Why is AA42 being hated by everyone? I just bought a copy. Sigh.


  • I’m a completely new AA player. I just bought AA42, and am seeing people don’t like it very much.

    By the way, what the hell is with the empty space in the box?
    i lift up the map, rulebook etc, and under it is a huge box of nothing.
    Most of the space inside the box is wasted. AM I MISSING SOMETHING?
    is something supposed to be there? Because it’s covered up nicely as well, giving me the impression something didn’t get shipped properly…

    I heard the game is “broken,” besides using poker chips for the IPC thing, what else could i do to make it a “good” version of AA?


  • @saltz:

    I’m a completely new AA player. I just bought AA42, and am seeing people don’t like it very much.

    By the way, what the hell is with the empty space in the box?
    i lift up the map, rulebook etc, and under it is a huge box of nothing.
    Most of the space inside the box is wasted. AM I MISSING SOMETHING?
    is something supposed to be there? Because it’s covered up nicely as well, giving me the impression something didn’t get shipped properly…

    I heard the game is “broken,” besides using poker chips for the IPC thing, what else could i do to make it a “good” version of AA?

    Welcome to the forum Saltz!

    Most people are preoccupied with AA50 (Anniversary edition) and since AA 1942 is a rehash of Revised with updated rules and sculpts you can see why people aren’t jumping for joy.

    As for the empty space, it’s to make the box look bigger.  You are not missing anything but I would suggest you count the pieces, I posted here the unit count for each country.

    Game is not broken but since the starting units are the same as Revised except for some bb (battleship) and dd (destroyers) being converted to cruisers (Revised required a bid for the Axis but I don’t think people have played enough of AA 1942 to figure out a bid is needed or not).

    Our group is thinking of having two flags for each country, one to represent cash on hand and the second to represent IPC controlled.  I would suggest either writing down the IPC, IL has a great spreadsheet you can use for this purpose or use stacks of money from other AA games (if you have it).

    Just have fun and play it before you let other’s influence your views.  I am actually excited about AA 1942 and looking for opponents for PBF (Play By Forum) if anyone is interested.  I love AA50 but it gives me a headache trying to figure out what to do.

    Welcome and good gaming.


  • i lift up the map, rulebook etc, and under it is a huge box of nothing.

    I found a $100 bill under mine.

    J/K


  • @saltz:

    I’m a completely new AA player. I just bought AA42, and am seeing people don’t like it very much.

    By the way, what the hell is with the empty space in the box?
    i lift up the map, rulebook etc, and under it is a huge box of nothing.
    Most of the space inside the box is wasted. AM I MISSING SOMETHING?
    is something supposed to be there? Because it’s covered up nicely as well, giving me the impression something didn’t get shipped properly…

    I heard the game is “broken,” besides using poker chips for the IPC thing, what else could i do to make it a “good” version of AA?

    AA42 is a great game by itself: it’s better than Revised, and as you might know, Revised is still the most popular online A&A variant. So the game is still very good, though the lack of “new” things and the lesser size than AA50 gives people something to whine about. And that’s what is best heard on a forum. Since this is a budget version though (only 30 bucks!), some non-crucial items were omitted; paper money, grey chips etc. Just be creative about those aspects (poker chips for money and grey chips represent 2 extra units), and you’ll have a great game. Have fun!


  • @Imperious:

    i lift up the map, rulebook etc, and under it is a huge box of nothing.

    I found a $100 bill under mine.

    J/K

    mine was a Canadian hundred, so it’s worth more!!

    @saltz:

    I’m a completely new AA player. I just bought AA42, and am seeing people don’t like it very much.

    on the serious side, AA42 is a fine game, don’t worry about all the flak it receives here or anywhere else (no pun intended there).  It’s easier to find the negative stuff about the game because when people are happy they play it and don’t have time to type online about what stinks.  So many rank the AA50 game as the best, but you’ll find complaint after complaint about it in those forums and we already have complaints about the next release that isn’t even finished yet and isn’t to be released for 4 months.


  • AA42 is the new base game. It was made for players just like you, maybe you have played Risk and want more of a challenge. You will expose others to it and help create a new buzz for AA games. At some point you will want more. Just happens they are making another 2 part version soon that’s going to be awesome. I haven’t picked up AA42 (yet) because I have AA50. The main difference is AA50 has more territories, and A new power (Italy). I’m glad you got your copy and you,ll soon be hooked! Once you have played awhile look for a players club in your area. Play on.


