Cards

Actually, I am presently working up lesson plans for teachers to use the various Axis and Allies games in middle school and high school history classes to better understand WW2.  I teach a historical board gaming class every summer for 3 weeks, and we use Axis and Allies a lot.  Right now, the man I teach with and I are working on a new edition of History of the World to present to Hasbro, and I am trying to buy the right to re-issue Eagle Games’s War: Age of Imperialism.  We are in the initial discussions of setting up our own game company as well.  To start with, I am considering producing expansions of the Axis and Allies games for schools to use.  Since Hasbro will not sell unit packs for Axis and Allies, I might have to have my own molds made and produce my own figures.  Still working on that as well.  My son is learning Java, and I hope to eventually be able to work on computer games as well.

I’d be interested to see what you’ve done with HOTW.

Did some stuff with this myself a couple of years back, including this map:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/file/19372/Map2.gif

Also have a large “nations” database and rules suggestions if you’d care to knock heads.

You may also be interested in “Barbaria”, a game being developed by Lew “Britannia” Pulsipher covering Dark Age Europe in the same vein.  You can see details by joining Lew’s Eurobrit Yahoo group:

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/eurobrit/

That is a very interesting map.  Did you differentiate Victory Point values between the various terrains?  I would enjoy bumping heads, but first would need to check with Chris, as we are looking at copyrighting our material before talking with Hasbro, and then depending how that goes, possibly purchasing rights to the game from them.  Is it possible to download the map so that I could take it to Kinko’s for reproduction at about 24 by 36 inches, and then laminate it?  It does give more possibilities to the US and German player who come in so late.

Please feel free to copy the map.  Have in mind it’s designed with several hundred nations in the game, so possibilities are there for many of them. On the Eurobrit site are a couple of earlier versions with fewer territories, along with some rules I’ve forgotten!  I started with adding Sicily and took it from there…

Lew has just posted more details on Barbaria including playtest and nations list which I’ll have to get round to comparing with my own.

@tekkyy:

Its a pity “house rules” are not a priority for TripleA, which hasn’t fully supported Pacific and Europe yet.
At one stage the project leader did consider having a more versatile template so people can setup their own own rules easier.

But sounds like you know programming just not Java. If thats the case learn Java. Its an “easy” language selected by many 1st year programming courses.

yeah they even teach it in highschool as a beggining computer’s course. can’'t be that hard to learn.

For history lesson I would first start with a real map and paritition it.

For game rules I would actually simplify combat.  But strategic bombing [of civilians] remains.  :|

Probably want to cover issues like resources and diplomacy so have to make room (reduce emphasis on combat).

@tekkyy:

For history lesson I would first start with a real map and paritition it.

For game rules I would actually simplify combat.  But strategic bombing [of civilians] remains.  :|

Probably want to cover issues like resources and diplomacy so have to make room (reduce emphasis on combat).

For the class using Axis and Allies, it comes in the third week, after the kids have covered WW1 and the interwar period, with the information and roleplaying of the interwar period being drawn from Churchill’s book, The Gathering Storm.  We use straight combat rules, however, we always have a team of kids playing each of the countries:  Russia, US, UK, Germany, and Japan.  Quite a bit on negotiating and diplomacy occurs as a matter of course then.  We also have some house rules that we plug in, depending on how the game is going.

What kind of diplomacy usually occur?
With the standard out-of-box rules and victory condition I didn’t expect diplomacy to occur.

@tekkyy:

What kind of diplomacy usually occur?
With the standard out-of-box rules and victory condition I didn’t expect diplomacy to occur.

I would think of them more as threats than diplomacy. i don’t see how it can be sincere diplomacy. because the number one rule in WII was TOTAL SURRENDER or death.

@cyan:

@tekkyy:

What kind of diplomacy usually occur?
With the standard out-of-box rules and victory condition I didn’t expect diplomacy to occur.

I would think of them more as threats than diplomacy. i don’t see how it can be sincere diplomacy. because the number one rule in WII was TOTAL SURRENDER or death.

You need to remember that we have separate teams playing each country, so that instead of two players, you have 5 teams.  The diplomacy is between the Axis players, Germany and Japan, and the amoung the Allied players.  The Axis players are normally discussing how to best handle Russia while holding off the US, and putting pressure on the UK.  With the Axis, it normally goes something like the German player asking the Japanese player to hit Russia and force the Russians to move troops east while the German player hits the Mid East to force the UK player there and render India vulnerable.  For the Allies, it is typically the UK player asking the US player to cover India and Australia so that he can help the Russian player in Karelia.  We are using the Classic game and 2nd Edition rules.

