If you want realism, man up and join the military 8-)
AA42 vs AA50
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A little background: I have played Axis & Allies for 15 years, and own multiple copies of every edition – including a still in shrinkwrap copy of Nova Games Axis & Allies. I also own many of the expansions, including some rare ones. I believe that I bring a good viewpoint to the table, but that is just my own opinion and feel free to disagree. This piece is intended to be supportive towards the 1942 edition, not critical of the Anniversary edition. I hope I have been clear in this regard.
I was a little late to the AA50 party, not buying my 2 copies until this year. After reading all the bashing of the 1942 edition, I was a little hesitant to purchase it but went for it anyway and was blown away with the quality of the plastic pieces – the best in any Axis & Allies game, I believe. I then purchased my AA50 games (1 shrinkwrapped, 1 opened but all pieces sealed and unpunched)
I hate to say this, but I’d like to know what most of you have been smoking – because it is some powerful stuff. The fabled “component quality” of the AA50 edition was sadly missing – the board is paper thin and prone to warping, the box is too big to not get damaged in transit, and most glaringly the pieces are HORRIBLE. I need to photograph the pieces side by side, but the 1942 US battleship is a good 4mm bigger than the AA50 US battleship, and my pieces were uniformly smaller and had flashing/molding problems. The ONLY piece that I saw that approached 1942 quality was the Italian tank (good size and width). In every other respect, 1942’s pieces are much superior.
In defense of AA50, the counters and play aids are marvelous – and the player receives counters for damage, etc, which is great. However, we don’t buy the game because it has nice cardboard – we buy it for a great board and great plastic pieces. In this respect Axis & Allies 1942 comes through with amazing pieces. In future reprints, I would kill the bottom charts on the game map and make Europe larger, but that is up to Avalon Hill.
You can find Axis & Allies 1942 for around $20-25 in most places and for that price it is a bargain. All I can say is, I love that Hasbro keeps producing more Axis & Allies games because it gives US, as consumers, the ability to pick and choose what we like among them and purchase those we value. I don’t understand when people talk about corporate greed – that would be Hasbro just producing 1 version and charging $150 for it, not 5-6 different copies, most under $30 – which is the price of a couple of meals. Thank you Hasbro – and I don’t mind paying more for a better product!
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In every other respect, 1942’s pieces are much superior.
I suspect that there might actually be two printings of the 1942, because the first one that my brother-in-law got has decent pieces, but I got a copy for my brother for his birthday in January, and we just played with his copy last week, and his pieces appear to be better quality than the ones in the copy my brother-in-law has… :| And if I’m not mistaken the German AC from my brother’s is a different sculpt from my brother-in-law’s.
I haven’t actually compared the pieces side-by-side, but there seems to be a difference between earlier copies of 1942 and more recent copies (at least as far as my limited experience goes). Has anyone else perchance noticed this?
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I don’t understand why people care about the pieces. Wouldn’t minis be more your thing if you were of that mindset?
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I don’t understand why people care about the pieces. Wouldn’t minis be more your thing if you were of that mindset?
You heretic! The game is the pieces! We shall burn you at the stake! :-D
More seriously now, when I got Revised me and my friends were really thrilled with the specific country pieces other than infantry (2nd edition only had different infantry). I don’t like minis but the game pieces had always a special feel to it. I got Xeno’s World at War a while ago and those were crap pieces. I guess there can be a relation between how good a game is by the amount of detail that was added into it.
I don’t think there’s that big of a difference between aa50 or 1942. Some pieces are better on 1942, some of aa50’s are close to crap, the large US BB on 1942 is nice but since the board is already too small… at the end of the day, as long as there’s some quality on the pieces, this sort of discussion usually happens more because people got axes to grind against a particular game.
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I pretty much agree with Hobbes here… And in regard to the size difference - I actually swapped my '42 Battleships and a couple others with my 50th, since the board is much bigger and could more easily house the bigger pieces.
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A little background: I have played Axis & Allies for 15 years, and own multiple copies of every edition – including a still in shrinkwrap copy of Nova Games Axis & Allies. I also own many of the expansions, including some rare ones. I believe that I bring a good viewpoint to the table, but that is just my own opinion and feel free to disagree. This piece is intended to be supportive towards the 1942 edition, not critical of the Anniversary edition. I hope I have been clear in this regard.
I was a little late to the AA50 party, not buying my 2 copies until this year. After reading all the bashing of the 1942 edition, I was a little hesitant to purchase it but went for it anyway and was blown away with the quality of the plastic pieces – the best in any Axis & Allies game, I believe. I then purchased my AA50 games (1 shrinkwrapped, 1 opened but all pieces sealed and unpunched)
I hate to say this, but I’d like to know what most of you have been smoking – because it is some powerful stuff. The fabled “component quality” of the AA50 edition was sadly missing – the board is paper thin and prone to warping, the box is too big to not get damaged in transit, and most glaringly the pieces are HORRIBLE. I need to photograph the pieces side by side, but the 1942 US battleship is a good 4mm bigger than the AA50 US battleship, and my pieces were uniformly smaller and had flashing/molding problems. The ONLY piece that I saw that approached 1942 quality was the Italian tank (good size and width). In every other respect, 1942’s pieces are much superior.
In defense of AA50, the counters and play aids are marvelous – and the player receives counters for damage, etc, which is great. However, we don’t buy the game because it has nice cardboard – we buy it for a great board and great plastic pieces. In this respect Axis & Allies 1942 comes through with amazing pieces. In future reprints, I would kill the bottom charts on the game map and make Europe larger, but that is up to Avalon Hill.
You can find Axis & Allies 1942 for around $20-25 in most places and for that price it is a bargain. All I can say is, I love that Hasbro keeps producing more Axis & Allies games because it gives US, as consumers, the ability to pick and choose what we like among them and purchase those we value. I don’t understand when people talk about corporate greed – that would be Hasbro just producing 1 version and charging $150 for it, not 5-6 different copies, most under $30 – which is the price of a couple of meals. Thank you Hasbro – and I don’t mind paying more for a better product!
I agree completely. The cardboard pieces in AA50 are great. I love the damage markers for the ICs and actually scanned them front and back, printed them, and made some for AA42. I do not mind the map size. The spaces are only a little crowded when pieces are moved into an enemy occupied territory so the crowding doesn’t last too long, imho. I love this game. Played 2 rounds last night and 1 today before the Allies player decided to quit. Game is set up and ready to go for tomorrow. Can’t wait.
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However, we don’t buy the game because it has nice cardboard – we buy it for a great board and great plastic pieces.
Okay I buy it for a the game not the pieces. Like I like those things and I think that some powers should have more pieces like the USSR need more bombers, but I don’t freak out about what the pieces look like, other then those ugly Russian battleships.
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Fair enough, on all accounts. '42 is still a great game. :-)
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yeah italy (southren europe) needs to be 2 territories that is the only change i would make. maybe split russia (moscow) into 2 territories The pieces are nice and the board is great i have no prob with no money i like the pu counter at the bottom and just slide the marker to the pu valeu as it changes. I use a calculator anyway so 42 is nice but it real cheap compared to europe and pacific together which i want but cant afford
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@aaaaaa2011:
yeah italy (southren europe) needs to be 2 territories that is the only change i would make. maybe split russia (moscow) into 2 territories The pieces are nice and the board is great i have no prob with no money i like the pu counter at the bottom and just slide the marker to the pu valeu as it changes. I use a calculator anyway so 42 is nice but it real cheap compared to europe and pacific together which i want but cant afford
I agree with your map alterations, and I’d also divide up China a little more…
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terrific, couldnt have said it better myself
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