  • Wild Bill is right, AA Revised was actualy my first introduction to the game though, but I bought that a week before AA42 came out so instinctively since it was the “new” version to replace the basic revised game I picked that up, mainly because they added the cruiser unit and I wanted to have more flexibility with navy and the extra unit. So right now I’m using AA42 with extra pieces from AAR (extra infantry, tanks, artillery, fighters, bombers and any naval pieces that dont use a new sculpt, chips, control markers, and the dice cause they look better). I’ve introduced all my friends to this game since nobody except for one person has played Axis and Allies, the other person that has played hasnt played since the classic version and doesn’t own a copy themself so its exciting for them to have a group of friends that are interested in playing.

    I found this game to be so much fun that I decided to bite the bullet and purchase a copy of AA50 off of EBay because I know that our group of friends are going to enjoy the bigger setup and my girlfriend especialy is excited that Italy is an additional axis force, before all she liked to do was watch the game but now she is interested in playing as long as she can be Italy lol.

    I haven’t owned an Axis and Allies game for longer than a month so far and I’m already “upgrading” to AA50 because I already want more and want to get the fullest enjoyment out of our group as possible and I want to include my girlfriend into the gaming experience, even though I already bought AAR and AA42 it all still feels like money well spent because not only do I have so many extra pieces to work with now but I feel like I’m contributing to the future success of the franchise for many years to come.

    AA42 I highly recommend to new players to introduce them to the game. It may not be everything that the veteran players are wanting to see in an AA game but it will produce many more future “veterans” who are going to want to get their hands on AAP40 and AAE40 when those finally do get released, or may even go the extra mile and try and find an AA50 for their groups, and for $30US its a steal as opposed to almost $50US that revised was priced at (at least if you were purchasing retail from a Barnes and Noble for instance).

    New players will certainly find enjoyment in this game, especially if strategy games are hard to come by in their area and all they have to play is the various versions of “Risk” out there….I can’t even look at that game anymore now that I’ve discovered Axis and Allies.

  • Moderator

    i got my copy for$5

    i am glad i did not pay retail.

    The plus side is for me is that atleast the Jap. color is the same as the original revised.
    Oh and that I know have a couple cruisers and 109’s instead of stukas.

    No tech is retarded, No National Advantages is retarded

    New Stratigic raid rule is okay as well as the recosting of Naval Units and how transports behave in combat.

    But all in all, All I got IMO opinion is a new rules insert and extra Pieces.


  • @thetoof:

    all they have to play is the various versions of “Risk” out there….I can’t even look at that game anymore now that I’ve discovered Axis and Allies.

    Yeah one game of Risk got into Axis and Allies.

    @Deaths:

    No tech is retarded, No National Advantages is retarded

    I am guessing Larry wouldn’t be upset if you just used AAR/LHTR Tech or NAs.

    I totally see what they are trying to do here. Rewritten the rule book. Took away these extras.
    The length rule book is a turn off for new comers. The core game really can be covered in like 4 pages.

  • Official Q&A

    @tekkyy:

    The core game really can be covered in like 4 pages.

    That, I’d like to see.


  • Hey Saltz, you did fine with AA42.  It is AAR (revised) with AA50 rules (anniversary edition) at a lesser cost.  Play it and enjoy it.  If they get around to reprinting AA50 you can buy a copy of it then, it is awesome.  But not everybody has it as they did not print enough copies (in the opinion of those posting on the board that were not able to get their hands on a copy).  Once you have a bunch of games under your belt and you got the feeling of the AA games you can buy AA Pacific 1940 (coming before Christmas) and AA Europe 1940 (coming Summer 2010).  Once you have both games you can combine them into one HUGE global game like AA42.  Have fun!  :-D


  • @thetoof:

    Wild Bill is right, AA Revised was actualy my first introduction to the game though, but I bought that a week before AA42 came out so instinctively since it was the “new” version to replace the basic revised game I picked that up, mainly because they added the cruiser unit and I wanted to have more flexibility with navy and the extra unit. So right now I’m using AA42 with extra pieces from AAR (extra infantry, tanks, artillery, fighters, bombers and any naval pieces that dont use a new sculpt, chips, control markers, and the dice cause they look better). I’ve introduced all my friends to this game since nobody except for one person has played Axis and Allies, the other person that has played hasnt played since the classic version and doesn’t own a copy themself so its exciting for them to have a group of friends that are interested in playing.

    I found this game to be so much fun that I decided to bite the bullet and purchase a copy of AA50 off of EBay because I know that our group of friends are going to enjoy the bigger setup and my girlfriend especialy is excited that Italy is an additional axis force, before all she liked to do was watch the game but now she is interested in playing as long as she can be Italy lol.

