Posts made by Narvik

@The_Good_Captain

Hi Ryan, it looks like you were an official playtester in Renegades North Africa and Stalingrad versions, maybe even more games that I’m not aware of. So I got some questions. How exactely does the playtesting works? It’s basically an economic game based on math, so it would make sense to use computers, AI, data etc to sort out the patterns. And propably thousands of human playtesting games to include the human factor too. And yet still all games are imbalanced or bugged. Many A&A versions have second editions and erratas to try to fix some of the worst imbalances and bugs, but will A&A ever be a perfect game?

@The_Good_Captain

Right, 5 years in the military make me read everything literally, letter for letter, to the letter, if you will. Unfortunately I don’t have power to make you edit your Headline to “I know 5 versions of A&A that surely are imbalanced” so I just move on. I let it go. Not my business.

I am aware of your YT Channel and have watched some, not all, and you have done a good job. I’m not a competitive player so I’m not qualified to comment on most of them. But as a history buff and vet I don’t appreciate silly game mechanics or rules that produce results which don’t make sense in the context of the historical setting, like Submarines shooting down Aircrafts, Trannies sinking Battleships, which was an issue with MB Classic but that have been fixed in later versions. I do like the rules and mechanic to be streamlined for ease of play, and IMHO Infantry shold always cost 3 IPC and not 2 like in N.A, and why do we need so many different Supply rules? Battle of the Bulge had one type of Supply, then North Africa had another type of Supply rule, and now Stalingrad have another Supply rule. And what about Road movement? In Battle of the Bulge everything on wheels move unlimited, in North Africa vehicles move 5 spaces, and in Stalingrad some vehicles move 2+2 spaces on the road. But StugIII and the truck with Katusjas only move 1 even they got the same engine as other vehicles. Don’t make sense to me. And then there is the scripted games. Like in Stalingrad Russian Infantry is restricted form moving in the first 2 rounds because Stalin had OCD and said not one step back. When I play Russia I am not Stalin, and I want my Infantry to move back, but silly rules prevent me. Enouch, maybe I’ll comment on some of your other threads some time. Take care and keep up the good work.

@The_Good_Captain

OK we are cool. My next post will be on the balance and bugs issue. Your statement is that adding one UK Infantry here (Anniversary) and removing a Ge Tank and Sub there (Europe) will fix the balance issue. You are not wrong, but as far as I’m conserned bidding have been taking care of that since 1988.

Looking forward to your next investigation. You now have finished 5 and only 14 more versions to cover.

@The_Good_Captain

The Headline of the video read “Rating Imbalance” Now if you had used that Headline in the Thread too I would’nt have derailed your thread. I’ve played A&A since 1988 and totally agree with your investigation. But of course you had to use “Every versions” and “All versions” and that is not correct. You have so far investigated 5 versions, and we don’t even know what Anniversary edition. Is it the 20th, 25th, 50th Avalon Hill or 40th Anniversary version? That matters.

FYI: As of 2026 there are 19 spin-off versions. 4 are updated or expanded versions of the global Classic. 5 are Theater games. 4 are local games of specific battles. 1 is WWI and 1 is Zombie apocalypse. The Video-games, online games and A&A Minis are kept outside of this.

List of all versions
1981 Nova ed Global
1984 MB Classic Global
1999 AH Europe Theater
2001 AH Pacific Theater
2004 AH D-day Local
2004 AH Revised 20th Anniversary ed Global
2006 AH Battle of the Bulge Local
2007 AH Guadalcanal Local
2008 AH Avalon Hill 50th Anniversary Global
2009 AH 1942 25th Anniversary ed Global
2009 AH Pacific 1940 Theater
2010 AH Europe 1940 Theater + Global when combined with Pacific
2012 AH 1941 Global
2012 AH 1942 second ed Global
2012 AH Pacific 1940 second ed
2012 AH Europe 1940 second ed Theather + Global when combined
2013 AH WWI 1914 Global (for some reason)
2018 AH Zombies Global
2024 Renegade North Africa Theater
2024 Renegade 40th Anniversary ed 1941/42 Global
2025 Renegade Stalingrad Local

Now when you have analyzed and investigated all the games on the list, then you can claim “Every game” and “All games” and I will comply.

