Posts made by Nowhere Man

I’ll bet Maple Syrup is somehow involved…

Cute German kids eyeing a Panzer-I

I’ll never forget the day we liberated the Earth of those damn aliens!

Heavily favored for one side or the other always assumes equal skill/strategies as well as “average luck” of players involved in all sides… obviously if one side is just using better or worse strategies than their opponent or someone gets really “diced” in important battles this “heavily favored” factor can be nullified or reversed…

In the end, no matter who is favored,  that’s why you play the game.

@squirecam:

I’m not sure how balanced the game is. Taking out the zombies might make things worse.

Not sure if you noticed, but if you take out the zombies, it becomes regular 5-player Axis and Allies.  Aside from the IPC totals, the map is nearly identical to 1941’s map. Minus zombies, you’re probably looking at something very close to 1941’s play balance. As with anything, home modding is super-simple to do… You seem as upset that people might take out the zombies as others have been about putting in zombies. Let folks play with it as they see fit!  :-D

@smo63:

Ok, not sure if Squire mentioned this but the game comes with a way to add zombies to 1942 2nd Ed. if you like…?  I don’t believe there ever was an intention to confuse the AAZ map with '42…

Well aware there are optional rules introducing zombies into 1942… honestly,  the way the rules are written you could probably introduce zombies into any version of A&A from 1941 to Global and everything inbetween…  the only hiccup I see in adding zombies to any version are the cards saying “place zombies in zone-x”… where zone-x might be labeled differently in a different version but that would be very easy to house-rule fix.

My main point was that there are plenty of people interested in a slightly modified map for 1941 intro player map, and this AAZ map sure looks like a valid candidate to replace 1941’s map for a lot of people.

@CWO:

@Charles:

I sense a rift in the fanbase’s opinions.

The Star Wars version of that phrase would be “I sense a great disturbance in the Force” – but at any rate, that’s not terribly surprising.  My knowledge of Star Wars fandom is very superficial, since I’m by far much more of a Star Trek person, but I would imagine that the SW folks are just as passionate and opinionated and diverse in their views as the ST folks (which the latter certainly are).

Ok… what order should someone who has never seen Star Trek movies watch Star Trek Movies (all the way from Star Trek The Motion Picture through the JJ Abrams ones… and should ST:V just be thrown in the trash?)

@smo63:

I am reading through the questions…interesting.  Are the Zombies optional?  Why would you buy it if they were?  Just play '42 and call it a day…

Because AAZ is nowhere near the size or complexity of 1942… not even close.

No, what AAZ resembles in map size and complexity is 1941… with one minor exception… the map IPC totals are much higher than 1941… probably the #1 complaint about 1941 is its complete lack of IPCs on the map.

So… why would people want AAZ without zombies? Easy… to get a playable map for 1941 and have a much better intro map for A&A that is very much like 1941’s map, just with more IPCs on it…

There’s no way this AAZ map would ever be confused for 1942’s map.

I’ve been with Star Wars since I was 10 in 1977 and watched every movie in theater as they were released… having said that, I had to decide how to introduce the movies to my children who were born well into the 21st century… I waited until they were 8 and 10 so they weren’t too young to miss plot points and debated over the Ep 4 through 6 then prequels or simply 1 through 6 in order…

I ended up showing them Episodes 1 through 6 in order and I am glad I did… it really becomes a story about Darth Vader’s fall and redemption of you watch it in that order… at the time I showed it to my kids, Rogue One wasn’t out yet, but it definitely needs to be inserted… consider Rogue One episode 3 and a half… it really does a great job of setting up Episode IV (the original Star Wars movie).

If you’ve never watched the saga, I recommend in Star Wars universe chronological order, not in release date order… just remember Rogue One needs to be watched between episodes 3 and 4.

People sell replacements for Classic A&A ALL THE TIME on E-Bay… I assure you, everything you listed as missing or short, you can get replaced from E-Bay… just search “Axis and Allies Replacements” or “parts” and you’ll find everything you’re looking for…

@DouchemanMacgee:

Not the person you were replying to, but thanks for the tip.

Also, on your earlier post, you mentioned the desire to see a US Civil War version of A&A… oddly enough, I read the designer’s notes to War and Peace… he specifically mentioned A&A as being his template for W&P, but he actually originally started work on Civil War version of A&A… he switched to Napoleonic Wars because he didn’t like the 1 vs 1 nature of the Civil War and that the A&A system didn’t really work well with only two belligerent sides for the whole game, so he switched to Napoleonic Europe for more belligerent nations to work with.

