Hello, I am CentralCommando, and I am a Axis and Allies fanatic.
My top three A&A games are:
Europe 1940 2nd Edition (1)
Axis and Allies Revised 2004 (2, don’t judge me.)
Axis and Allies Classic 1982 (3)

I hope this forum has a great future!

@Narvik said in Axis & Allies .org 2026 Support Drive:

The decline in love of A&A is sad. 10 years ago there were like 100+ patrons, now only 20.

I think a major reason why interest has mostly died out is that there hasn’t been a “broad appeal” A&A game since 2012 (which looking through the forums history, seemed to be one of the most popular times of its life). As much fun as having specific theater games and super large maps, they only really appeal to a select group of people (mostly long time A&A players). While there definitely was world map bloat in the late 2000s/early 2010s, I feel they kind of need one now as these titles will only continue to fade from the public eye.

While it may feel redundant to longtime players, a World/Europe map at the same or lower complexity as AA42 Second Edition would be the best choice. Of course the rules could be different, like having D12 battles, different Tank weights, etc. but it should still be digestible to the general masses. However, the most important thing they need to do is ADVERTISE. Besides sharing in already existing A&A communities, Renegade has not been advertising their games at all. YouTube ads, banner ads, maybe even sponsors or just something to get the word out. They NEED to advertise this game, as we really need a new generation of A&A players to expand the community, and THEN we can do more theater and complex games.

A new generation of players means a larger community, who will then play more advanced titles as they get more into the game franchise. I hope the series ultimately makes a comeback, but without a massive campaign like this, I’m not so sure it will.

Sorry if I went on a bit of a rant here, but this is just my opinion on the matter.

@Darth-Vahl The latter part of the description threw me for a loop, but no he cannot play this move, as the ship isn’t in a friendly seazone (at least, during a battle). Hope this helped!

(I had a bit of trouble deciding what category to put this in, so if you believe this is in the wrong category mods, please let me know. This is also my first dedicated topic!)

Axis & Allies is my favorite board game franchise of all time, and have been playing since I was seven (A&A 2004 was my first game). I know I’m not the only one who grew up with A&A, and I feel that the great amount of titles released for this game built an entire generation of players, and led to the game fostering a large community, much of which is found on these forums.

However, I feel like there hasn’t been many new players recently. Sure, you have the occasional new account here and there, but they almost always have been long time players, which brings me to this conclusion: there really isn’t a new generation of Axis & Allies strategists. There is a good reason behind this, that being the fact there hasn’t been a “wide appeal” A&A since 2012. Fourteen years ago. Since then, we only really got theater games or heavy-mechanical games, which are great don’t get me wrong, but they were specifically targeted to already existing fans of the series. That’s why in a previous thread, I went on a mini-tirade about this very topic, which I’ll link here: https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/topic/42216/axis-allies-org-2026-support-drive/28

As suggested by @Narvik , I decided to make this a dedicated forum topic to here everyone’s thoughts on my main question: How would you make an A&A game that would appeal to a new generation? I personally would make the scale global and complexity roughly around AA42 Second EDITION, Maybe add a distinction for light & heavy tanks and remove cruisers, along with fixing the balancing of units such as AAA guns. For a starting date, I’d personally make it 1941 (Barbarossa or Pearl Harbor time is fine). Perhaps you could add Italy if you wanted a 3v3, but otherwise just use the traditional five powers. The style could swing either way, but I’d prefer if we got the classic landscaping and more vivid colors. But, what are your thoughts on this? Let me know!

@SeaYa said in 👋 Introduce or Re-Introduce Yourself (Current):

A wealth of knowledgable folks, a volume of information, and a wonderful community of fellow players awaits!

I have never seen such a perfect introduction to the forums quite like this one. Get an upvote, you!

@djensen These fricking bots, man!

I’ve won many games of out-of-box 1914 as the CP against far less experienced opponents. That’s why in the most recent video, I removed that as a factor and assume both sides are being played by ‘grandmasters’.

@The_Good_Captain Hence is why the best way (imo) to test out a game’s balance is soloplay. It helps to eliminate experience curves as there’s no better opponent than yourself. You’ll make a similar amount of genius moves and mistakes no matter the side, which allows you to figure out the general imbalancing and how to improve.

Using A&A 1914 and a relevant YouTuber as an example, The Hilltop Pillbox has a long series of solo play games of A&A 1914 (as well as others), and yet nine out of ten times the Entente win. Main point is, no matter your skill, you are the greatest (and worst) person playing.

Despite the hiccup with the title, great & informative video! Content like yours almost makes me want to make my own A&A videos!

@Commando-Brado Greetings, fellow commando!

