Color of the Pieces is Horrible

I’m also colour blind, but I really haven’t had much of a problem, though Americans in Rome when under siege by Austrians caused some squinting.

But there is something weird about the colours; French pieces for example in different lights can seem medium blue, dark blue or even bluish turqouise. I still haven’t decided if the UK pieces are green or tan.

But my preferred scheme is for all land tts to be a pale green colour, SZs a pale blue. Having each tt colour coded makes the board look very “toyish” as well as ugly; how many other wargames do the same thing?

I have no problem telling apart the pieces, colors, or anything like that.  The one problem that I do encounter is the light and dark chips.  In poor light, it is very difficult to tell them apart.  I am just going to use the old chips from the other versions of axis and allies.  white means 1, red 5, etc

Like Flashman I am also red/green colorblind

I however sold all but the Ottoman army pieces on ebay.  I didn’t want to learn new colors for each nation so I use
standard black Germany for Germany
green US for US
Tan Uk for UK
maroon Russia for Russia
Anzac color for Italy (use it that way in all my games) for Italy
ottoman for ottoman
I have a ton of yellow HBG pieces that I use for Austria / Hungry

Isn’t it actually just as confusing using yellow pieces for Austria?

Well im not colorblind and i love the colors

i also love the red/blue chip scheme

but i can see where your coming from if you have trouble seeing certain colors

@Flashman:

Isn’t it actually just as confusing using yellow pieces for Austria?

No why would it be?

@Shakespeare:

I am somewhat colorblind and when the dark board is setup with all the dark
pieces, I am lost. I can not easily tell the pieces apart from each other except for the UK and the Italians.

Even the dark dark blue French give me some problems becz the board is so dark that I don’t see the contrast  that helps to differentiate the colors from one nation’s unit to another.

I’ve already had to colorize the infantry units bases of the Russians with a yellow, the Ottomans with a red, the Austrians with a white, the Germans with a silver, the USA will have a bronze.

The other pieces of each country are colorized in some manner in the same color, but less so becz each army must be accompanied by the colored base infantry.

I believe I can leave the UK, Italian and French pieces as is.

Anyone else have this color problem?

Could you post a pic of all the colors you use? I’m curious to see the colors from your perspective.

@Shakespeare:

I am somewhat colorblind and when the dark board is setup with all the dark
pieces, I am lost. I can not easily tell the pieces apart from each other except for the UK and the Italians.

Even the dark dark blue French give me some problems becz the board is so dark that I don’t see the contrast  that helps to differentiate the colors from one nation’s unit to another.

I’ve already had to colorize the infantry units bases of the Russians with a yellow, the Ottomans with a red, the Austrians with a white, the Germans with a silver, the USA will have a bronze.

The other pieces of each country are colorized in some manner in the same color, but less so becz each army must be accompanied by the colored base infantry.

I believe I can leave the UK, Italian and French pieces as is.

Anyone else have this color problem?

Ha!  I’m colorblind too, red-green.  I actually had more problems with the original Axis and Allies 1942.  (The Japanese and British pieces, and Russian and U.S. pieces look very similar to me.  )  I do a lot better with WW1 1914.  Although the Ottoman and German pieces look fairly similar, I do okay for the most part.  Having different colored chips is a HUGE help with this game, because all the pieces that look slightly similar are on different sides.  Kudos to the game designers for that one.  8-)

Yeah, I also struggled with MB Axis and Allies - had to paint the Japanese bright yellow.

History of the World (Hasbro) had, inexplicably, two similar shades of green pieces. One of mine is now painted matt black. But we shouldn’t have to do this, after all most wargamers are male, and this disability is male only. Maybe they always hire women to design the colour schemes?

The chip colours need to be more distinct, certainly the blues.

@Flashman:

. But we shouldn’t have to do this, after all most wargamers are male, and this disability is male only. Maybe they always hire women to design the colour schemes?

I’m not sure how to break this to you but…women can be color blind as well…it’s okay if you need to sit down.

I was at Origins years ago and demoing some WoTC card games and they were all color based.
I explained that being color blind makes it really hard to play these games and asked what gives.  The people at the table told me Hasbro’s marketing and development team told them that is a major selling point to help people understand and learn the game.

They asked me how I managed to play Magic if I was color blind and I explained because each color has it’s own symbol, so as a color blind person I just ignore the color and go right to the symbol.  The people demoing the games did make a note of this and I’m sure reported this to someone, but I am also sure color blind people are such a small number in the grand scheme of Hasbro’s target audience it wasn’t worth them to make a change.

Only about 0.5% of women, which amounts to about 0.00001% of Axis and Allies players.

However 8% of men is a more serious proportion, and ought to be accommodated.

I only find the chips to be a problem, the national colors are not too bad.

I often get the Soviet and Italian pieces from Europe 1940 mixed up and I am not color blind.  I am not sure why they didn’t make the Soviets more red.

@Texas:

I often get the Soviet and Italian pieces from Europe 1940 mixed up and I am not color blind.  I am not sure why they didn’t make the Soviets more red.

Italians look like Japanese

@Uncrustable:

@Texas:

I often get the Soviet and Italian pieces from Europe 1940 mixed up and I am not color blind.  I am not sure why they didn’t make the Soviets more red.

Italians look like Japanese

In 1940?  I have never confused the Italians and Japanese in 1940.

I think he’s saying the 1914 Italians look like 1940 Japanese. I don’t see how confusing 1940 Italians and Japanese would be an issue as they’re on other sides of the board.

Agreed.  My point that I forgot to specifically mention was that I don’t think the colors are any worse than past games.

1914 Italians look like Japs.

1914 Russians look like 1940 Italians.

I do wish they would keep the same colors,

BUT…i do love the new UK color over the old UK