Also your investigation is adressed to the expert players that play competitive. I don’t know how many that is. I figure 99% of the A&A community are casual players with a military power fantasy that also are plastic piece junkies, that played with Airfix miniatures as kids and now is a step up the ladder. To back up this:
A&A MB Classic is the best selling physical wargame ever with one million copies sold by 1998, and 2 millions sold by 2008. (if we can belive Wiki) But A&A online only have 11 000 ranked players. And if you play competitive at Tournaments just how many expert players do you spot? Right, my point is valid.

Sorry for the derailing but be careful next time you make a Headline that is in-correct.

@CentralCommando

I remember when A&A Minis come in 2005, some players had the main movements on the Revised 2004 ed map, but resolved the battles with the Minis. You are basically suggesting the same, but switch the Minis with a First Shooter Game online. Could be fun.

@The_Good_Captain

As of 2026 there are 19 spin-off games in the A&A franchise. You only investigated 5 of them. Also we are aware of the imbalance and bugs, and that is why we have bidding. No games are strictly balanced, not even Chess. If you start with white pieces in Chess you got the advantage. If you go first in Monopoly you got an advantage. Your study is not wrong, I appreciated it, and would like to see you do all the 19 spin-offs. You shold also look into the Tournament Rules, like LHTR, etc, and joined with bidding the games get fairly balanced, That said, the casual A&A player, like the casual Chess player, don’t play competitive. 99% of the A&A Community love to fool around with the plastic pieces and don’t mind any imbalances. We play for fun. Now keep that in mind.

I’m a Boomer and when I grew up all kids were outdoor playing soccer, or climbing in threes or playing boardgames. My grand kids that are zoomers and Gen Alfa are always indoor, behind a pc, and their parents need to arrange a play date if they want to go over to their friends. I belive the last generations are lost to our cause

I was an adult the first time I played the famous A&A MB Classic edition in 1988, Now that was a great game, plastic soldiers and a beautiful map, simple rules easy to learn, and a lifetime to master. The Classic rules didn’t always produce results which made sense in the contest of the historical setting, like Submarines shooting down lots of Aircrafts, and Transports sinking lots of Battleships, so of course revisions and House Rules followed. I suspect the designer never joined the Navy nor Airforce so basically it was an Infantry game, and still is. The Ships and Aircrafts behave like Infantry because it need to be simplistic streamlined for ease of play. So I was told. Also the game balance was not fair, but what game is? In Chess white is favoured, and in Monopoly the first to go is favoured, and in Risk the owner of America always win. Anyway that could be solved with bidding. Then the Tournaments startet and LHTR solved the problems. Great fun.

I figure that Europe 1999 ed and Pacific 2001 ed was the golden age. Streamlined rules and beatiful maps with light colors but they could not be joined into a Global game and that was a misfortune. Then we got Revised 2004 ed with black water and black German pieces and really dark colors on everyting, but the game play and playability was superb. Best game ever. Except from the too dark colors.

My favourites are 50th Anniversary and Europe 2 ed and Pacific 2 ed. The only but is the high cost. No school kids can afford it, so they buy 42 or 41, with too dark maps. All the Theater games is too heavy with too complicated rules. also no rules are streamlined. You need to learn new rules for every game, and that is a loss. Some of the Theater rules could be streamlined. Like Road Movement. BotB have unlimited, NF have 5 and Stalingrad have 2+2. The Supply rule could have been streamlined. Unit cost and combat value could have been the same as the standard game, easy to remember. The Theather games are for nerds, not for the casual player. The nerds are happy, but I belive the franchise suffer from this. A&A have always been KISS =(keep it simple stupid. )

No need to design a new A&A game. Just take A&A 42 or Anniversary, give the map lighter colors, and use Tournament Rules. Now that should do it. Not a lot of traffic on this thread, where are all the players?

