First Impressions of Axis & Allies 1914

  • Founder TripleA Admin

    @ossel:

    How did the game end? Did you guys end up capturing capitals or just ending it?

    We ran out of time. I think the Central Powers were in trouble. I think as the Central Powers you’ll probably have to capture a capital by turn 6 or 7 or be in big trouble.

  • Customizer

    Confirms three things I’d got a firm impression of before getting the game:

    The combat system makes it a very new and involving version of A&A, certainly the best new variation since the original MB version.

    Tanks are not worth buying unless:

    1. They come down to 5 IPCs

    2. They attack on 3/4

    or

    3. Each attacking artillery supports 1 infantry AND 1 tank.

    That Production chart is unusable. One glance at it is enough to decide that; I’m surprised you didn’t start the game using a chart from another version.

    Also:

    “I tried to foment the Revolution (per the rules) but was unable to.”

    Thats not surprising since the RR rules don’t make any sense.


  • As soon as we heard combat would be for 1 round only I thought this game had a good chance to be something special, it’s good to see my interpretation was confirmed. Hopefully, though, it is cool enough to cancel out the negative aspects once the novelty of the new system wears off.


  • Funnel brits from india into russia?
    What happens to them if there is a revolution? Do they get stuck?


  • @Flashman:

    Confirms three things I’d got a firm impression of before getting the game:

    That Production chart is unusable. One glance at it is enough to decide that; I’m surprised you didn’t start the game using a chart from another version.

    Also:

    “I tried to foment the Revolution (per the rules) but was unable to.”

    Thats not surprising since the RR rules don’t make any sense.

    :? :? When I first read this…I went back to the Rules to see what the Hell were the
    Rail Road Rules Flash was talking about  :-D


  • The chips in two colours does not work, in my opinion.
    It is hard to distinguish the  number of units under the sculpts.

  • Founder TripleA Admin

    @wittmann:

    The chips in two colours does not work, in my opinion.
    It is hard to distinguish the  number of units under the sculpts.

    After two games, it hasn’t been a problem. Even in low light we could distinguish easily. But in a brightly lit area with glare, it can be an issue.


  • Thank you for your response djensen.
    I would have been happy with the old grey and red system, then throw in a colour to represent 10. My friend is 15 years younger than me and thought the similarity annoying and found it hard to distinguish numbers too.
    Do you really think we needed a colour for each side?
    I can see the fear is with contested territories that if you knock off the sculpt you could forget whose pile is which, but we have probably all done that in the past, yet remembered how they were set up.
    If it really was an issue, not a gimmick, perhaps four different colours would have worked better.

  • Founder TripleA Admin

    Having a color for each side not only looks cool but it helps you distinguish your units from your opponent’s units. It’s really tight to fit everything into Western Europe.


  • I was trying not to find faults, but yes, Western Europe is too small considering the action it will see.
    We did not get to play as it took an hour to set up and we stsrted late, then we needed to sit down and rest! (Yes Garg, I am an old man.)
    Think my friend is very disappointed with lots of things.
    He will come round.
    I am not sure I will ever get over Italy being on the wrong side.


  • Tanks are not worth buying unless:

    1. They come down to 5 IPCs

    2. They attack on 3/4

    Tanks is definatly worth buying if your on the offence!

    Their ability to absorb a hit each round means that 2defending infantrys defence roll is negated (in low luck)
    That means if the defender has 20inf and you have 10tanks he will not get ANY hit in lowluck.

    Combined with 2in speed (if they have so, havent read unit statistic yet) this makes tanks a nessesary lategame unit which preform great if shielded by infantry and other units in defence.

    In some way you can say that the tank have 8in attack and 1in defence.


  • These WWI tanks can only move 1.

  • Customizer

    The most realistic depiction of tank usage in this game would be to have tanks almost exclusively offensive. Their impact towards the end of the war was very significant.

    I don’t like what I’m hearing about the fighters.

