Evolution of Axis & Allies pieces – Take 2

[knp7765]

AXIS & ALLIES 1941 – Released June 2012
This game is a world level game like 1942 and Revised, but very stripped down and simplified. Many functions of the larger games have been deleted, such as SBRs, AA guns and shore bombardments. Also, the territory IPC values are much smaller to make calculating income easier and purchasing units much quicker. (Example: Eastern US in Global = 20 IPCs, 1942 = 12 IPCs, 1941 = 6 IPCs).
This game was designed this way in hopes of bringing new people into the Axis & Allies world. Many people that might enjoy board games would be scared away from a game like 1942 or Revised because they are so involved with many rules. Also, these games tend to take several hours to play. As for a monster like Global 1940, forget about it! However, 1941 with it’s much simpler rules and a playing time of 2-3 hours may just interest some new people. Then perhaps after a few games of 1941, they may get a taste for A&A and want to try 1942 or one of the theater level games.
1941 also came with all new sculpts, totally divorced from the regular A&A line. However, due to the simplicity of this game, not all the units are represented here. There are no artillery, Mech inf, Tac bombers or Cruisers. Only Infantry, Tanks, Fighters, Bombers, Aircraft Carriers, Battleships, Destroyers, Submarines and Tansports.
To further the simplicity of this game, all three Allies share the same sculpts and both Axis share the same sculpts.
Allied sculpts: Tank = IS-2, Fighter = P40, Bomber = Lancaster, Carrier = Kostromitinova, Battleship = HMS Hood, Destroyer = USS Sumner, Submarine = U Class, Transport = Fort Class
Axis sculpts: Tank = Tiger, Fighter = Fw190, Bomber = He111, Carrier = Akagi, Battleship = Kongo, Destroyer = Akitzuki, Submarine = Kaichu Type, Transport = Yamazuki Maru

[knp7765]

AXIS & ALLIES 1942 2ND EDITION – Released July 2012
This game was released as a replacement to the first edition of 1942. Apparently it was felt some improvements were needed but it also provided them with the chance to introduce some new unit sculpts.
One big rule change was with the Anti Aircraft guns. Alpha+3 for Global 1940 changed the way AA Guns are used in the game. Instead of being a permanent fixture that can fire an unlimited amount of times per gun, now each AA Gun can only fire up to 3 times and they can be taken as casualties in a battle in place of other defending units. They transferred this rule to the 1942 game and as a result, they also decided that each nation should have their own specific AA Artillery instead of the old standard piece (or cardboard marker) for everybody.
So, with this game, each country gets a new Anti-Aircraft Artillery piece.
Russia now gets their own Artillery (152mm Howitzer), Submarine (Srednyaya) and Transport (Baltic Timber Ship) piece.
Germany gets a new Artillery (10,5cm LeFH 18) piece that is a true field artillery piece. This replaces the old 88mm Flak that had represented German Artillery up until now.
England gets their own Artillery (Ordinance QF 25 pounder), Destroyer (Saumarez) and Submarine (Truculent) piece.

[knp7765]