@CentralCommando

I surely don’t want to derail Jensens thread, so you should make a new topic. This issue need a dedicated thread, for sure.

That said, the quintessence of A&A is a simplistic game with simplistic rules. Easy to learn, and a lifetime to master. Either AA42 second ed or Anniversary, but not with dark colors. (The colors from MB Classic or Europe (1999) or Pacific (2001) had maps with bright colors. Too dark colors make me sad). Focus on that. All this Theather games with different and complex rules, some with D12, D10 or D6, or a dice Box, different stacking limits (in the range of 8 to 12 units) different supply rules, different road movement rules was a bad idea. Streamlining of rules and ease of play should be the cornerstone of A&A. Now make this new thread and I for sure will weight in, man

@djensen

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

Anyway, I suggest a new perk for the distinguished patron. You should be able to lock your own thread. Currently only mods can lock a thread. So I got this Blog running, “The Grand Strategy Game”, but I don’t want it to be an open discussion thread, I want it to be a locked Blog thread. If you can make that happen I’ll be distinguished in 2027. (Can’t afford this year sorry, on a budget) Also I have a Blog with a lot of pics. I don’t know the cost of a pic. I want to pay for my Blog, I’m not a freerider. How many pics do Gold cover and how many can distinguished cover? My Blog is based on pics.

@vodot WOW you really put some effort into this. I will look into this and give feedback later.

Renegade announce reprint of D-day for april 2026.

@vodot

Thank you, I love it, just printet it out as we speak.

How about the “Axis Advantage” Air Transport?
Of course the dive bombers JU 87 or SM.79 can’t transport infantry or artillery, they barely have space for the 2 men crew. But if we use the JU 88 and P.108 Strategic Bomber pieces from Europe 1940 as Air Transports, how about that? Each could transport one Infantry, or one Artillery or one Supply. I don’t belive any Air Transports of WWII could transport heavy halftracks of 8 tons, barely the artillery of 2 tons. IMHO

@djensen

I sent in for Gold as usual.

Thanks for running this site

@DoManMacgee I agree so far. I don’t play Tournaments so at some point we will not agree. But basically all versions of A&A should be easy to learn. A&A is not a hex and counter game. I miss the Classic Rulebook, it was 4 pages if I remember correct.

Lets take the Road Movement rule. In North Africa anything with wheels can move 5 spaces on a road. I love it. But in Stalingrad only Tanks and Mech can move 2 spaces and 2 additional spaces if they start at a road, but Assault guns and Rocket Launchers can not move 2 additional spaces. Now that don’t make sense since the Panzer III and the Stug III had the same range and the same speed limit. And also the ZIS 42 halftrack was the excact same as the ZIS 42 Rocket Launcer. I guess its because of game balance. But for playability all motorized vehicles should be able to Road Movement. So this rule beats me for sure.

I also noticed there are 6 spaces between Grain elevator and Tractor Factory. So it takes a Tank 3 Rounds to move between those points. A Round is 2 weeks. So it takes 6 weeks to drive 15 miles, or 25 km. I am awere it was a lot of rubble and debris in the streets of Stalingrad, but I walk 15 miles, or 25 km, on my feet in 'bout 3 hours. OK, lets give this to game balance and playability, it’s just a game after all. But it does bother me.

I need to start posting in the Stalingrad Forum. Hoper you have some inputs.

