Learning History With AA Europe (1999)

Timid is the wrong approach. That game is broken for about 20 years. Just buy all tanks as Germany. First take Leningrad and in 2 more turns, Moscow. People still play it because they like to get in as many wins as they can and beat noobs. Axis and Allies Europe 1940 is a vastly superior game.

@Imperious-Leader said in Learning History With AA Europe (1999):

Timid is the wrong approach. That game is broken for about 20 years. Just buy all tanks as Germany. First take Leningrad and in 2 more turns, Moscow. People still play it because they like to get in as many wins as they can and beat noobs. Axis and Allies Europe 1940 is a vastly superior game.

What are you doing being up this early in the morning ? Trolling ?

@Conni_Hu good day and welcome to the forum.
I loved this game and played it a lot when it came out.

As Germany, you really have to go for Russia, if you want to win. Spending too much on navy, will make it near impossible to conquer Moscow. You need to have a one track mind: Moscow! Tanks are the most useful unit, but you will still need cheaper Inf and Art.

As the Allies, capturing France is imperative. You need Germany to split its income between two fronts and France is worth a lot of income.
Britain will suffer at first and just needs to hang on and be patient. America is on the way.

I hope your assignment works and your enjoyment of the game continues.

@Conni_Hu This is a different sort of thread, but there have been instances of user of this site using A&A as a teaching tool before, here’s some actual answers to your questions:

@Conni_Hu said in Learning History With AA Europe (1999):

My question is this:
When you play the game, how do you feel?

Depends on the faction:

• Germany: Powerful, but boxed in and on a time limit to win before the full might of the Allies overcomes you.

• Soviets: The old saying “trade space for time” applies here. You are desperately weak, and need to stall for time until your allies can help you build up enough strength to resist Germany.

• British: In this game, you feel like a minor partner, constantly in-danger of losing the homeland to a potential German invasion and not particularly able to do anything of importance right away. By time the threat to the homeland is gone, you feel like your presence is irrelevant compared with the Americans and Russians.

• USA: Weak initially, but with unlimited potential due to its economy not really being threatened by Germany in any way. However, you feel like you are on a very strict time limit to win, as Germany will overpower the Soviets quickly if nothing is done to defeat the Nazis.

Second question:
Do you think it makes strategic sense to invade the Soviet Union at the beginning of the game (as a German) and to do a D-Day Reloaded as an American/British?

As others have said, the entire point of this game is the “Operation Barbarossa” campaign of Germany Vs. USSR. Attacking the British is not recommended.

General Points:

• Europe 1999 is not a very balanced game, but that should not matter for your use of the game as a teaching tool.

• This game may only cover the 1941-1945 period of the war, but the game board does contain fairly accurate 1930s borders for Europe. With this in mind, you can create your own starting setups for this game to simulate earlier periods in the war, or even the prewar period, with players like France, Czechoslovakia, Italy, Poland, etc. It won’t do a good job of handling more minor incidents like the German seizure/re-militarization of the Rhineland or the affairs over the Sudetenland, Danzig, etc., but it’s better than nothing.

• The geography of the map does a good enough job of showing why the UK/France had dismal prospects of actually following through on their commitments to guard Czechoslovakia, which was totally landlocked and in central Europe, and Poland, which was surrounded by the hostile Germans and even-more-hostile (at the time) Soviets, with the only naval access point requiring passage through the German dominated Danish Straits.

• There is a “successor” of sorts to this game which begins with the Battle of France in 1940 and includes Italy and France as playable characters in addition to the four from this game. The title is, as you may have guessed, “Axis & Allies: Europe 1940”. As with other games in the series, the swastika/imagery of Hitler are not depicted, so you should be able to import it into Germany without issue. One point in 1940’s favor is that the earlier starting date gives all of the players more flexibility in deciding their overall strategies. Specifically, a German attack on the British Isles is feasible in this version, although it can be countered by a UK player who knows what they’re doing.

• The trade off for the Europe 1940 game is that, for the most part, individual countries are no longer explicitly given their own territories on the map. Some of central Europe and the Balkans are compressed in this way, with Austria/half of Czechoslovakia becoming “Greater Southern Germany”. and Romania/the other half of Czechoslovakia becoming “Slovakia Hungary”. Additionally, a full map of the Middle East, Africa and South America are included in addition to Europe/North America/European Russia/North Africa. This can be distracting, but could also help illustrate the massive colonial empire the British and French had, as well as highlight the importance of the North Africa campaign.

• One last thing: This is beyond the scope of the initial question, but there is another game in this series that covers World War 1 that isn’t very well known. The title is “Axis & Allies: 1914”, and it boasts a very detailed map of Europe/North Africa for the World War 1 period. For example, “Germany” is broken up into “Berlin”, “Prussia”, “Silesia”, “Munich”, “Ruhr”, “Alsace” and “Kiel”.

EDIT: Added some more info about the Europe 1940 game and another game you may find helpful. Hope this information helps.

@SS-GEN
“Europe 1999 is not a very balanced game, but …”