Belatedly …… like @Midnight_Reaper I buy 3 inf in J’s first turn
First time player impressions and question about pieces.
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This game is great. I have only played it once so far and thoroughly enjoyed it. I had never played or even seen Axis and Allies before and I realize from reading the forums that this is a dumbed down version and not for the purists. However I quite like its simplicity while still having a bit of strategic depth.
I am trying to figure out how the probabilities play out for each unit. It seems simple enough for individual units fighting one on one, but gets interesting when there are more units or mixed unit combinations. It does seem, (to me at least) that the game is basically fought with infantry with all the other units supporting them by either fighting directly with them or blowing up transports etc to stop more enemy infantry landing somewhere. The manual did not really mention the mechanics of how to use infantry and their importance to be chosen as hits when defending.
My only gripe is that the map is a bit small in terms of number of territories. Everything seems so close together in some places without much room to move about which reduces options of where to attack or manoeuvre etc. I guess it is part of the idea of keeping the game shorter.
The only other thing is there are not enough pieces sometimes. It does not change how the game is played in any way, but just a couple more of every unit would do the trick. I was thinking of buying some from Historical Board Gaming and thought I might get some of the 1942 set, because Japanese Tiger tanks do not look right. Are all the figures and counters about the same size between versions (i.e. will they work on my map or be so huge I will have no space)?
Well that was my 2 cents. Maybe I will check out another version one day when I get bored of this one, but I suspect it will be enough for a while.
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The only other thing is there are not enough pieces sometimes. It does not change how the game is played in any way, but just a couple more of every unit would do the trick. I was thinking of buying some from Historical Board Gaming and thought I might get some of the 1942 set, because Japanese Tiger tanks do not look right. Are all the figures and counters about the same size between versions (i.e. will they work on my map or be so huge I will have no space)?
The official A&A out-of-the-box pieces are more or less standardized in terms of their size, with units of the same type tending to be approximately the same size. For example, in Global 1940, the strategic bombers are large, the tactical bombers are medium and the fighters are small. There are size variations within each class, but on the whole the size of an aircraft unit reflects its function in the rules. The same applies to battleships, cruisers and destroyers.
To get an idea of how big all the pieces are relative to each other, I recommend consulting the unit identification charts that I prepared, and which are posted here:
http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=31982.0
The pictures you see are high-contrast sculpt photographs (nor drawings), so they accurately represent the sculpts. All the aircraft (which I had to photograph vertically) are shot at the same scale, and all the other pieces (which I had to photograph horizontally) are likewise at a standard scale relative to each other, though there is a small difference compared to the aircraft scale (they’re close, but not an exact match).
The HBG sculpts are designed to be compatible with the OOB A&A ones, so their sizes are a good match.
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I recently ordered pieces from HBG (half 1941 and half 1942 because a lot of the 1941s were out of stock) and purchasing just one or two more of each kind of unit for each country has worked out great so far. I’ve also been experimenting with larger incomes. The only major difference in piece size with the 1942 edition seem to be the tanks, they are slightly smaller than the 1941 ones but it’s bearable. Also the 1942 B17s are pretty big, but very cool! Any thing you order from there will fit on the map just fine though, just make sure to order some more dice and better chip counters. The 1941 edition is all I have right now but I’ve had lots of fun with customization, hope you do too!
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Thanks for the responses guys. NIce to know the pieces are interchangable between games. I have played another game since and we all seemed to make lots of mistakes. An experienced player would smash a new person at this game.
smanifesto I will probably do exactly as you have done and get a pieces from other games. It was getting frustrating having to constantly look for new units and swap chips around. I’m also with you on customizing the game a bit. We already have a house rule that battleships have to return to a factory to be repaired at the start of your next turn when damaged.
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