in my table top test of Anniversary edition, which I just got, i have only needed the battleboard a few times, when units greater than 10 on attack and defense.
It’s interesting how bad dice rolls can doom a larger attack force and reshape the game drastically. In this game the dominant countries have each had a really bad turn of dice rolls change their fate. Another thing for dice is the technology rolls, so far, only 1 country has one and many many IPUs were spent trying to get them, which also affected the games early stages for Germany.
Nomenclature
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@cernel We need to change the nomenclature for “spring 1942” and other games
As follows:
Nova
Classic
Revised
P40
E40
AA50
1942.1
1942.2
1941None of this: “Spring 42, spring 41”, whatever. Kreighund can say whatever the proper titles are, but everybody understands the preceding titles.
1942.2 is the flagship game of AA. It replaces revised (which replaced classic) that almost nobody plays anymore except hermits. Global is for the longer uber treatment of AA. If you have time , that game is for you!
but a 2-3 hour decent game is 1942.2. 1941 is for toddlers just getting into AA.
Now Classic is alot better than 1941 because of the map and player options developed over the years. The Infantry Stack Mechanic and Karelia and Eastern Europe dynamic, etc all arose from classic. 1941 is basically 15 territories and lasts too short a time. Its a door stop. You use it for pieces for other games before HBG came to fruition. Thats its purpose.
https://www.amazon.com/Avalon-Hill-Axis-Allies-Board/dp/B007TB3R80
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@imperious-leader I disagree. The first edition should be the 0 and the second edition should be the 1. If you call the first edition of 1942 as 1942.1, that would imply that there was a 1942.0 before that edition.
For example:
1942 First Edition = 1942.0
1942 Second Edition = 1942.1
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And it begins !
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P Panther moved this topic from Axis & Allies Spring 1942 Edition on
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I think IL is on the right track, but some iterations are left out (even though they are not popular, they do exist). A complete list of grand strategic games would be:
Nova
Classic.1
Classic.2
Classic.3
E
P
Revised
Revised LHTR
50
E40.1
E40.2
P40.1
P40.2
G40.1
G40.2
41
42.1
42.2
14While I agree that “.0” and “.1” might be more accurate from an academic point of view, it’s just confusing that the numbers don’t line up with the edition numbers. Also, having no number after games that have no second edition differentiates them from games that do.
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@krieghund said in Nomenclature:
I think IL is on the right track, but some iterations are left out (even though they are not popular, they do exist). A complete list of grand strategic games would be:
Nova
Classic.1
Classic.2
Classic.3
E
P
Revised
Revised LHTR
50
E40.1
E40.2
P40.1
P40.2
G40.1
G40.2
41
42.1
42.2
14While I agree that “.0” and “.1” might be more accurate from an academic point of view, it’s just confusing that the numbers don’t line up with the edition numbers. Also, having no number after games that have no second edition differentiates them from games that do.
Thanks for the list, but I would then rather not use the point in this case. I’m not sure what is best, but maybe the slash is.
Also, I think I’d rather call “50” as “Anniversary” before someone gets all excited about a Cold/Korean War Larry game. Also, wouldn’t you split the third edition of classic between original and Iron Blits?
My take:
Nova (Original?)
Classic/1
Classic/2
Classic/3/Original
Classic/3/Iron Blitz
Europe Original
Pacific Original
Revised Original
Revised LHTR
Anniversary
E40/1
E40/2
P40/1
P40/2
G40/1
G40/2
41
42/1
42/2 -
@cernel I would not call Nova “original”. Many people don’t know of its existence, so they would think of Classic as the “original”, and confusion would ensue.
As for Classic 3rd edition, I’m not sure what you mean by “original”. There was no 3rd edition of the physical board game, only the computer version. However, since the only differences between the 2nd and 3rd editions were rules changes, you can play 3rd edition with the 2nd edition board game if you have the 3rd edition rules.
“Anniversary” is fine for the Anniversary Edition, but in my experience many people call it “AA50”.
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@krieghund said in Nomenclature:
As for Classic 3rd edition, I’m not sure what you mean by “original”. There was no 3rd edition of the physical board game, only the computer version.
There is not “the” computer version: there are two computer versions. I’m very surprised you don’t know it.
Original would be the 3rd edition (called just as “Axis & Allies”), followed by “Axis & Allies: Iron Blitz”. Should we maybe consider “Axis & Allies: Iron Blitz” as the 4th edition, instead (I’m asking seriously.)?
The “original” third edition was followed by the “Iron Blitz” variant of the same. I’m not sure what are the differences, but I’m sure that “Iron Blitz” (but not the original 3rd edition) adds marines and destroyers, and this is not even an option! I would say this is a major difference between the two computer versions.
This is the original (non Iron Blitz) 3rd edition of Axis & Allies:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKaz_lXxPtw
This is the Iron Blitz edition of Axis & Allies:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPkuGJvpZEc
I personally disliked the “Iron Blitz” edition (which is either the 4th edition or the 2nd edition of the 3rd edition) because being able to purchase destroyers while there are zero destroyers on the board is like saying destroyers were invented in 1942.
Now, you could say that “Iron Blitz” is an “expansion set” of the 3rd Edition, but it adds items which are not optional, meaning that (once you have it) you won’t be able to play the original 3rd Edition. I would say that you need to distinguish between the two, don’t you. What do you think?
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@cernel I had forgotten about Iron Blitz (it’s been a few years). I don’t think Iron Blitz added any new core rules, just unit types, so I would consider it an expansion to 3rd edition rather than a 4th edition.
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When talking about computer games for completeness we should add Beamdog’s adaption of 1942 Second Edition. It is a variant however, as they modified some rules (unless it became 100% 1942SE in the meantime).
So maybe 42.2v or 42/2v or 42/2 Online or 42.2 Beamdog …
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By the way, I’m not a big fan of slashes, so I’d go with dashes. In fact, if we want to get super-nerdy, we can save the decimals for print runs (starting with “.0”), as collectors keep track of those. So, the second print run of AA50 would be “AA50.1”, and the third print run of the 2nd edition of Europe 1940 would be “AA40-2.2”.
Regarding variants, I would simply denote a variant in the way that I denoted LHTR for Revised above. So, “AA42-2 Beamdog” works for me.
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using 1942.1 and 1942.2 obviously denotes editions 1 and 2. alot more than 1942.0 and 1942.1 with the latter being confusing. Next i deliberately left out some games, as i was just making examples. But when somebody says 1942 edition, that can only mean 1942.1 or 1942.2, not classic, revised, etc. those can only be known as Classic or Revised which incidentally begin the war in 1942.
1998 AA Hasbro Interactive software and “Iron Blitz” can only be known as just as they are. Iron Blitz allowed you to change prices and combat attributes to all units that were in classic. It also allowed lots of optional rules. I loved it. MSN game zone was the best, latter dumping AA from the lineup of games… tragic result.
Anyway Kreighund has been one of the key guys to help AA gain traction since the beginning.