axis & Allies 1942 Edition.”  The “also” part possibly implies that rules and components of AAZ can be imported into 1942, if you own that game, as an extra option to playing AAZ on its own.

Are the infantry silhouette tokens on Western China and India meant to be deploy points for infantry only? I can’t imagine you can build new ICs in the game anyway.

@CWO:

The article says “the game is itself a standalone game, but also an expansion to Axis & Allies 1942 Edition.”  The “also” part possibly implies that rules and components of AAZ can be imported into 1942, if you own that game, as an extra option to playing AAZ on its own.

Read it again and you’re absolutely right.  Thanks!

@CWO:

I don’t know if it’s simply a flub by the art department, or whether it reflects some aspect of the rules (i.e. perhaps the Axis teaming up with the Allies against the zombies?), but I’ve noticed that even though the front cover (https://www.axisandallies.org/p/box-art-axis-allies-zombies/) is divided into an Allied side and an Axis side, there are a few crossovers.  Montgomery (easy to recognize) and a Russian officer (based on his medals) are on the Axis side, and there’s a German officer (possibly Guderian) on the Allied side.

The cynical old man in me thinks that the artist couldn’t distinguish Allied figures from Axis figures.

@General:

Are the infantry silhouette tokens on Western China and India meant to be deploy points for infantry only?

That’d actually be a neat concept worth importing/house-ruling into other games in the series.

Think about it, how annoying is it in some editions that you have to choose between blowing 15IPC on a factory in Sinkiang or India and letting Japan go on an unhistorical conquering spree/drive to Moscow with Tanks? I’d love a way to spend like 5 IPC to give a territory the capacity to “raise militia” or whatever. Typically players only spam INF out of Factories (in those locations) anyway, so losing the ability to build other units wouldn’t be a huge loss.

HA HA HA  game aint out yet and already coming up with House Rules!
SWEET !
:evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:

I cant wait to build 5 to 10 Zombie Inf per IC.

So, basically only the zombie pieces are new ? And they come in 3 different sculpts ? They can be imported to the 1942 game, but not Global 40 ?

@SS:

I cant wait to build 5 to 10 Zombie Inf per IC.

From what the back of the box says, and especially from what Scott Van Essen (the game’s designer) says below, it doesn’t sound as if zombies are built, at least not by the OOB rules.  It sounds more as if they’re a spontaneously-generated byproduct of battlefield casualties, and that their cumulative effect is to make intensely fought-over territories more and more impassable over time – sort of a “Sahara / Himalayas” effect, to put it one way.

“What I’m most excited about is instead of fighting over the same territory again and again, what happens is those turtles become more and more overrun by zombies and suddenly it’s just too dangerous to fight or even to try just stay there,” Scott explained.  “You have to change your plans you have to shift to new fronts and you have to find different ways to attack your opponent because the zombies become this weird invisible map that you need to find a way around.”

@Imperious:

yea sweet China is 3 areas total. These hobos must play 1941 AA and decided to add Walkers

No, no, China is 5 territories, but Japan occupy 2 of them…

Now it even has an entry at board game geek

@SS:

HA HA HA  game aint out yet and already coming up with House Rules!
SWEET !
:evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:

I cant wait to build 5 to 10 Zombie Inf per IC.

I was suggesting that the idea of a cheaper IC that only produces INF would be an interesting house rule the A&A games where the powers don’t start with many factories (e.g. Classic, Revised, 41, 42 1st Ed.)

But I have no doubt that this game will need to be heavily house-ruled to be playable.

@Narvik:

@Imperious:

yea sweet China is 3 areas total. These hobos must play 1941 AA and decided to add Walkers

No, no, China is 5 territories, but Japan occupy 2 of them…

Not sure what IL meant, but when I referred to three Chinese territories I was only counting the ones that start the game under U.S. control. There are only 3 visible on the board on the back of the box. Other games have had 2 (China/Sinkiang, in Classic/Revised/42 1st Ed.), 4 (Sinkiang/Yunnan/Szechwan/Anhwei 42SE), or many (AA50/G40), but never 3.

Occupied Chinese areas starting as Japanese areas are not Chinese areas, so again 3 Chinese areas

Man, that board map looks REALLY small… I think it’s even smaller than 1941…

@Nowhere:

Man, that board map looks REALLY small… I think it’s even smaller than 1941…

The board looks pathetically small, yes.

The scale looks bigger than 41 though. Some quick comparisons (I’ve attached the 41 map, for reference):

41:

• Sub-Saharan African and Siberian territories have no IPC value.

• Generally lower IPC values for territories.

• “Eastern Europe” is one territory.

• “Szechwan” is the southern Chinese territory, and is only one territory.

AAZ (box):

• Sub-Saharan African and Siberian territories have low IPC value.

• “Eastern Europe” and “Balkans” appear to be separate territories.

• Generally lower IPC values for territories (ex. Russia is 4 IPCs when it’s usually 8, East Indies is 2 when it’s usually 4, etc.), but not as low as 41.

• “Yunnan” and what appears to be “Sinkiang” are the southern Chinese territories, with the territory that is probably “Sinkiang” bordering Russia and “Yunnan” bordering Japanese-occupied Asia.

The AAZ map is definitely based on the 41 map though (look at the borders of the Russian/Chinese territories), which is probably a bad sign.

I’m curious/nervous about the die on the box image (the one with the letters “D” and “A” on the visible sides). Is it possible that WOTC took a hatchet to the combat system?

Also, I just realized something that no one’s caught yet:

Some of the Neutral territories (Turkey (2), Saudi Arabia (1) and Mongolia (1)) have IPC values. Could mean interesting game mechanics like violating neutrality might find their way into the game. Could be a sliver of hope that this game isn’t hot garbage.

The zombie map might be a good replacement for the 41 map if the size is right.

The extra IPC territories would be a welcome change.