Does anyone have any photos comparing the different versions ….....

@vonlettowvorbeck1915 A couple of Chinese territories in the original version have dual Japanese and Chinese markers printed on them too.

@calvinhobbesliker:

Did Spring 1942 introduce defenseless transports?

AA50

Spring 1942 was basically A&A Revised played with AA50 rules.  1 or 2 Battleships and/or Destroyers were changed to the new Cruiser piece, but otherwise the set up was identical.

Okay aa50 can take 2-10+ hours. Global can take 6 hours to a few days.

The longest aa50 game I had lasted 32 hours because Germany was on the brink of losing, had a miracle defense against UK USA attack… Hit improved artillery with 1 tech roll that has been going for a long time suddenly has enough to kill south europe, survives another UK all in blast. Meanwhile Japans 30 tanks 5 bombers dies to Russia 25 inf 2 USA fighter (5 aa gun hits)  the Game that refused to end.

So global just takes long where as aa50 if it takes long it is because the game ending battles failed.

Personally waiting for FMG to finish with their sculpts and making my own AA50 game with the map for IL.

A whole lot cheaper and much nicer.

3 hours for a game of Axis and Allies?  lol

Expect at least 4-5 hours, plus setup time.  Some of the variants are only about 3 hours or less, though.

Here’s a list of the rules that have changed: http://harrisgamedesign.com/pdf/Anniversary_Rules_Changes.pdf

Here’s an article on new rules: http://www.harrisgamedesign.com/bb2/viewtopic.php?t=1682

Revised miniatures on average are better than Anniversary miniatures. I have seen several boxes open (in my playgroup we have three Anniversary boxes overall) and read reports on the net.

I have personally compared the miniatures. As an example Anniversary T-34 is worst than Revised T-34: it is smaller, narrower, lack the details, and its turret is also asymmetric. Ships structures are a mess.
The only Anniversary miniature largely better then the Revised one is the Panther, which is a miniature taken from A&A Battle of the Bulge not specifically made for Anniversary. I already used Panther from Battle of the Bulge in Revised before Anniversary was released.

From a gaming point of view Revised is more balanced than Classic and presents more challenging in planning.

The Revised rules, in my playgroup we use the LHTR, are more clearly written than Classic. We use LHTR also in Pacific and in Europe. Anniversary rules are based on LHTR not on Classic rules.

Teaching A&A with Classic is a waste of time imho. There are few rules that are the same. The remaining rules are completely different. Learning A&A with Classic require a lot of effort for learning Anniversary. Learning A&A with Revised requires only few rules clarification (or complication in case of China) for being ready to play Anniversary.

Revised has been sold as a balanced historical games? I do not trust advertising.
Anniversary Adverstising said that the new nations will have new unique sculpts … and other amenity that are not true, as the release date.

Revised is still a solid light wargame, cheap and quite challenging. I own all the games of A&A series and Classic is less played than Revised. We play Classic only when we feel nostalgic.

@captainjack:

Could you take a picture of the IPC’s - I’ve heard they look cool.

I’ve uploaded one to BoardGameGeek.