    I think an extensive optional set of rules should or should have been included in the game. the sculpt are a little un-refined from the few pictures I can find around the net.

    Rail should’ve been included.

    Though not really as much of a factor but, damn I wanted a zepplin or two. Fortification of some sort would’ve been nice too.


  • Lets see what we have here:

    -A production chart that is useless
    -Chips that are hard to read
    -A useless tank unit
    -An overpowered air unit
    -Longer game play (6 turns in 10 hours!!)

    Ouch, this sounds …brutal. I love all things Axis and Allies and will probably be getting myself a copy but damd. Why are people claiming this to be the best Axis and Allies experience to date? Is it simply because its so different to everything else? Is it really more elegent, balanced and an overall a better game than Anniversary?

    Please convince me that this is a brilliant design and not the dinosaur it appears to be.


  • @Holden:

    Lets see what we have here:

    -A production chart that is useless
    -Chips that are hard to read
    -A useless tank unit
    -An overpowered air unit
    -Longer game play (6 turns in 10 hours!!)

    Ouch, this sounds …brutal. I love all things Axis and Allies and will probably be getting myself a copy but damd. Why are people claiming this to be the best Axis and Allies experience to date? Is it simply because its so different to everything else? Is it really more elegent, balanced and an overall a better game than Anniversary?

    Please convince me that this is a brilliant design and not the dinosaur it appears to be.

    • The tank isn’t useless, I just think it is misunderstood.  It basically generates a free unit each round of offense.
    • Not sure what you mean by overpowered air unit…air supremacy is extremely valuable if you have a lot of artillery present in the territory
    • I think game length is a result of completely new game mechanics with new rules and just trying to figure out how to play the game.  Once you are familiar with the game, it doesn’t take nearly that long.

  • I was excited about the novelty of the single-round combat and the dogfight aspect of planes, but as sloppy as the Revolution is, as bizarre as the US is, and with what I am hearing about tanks being overpriced (there are already few enough units, we don’t need to exlude any more), and with the obvious lack of pieces (which as soon as I saw the unit count weeks ago it raised a red flag), I really gotta wonder if they figured that requiring the playtesters to pay big money to test and then release the 2nd edition (just like global) was better than insisting on a high-quality product in the first place.


  • They noted that the differences between 1940 OOB and 2e were not big enough to make too many people buy both; the goal here is to to make a first game so much worse than the 2nd edition that not only will people buy the first edition because of the novelty, they will also buy the second edition.


  • @vonLettowVorbeck1914:

    They noted that the differences between 1940 OOB and 2e were not big enough to make too many people buy both; the goal here is to to make a first game so much worse than the 2nd edition that not only will people buy the first edition because of the novelty, they will also buy the second edition.

    Well, I don’t think that we have playtested the Armor enough- It may well be worth it to buy a few.  The Russian Revolution - thankfully - does not require new pieces if they change the rules on that- so right now just don’t use that optional rule.

    You may be right on not having enough pieces, although it looks like from Flashman’s play test only Germany and the UK were lacking in a couple Infantry pieces each.  Every A&A game doesn’t have enough ‘poker chips,’ but most of us have other versions we can scavenge from.

    I bet the US will be changed to ‘not able to move until turn 4,’ which will make it a bit more tolerable.  Again, another rule change like the revolution that is easy to make and does not require buying a 2nd edition.


  • From page 7 of the FAQ thread, from Krieghund:

    While the US is neutral, it is neither friend nor enemy to any other power.  Because of this, it may not move units into non-US territories, as such territories are neither friendly nor hostile to it.

    So the rulebook is in error when it mentions that the US cannot enter CP territories. It can’t enter any other territories while neutral. So that should help assuage, although not eliminate, early US entry fears.


  • The rule being optional does not excuse it from being lazily and terribly put together. I don’t even see half the effort that went into the Revised NA’s. Included in the price of the game is the Russian Revolution rules, and that in that portion the customer is getting shorted.

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