New to Axis and Allies Global – What do I need to get started?


  • I agree with what several people have already said: that you’re far better off buying the actual games.  You can always supplement them later with a additional items, if your experience in playing the games leads you to conclude that you want extra stuff.  This approach has the advantage that you’re starting out with an already-functional game, and therefore that you only need to add the specific extras that suit your particular playing style and interests – something which can be done at a minimal cost.

    By contrast, trying to cobble together the entire game from separate bits and pieces is inefficient (it takes a lot of work to figure out what’s required and to place all those orders) and probably more expensive too.  After all, the individual units which can be bought from HBG all originally had to come from complete games, and in order to make it worthwhile for HBG to sell them separately HBG presumably has to mark them up in price.  If you were to “reassemble” all of those separate units at their marked-up prices, you’d no doubt end up with a higher price than what the original games cost.  To use a restaurant analogy: if all you want is a single glass of wine, then buying wine by the glass makes more economic sense than buying a whole bottle (because most of the bottle would go to waste), but if what you want is a bottle’s worth of wine, then buying a bottle makes more economic sense than buying several individual glasses because six separate 125ml glasses cost more than a single 750ml bottle (even though the total quantity of wine is identical).

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    @mastrtonberry:

    Thanks for the responses! So you’re saying there are adequate number of pieces in the Pacific and Europe sets that I won’t really need extras?

    Buying a copy of 1940 Europe 2nd edition, and 1940 Pacific 2nd edition (make sure they say 2nd Edition) is very important in my opinion. There are a lot of things you can add and customize to make your gaming experience better, but the base games will give you that immediate foundation. If you have printed my custom map, you can use the OOB (out of box) boards as a strategy tool in a separate room where teammates can discuss. Watch out for a new video on my channel in September about getting started, but for now, here are my suggestions…

    Money
    The game does not come with any tangible currency, you can get special paper money at HBG (historical board gaming), or special poker chips at IWNGU (I will never grow up).

    Facilities
    Everyone hates using those cardboard counters for facilities because they are hard to pickup, time consuming for setup, and they take up valuable space. You’re already ahead of the game if you have printed my map with the bases already on it, but you will need something for your factories. I use the gray factories from 1942 1st edition, and the factories from risk revised, but you could use anything from settlers of catan settlements, to monopoly houses and hotels. HBG also has small and large plastic houses in many different colours.

    Extra Units
    I myself bought 2 copies of both 1940 Europe and 1940 Pacific when I first got started, and I have never run out of anything during a game, but I understand if people don’t want to spend that much. My next suggestion is to play the game and find out what you ussually run out of and then buy extras from HBG. For example: if you find that the Japanese tend to use mech infantry a lot, or if Germany always buys bombers in your games… than add units when it calls for it.

    Chips
    The game does not provide enough chips, and HBG is always out of stock when it comes to the A&A oob chips… so apart from buying 2 full sets of 1940 global, I suggest replacing all of them with HBG chips. I would get 100 whites, 50 greens, 50 reds, and 10 blues.

    Dice
    Even if you buy 2 full sets of 1940 Global, you won’t have enough dice… and HBG is always out of stock. I just got a ton from IWNGU which are almost identical to the A&A oob dice.

    Game Aids
    There are helpful game aids here like what Sauffenberg was saying, here are my national objective cards you can print and cut in order to track them better. Just keep in mind that there is an error on the “North Africa” NO for Italy.

    http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=36011.0

    Hope that helps.

  • 2023 '22 '21 '20 '19 '18 '17

    I also didn’t enjoy the cardboard pieces. I usually play with my dad (I’m 27) and he has a hard time noticing the flat pieces. Shapeways, link below, has some great pieces. I bought a bunch specifically from eBard (I am not allowed to post links I guess, but it’s at shapeways.com, under “eBard Models”, and they are perfect. Naval bases, airstrips, and I even bought his capitals sets to add some nice flavor to the board  :-)

    He was really great and actually only made the Sydney and India pieces because I and a few others had asked about them, so he was great to work with. Got them to me in a timely fashion as well.

    He also has some factory pieces, but I had bought some from Shapeways through HBG’s site before, but am not seeing them there now. Perhaps that’s because they’re out of stock as was mentioned above.

    Anyways, check out his stuff, was very happy with it.



  • @Chris_Henry:

    I also didn’t enjoy the cardboard pieces. I usually play with my dad (I’m 27) and he has a hard time noticing the flat pieces. Shapeways, link below, has some great pieces. I bought a bunch specifically from eBard (I am not allowed to post links I guess, but it’s at shapeways.com, under “eBard Models”, and they are perfect. Naval bases, airstrips, and I even bought his capitals sets to add some nice flavor to the board  :-)

    He was really great and actually only made the Sydney and India pieces because I and a few others had asked about them, so he was great to work with. Got them to me in a timely fashion as well.

    He also has some factory pieces, but I had bought some from Shapeways through HBG’s site before, but am not seeing them there now. Perhaps that’s because they’re out of stock as was mentioned above.

    Anyways, check out his stuff, was very happy with it.

    Thanks for the recommendation.  Had to do a little searching but found factory pieces.  Got 30 factories for 40 bucks with shipping.


  • Man, thats pretty expensive. Check with me. I could of sold you some factories and maybe some other pieces.

