@thrasher1 said in Renegade Con Virtual: Axis and Allies:
The winner of ‘Pick your Battle’ is:
North Africa
https://renegadegamestudios.com/blog/axis-allies-pick-the-battle-vote-results-are-in-/
I love this choice. Great theater of operations, tons of active participants, hopefully some new sculpts…
Dave, I’m active on quite a few forums for different topics and have noticed that there tends to be a lifecycle, and some manage that transition well while others fail.
For a forum to thrive, it needs to have activity, which drives users to come back and engage. If there aren’t any new topics or discussions, traffic starts waning and users leave.
A common mistake is to have too many specialized sub-forums, which lead to postings sporadically specifically related to that sub-topic. Again, vicious cycle which reduces activity. The most active forums tend to have just a main discussion area, with perhaps one or two specialized sub-forum for topics that might clutter the main forum (for Axis & Allies, this might be TripleA and variants discussion sub forums). However, everything else could be in one main forum, with perhaps a tag to identify which game(s) you are discussing.
I’m just trying to drive traffic and spark interest again in this forum.
“Raiding” other games is fairly common practice in A&A, and there’s an easy solution for Renegade Games.
For any game that includes new sculpts, just make them for all the powers! For example, Axis & Allies Zombies included cards for 1942, I could easily see a A&A North Africa game introduce, say, a Tank Destroyer piece with sculpts for the US, Italy, Germany, and the UK. It would be child’s play to include 4 more sculpts in that box, for France, Japan, USSR and Anzac.
That means that everyone who owns Global 40 would want to buy it ($$$), and everyone who owns A&A North Africa already has “pieces” for Global 40 and is incentivized to buy that next. Win win win!
Thanks so much!! I’m about to print out your AA50 map with the modifications to Australia and Italian East Africa, pondering if there are any other changes I’d like to have before I have it made (neoprene).
Perhaps sea zone 66… :grin:
I think we are on the same page, but I still believe that you are overlooking a huge chunk of the cost (and complexity). Let me explain:
The majority of the “cost” of the modern Axis & Allies games (or any board game, for that matter) is transportation cost of the size and weight of the box, with the actual components (paper/plastic/cardboard) as the secondary driver. These games are made and boxed in China, then packed in containers for oceanic shipping. Those are priced by the cubic foot, of course. Once they arrive stateside, they are loaded into trucks or trains (price per pallet), taken to distribution centers, and from there shipped in smaller mixed loads to stores, or mailed via a common carrier (all based on size/weight.
I think it is critical to divorce the boards, which make up a huge chunk of “cost” when taking this into account, from the game. We already have Axis & Allies 1941 as an example, assuming that Hasbro/Renegade is making some profit then about $25 is a fair expectation for 200 pieces + board/rules/box.
Your pricing, for a G40 player, would be as follows:
Axis & Allies Base - $30 (a bit more expensive than 41 as it would have a few more pieces - injection molded plastic isn’t wildly expensive however).
Axis & Allies Advanced - $30 (I can’t drop the price any cheaper than 1941, as the components are quite similar - map + some pieces, but the board is bigger)
Axis & Allies Global - around $60 (the pieces are minimal, but the combined weight of the boards drives much of this price)
Here is the problem - your hypothetical G40 player HAS to spend $30 extra for Italy + some minor pieces, and ends up with a map that they don’t really need or use. Here’s my solution:
Axis & Allies Base - $30 (as above)
Axis & Allies Advanced - $25 (pieces ONLY - nothing else. Small box, about half the size of the 1941 box, with about 600 - 700 pieces). Smaller size = less cost.
Axis & Allies Games - as most of these are map and rules only, they can actually be a bit thinner than the current boxes , but still sufficient to stand on a shelf. Each one of these assumes you own #1, and some will have to explicitly state if you need to own #2. Of course, if any new pieces are introduced they will be included here.
This also neatly avoids the issues of a game that requires Italy + other advanced pieces requiring a customer to purchase 4 games, under your system. For example, Axis & Allies North Africa. A buyer in your system would need the base game, plus advanced for Italy, plus G40 for all of the mechanized infantry, French pieces etc, PLUS the actual North Africa game. That sounds like game DLC hell.
