A plea!! Please help me play my favorite game.


  • Hi there,

    I’ve been away from the game and the boards on a long hiatus.

    basically I have a major problem which is preventing me from playing the game.

    I got into the game notlong ago when AA50 was released.  I got a few of my friends ‘into’ the game, for the first few sessions at least.

    Because we were beginners at the game, sessions did trudge on a bit.  Some in the region of 8 hours.  Even my dad and my brother played a few games with me, but ended up hating the game because we played until 3am and still didnt finish.

    Each game (probably because of our skill level) came down to a ‘germany buys ten tanks’ sludgefest.  Although, I did start to become a better player and was ending the game earlier.

    Things started to look up, game time was getting shorter.  I decided to take the plunge and buy Europe and Pac 40 to play global.  Needless to say my playtime issue has once again reared its head.

    Now, I am in a predicament.  Nobody will play the game anymore due to its huge time commitment.  I’m desperately seeking variants that reduce the game length or enforce a turn limit with victory points or something of that ilk a la twilight imperium.

    If anyone could help me out here i’d be forever grateful.

    Yours faithfully.

    A frustrated general.

  • Liaison TripleA '11 '10

    use an hourglass and impose a time limit per turn!

    And with some minor adjustments, you can make it so,  Germany and Japan play at the same time.  Especially if you enforce a house rule, that Russia and Japan cannot be at war until Germany is defeated.

    OR

    Just play the theatre level games individualy, until your friends CRAVE more Axis and Allies!


  • Dear frustrated General.  :mrgreen:

    I often find myself in the same predicament, so I’d like to share a few things that has worked well:

    The ultimate choice: Find likeminded people, who don’t mind spending their time on boardgames. I posted a few threads on a couple of boardgame forums in my country, and was fortunate enough to get new friends - amazingly enough with social antennas and a healty realtionship to soap and water!

    Have different players control nations that go after one another. I.E US/UK
    Attempt to have purchase ready before nation prior to you finish up. (Give leeway for changes ofc… I usually have Germany/Japan and US ready way ahead of my turn, changing as I see fit until I start combat moves)
    Set a time limit for different nations, buy a chessclock or something similar. Agree on a set time for nations, longer for the bigger nations etc. In certain parts of the game, Italy and Anzac will usually not affect each other… they might be taken at the same time. Russia and US while not at war can also do their stuff as Japan/UK does its - when deemed appropriate.
    Designate a guy as bank/IPC tracker/nat.objective/convoy raiding
    Let newcomers settle in with smaller nations
    If you are playing with 4 or more, cut down on discussions, try to start with an agreed startegy, have someone be commander in chief ;) Also, haggling about rules could take a looong time sorting out, so make sure you all are more or less into them. (ambiguous as they often are…)

    Hope that is somewhat helpful, best of luck on your games!


  • Learn to play online.


  • I like having a timer idea. It creates a bit of excitement in determining your purchases and movements as you are “on the clock”.

    I also think most of the first 1-2 rounds are or at least should be pretty much pre-determined.  It helps if in the early going people play the same nation a few times in a row so that you can minimize the learning curve of implementing that nation’s strategy.

    1. Germany
    2. Soviet Union
    3. Japan
    4. US/China/UK
    5. Anzac/Italy
    6. France

    That shortens the turn order a bit and really doesn’t conflict too much.  Just try to be sure someone isn’t controlling China/US/UK all at the same time.  Better to have 2-3 people managing those 3 countries than just 1.

    The biggest key I can give you is to eliminate table talk during the round.  No talking except between each round.  Give a 10 minute window between rounds for bathroom, refreshments, smokes, and strategy.  Each side leaves the board for 5 minutes so the other can talk shop over the board.

    It also helps to have a pen and paper and write down your moves and whats coming from where beforehand.  The greatest plans never turn out exactly right, but at worst you have a record of what you missed, what worked and notes around what happened.  At best you have a speedy plan to move through the game.  In example, its really frustrating waiting for Italy to decide what to do with its fleet on Round 1, so the strategy should be pre-planned with contingencies for what the UK decides to do instead of spending 15 minutes debating, 10 minutes deciding and less than 5 minutes moving / rolling dice.


  • try guadalcanal!  it’s the best one yet


  • Thanks for your replies, although i’ve tried most of the suggestions you have made except maybe changing the turn order.  I wasnt sure if any balance issues would result from changing the turn order.

    I’m currently in the process of finding more people to play with but as someone mentioned, soap and water + random boardgaming enthusiasts are had to come by.  Sure I can hit up my local games workshop and ask there, but i’m repelled by hygene issues.

    I was more thinking along the lines of a variant that ends the game after a predetermined number of turns and counts up victory points somehow.  Has anyone played to a certain number of victory cities?  Perhaps reducing this number will help.  But with a beast a large as this i’m worried changing rules will affect balance.


  • I play AAG40 to some success. I think you need to impose a time limit and be sure there are no distractions. I like the Germany/Japan at the same time deal, but when you have 2 players it obviously wouldn’t work.


  • At lrast you know what to get them for Christmas,  good luck on finding a good group

  • '17 '16 Customizer

    My sons and I will play a round or two an evening. Sometimes it take almost a month to complete a game, but we don’t get burned out on it that way. It helps having a room I can leave the game up in too. We have been connecting up w/ others through these forums and playing 12-14 hours games! That works too!


  • What I do over summer when I play with my dad is we roll for the opponent and take turns at our leisure.

  • TripleA

    TRIPLE A !!!

    if you want quicker games TRIPLE A  !!!

    you can play axis and allies on triple a. the dice rolling is in the program, you move the pieces by click and drag, it has a history, no typing, built in calculator. etc etc etc. great program. you get much faster games.

    played a 10 round AA50 game in 3 hours. :D


  • @Maddog77:

    My sons and I will play a round or two an evening. Sometimes it take almost a month to complete a game, but we don’t get burned out on it that way. It helps having a room I can leave the game up in too. We have been connecting up w/ others through these forums and playing 12-14 hours games! That works too!

    This is a good idea.  I could leave it set up for a while and play by forum.

    How would I go about doing that?  Could anyone direct me to the correct area?

    Cheers.

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