Wow. Some really informative and helpful replies. Thanks.

@kurt3892:

-There is a downloadable 3rd edition rulebook on the AAWC site…it is under ‘Other options’ under downloads.  You need Winzip to open it.

I downloaded that–thanks for the link–and it is the .PDF of the manual for the game. It explains the “Third Edition” rule changes, but isn’t what I’d consider an actual new edition of the rulebook.

If there never was a full rulebook that was included with any print runs of the board game, or available for download/purchase to owners of the board game, that makes it more understandable that the non-CD-ROM-based A&A crowd pretty much universally sticks to Second or Fourth Edition rules.

Also, it would take some creativity with the bits to bring the Marines and Destroyers from Iron Blitz over to the board game. If I were Hasbro, I would’ve prepared a “Third Edition/Iron Blitz Expansion Pack” to sell in stores with a shiny new rulebook, and pieces for the two new unit types, when Iron Blitz came out. But that would’ve required the project as a whole to have been much better-conceived than it actually was, I guess.

(For instance, how incompetent do you have to be to print way, way too few copies of even a poorly executed computer implementation like A&A: Iron Blitz, and never press any fresh CDs even when used copies turn up on eBay for $100-plus? Was there some reason they left money sitting on the table like that?)

I am the longtime owner of a First Edition copy of the MB Axis & Allies. (I also own a copy of the ill-fated Hasbro CD-ROM, which I’ve played every now and then when I’ve felt desperate, despite the bugs and brain-dead AI opponents.) I’ve finally got some willing opponents close by I can play with again, and so dusted the game off last night. The combination of a fuzzy memory and some confusing things I’ve run across online have left me with a few questions.

1. The CD-ROM game introduced some “Third Edition” rules. Was an actual Third Edition rulebook ever published, or did this “Edition” simply consist of the four new items shown in the Options screen of the computer game (Western Canada no longer bordering Atlantic Ocean, defending subs may submerge, new units may be placed in enemy-occupied sea zone, aircraft may retreat from amphibious invasion)?

2. Do face-to-face and PBEM players often use the “Third Edition”, or is that mainly the province of those who play over on Axis & Allies World Club with the CD-ROM version?

2a) Nobody plays the First Edition rules I’ve got in my box anymore, right?

3. How about other variations? The two-hit battleship is pretty popular, I gather. Any others?

3a) Speaking of the two-hit battleship, does that variant typically favor one side more than another?
3b) I’d be especially interested to know if there is a widely-used method of nerfing Heavy Bombers, which always seemed way overpowered to me. Maybe just two dice rather than three would do the trick?

4. The official set of rules clarifications posted over at AAMC helped with some rules, but left me scratching my head with this part:

Rocket development gives one of your antiaircraft guns rocket power once per turn. Unlike an antiaircraft gun, a rocket can move before combat and fire during combat. A rocket can also move during non-combat, if it has not just been captured, or if it has not fired.

It makes it sound like the Rockets technology converts one of your AA guns into a “Rocket”, that can then fire…during Combat? At enemy units?

I always implemented the rule this way: at the beginning of your Combat Move phase, look to see if any of your AA guns are 3 spaces or less away from an enemy IC. If so, pick one such gun, and one target IC; roll one die; opponent surrenders that many IPCs to the bank. Continue with the rest of your turn just the same as if none of this even happened. I have trouble squaring this with the quoted text above.

5. Finally, an observation rather than a question: As soon as I learned of the submerge rule, I have preferred to play with it, even if I am not applying any other Third Edition rules. But I’m doing so with an added wrinkle. Under my house rules, a defending sub may submerge at the end of a round of combat, but only if all of the surviving attacking units are air units. If attacking naval units survive, and there is nowhere the sub may withdraw to, the sub has no choice but to fight it out. It just seemed right to me to do it this way, considering what I took to be the primary purpose of the submerge rule. Anyone else do this?