Meanwhile, my system would just required base + advanced plus the actual game. No need to have an AA50 board and a G40 board taking up space in your house because you don’t need it!
You are very welcome! It was a great thing that NA came out with a French tank - a gift to 1940 players :)
I think there’s room for two new pieces in this condensed, zoomed in map: self-propelled artillery and tank destroyers.
For the Germans, it would be the SiG 33 and StuG III, respectively, and for the US it would be the M7 Priest / M10 Wolverine. The UK could use the Bishop, and either recycle the M10 sculpt (they used it as the Achilles) or perhaps the slightly later war Archer. Italy I’m unsure of, but I’m sure they have a couple models that would work.
Edit: did my research, for a self propelled artillery piece I’d select the Semovente da 90/53, and for the anti-tank I’d pick the Semovente da 75/18. The Italians called both kinds “self-propelled guns”, hence the similarity of naming.
Also; Vichy France will be in this game, please please give us a French tank!
@vodot said in Renegade Con Virtual: Axis and Allies:
@black_elk solid post. I like the wider view of the first map much more, which would allow for ocean at the extreme left - Casablanca has to be on the map, I think, along with Cyprus and Salermo.
Agreed 100% - besides, they can also stretch/skew the map a bit and make it conform to a slightly taller board, rather than one that is wide but narrow. Here’s what I would have as the board:
Each game is different - out of the “battle” series of games, I prefer D-Day/Bulge/Guadalcanal, but that doesn’t mean Guadalcanal is the worst, it is just the 3rd place game in that lineup.
I honestly don’t get why AA50 is so revered - the pieces suck compared to AA42, the map is somewhat flimsy - but it has a HUGE box… yay.
What I did with my set of AA50 was buy 2 sets of AA42 at Target ($15 each, $30 total!) and was able to throw in LOTS of extra chips, and completely swapped out the US/UK/Germany/USSR/Japan pieces for the much better AA42 ones. The control markers and the charts are nice, but we buy Axis & Allies for the plastic pieces! Otherwise, we have warehouses full of thick, counter-based games to choose from.
Just my $0.02 - and in my opinion, the AAP40 and AAE40 games ROCK - I will buy 3 sets of AAE40 just for the pieces alone! (Finally - French & Italians!)
Nate, could I ask a huge favor - could you edit the Version 4 map file for me and remove all of the RCs? No other changes, I’d like to print it out but without those as a very nice vendor on Etsy (ummm… you!) made me a buttload of 3d printed pieces :)
You are very welcome! It was a great thing that NA came out with a French tank - a gift to 1940 players :)
Well, France doesn’t start with a mechanized inf in 1940, and therefore doesn’t really buy them.
You can use the CMP truck from North Africa, that resembles the Citroen trucks in 1940.
Get the tanks from North Africa! They are absolutely beautiful, that way you have those.
Europe 1940 First Edition had US 105mm Artillery as well.
Not sure how that changes my response, they haven’t made these in years. They aren’t magically going to find 200 pieces :)
No. These were made several years ago and there are no plans to make them again.
You didn’t find them, then. Look under Battle Pieces at Historical Board Gaming, they made a unique set of French blue sculpts several years ago.
The only issue is most of them are out of stock, but sometimes they pop on eBay. North Africa has unique Somua S35 tanks, by the way.
@Krieghund Fantastic! I’ll delete my edits then, only one note - the Soviet/French fighter is always a Yak 3, the MiG 3 is very different and was never used in A&A.
Checking in at this point, anything jumping out so far @AndrewAAGamer or @Ragnell804 ?
@djensen 100% I was wrong!
I’m now a playtester for this, so I cannot comment, but it is an Axis & Allies game… and I will buy it :)
Hi everyone - looking for as many tanks and artillery from Europe 1940 1st edition (US Sherman and US 105mm) as possible.
I’m willing to swap 1:1 for Europe 1940 2nd edition pieces AND pay you $1 per piece as well as cover shipping. Let me know how many you have!