Hey all - I feel like I owe those who liked my channel and supported it the reasons why I stopped it - here they are and I apologize for abruptly leaving without communication.

There’s no one reason, so here goes:

1. My contractors that I hired to make the new War room did a sloppy job. They did many things that I didn’t notice until after I paid them. For example - none of the walls they put in are even square - my bathroom East wall is over an inch wider than the West wall. The doors they put in had no latches and when I put the latches in none of them would latch because the doors weren’t hung square. My windows still leak. Within two months the new toilet froze and busted, even though I drained most of it beforehand. This made me feel like a big fool and demotivated me to finish it.

I realized that I actually had an ideal setup in my old house, having the War Room in the basement. It had a poured foundation so no water leaks and stayed temperature controlled year round for free, because it was part of the house. This new room I have is in a outside metal building with no heat or air, and the expense of paying for all of that, plus paying to keep the room relatively warm/cool for only a once a month event seemed excessive. A consistent low humidity also is a factor when you have paper products associated with the game and wall posters that can take damage, which requires consistent heating/cooling.

2. My overly ambitious new map/rules project eventually swamped me. Making land and water in Photoshop is pretty easy. Filling in and naming hundreds of territories that each have their own terrain and weather, plus adding all the other improvements I wanted - without even knowing if they would be fun and balanced until tested and retested - is hard. Especially doing it without overcomplicating it. They say a genius is someone who can take something complicated and make it simple. I think I realized I’m no genius.

None of the guys in my play group even wanted a new map anyway - they just responded with blank looks when I told them I was making one. Remember, I hosted a monthly game night for 6 1/2 years. That’s almost 80 game sessions. Been there, done that. So if I wasn’t going to come up with something bigger/better, I had no interest in taking on all the work/expense of making a whole other room to do the exact same thing on the same old map I was bored with.

3. I respond poorly to criticism. I’m a perfectionist and very hard on myself already. I was getting youtube comments to watch my vids on fast speed because I talked too slow. I also had criticism that I couldn’t even pronounce Axis and Allies correctly, so how could my ideas be taken seriously? Despite my getting 20 good comments to one bad one, I still let the bad ones rankle me. So I started thinking, why am I doing all this just to get myself upset? Because I’m actually an introvert, I can’t talk fast and on the fly like other successful youtubers can, so I felt I should just back off and leave it to them.

4. This year I turned 60 years old. I realized I’m now in the fourth quarter of my life. This is a time when a man starts thinking of his legacy. What do I want to be remembered for? Do I want to be remembered as just as a guy obsessed with a game? Not just a game, but a game with the theme of the most destructive war in history. A war that killed over 60 million people and allowed Communism to spread halfway around the world, spawning later killing in wars like Korea and Vietnam.

Do I really want to spend my last days rolling dice, eating chips and chuckling over that? They say “war is sweet to them that know it not”. I was never in the military, but I have a friend who was an artillery man in Vietnam, and I can’t get him to play. Probably because he’s seen how horrible war really is. How foolish it seems to me now for me to try to shrink all of that death and misery down to my kitchen table and make a game of it with pretty cards and dice. Much less investing thousands into a dedicated room for it. I’ve read enough memoirs of WWII soldiers to know that they didn’t dream of fighting and glory. All they wanted was for it to stop, and to go home and live normal lives.

So that’s where I am now on the journey. I appreciate all of your support and use of my ideas. Although I (somewhat impulsively) deleted all my videos, the bulk of those ideas are still in the house rules you can download elsewhere here.

I still read the forums here occasionally, and get email notifications of chat messages from those who want to reach me, so I’m around - not dead or anything!

@dtodd3 Yes, although we haven’t played in a while since I’ve moved and have to build a new War Room.

Hey everybody - I’m pleased to announce that all the known kinks are finally out of my Progressive Arms Research system we’ve been game testing for three years - the whole thing is now for sale at Historical Board Gaming! You can adapt this system to work for any edition of Axis and Allies. You will get the full size professionally printed chart, complete rules, and copy cards.