Depending on how the game goes, we sometimes also use my Lend-Lease house rule, where the UK and the Russian player receive Lend-Lease production certificates that can be used to obtain additional units from the US, without reducing US production.  It is similar in concept to the Lend-Lease rule for Russia in the Revised Rules, but applies also to the UK, does not reduce US production, and is based on a die roll.  Once it is in use, the British receive one free destroyer and one free transport a turn, in addition to 12 plus a D6 die roll of certificates, while ther Russians receive one free fighter from Alaska and 6 plus a D6 die roll of certificates.  I have made up Lend-Lease production certificates similar to the  IPC  certificates used in the game, and the players can also trade them back and forth in order to further cement deals.  The German and Japanese player team are told that they can ignore agreements made with each other, this does of course hamper further cooperation, while the Allied players are told that there will be penalties for failing to carry out their obligations to the other allies.

The Allies are also told that they win or loose as a group, while the Axis players win individually.  We have had cases of the German player winning the game while the Japanese player is wiped out.  This happens when the US player focuses too much on Japan.  I would guess that most of the players on the boards are either used to playing two-player face to face or two-player online.  Once you have more than two players, the diplomacy and negotiating starts.

I will post a deck of 52 special event cards this week. Have to use my work computer, as my home computer keeps kicking me off when I post anything too long.

when you do post them can they be formatted for standard business cards template from avery?  That way it will easily mate up with my paper inventory

I have worked up two sets of random events charts for Axis & Allies Classic, and A & A Pacific.  I  have keyed the charts to a standard 52 card deck, and you will need to cross-reference the card drawn to the chart.  I had not thought of Avery business cards, but I have the templates for those in Print Shop, so I could also make them up that way.  I was planning to market them with the charts, expansion rules for A & A Pacific to six players, possibly some additional plastic units, and a deck of the WW2 aircraft recognition cards to use for determining events.  There will be charts for both the Allied and the Axis player, and the charts will not be the same.  The events will be based on what happened or could have happened in World War 2, and may not necessarily effect all players equally.  The areas for events are weather, technology improvements, production improvements, and what I call “windfalls”, for one time bonuses of either units or IPCs.  The way they would be used are that each player will draw a card from the deck, and reference it to the  event chart.  If a weather event, the effects last for the duration of the drawing players turn.  If a technology or production event, the effects are immediate, and last the remainder of the game.  If a windfall, the effects are immediate, but do not last past the end of the  drawing player’s turn.  Some of the events will effect all of the Allied or all of the Axis players, and some will only effect the drawing player or one of the Allies or one of the Axis players.  If the German player draws a card that is specifically for the Japanese player, “Japanese Banzai Tactics” (for example), the card has no effect and goes into the discard pile.  The same applies to the Allied player.  The set will have game-specific event charts for all of the Axis and Allies games:  Classic, Revised, Pacific, and Europe.  I suspect that I am going to also need a technology and production improvement chart with markers to keep track off which player has what bonuses.  The cards would be subject to reshuffling once all are used, and drawn again.

I will be checking this week if I can include additional plastic unit counters for some of the changes in the game, such as Me-262, P-80 Shooting Star, and Gloster Meteor for jet fighters, the Superfortress for the US, additional fighters for everyone, maybe some medium bombers to use to start the game, and then use the Halifax and Flying Fortress for the heavy bomber upgrade, cruisers for home rule expansions, units for an Italian player, tanks specific to the British (probably the  Churchill), tank landing craft for armor transport (LST and the Japanese equivalent, carry one tank or infantry or artillery unit, cost 6 IPC), some APD fast transports for the US (based on the  converted  4-pipers, can transport one infantry unit with attack and defense of 2, cost 6 IPC), and maybe some transport planes and seaplane units.  The idea for the air units would be that they could also be used in the War at Sea miniature game as additional air units, bombers circa 1/600 scale, fighters and attack aircraft circa 1/360 scale.  The plastic will depend on how much the molds cost and the amount of lead time for them.  Also, whether or not I can produce them in one color of plastic, and figure that the players are responsible for telling them apart.

Would you be interested is seeing a sample chart posted?  I can put it up in PDF format if desired.

I’m not sure if Avery is an option for me, but I will check into it.

you just go to their site and download the template and plug in your cards. It would remove the need to cut anything each card is 3.5x2 inches

I’ve made a deck of cards for Classic some time ago (before I got revised). It uses a simple 52 deck + 2/3 jokers, which is subdivided into 4 subdecks for each suit. Each side would draw 3 cards each turn from any decks it choose and assign them to countries. Clubs was the Political deck, Diamonds Economic, Spades Strategic and Hearts Intelligence&Technology.
Some cards affected all countries, others were to be played either at the beginning of a round or when attacked. It could really add some randomness or new elements since there where cards for China Neutrality, Coalition Betrayal, Subversion, 5th Column, Inflation, Russian Winter, Unrestricted Submarine Warfare, Elite Units, etc.

well…. when are you people gonna post this stuff???

I would post the .doc file but this board doesn’t seem to allow attachments. Want me to email it to you?

EDIT - Nevermind, just figured out how to do it.

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