@DoManMacgee you were a playtester OMG I have so many questions. Will make a thread in the Stalingrad forum soon, but just mention very fast, since we are doing this anyway, a few years ago there was this talk 'bout streamlining the rules for all A&A games, both global and theater games. That has not been done. North Africa and Stalingrad got very different rules. Now that was a missed opportunity. Why a new supply-rule? Now we have 3 different supply rules, one for Bulge, another for N.A and yet another for Stalingrad. Also all games are scripted. The old D-day game was the worst, so boring to play. I get it if you are playing competetiv in Tournaments and want a fast game, fast to set up, fast to play. But 99% don’t play competetiv. We, the people, are die-hards plastic piece junkies with a military power fantasy. The beauty of the classic A&A MB 1984 edition was it was not scripted. Anything would go. German battleship in Indian Ocean? Sure, why not. A&A should not be Memory Game the historically correct re-enactment simultasion. Ok, enough rant, will make threat in Stalingrad forum soon

@DoManMacgee Thank you for feedback. Much appreciated.

As we speak I’m working on a WWI Blog, and also the new A&A Stalingrad game, and reading books about WWII economy, so this blog will not be edited anytime soon. I also have OCD when it comes to accuracy and prefection, so I need time.

I actually did consider using the HBG map, but had to turn it down for several reasons. First, HBG is fanbased and not official. I want to use the official A&A maps, pieces and rules as far as possible. Also, living in Europe I am not aware of legal issues when using stuff from other companies in Blogs. It feels more safe to stay to the official A&A franchise. I’m not rich and can’t afford a law suet (spelling? English is not my first language) Also I’m conserned bout the visuals. The A&A maps looks good. I don’t like the glossy colors on the HBG maps. Most of all I want to mix the A&A 1914 and the A&A 1940 global maps, somehow, But again, legal issues? I can do so much in my basement with friends, but an official Blog? I dunno man.

The problem with “in-game rules” or OOB (out of box) rules, is, as far as I am conserned, I don’t love them. This rules are designed for game balance, playability and ease of play. My 5 years as soldier and studying military history for 40 years, make my stomach turn upside down when reading the rules. Very few of the rules make sense. Take the new Stalingrad game. Now that was a missed opportuinity. A regional map with plain steppe terrain perfect for maneuver warfare with Blitzkrieg, Deep operations, breakthroughs, flanking, hit and run, and a city map with urban warfare, and the designer ruined it. Both maps have typically trench warfare and attrition. I love the supply rule, and units beeing out of supply when encircled and under siege, just as in a real war, but for some reason the designer ruined all the possibilities. We can only fix it with a lot of House Rules. And that is what I am working on as we speak.

@DoManMacgee Oh no, it’s not finished, it’s in progress. I need to figure out the Collect Income too, and that is not easy. We have the GDP that change all the time, and also the Military Outlays change from month to month. I don’t even know for sure how many aircrafts were made because the estimates differ from source to source. Some say US made 30 000 aircrafts but no more than 2000 were operational at any time, so where did all the planes go? And the estimates of casualties on the Eastern Front differ one million men give or take. In my Blog that is like 10 Infantry. I can’t make an accurate historical correct Blog if I don’t know the correct numbers.

This Blog have surprisingnly many wievs but not so much diskussion. Lets look into how I solved the US entry. In the real war Japan dow’ed USA, and then Germany dow’ed USA some days after. But the Turn order in A&A, which I follow strictly, is Germany, Japan, USA. Also a dow should be made in that players turn. That left me with a few choices:

-Round 10 winter 1941/42. Jap dow US. Next US attack Germany. Round 11 spring: Germany dow USA. Now attacking nazis is not bad, but this was not historically correct. Germany did in fact dow USA before strict neutral USA started attacking the Axis.

to solve this I could let Germany dow USA in Round 9 fall. Also not historically correct, since in fact Japan dow’ed USA before Germany dow’ed USA. A very importent point is that Japan would’nt dow anyone before the german attack on Moscow was resolved. IF success Japan would attack USSR far east, but if failure Japan would attack USA.

To change the Turn order was never even considered. That would mess up everything.

My solution was, as you know, to let all Axis players dow USA simultaneously on Japans turn. My rational for this is the Berlin Pact, signed in Berlin september 1940 by Germany, Italy and Japan, and later the other Axis, and this pact was an agreement to dow USA all toghether at the same time. One for all, all for one. I don’t see any other way to do it. A slight violation of the OOB rules yes, but also the less of many evils. But I am surprised it was no questions. All wievers just accepted my solutin. I miss that kind of discussions. I guess you have to be a super nerd of a history buff to engage in that. And I figure the casual A&A players are not. They just want a good time playing a board game

@DoManMacgee

Thank you so much for taking time to go through and liking this blog. I guess we both love history.