Click the link here to see my explanation video and purchase…

http://www.historicalboardgaming.com/Progressive-Arms-Research-Chart-_p_2750.html

@all-encompassing-goose Sounds good - hope you have lots of fun with it!

I like the social aspect of it - it is a great game for getting a few guys around a table. When I want more history and detail, I play solitaire computer games like War in the East.

Hello all - a spare bedroom opened up in my basement and I’ve converted it into my own war room. � The centerpiece is Imperious Leader’s excellent 1942 map which I downloaded to a zip file and took to a local printer.

First an overall view of the table in the room:

Another view - propaganda posters and newspaper clippings from WWII are framed on the walls:

Next the ceiling: 2 strips of bright studio lights. A historic flag from each major nation in WWII is draped to the corners:

Handmade wood and felt dice rolling trays on both sides of the map keep the dice from hitting other pieces:

Handmade wooden trays for each nation:

This map on the wall is a copy of an actual German invasion map - circa Sept. 1942 - Stalingrad.

The closet was converted into a nook with a 40’s look. I keep all my extra pieces and game parts in the dresser below and the radio plays Cds with 40’s music:

A custom production chart at the head of the table - made of sheet metal with magnetic markers:

My custom battle-boards are double sided “attack” and “defense” to increase size and utility - each side of the table has it’s own that can be flipped over according to the situation:

�

Lastly, to avoid those disastrous game ending spills - everyone has his own cup holder under the table. House rule: no drinks on the table!

I’ve been wanting to something like this for 25 years - finally have the space and a good tolerant wife. Now the guys can play and just walk off and shut the door and it will all be there next time. Thanks again to Imperious Leader for the great map! � � �

We’ve done this before and it is a lot of fun. Instead of setting the game up over and over the same way, players each take 5-7 rounds doing an “Arms Buildup”. The amount of money you get to spend for units is inverse to the amount of starting income you have. (i.e. USA gets the least, USSR the most) During arms buildup, you do not need to place units where you have an Industrial Complex. Just put units anywhere within your borders and ships adjacent to friendly borders. After arms buildup ends, the war starts! 

I got a new toy - MS Publisher 2013 - man is it fun! I should have upgraded long ago. These will be our new reference cards for next game….they look a little fuzzy here but they print sharp.

Sorry these won’t work for any versions of Axis and Allies as my game is totally customized, but maybe they’ll give you some ideas…

I’m using the Spring 1942 map but you get the idea with global - it is adaptable - it gets fun because you see your opponent building up somewhere and then you have to react to that. It makes every game a new game with new starting strategies. We don’t find it necessary to put restrictions on what you buy. Each round of buildup you will be observing what others place out and can buy accordingly.

https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/topic/37321/der-kuenstler/6

Hey all - I feel like I owe those who liked my channel and supported it the reasons why I stopped it - here they are and I apologize for abruptly leaving without communication.

There’s no one reason, so here goes:

1. My contractors that I hired to make the new War room did a sloppy job. They did many things that I didn’t notice until after I paid them. For example - none of the walls they put in are even square - my bathroom East wall is over an inch wider than the West wall. The doors they put in had no latches and when I put the latches in none of them would latch because the doors weren’t hung square. My windows still leak. Within two months the new toilet froze and busted, even though I drained most of it beforehand. This made me feel like a big fool and demotivated me to finish it.

I realized that I actually had an ideal setup in my old house, having the War Room in the basement. It had a poured foundation so no water leaks and stayed temperature controlled year round for free, because it was part of the house. This new room I have is in a outside metal building with no heat or air, and the expense of paying for all of that, plus paying to keep the room relatively warm/cool for only a once a month event seemed excessive. A consistent low humidity also is a factor when you have paper products associated with the game and wall posters that can take damage, which requires consistent heating/cooling.

