Hey lads (and lasses),

I met Yanny in a game some months back and he pointed me to this site. I’ve read occasionally and kept it in mind as a great resource for knowledgable and experienced Axis & Allies people.

Since then, however, I also got a job as the art director at Wizards of the Coast to the Avalon Hill line of games, which includes A&A. As a fan of Squad Leader, I’m really excited about my new job.

I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts on the graphic presentation of the Axis & Allies game(s). Loose impressions are great, and specific observations are great too. I understand that this is “free” research for me and so any contribution you make is really appreciated. Since you all seem pretty cool and casual, I didn’t think it would be a problem to throw some questions at you.

Are there parts of the game that just feel dorky or out of place with the type of game it is?
Does your version feel dated? (I know that mine smells like 50-year old mildewy cardboard).
What do you keep your pieces and IPCs in, if anything?
Do you use (and how often do you refer to) the reference cards?
Do you like or dislike the board? Why?
Is your box all beat to hell? Do you still have the box?
If you use the box, what is in it that didn’t come with the game (ziploc bags, variant rules, etc.)?
Is the rulebook easy to read and use? Can you find what you’re looking for easily?
Do you like the box illustrations? What about the rulebook ones?
Got anything else you like or dislike about how the game or pieces look?

Thanks for your time!
Pete

(edited for typo, damn my thumbs!)

Well, there are a number of vaguely philosophical points being slipped on around here. For example, the person who embraces the actions of history for being relevant to its time will ultimately need to define when history starts. I did not like my boss yesterday and, for whatever reason, I punhed him in the face. Matters not if I was right or wrong because, at that time, it felt right.

On a larger scale that presumes right and wrong is defined by society, you have tons of great examples to choose from. If slavery is accepted, should we honor excellent slave “owners?”

I think we should continue to honor Columbus because there are already so many books and made-for-TV movies about him. It would be expensive to find a substitute.

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Funny!

Dezrtfish/Red…the Coke in the fridge only belongs to you if you believe in private property.

Guest & Mr_mischief…you make a good points about “updating” our opinions on historical figures. It’s healthy to question what you’ve been taught…and what better standards to apply than your own. If you feel that your standards are not righteous, then you should consider those while you’re at it.

Columbus’ actions (and, more importantly, the actions of his men) were at that time largely considered distasteful. Rape has never been acceptable. Neither has burning and dismembering men, women and children.

“But I’m not one to judge.”

And in 500 years? Yeah, I hope future generations are critical enough to depose heroes if it’s warranted. Good for them! Keep improving those heroes!

Here’s what I would give a holiday to, Cystic Crypt…

Subject founds pharmaceutical company, discovers/invents cure for AIDS, and broadly distributes across the world as a non-profit endeavor.

Gets the African National Congress off the ground and functioning as a guiding and peaceful leadership…and, ultimately, brings Africa into the 21st century.

Becomes an incredibly popular advocate for peace among the religious right, be it Christian, Muslim, or Jew. This person’s deeds lead to decades (or more) of peace in the middle east and elsewhere.

Those are a few just off the top of my head. Granted, they’re pretty large-scale. Here are some other “hero cauldrons”…

Poverty, domestic abuse, education, campaign and voting reforms, medical cures (cancer, etc.), superb skateboarding skills, space travel technology, or even grass-roots philosophers.

Okay, I’m talking a lot but not saying much.

If you are interested in revisionist history, another great “starter” resource is Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States of America.

He asserts, (rightfully, in my opinion), that history in general is a malleable commodity and every word, phrase and omission has connotations that may or may not be discernable by the reader.

I’m no expert on the media, history, or even particularly liberal or conservative. However, I am open-minded enough to listen to other people’s arguments without resorting to cliche’ed responses. With that in mind, please reserve your judegment for Zinn’s views because, at first, they can seem outrageously “left.”

Zinn asserts that Columbus believed he’d landed in Asia (answering the question of why Native Americans are called “Indians”). Because they had no written history, it’s difficult to gather a full account of what happened within those few disasterous decades. Columbus and the spaniards, however, did keep journals…which reveals quite a bit.

The Arawak Indians (Tainos) greeted Columbus in the Bahamas. Columbus considered them gentle and people of peace. “They do not bear arms, and do not know for I showed them a sword–they took it by the edge and cut themselves.”

He continues with other observations that now seem culturally insensitive (because they’re so gentle they’d make fine servants, etc.). Anyway, we all know why Columbus was there…not to discover the new world as it was already pretty well discovered…but for gold. He makes no secret of this in his journals.

By 1500, Colubus’ forces had erected crosses all over the Bahamas–he was very religious–but also 340 gallows. Why would he build so many gallows?

Samuel Eliot Morison (Harvard historian and an admiring Columbus’ biographer) writes: “Whoever thought up this ghastly system, Columbus was responsible for it, as the only means of producing gold for export… Thos who fled to the mountains were hunted with hounds, and those who escaped, starvation and disease took toll, while thousands of poor creatures in desperation took cassava poison to end their miseries.”

Morison is referring to Columbus’ system for producing the vast tracts of gold the Arawaks supposedly had. The natives were ordered to produce a specific quantity of gold, and if they could not their arms were severed.

“So the policy and acts of Columbus for which he alone was responsible began the depopulation of the terrestrial paradise that was Hispaniola in 1492. Of the original natives, estimated by modern ethnologist at 300,000 in number, one-third were killed off between 1494 and 1496. By 1508, an enumeration showed only 60,000 alive…in 1548 Oviedo (Morison is referring to Fernandex de Oviedo, the official Spanish historian of conquest) doubted whether 500 Indians remained. -Morison

Speeding things up a bit, when gold couldn’t be produced, he sent slaves (about 500; though 200 died en route). From his journal in 1498: “From here one might send, in the name of the Holy Trinity, as many slaves as could be sold…”

Also take a look at Bartolome de las Casas, a Dominican priest who arrived in the New World a few years after Columbus and was horrified. He wrote a book called The Devastation of the Indians.

From Casas’ book we witness horrible, horrible atrocities commited by Columbus’ men. These accounts were corroborated by a group of Dominican friars, who addressed the Spanish gov’t in the hopes they would intercede.

It is estimated that in Cuba during the time, 7,000 children died in a period of 3 months due to enslaved and overworked parents, malnutrition and exposure.

Of course there was also the accidental deaths, such as typhoid, typhus, etc.

However, consider if cultural differences are “accidental.” For example, the Arawaks’ culture did not include any concept of private property. Yet, if a native “stole” from Columbus’ men they were beheaded or burned at the stake.

Columbus gave his men women to use. This is not a cultural misunderstanding. An Italian noble named Cuneo describes in his journal how he raped and beat a Caribbean woman whom Columbus had “given” him.

Anyway, I think we can ALL agree that Columbus discovered America kinda like I might “discover” a coke in your fridge.

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