So, I was talking to a friend about AAE40, and he called it an ‘expansion’ of AAP40. Of course, we all know both games are standalone, so from that end neither really is an expansion of the other. However, it seems to me that AAP40 really is kind of an expansion to AAE40. Everyone thinks of Europe as the “main” theater of the war.
But, even more so, look at the 6 major powers (UK, US, USSR, Germany, Italy, Japan). 5 of the 6 are in Europe, 3 in Pacific. If Europe is taken as the ‘base’ game then Pacific adds one new major power and two minor ones, plus more territory for two of the majors in the ‘base’ game. A great deal of the territory on the Pacific board either is off limits played alone (USSR) or takes on a new context when combined (French).
If Pacific is taken to be the ‘base’ game it doesn’t work as well. Europe as an expansion would double the number of major powers and replace two of the four capitals on the board. Plus, the Europe board doesn’t have any territory that takes on a different meaning in global. All spaces in Europe will be treated pretty much the same come global.
Thoughts? Am I over thinking this?
Seems logical Mr. Tralis. However, this is probably just the way they chose to word it. Europe isn’t an “expansion” of Pacific, it’s a stand alone game. I wouldn’t worry about it too much.
Expansions don’t come out first. By correct reasoning AAE40 is the expansion for AAP40.
But in truth they are stand alone games. Expansions remain the realm of outside companies that provide house rules and new pieces to existing games.
I wish Larry would make an expansion every now and then. So I wouldn’t have to spend a hundred dollars to get an update.
@Imperious:
Expansions don’t come out first. By correct reasoning AAE40 is the expansion for AAP40.
But in truth they are stand alone games. Expansions remain the realm of outside companies that provide house rules and new pieces to existing games.
Plenty of board games have first-party expansions. I could list on and on, but just to name a few: Power Grid, Agricola, Ticket to Ride. They are definitely not solely the realm of outside companies.
I was talking about AA products and not games in general.
I get your reasoning. But they are officially separate games that can be combined, but if you had to call one an expansion then I would have to say P40 would be that since territory on it’s board opens up when you combine Europe to it.
One way of looking at this question is to compare A&A Europe 1940 and Pacific 1940 with the original separate releases of Attack! and Attack! Expansion, by Eagle Games. The map in Attack! corresponds roughly to the half of the world that’s in Europe 1940. The map in Attack! Expansion covers the other half of the world (roughly the area that’s in Pacific 1940), and the two maps can be combined (in either direction) to form a single very large map of the whole world. The key difference between the two Attack! games and the two A&A games, however, is that the Attack! base game can be played without the expansion, but the expansion can’t be played without the base game. The base game includes plastic ground and air sculpts, and provides a card-based naval combat system to partially make up for the lack of ship sculpts in the box. The expansion provides plastic ship sculpts which replace the base game’s naval cards, but it lacks any substitute for the base game’s ground and air sculpts, and so it can’t be played on its own. So it’s a true expansion, rather than (as in the case with Europe 1940 and Pacific 1940) two freestanding games which can be either played independenly or combined to create what could be described as a third game.
Germany had more army divisions than Japan, and was viewed as the greater of the two threats by the Allies – hence the “Germany first” overall strategy which they pretty much followed. So in that respect, Europe was indeed the priority theatre, as Tralis said. But in terms of game design, I agree with I.L. that the fact that Europe 1940 and Pacific 1940 can each be played on their own means that the “expansion” concept doesn’t really apply in their case.
I’m just overthinking this on purpose. Sort of a hypothetical question of “if one was the expansion, which one would it be?”
The latter.