I can’t take credit for the idea. The Classic A&A MB edition was publised in 1984, and from 1995 online homepages on the WWW had become common. I remember there were lots of homepages about A&A, like Don’s Essays and Thrasher, and a dude made a blog almost exactly like this, but with MB Classic and start in 1942 and each Round was 6 months. It was so well done. Unfortunately I can’t find it, it’s propably lost. I loved it so much I wanted to do the same. Now his blog was really well done, and my blog is just the beta test. I was hoping for some discussion and feedback before I make my homepage. So far I understand that I have to make better pics. To represent historical events visually is important. Nobody read a lot of text.

Again, thanks for giving me feedback

@Narvik

How risky was the real WW II game for the players?

Lets look into the 9 playable powers:

3 players died in Round 23, all in april 1945.
Adolf, the german player, commited suicide because he lost the game.
Benito, the italian player, was hanged because he lost the game.

FDR was winning the game, but died of natural causes just before cashing in. An intriguing fact is that if Wendell Willkie had won the election, and become the US player, he too died during the game, in Round 21, oct 1944. So either way a vice had to finish the game. In this case Truman.

Also two ANZAC players died in office during the game. Michael Savage died in Round 3 and John Curtin in Round 24, the last round. ANZAC was played by 6 different players, starting with “Pig Iron Bob” Menzies and finishing with Ben and Fraser.

The first UK player, Neville Chamberlain, resigned in Round 3 and died in Round 5.
The most famous UK player, Winston, resigned in Round 24, the last round, and was replaced in the Victory Parade by Clement Attlee. Now that must have been disappointing to Winnie.

None of the 5 french players died but 4 of them was arrested and spent some time in prison.
Both Daladier and Reynauld were locked up at Itter Castle prison already in Round 4.
Petain and Pierre Laval got locked op in Round 21 for switching to the Axis.
de Gaulle would pop up and play France the last round, rejecting the Allied victory and keep a solo game going in the old french colonies all over the world.

Of the main 9 players only Stalin, Tokyo Kid and Chiang would play from Round 1 to the final Round 24.

Of the minor neutral non-playable powers, a lot of players would be arrested after the game, for being war criminals. Others would be assassinated during play.

Poland, the first to fight, lost 2 great players:
Ryds-Smigly in round 10 and Sikorsky in round 16.

Metaxa, playing Greece, was possible poisoned in round 6.
Tsar Boris III, playing Bulgaria, was possible poisoned in round 16.
Stauning, playing Denmark, died in round 11.
Ulmanis, playing one of the Baltic States, died in GULAG in round 13, and Smedina in round 21.
Szalasi, playing Hungary, was hanged in round 23.
Quisling, who tried to play Norway unofficial after the worlds first solo coup by a radio speech, and with no back up what so ever, and even during a german attack, in wich the german player Adolf nor any of his officers was prepared for this, is hanged in round 23.

In China, the ROC- player Wang Jingwei is killed in round 21. The other puppet players to Japan, Prince De and emperor Puyi, spent some time in GULAG, but survive a short time after round 24.
KMT-player Chiang survive round 24, but are soon to be replaced by Mao, playing CCP.

The dominion players Will King, playing Canada, and Smuts, playing South Africa, are in the game from round 1 to round 24. Now that pretty much sums it up. Hopeful we won’t see this much drama on a Con, a Turnament game in our basement with casual friends.

@Narvik

FRANCE TURN 24 - SUMMER 1945

Charles de Gaulle become PRESIDENT of France for job well done

Winners of the A&A Global 1939 Tournament game is:
The Allied Team: Clement, Truman, Stalin and Chiang- the Big Four