    I haven’t owned an Axis and Allies game for longer than a month so far and I’m already “upgrading” to AA50 because I already want more and want to get the fullest enjoyment out of our group as possible and I want to include my girlfriend into the gaming experience, even though I already bought AAR and AA42 it all still feels like money well spent because not only do I have so many extra pieces to work with now but I feel like I’m contributing to the future success of the franchise for many years to come.

    AA42 I highly recommend to new players to introduce them to the game. It may not be everything that the veteran players are wanting to see in an AA game but it will produce many more future “veterans” who are going to want to get their hands on AAP40 and AAE40 when those finally do get released, or may even go the extra mile and try and find an AA50 for their groups, and for $30US its a steal as opposed to almost $50US that revised was priced at (at least if you were purchasing retail from a Barnes and Noble for instance).

    New players will certainly find enjoyment in this game, especially if strategy games are hard to come by in their area and all they have to play is the various versions of “Risk” out there….I can’t even look at that game anymore now that I’ve discovered Axis and Allies.

    Well said.  +1 Karma

    Oh, and by the way, welcome to Axis and Allies.org! to both you and Saltz


  • @Krieghund:

    @tekkyy:

    The core game really can be covered in like 4 pages.

    That, I’d like to see.

    hehe you know what I mean
    I did say “core” right?

    roughly…
    revised was 40 pages
    rules start at page 9 (after explaning everything like dice and player colours…)
    appendix starts at 24
    15 pages in the middle

    exclude pretty graphics then maybe 8
    take away all the " *** should I *** ? " sections then maybe 6 pages

    if I have the time I’ll probably have a crack at making a 4 pages “quick start” sheet to get more of my friends to play

    if I get excited I could probably sponsor a competition for the best “quick start” sheet from the community
    but there are probably copyright issues seeing the TripleA open source project got hurt


  • Hehe - +1 to you for sticking up for your point and backing it up.  I like it.
    +1 to Krieg for being our nice A&A answer guy.  He’s so helpful.


  • @saltz:

    I’m a completely new AA player. I just bought AA42, and am seeing people don’t like it very much.
    By the way, what the hell is with the empty space in the box?  i lift up the map, rulebook etc, and under it is a huge box of nothing.  Most of the space inside the box is wasted. AM I MISSING SOMETHING?  is something supposed to be there? Because it’s covered up nicely as well, giving me the impression something didn’t get shipped properly…

    My classic game is exactly the same.  I was wondering why they wasted half the space.  It takes up twice as much room in my closet as it needs.  I’ve always thought they’re trying to make it look like you’re getting more for your $$.
    I’m a big fan of research & development in A&A (aka “tech”), so if all I had was this 1942 game, I would go on-line (if you don’t know the tech rules already) and use tech rules.  I believe I speak for many when I say, “if it ain’t got tech, it ain’t A&A”  This is one major reason people “don’t like it very much” (AA42).  The biggest reason is because we have AA50, and we’re looking forward to AAP and AAE.  If you can eat steak, why go back to hamburgers?

  • Official Q&A

    Oh, I see what you’re saying, Tekkyy.  You’re talking about more of a reference sheet or player aid than a rulebook.  Yeah, I think four pages would cover it.


  • Yeah 4 pages would make it approachable. It’ll be almost as quick as teaching people Settlers of Catan.

    I like AA1942. (credit to AA50 rules team) It nicely dealt with some of the main undesired situations AAR house rules wanted to resolve.

    transport fodder
    sub stall
    SBR bleed
    flat SBR defense

    It came with a price cut too (I think, RRP $65 vs. $80 in Australia) while improving unit pieces. Nice.
    Plenty of board games at this price point only give you cubes and rectangles to represent whatever.

  • Moderator

    @tekkyy:

    but there are probably copyright issues seeing the TripleA open source project got hurt

    Which is a Major load of Legal Bull Shet.  Triplea Was the best thing since Sliced bread. Got a new computer and went to DL it, and found the Letter from Hasbro.  I almost cried. Tried Dl’ing from Media Fire. Not happening, I think I felt a tear.  :cry:

    If any body Knows how to Down load it, Please, please, Let me Know

    Thanks


  • If you go through the forums on triplea you can find a link to the files still (at least I did) that users posted

    although there is still no running lobby.  :x


  • Krieghund, is AA1942 using AA50 rules exactly?

    or are you making a comparison table like the one you made for AA50 vs. LHTR vs. Revised ?

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