AXIS & ALLIES GLOBAL 1940 2ND EDITION – Released September 2012
Finally, we have updates on the SUPERGAME of the Axis & Allies line. When Global 1940 first started being played after Europe 1940 was released in August 2010, gamers were finding there were problems with it. Basically, it was unbalanced. I believe most thought that the first version made it too hard for the Axis to win. So, Larry Harris came out with Alpha, the first revision of the setup and/or rules for Global 1940. While this fixed some problems, it didn’t fix all of them or new ones came up. Over the course of the next year or so, a number of revisions were put forth: Alpha, Alpha+, Alpha+1, Alpha+2… Some versions made it too hard on the Allies, others too hard on the Axis, so Larry kept tweaking it here and there. A couple of these Alphas actually had 2 or 3 versions under the same name. Finally came the version titled Alpha+3.9, which was considered as the final Alpha.
So, WOTC decided to put out a whole new version of Europe 1940 and Pacific 1940. This 2nd Edition would include the latest rule changes, a number of changes to the gameboard to correct issues found in the first edition and even more new sculpts. Besides working in the new sculpts from 1942 2E, Italy and ANZAC get ALL UNIQUE sculpts of their own. One minor disappointment is poor France which is still stuck with all Soviet sculpts with only the Infantry being uniquely French. However, since Russia got a number of new sculpts, in a way so do the French. They are just new Soviet pieces in blue.
ITALY: As stated, Italy got all Italian units now. Many of the sculpts are the same sculpts that were used by Field Marshal Games in their Italian set. While the WOTC pieces don’t look quite as nice as the FMG pieces, they are still nice and better than having German pieces in brown. Finally an Axis power gets a big, 4-engine bomber in the Piaggio P.108. They designated the SM.79 for the Italian Tac Bomber which seems like kind of a large plane for a Tac Bomber, but the piece looks really cool. Also, instead of a Halftrack for the mechanized infantry, they used a truck.
ANZAC: As for the ANZAC sculpts, there has been much discussion as to if these are proper units to represent ANZAC forces. For instance, the fighter and tank it has been said were actually used very little or not at all by Austalian forces. As far as I’m concerned, since they are uniquely Australian, they are good for this game. As for the capital ships, it has been said neither of these ships were even near Australian waters in WW 2. Personally, I think that is nit-picking. ANZAC didn’t really have any capital ships of their own in WW2 so I think using British models that weren’t already used for UK ships is just fine.
The only problem I have with ANY of the ANZAC sculpts would be the over-sized Infantry piece. I was at first excited that ANZAC was getting their own infantry piece until I got them and saw they were a full head bigger than any other infantry piece. I tried using them, but they just look weird on the board. I have went back to use the old ANZAC infantry with the new equipment sculpts.
So, there we are, up to date for now. I have heard there is a WW1 A&A game in the works. I guess that will require a new update. Hope everyone enjoys these pics.

[CWO Marc]

Thanks for the great-looking update!  It’s quite long, so I look forward to reading it in detail as soon as I get the opportunity later today.  The new pics are much appreciated too.

[radar231]

Yes, thank you for keeping it up. I do like the write-up and pics too. Cheers

J. 8-)

[knp7765]

Thanks guys. Glad you like them. I tried to be thorough but if I missed any small details, sorry about that. It wasn’t until the last couple of years or so that I was even aware of there being so many variations in some of the early games. It was like Avalon Hill just couldn’t decide on proper piece colors.

[Flashman]

Still waiting for Panzer III/IV for early war German light/medium tanks. Starting off with Panthers in 1939 is just wrong.

Wonder what happened to the molds for the more detailed units shown on the 1984 box - or were they borrowed from a different game?

[knp7765]

HBG has Panzer IIIs (medium) and Panzer 38(t)s (light) currently available in their Axis Minors sets. They come in a variety of colors so you can use them for Axis Minor countries as well as Germany. There is Black, Dark Grey, Light Grey, Ivory, Italian Brown, Bright Yellow and Mustard Yellow.
There is also a German expansion set coming at the end of this month that will include the Panzer VI (Tiger) and the Panzer II. Those will only be in Black and Dark Grey.
We don’t have a Panzer IV available just yet. Coach says he plans to include it in another Axis Minor set later on in 2013. It may be a while because we have 3 Japanese sets and a French set to get made for sure. I don’t know what his plans are after Japan and France. A lot of people have been clamoring for British units.
Still, between the Panzer IIs, Panzer IIIs and Panzer 38(t)s you will have plenty of variety in size and time-period tanks.

[Nol]

Hi knp, excellent list. Recently I got both 1940 2eds which rekindled my interest in the evolution of the A&A pieces.

Regarding your post on AXIS & ALLIES 1942 2ND EDITION: in my '42 two ed. copy the USSR still has the artillery and transport as ‘same as US’… As far as I can tell the Soviet Baltic transport and the 152mm howitzer are new to the Europe 1940  two ed. or am I mistaken?

Thanks to one of your other posts I ‘salvaged’ the eight Hellcat fighters from the original Pacific, they seem more appropriate for ACC’s. Even though I have the HBG variant planes this seems fitting.

Keep up the good work!

[The11HP20]

Many, many thanks to you. This is gonna help me a ton in my military building efforts.

[salan]

thank you for doing this page, it helps me find pieces I want from other games to make upgrades / house rules!