    Ray


  • Answer from HBG re factory pieces as follows:

    My Query: The above white and grey pieces have been out of stock for months. Will they be available in the future?

    HBG Answer: Hard to get them in, keep checking

    Very helpful!

    Here’s a link to the ebard factory pieces mentioned by Chris_Henry:

    http://www.shapeways.com/product/GMSPEQ3DN/factory?li=search-results-1&optionId=43304218


  • Thanks to all for the recommendations… allthough I find Shapeways to be very expensive  :-o

    Thanks also for posting HBGs reply, I was going to ask as well.
    “Hard to get”? That’s hard to believe as it is nothing but another piece of plastic…

    Oh well, I guess I’ll move on to something else for factory pieces. Yet to find a shop that ships to Europe where I can find those Risk Revised factories.


  • @Stauffenberg:

    Yet to find a shop that ships to Europe where I can find those Risk Revised factories.

    If you do find a decent source then do please share.


  • @Stauffenberg:

    Oh well, I guess I’ll move on to something else for factory pieces. Yet to find a shop that ships to Europe where I can find those Risk Revised factories.

    Hi Stauffenberg,

    my local dealer might help you. (www. stratak. com) Currently he’s got no factory pieces in stock but maybe he could provide some…

    Greetings, Lars

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    For those that don’t know about the Risk revised factory peices, here are some pictures…

    https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/37198/risk-revised-edition


  • Is this the factory piece you have in mind YG?

    https://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic906227_md.jpg

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    @Private:

    Is this the factory piece you have in mind YG?

    https://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic906227_md.jpg

    Yep, That’s it… I use those as Major factories, and the regular A&A grays as Minor factories.


  • Those are the ones YG meant…

    I have yet to find them sold individually. Risk Revised was marketed under different names in different languages. The German version is called “Risiko Deluxe (neu)”

    Danke Lars, Stratak sieht gut aus. I didn’t know there was such a shop around here. They are just around the corner outside of Frankfurt, maybe they’ll even let me choose and pick up the stuff at heir location.

    I still find Bob Michaelson’s solution of sawing&hacking some of the grey factories to smaller grey factories the best. It just looks right!

    Best wishes


  • @Stauffenberg:

    I didn’t know there was such a shop around here. They are just around the corner outside of Frankfurt, maybe they’ll even let me choose and pick up the stuff at heir location.

    Found their web-site by pure luck. In the last 6 or 7 months I’ve ordered several times online; delivery was very prompt 2-3 days after they received your money. (Und ganz nebenbei kann man seine Bestellung auch persönlich abholen.)


  • Gutten Auben Stauffenberg (forgive my spelling).  May I suggest an alternate course if you do not find what you are looking for.  It sounded by one of your posts that you are not opposed to modifying existing products to make what you are looking for.  If you have plastic structural pieces availalble such as you might find at a model rail road shop or hobby shop, you may be able to find some small round plastic rod (0.25mm to 1mm diameter) to use as smoke stacks.  Cut to an appropiate length and glue them on the Monopoly style houses and hotels.  Three stacks on a hotel for a major IC and one stack on a house for a minor IC.  you can then spray paint them to what ever color you want.  My dad was a US marine and he was very fond of saying “adapt and overcome”.  Good luck.


  • Alternately, use Lego bricks – for instance a 4-prong square for a minor IC and a 6-prong rectangle for a major IC.  Not great-looking, but cheap and easily available in large numbers (and multiple colours, if that’s something you want).


  • Nothing wrong with a little crafting, skill and motivation are not the limit here…

    But the family leaves me little time for things like these, so I am always looking for solutions that are less time consuming. I mean, it’s not only buying the stuff, its finding it at stores, looking for it etc etc.

    Also, I like consistency… those grey factories for me just are THE A&A factories. The first A&A I ever played has them, the old A&A Europe. I just prefer that a lot over pieces from other games. That’s why I am so exited of just using some of those grey factories to make minor ICs. So it is my first option for several reasons, but of course alternatives can easily be found and made.

    Just not Lego ;)

    Best wishes

  • '14 Customizer

    President Business might not like you using them for IC’s

    I purchased most of mine on Shapeways because I wanted IC’s with 1, 2, 3 and 4 pipes. Minor have 1 pipe, Advanced Minor has 2 pipes (tech), Major has 3 pipes and Advanced Major has 4 pipes(tech).

    https://www.shapeways.com/product/MUEKFKT65/factory-with-four-pipes?optionId=57401962&li=ostatus


  • Thanks, I did not see those 4 pipe factories there before, In the category listing, only the 2 pipe factories show up.
    No 1 or 3 pipe factories though  :?

    Anyway, as the price is only for 10 pieces and you need 12 minor and 11 major ICs for the initial setup alone, you would have to buy 20 2-pipes and 20 4-pipes, which would be 50$ plus shipping. That is just too much in my book, I mean you get a whole 1940 game for less than 70$ at Amazon, shipping included.

    Well, HBG wants 95c per factory piece, if they ever were in stock… I’d buy some 30, which would also be relatively pricy… and I don’t see those factories coming if HBG strips them from game boxes and only lets you buy 12 per day. That said, I will have to figure out something else. If only I knew someone with a 3D printer  :roll:

    If I ever find something good that is reasonably priced (which will probably be selfmade), I’ll post it over in the customizations board.

    Best wishes

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