My son got A&A (revised) for his birthday, and we’ve been trying play, but we’re pretty overwhelmed. We’ve played a little Risk, and some other strategy games periodically, and I’ve played Civilization for years, but the complexity of this game had us both flummoxed. I was hoping to get some advice on how to get started. It seems like a ton of fun, but we just haven’t been able to gain any momentum.
We got the box out and spent one night just trying to understand the rules and pop out all the cards and pieces and such. After reading the rules a few times, reading around here at the forums and some strategy articles (then going back to the rules to understand them), and perusing the LHTR (I think I finally understand subs) I think I’ve got the basics well enough to explain it to the junior, so long as we keep the rules handy. So the next week, we got it out again, but because we still weren’t quite sure what to do, we went for about 3 hours and managed to get through setting up the board, and played through the UK’s 1st turn. I was playing the Axis and was so confused by Japan’s options I knew we wouldn’t get through a full turn for quite some time more, so we packed it in again. That’s two full evenings, and we hadn’t made it through one turn yet. I am starting to believe we’re doing something wrong.
I guess what I’m looking for is some help getting the game kick-started. Are there hints to help us get set up and go faster? Just managing the pieces, particularly during combat move was horrific. Trying to plan out which planes could get to where and where they might land (and backtracking them when changing our mind), figuring out what to do with ships, and trying to determine how many units would be needed for each attack were very difficult for us. Is this something we should just get better at over time, or are there any common tricks to help manage just the logistics of the turns. Just so we set our expectations correctly: How long should a game take, considering that we’re still learning? How about once we have played a time or two?
HELP! If there are threads already covering this type of stuff, please point me in the right direction. This looks like so much fun, but we’re clueless.