[sgtwiltan]

@Flashman:

Still waiting for Panzer III/IV for early war German light/medium tanks. Starting off with Panthers in 1939 is just wrong.

Wonder what happened to the molds for the more detailed units shown on the 1984 box - or were they borrowed from a different game?

As has been said, PzIII are available from HBG and I am totally with you on panthers for 1042. That is what led me to scratch build my own tanks for the original game. The original game had painted GHQ pieces on the back cover and was actually deceptive in insinuating that the game pieces were the same as the picture in the back. Here is a link to my game piece modifications and replacement thread. I try as much as possible to use original game pieces but sometimes only HBG pieces are available. HBG also make 38Ts for early war tanks along with PZIIs to go with the PZIIIs. I use the PZIIs for the Liechte divisions while the German Panzer divisiona use the Panzer IIIs. Those equipped with Czech tanks (which made up 1/4 of the Barbarossa panzer divisions and Rommels 7th Panzer prior to the DAK during the French campaign) get the 38Ts.

[IdaRed]

@sgtwiltan:

The original game had painted GHQ pieces on the back cover and was actually deceptive in insinuating that the game pieces were the same as the picture in the back. Here is a link to my game piece modifications and replacement thread.

I always wondered what the pieces shown on the back cover were. Needless to say, my friends and I were very disappointed when we opened the game and saw the actual pieces.  Deceptive advertising indeed.

[aethervox]

Minor Factory.
    I have used a white house piece from ‘Finance’ (an old Parker Bros game) - the same one as in Monopoly. It works fairly well to represent a Minor Factory piece. I guess one has to spray paint them white as the real white ones are probably very rare.

[aethervox]

Your history of the A&A pieces is excellent knp :wink: : :-D

[The11HP20]

@sgtwiltan:

@Flashman:

Still waiting for Panzer III/IV for early war German light/medium tanks. Starting off with Panthers in 1939 is just wrong.

Wonder what happened to the molds for the more detailed units shown on the 1984 box - or were they borrowed from a different game?

As has been said, PzIII are available from HBG and I am totally with you on panthers for 1042. That is what led me to scratch build my own tanks for the original game. The original game had painted GHQ pieces on the back cover and was actually deceptive in insinuating that the game pieces were the same as the picture in the back.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I’ve been wondering why the pieces pictured on the back of my first A&A game were different from what was in the box. For 27 years that has been a mystery to me.

[Wolfshanze]

@knp7765:

In Anniversary, cruisers were introduced and the Germans got the Hipper class cruiser.  For some reason, they chopped off the aft end of the cruiser piece so they look odd.Â

Ya, well, that may be because the German Hipper class had faulty stern designs to begin with… they failed often, and the same problem even extended to the Bismark (when the battleship went down, the stern quickly broke off).

Here’s a couple of pics of what happened to the Prinz Eugen… maybe the sculpts were just made to give you a more realistic depiction of what your cruiser would look like in war!  lolz

[CWO Marc]

Yes, that was a chronic flaw of Kriegsmarine capital ships and cruisers – but I think the reason they revised the Hipper sculpt to give it a cruiser stern was to prevent confusion.  In A&A, most destroyers have transom sterns, which is useful identification feature.

[knp7765]

Hello Wolfshanze,
Thanks for that info on the German capital ships & cruisers.  I didn’t know they had problems with the stern.  Construction flaws?
Funny about them putting these cruisers with the aft end chopped off in the game to represent that problem.

[Midnight_Reaper]

@Nol said in Evolution of Axis & Allies pieces – Take 2: …

Regarding your post on AXIS & ALLIES 1942 2ND EDITION: in my '42 two ed. copy the USSR still has the artillery and transport as ‘same as US’… As far as I can tell the Soviet Baltic transport and the 152mm howitzer are new to the Europe 1940  two ed. or am I mistaken?

knp7765,

Regarding Nol’s post from April '13, I have both the '42 Second Edition and Europe '40 Second Edition and only the Europe '40 have the new 152mm Howitzer and Baltic Timber Ship for the USSR. In my copy of '42 Second Edition, the USSR are still using the US 105mm Howitzers and Liberty Ships. What do you think?

-Midnight_Reaper