@dazedwit I’d say those are good additions to the game! However, Diego Garcia was a part of the British colony of Mauritius since the Napoleonic Wars, just economically the island was administered by a private company. Personally I like to move the 1 IPC from Southern Australia to Solomon Islands, as it would be a nod to Guadalcanal and various battles that took place there. Neat ideas though.

@Charles-Fontaine Egypt and Union of South Africa were British Dominions, Tunisia was a French protectorate.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Egypt_under_the_British
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_protectorate_of_Tunisia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_of_South_Africa

Dang, the map is larger than 8GB and a 91-page rulebook? Holy smokes that’s massive! Thanks for the rulebook.

@The_Good_Captain I understand your perspective, but as you said in your video (and this topic), It mostly comes down to a skill difference. Soloplay is good when testing balance as you are in the same headspace as your opponent, which means you’ll be fighting at the same skill level. Games “seeming the same” is actually a good tell on how balanced a game is. For example, if the Axis win more often than not, even if you change up your strategies, then the game is Axis-biased. Get rid of/move a couple Axis units or add Allied ones and see if it changes the outcome. You keep doing this until either the Allies win roughly half of time or if they greatly surpass the Axis. If the latter is true, reverse the trend. Also, make sure to ever so slightly change your strategy every playthrough, and then have games where you measure the impact of responding to that strategy or not as the enemy.

I mostly only do Solo play if I’m playtesting/balancing a game, or if I’m lonely. It’s almost always better to play with other people when you can, but for solely balance purposes Solo play is the way to go in my book. Also, no offense taken!

@barnee Hi Barnee

I personally use Tabletop Simulator to avoid printing, but TripleA definitely streamlines the process of already existing games. I’m glad you enjoy that app!

I’ve won many games of out-of-box 1914 as the CP against far less experienced opponents. That’s why in the most recent video, I removed that as a factor and assume both sides are being played by ‘grandmasters’.

@The_Good_Captain Hence is why the best way (imo) to test out a game’s balance is soloplay. It helps to eliminate experience curves as there’s no better opponent than yourself. You’ll make a similar amount of genius moves and mistakes no matter the side, which allows you to figure out the general imbalancing and how to improve.

Using A&A 1914 and a relevant YouTuber as an example, The Hilltop Pillbox has a long series of solo play games of A&A 1914 (as well as others), and yet nine out of ten times the Entente win. Main point is, no matter your skill, you are the greatest (and worst) person playing.

Despite the hiccup with the title, great & informative video! Content like yours almost makes me want to make my own A&A videos!

@Sese17 It’s okay! I just wanted to clarify what the games were and my preference when it comes to buying.

@Sese17 Wich Witch?

But in all seriousness, Grandmaster Axis & Allies (Also known as Axis & Allies or Axis & Allies MB or Axis and Allies Classic) is a slightly simpler and revised version of the Nova Games version. If you’re looking to buy one of them, I’d recommend Axis & Allies Classic.

@djensen These fricking bots, man!

@SeaYa Honestly, that’s probably a great way to bring Axis & Allies to the big screen! A strategy-fps hybrid (mostly strategy) where users can start off on a game board doing standard A&A movements before going into a small map where every unit is directly controlled by a player (or players), axing luck near-entirely and making the game purely based on skill. That’s actually a very good idea for a game, I’m almost tempted to make it a reality, though I don’t know too much about coding in 2D, let alone 3D…

Regardless, that’s a good idea! Thank you for sharing.

@Bolfry FISHY FISHY!

@barnee Yeah, but not only are the chances of a fighter landing there is slim, China also can never land units on that territory as it is without a navy. Even so, why would China move units there? It isn’t worth any IPCs.

While Hainan is Chinese, I don’t really see a reason to make a Chinese core when it has no effect on gameplay. I personally vote no.

@Narvik

It may be because it’s far down in the forums (though, my initial post got three likes), though it’s the most suitable category. Hopefully people who read this post add their commentary and add their takes.

I agree with a lot of what you said, but there’s a glaring issue that I mentioned previously: those games are perceived to be old. Even with a massively advertised game, it’s still at least a fourteen year old (or eighteen for anniversary, dang how is it already that old?) While a repackaged version of those games would be nice, it kinda feels cheap and lazy to current fans (which I know reaching a new base is the point) so a good balance of old mechanics and new mechanics without making the game too complex and to give both communities a new & worthwhile game. I’m still surprised that there hasn’t been a mainline entry with Light/Heavy Tank distinctions and/or Commandos.

No matter what the game looks like though, they NEED to advertise the Board game. As annoying as they are, create ads, give out sponsorships, use the newish technology at their disposal and use it to their advantage. Give the kids of today and tomorrow “boardgame night” that they could enjoy!

Also, I’m glad you share my opinion that A&A 2004 is the best boardgame ever made!