Evolution of Axis & Allies pieces – Take 2

Hi knp, excellent list. Recently I got both 1940 2eds which rekindled my interest in the evolution of the A&A pieces.

Regarding your post on AXIS & ALLIES 1942 2ND EDITION: in my '42 two ed. copy the USSR still has the artillery and transport as ‘same as US’… As far as I can tell the Soviet Baltic transport and the 152mm howitzer are new to the Europe 1940  two ed. or am I mistaken?

Thanks to one of your other posts I ‘salvaged’ the eight Hellcat fighters from the original Pacific, they seem more appropriate for ACC’s. Even though I have the HBG variant planes this seems fitting.

Keep up the good work!

Many, many thanks to you. This is gonna help me a ton in my military building efforts.

thank you for doing this page, it helps me find pieces I want from other games to make upgrades / house rules!

@Flashman:

Still waiting for Panzer III/IV for early war German light/medium tanks. Starting off with Panthers in 1939 is just wrong.

Wonder what happened to the molds for the more detailed units shown on the 1984 box - or were they borrowed from a different game?

As has been said, PzIII are available from HBG and I am totally with you on panthers for 1042. That is what led me to scratch build my own tanks for the original game. The original game had painted GHQ pieces on the back cover and was actually deceptive in insinuating that the game pieces were the same as the picture in the back. Here is a link to my game piece modifications and replacement thread. I try as much as possible to use original game pieces but sometimes only HBG pieces are available. HBG also make 38Ts for early war tanks along with PZIIs to go with the PZIIIs. I use the PZIIs for the Liechte divisions while the German Panzer divisiona use the Panzer IIIs. Those equipped with Czech tanks (which made up 1/4 of the Barbarossa panzer divisions and Rommels 7th Panzer prior to the DAK during the French campaign) get the 38Ts.

@sgtwiltan:

The original game had painted GHQ pieces on the back cover and was actually deceptive in insinuating that the game pieces were the same as the picture in the back. Here is a link to my game piece modifications and replacement thread.

I always wondered what the pieces shown on the back cover were. Needless to say, my friends and I were very disappointed when we opened the game and saw the actual pieces.  Deceptive advertising indeed.

Minor Factory.
    I have used a white house piece from ‘Finance’ (an old Parker Bros game) - the same one as in Monopoly. It works fairly well to represent a Minor Factory piece. I guess one has to spray paint them white as the real white ones are probably very rare.

Your history of the A&A pieces is excellent knp :wink: : :-D

@sgtwiltan:

@Flashman:

Still waiting for Panzer III/IV for early war German light/medium tanks. Starting off with Panthers in 1939 is just wrong.

Wonder what happened to the molds for the more detailed units shown on the 1984 box - or were they borrowed from a different game?

As has been said, PzIII are available from HBG and I am totally with you on panthers for 1042. That is what led me to scratch build my own tanks for the original game. The original game had painted GHQ pieces on the back cover and was actually deceptive in insinuating that the game pieces were the same as the picture in the back.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I’ve been wondering why the pieces pictured on the back of my first A&A game were different from what was in the box. For 27 years that has been a mystery to me.

@knp7765:

In Anniversary, cruisers were introduced and the Germans got the Hipper class cruiser.  For some reason, they chopped off the aft end of the cruiser piece so they look odd.Â

Ya, well, that may be because the German Hipper class had faulty stern designs to begin with… they failed often, and the same problem even extended to the Bismark (when the battleship went down, the stern quickly broke off).

Here’s a couple of pics of what happened to the Prinz Eugen… maybe the sculpts were just made to give you a more realistic depiction of what your cruiser would look like in war!  lolz

Yes, that was a chronic flaw of Kriegsmarine capital ships and cruisers – but I think the reason they revised the Hipper sculpt to give it a cruiser stern was to prevent confusion.  In A&A, most destroyers have transom sterns, which is useful identification feature.

@Nol said in Evolution of Axis & Allies pieces – Take 2: …

Regarding your post on AXIS & ALLIES 1942 2ND EDITION: in my '42 two ed. copy the USSR still has the artillery and transport as ‘same as US’… As far as I can tell the Soviet Baltic transport and the 152mm howitzer are new to the Europe 1940  two ed. or am I mistaken?

knp7765,

Regarding Nol’s post from April '13, I have both the '42 Second Edition and Europe '40 Second Edition and only the Europe '40 have the new 152mm Howitzer and Baltic Timber Ship for the USSR. In my copy of '42 Second Edition, the USSR are still using the US 105mm Howitzers and Liberty Ships. What do you think?

-Midnight_Reaper

@knp7765 Awesome compendium!

This thread is an amazing resource. I’m not sure if anyone has posted on the Recent Renegade Game Studios versions, but it would be nice to have a link or further replies with any changes.

This video does not include the anniversary edition, nor does it discuss miniatures details, but does discuss 1941 miniatures and has a complete list of all changes the Renegade Studios versions for the 1940 versions (world), 1941, 1942, and 1914. https://youtu.be/JWOuHWzZjUQ