2. My overly ambitious new map/rules project eventually swamped me. Making land and water in Photoshop is pretty easy. Filling in and naming hundreds of territories that each have their own terrain and weather, plus adding all the other improvements I wanted - without even knowing if they would be fun and balanced until tested and retested - is hard. Especially doing it without overcomplicating it. They say a genius is someone who can take something complicated and make it simple. I think I realized I’m no genius.

None of the guys in my play group even wanted a new map anyway - they just responded with blank looks when I told them I was making one. Remember, I hosted a monthly game night for 6 1/2 years. That’s almost 80 game sessions. Been there, done that. So if I wasn’t going to come up with something bigger/better, I had no interest in taking on all the work/expense of making a whole other room to do the exact same thing on the same old map I was bored with.

3. I respond poorly to criticism. I’m a perfectionist and very hard on myself already. I was getting youtube comments to watch my vids on fast speed because I talked too slow. I also had criticism that I couldn’t even pronounce Axis and Allies correctly, so how could my ideas be taken seriously? Despite my getting 20 good comments to one bad one, I still let the bad ones rankle me. So I started thinking, why am I doing all this just to get myself upset? Because I’m actually an introvert, I can’t talk fast and on the fly like other successful youtubers can, so I felt I should just back off and leave it to them.

4. This year I turned 60 years old. I realized I’m now in the fourth quarter of my life. This is a time when a man starts thinking of his legacy. What do I want to be remembered for? Do I want to be remembered as just as a guy obsessed with a game? Not just a game, but a game with the theme of the most destructive war in history. A war that killed over 60 million people and allowed Communism to spread halfway around the world, spawning later killing in wars like Korea and Vietnam.

Do I really want to spend my last days rolling dice, eating chips and chuckling over that? They say “war is sweet to them that know it not”. I was never in the military, but I have a friend who was an artillery man in Vietnam, and I can’t get him to play. Probably because he’s seen how horrible war really is. How foolish it seems to me now for me to try to shrink all of that death and misery down to my kitchen table and make a game of it with pretty cards and dice. Much less investing thousands into a dedicated room for it. I’ve read enough memoirs of WWII soldiers to know that they didn’t dream of fighting and glory. All they wanted was for it to stop, and to go home and live normal lives.

So that’s where I am now on the journey. I appreciate all of your support and use of my ideas. Although I (somewhat impulsively) deleted all my videos, the bulk of those ideas are still in the house rules you can download elsewhere here.

I still read the forums here occasionally, and get email notifications of chat messages from those who want to reach me, so I’m around - not dead or anything!

@all-encompassing-goose Sounds good - hope you have lots of fun with it!

@coedewa Here you go…DK’s Progressive Arms Research Rules.pdf Sorry for your trouble!

interesting - thanks!

I was reading the rules for this edition today and it says you can win a standard victory by controlling 9 of 12 victory cities. There is no mention of capitals in the victory conditions.

Am I correct to say you can theoretically win this game without controlling any of the other side’s capitals?

@CWO-Marc Thank you for these insights and links - very helpful!

@GEN-MANSTEIN I’m interested in a bigger map - I just want to know it works well before going to all the effort and expense. Please send me your link when you live stream - thanks! (derkuenstlersden@zohomail.com)

I don’t get it. The UK, Russia, and Japan would logically be sitting at the top of your map closest to their capitals. But that would mean Germany could not even reach their own capital from their chair on the other side. I guess I would have to visit somebody with a big map to see it.

Confucius said “Too far is no better than not far enough.”

I’ve been seeing a lot of 4 X 8 maps out there. These obviously look impressive, but how do you practically play on them? How do you resolve the problem of not being able to reach across a 4 foot map? Where do you put all of your reference cards, battleboards, dice rollers, IPCs, and unit trays?

I can see a single guy or two doing this, spinning around to use additional tables for play aids and moving around the table, but what if you have six guys? Don’t you end up crashing into each other to get to distant parts of the map, charts, etc?