@robbie358:
“1st edition” was a cardboard cutout game, really small and cheap.
This was the Nova Games version, published in 1981. Calling it “1st edition” is a misnomer, because …
@robbie358:
“2nd edition” was the Milton Bradley version that we all know and love/hate/love2hate.
There were three editions of the Milton Bradley version. 1st Edition was published in 1984, and 2nd Edition was published in 1986. The 3rd Edition rules were included in the 1997 CD-ROM game. The only thing that changed between these editions were the rules themselves. The physical components remained the same.
Most people refer to the Milton Bradley version as “2nd Edition” because this the most popular edition of the game. Whether this is because people didn’t like the changes in the 3rd Edition rules or just didn’t know about them for the most part, I don’t know.
@robbie358:
Axis & Allies Guadalcanal was really simply Bulge with sea units.
This is not really true. Guadalcanal’s game system is similar to Bulge’s, but there are some key differences.