I know everything is about the current versions of Axis and Allies, but trying to get my younger kids to play A&A, I wondered if they would like the original better than 1941 as a learning tool and intro to the game…
I dug through my attic to find my old A&A Classic only to find it had seen better days… while the box and board were in pretty good shape, 20 years of military moves and over 30 years of aging took its toll on my components… the Styrofoam trays (that I never liked even in the 80s) were simply a poor storage solution for moving about, and the pieces had all been tossed and turned inside the box over the years and the plastic chips had all faded and discolored with age… a lot of my infantry, especially the Germans and Americans for some reason, had apparently undergone serious combat… many cut in two, men missing limbs, most had their gun barrels broken off… stupid useless Styrofoam trays! I curse you! I also had the original First-Edition rules, which were hugely unbalanced in favor of the Allies with the Commander-in-Chief rules.
Well obviously it wasn’t really in playable shape. I didn’t want to try and get my kids into A&A with what was left of my version of Classic… so… time for some upgrades and refurbishments…
1st, I ordered a bunch of replacement units off of E-Bay (HBG doesn’t really stock much for Classic)… I got all the units back up AT LEAST to original game numbers, and in some cases more (where I remembered nations needing more… like a lot more Russian infantry, more German tanks, more Allied Bombers), next I ditched all the terrible Styrofoam trays, replacing them with more modern plastic storage bins… I chose the Husky 7" bins for the nation trays (and one Husky 6" bin for the accessories… and yes, I know the 6" is bigger than the 7", that’s just what Husky calls them)… and yes, everything fit in the original box (the nation trays all fit on the bottom, I place the board on top of them and the rules/accessories bin on top of the game board)… I also replaced all the chips in the game, ordering plenty of modern grey, green and red chips and placing them in the accessories bin… finally, I got a hold of the 2nd-Edition rules off E-Bay and replaced my 1st-Edition rules.
All-in-all, very happy sprucing up the old original classic game more in-line with my more current versions.