@robert:

A&A for other eras would probably just need a clever sales pitch.

Risk Napoleonics is a good game but limited to Europe and only released in French.

Axis and Allies Napoleonic Wars already exists, it just wasn’t made by WotC and doesn’t have “A&A” in the title, but Worthington Games “War and Peace” IS 100% Axis and Allies in the Napoleonic setting… if this intrigues you, you should pick up a copy… there’s a discussion about it on the “other games” section at the bottom of this forum.

To clarify if it isn’t already clear, if you have a US transport with one US infantry and one UK infantry on it, during the US turn only the US troops can unload and participate in the amphibious assault… the UK infantry has to wait for the UK turn to unload (either into a friendly territory or in its own amphibious assault with UK troops only).

When you say you have the original game, are you speaking of the 1980s version?

Aside from the Zombies themselves, there are no new sculpts with this game, so buying this just for pieces seems wasteful, every unit in AAZ is already available from multiple sources (except the zombies)

@robert:

well, Anniversary was the last game printed so making more minis from the same sculpt makes economic sense.

I imagine keeping the costs down  and retail price low was an important factor for this game.

If that’s the theory, then Anniversary should have had either 1942 or 1940 sculpts… since those were the last games made before Anniversary… they had to dig up old sculpts to make Anniversary.

Mind you, both 1942 and 1940 are still in production.

If Russia is aggressive early,  they are probably buying tanks… a couple of easyfixes solved with your airpower advantage:

1. kill his tanks… use infantry and fighter/bomber counter attacks to kill his tank stacks, if he counter attacks,  you only lose infantry for his tanks, an economic swing Russia can’t afford.

2. in places you want to make your stand, use fighters for D… once again,  its going to hurt Russia trying to take fighter defended territories.

An aggressive Russia only benefits Germany,  it will become more of a meat grinder than Russia  can afford… liberal use of the superior Luftwaffe killing Russian tank stacks and defending key territories will make Germany’s destruction of Russia even easier.

Also, if the Allies are going all-out KGF, this will leave Asia open to Japan… have Japan ignore America and push hard and fast on Russia’s back door… Japanese tanks approaching Moscow from the east unopposed will make Russia think twice about an aggressive KGF strategy.

What Marc says… most of WWII takes place in Europe, and that’s a proportionately small space on any map of the world. So much of your map real-estate will be taken up by places that rarely if ever see combat… most of Africa, a ton of central Asia, the Indian and Pacific Ocean, and of course the entire Western Hemisphere… most of those places that dont see combat (especially the new world) are shrunk-down on AA maps, while Europe is enlarged, precisely for this reason.

@DouchemanMacgee:

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?

Speaking of realizing something that no one’s caught yet:

The starting incomes for several nations can be spotted on the AAZ Box image of the map:

AAZ (box):

• Russia: 14

• Japan: 15

• UK: 22

• Germany: 23

• US: unknown but surely higher than 23

As a comparision,
1941:

• Russia: 7

• Japan: 9

• UK: 12

• Germany: 12

• US: 15

The income on the AAZ map is much higher for all than 1941, which is a good thing… my #1 complaint about 1941 is the complete lack of income for EVERYONE. I could see using the AAZ map as a replacement for the 1941 map for income alone.

Another thing I noticed that nobody else seemed to… like 1941, the Industrial Complexes are printed on the map… but it looks like Infantry-only production plants are ALSO printed on the map? Total guess on my part, but look at those symbols in China and India… they look like the factory emblems (sorta) but with infantry instead of factories as the icon.

Also, there’s clearly Artillery in AAZ… there’s none in 1941… with artillery and higher income, but with a small board and other limitations, this might be a better intro to A&A than 1941 is… probably wouldn’t be hard to just “not” use the Zombies if you wanted a “better 1941” as a teaching tool.

A final thought about the tiny map size of AAZ… the Japanese could land tanks on the Pacific coast of Russia and drive into Moscow the next turn with said tanks…

@DouchemanMacgee:

@robert:

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

Has anyone actually found value in the 41 Map as a teaching tool?

I’ve had no problems starting people on 42SE/Revised and then moving up to AA50/G40 if they’re interested in spending an entire weekend fighting it out.

I have used 1941 as a teaching tool, though I must admit I usually do something to change incomes (upward)… 1941 isn’t much fun when you have to save up for a few turns to buy an infantry… lolz

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