Depends on the intended audience.

For the more accessible games intended for 3+ in person playing(IE: 1941/1942SE), I would say late 1941 (not spring 41) would be the best time to start, for two reasons.

-The Japanese blitz/pearl harbor is a pretty dramatic start, and not having Japan start with a bunch of conquests paces their advance better.

-Russian winter counter offensive: Assuming it’s a multiplayer game, and someone is playing Russia alone, it’s more fun for Russia to have at least one turn on the offensive before defending for the rest of the relevant game time. Back and forth is more fun then defense only. The 1942 German setup is good from a game design point of view. Russia starts with positioning advantage vs superior German economy, which has superior might to the allies initially but inferior economy. It’s a double layer of asymmetric warfare.

For veteran players, the earlier the better really. An official game with a ~1936 start to provide for varied initial game states would be interesting, if nearly impossible to balance.

@taamvan said in AAZ: similar games for Axis and Allies?:

@thrasher1

nope. I don’t think this was a success, in terms of sales.

What makes you think that?

@Imperious-Leader said in Further Features and Ideas:

Why did they not make E40,P40,G40 game? 1942.2 is not exactly the most popular version out.

While I agree 1942 may not be the most popular amongst the veterans and competitive players that are predominant in this forum, I would its a different story when we look at the total player base. It is the flagship title that (along with 1941) is most likely to be present in stores and played by a greater majority of more casual players. I would guess significantly more boxes of 1942 have sold than any of the E40/P40/G40 combined, so from a marketing standpoint it makes sense to start with the base game.

@taamvan said in Further Features and Ideas:

@Imperious-Leader Dont play with pick up partners, play a whole side. I have 4-8 games going at once.

I don’t see anything “unsportmanslike” about choosing your version.

Not so much that, but in the screenshot showed with side by side games, don’t their intentions seem obvious?

@JuliusBorisovBeamdog said in Further Features and Ideas:

@Imperious-Leader If an ally is quitting, you get control over their side.

I believe his issue is that the ally quits only after doing (intentionally?) an irrecoverable mistake.(Russian player buys a battleship and suicides charges his infantry into the nearest stack, exit game!)

Edit: Or, as just happened in my German game. My Japanese Ally suicide charged his fleet and lost all naval assets…turn 2. He forfeited afterward and left me with an irrecoverable disaster.

It is sometimes a blurry line between “forfeiting because an honest game is beyond hope” and “Trolling other players” but I really hope some communication/karma system is put in place.

@JuliusBorisovBeamdog said in Further Features and Ideas:

@Striker While I now understand what you mean, I guess that’s not a big deal. Players can take part in the games they want, and forfeiting is their right (it counts as a loss).

Forfeiting is a right, but I fear poor community experiences could turn into a bigger deal to the point of endangering the health of the game.

Put yourself in the shoes of, for example, a player choosing USA. One night he joins a game. He waits patiently for his turn over the course of a day as other players go first, he expects his turn the next night. Some slightly bad rolls happen on the axis side, and axis forfeits before US gets a turn. The US player has now wasted a day, how likely is he to recommend this game to his friends after this experience?

I’ve noticed a small trend of standard setup games in the lobby with axis positions filled, waiting for allied players. I worry that as more players discover the axis bias in the out of the box setup we are going to see larger lists of games clogging the lobby that has axis positions filled waiting for some allied fodder to begin.

Some sort of reputation/karma system might encourage better behavior.(Though being able to filter setup types may help problem 2 as well.)

@JuliusBorisovBeamdog said in Further Features and Ideas:

@Striker What fun do you mean?

Maybe I’ll rephrase that as “calling out bad sportsmanship”:

1. people who quit before turn one is done because their country got even slightly bad rolls.
2. (in relationship to the screenshot): The same team made two games at the same time: Picking the axis side in the setup that is known to favor the axis and in there other game picking the allied side in the tournament setup that does not.

Certainly a general chatroom or equivalent would be nice. Would be nice to poke fun at those who forfeit just because dice didn’t favor them in risky attacks on their opening turn. I didn’t know how to feel about “winning” before I took my UK1. Have people noticed a lot of that happening?

Also I feel obliged to poke fun at people who do this

@thrasher1
Yes, and I still think you are comparing apples and oranges, as the standard world map games have japan in their 1942 setup, well after japan has entered the war and already made their economic gains.

@thrasher1
I don’t think it’s “hardcoded” as you say it is. Look at other games that start with Japan in their 1941 setup. Both pacifics, global,AA50 41…in each one Japan goes before Britain.
Both A&A1941 and zombies have this awkward situation where japan has a 1941 setup, before pearl harbor, yet…britain goes first? Japan doesn’t have the money islands yet to offset the alpha strikes.

I feel like it would be beneficial to the game to tweak the turn order first and adjust starting setup in response. As even with zombies there has been a feeling that “it takes too long” with some groups I’ve played with(meanwhile many of these same people liked how in D-Day both allied players move and collaborate together.) I like A&A and want it to succeed, but I feel we need to examine some of these “hard coded” aspects that may be outdated.