Posts made by Nowhere Man

For me, I had Classic for a long time before I got the more modern versions of the game, so my copy of Classic is weathered and well-used. To me, I never thought twice about the box art having the German Reich flag with swastika on the box… to me, its nothing more than “well that IS the flag they flew during WWII”… it means nothing more to me. It’s like the US should have a flag with 48-stars not 50, because a 48-star flag IS what the US flew during WWII.

I now have the more modern versions of the game, but never once did I even notice that the German flag is completely obscured in every modern version of A&A until I saw your post mentioning this… I went back and did a double-take looking over all my boxes, and by golly, every single German flag is completely obscured on all the newer editions… I never noticed this.

I’ve known about German censorship laws for a long time… I’m going to avoid the politics debate and just stick to the marketing. I’ve always assumed the German crosses used in more modern games (where old board games always had swastikas) was for worldwide marketing reasons, because they’re just not allowed in Germany… but this begs the question… “What about Classic A&A”… there it is for all the world to see, the German Reich flag on Classic A&A… few in America would bat an eyelash, but I know it’s illegal in Germany… did Classic A&A not sell in Germany, or did they release different box art in Germany for Classic? If its the latter, why didn’t they keep the Reich flag on modern copies of A&A stateside and just release a different box art for sales in Germany? I mean one trip to the movie theatre or watching a WWII documentary you see swastikas all the time, I’m not sure why box art on a WWII board game is verboten while movies and tv are not? I am really curious about why Classic had it and if Classic was sold in Germany. Those laws have been in place for decades (if not since the end of WWII itself).

@LHoffman:

Only voting A&A because that’s all I am familiar with.

Classic: Set the standard for the rest. Great mix of stuff on the cover. Rommel is a focal point. Biggest reason - They have all 5 major power flags featured prominently and had the balls to put a swastika on the German one. Either that or they didn’t have the same social-political marketing considerations back then. Ah, the 80s…

Anniversary: Similar to above, but improves on it in many respects. Nearly got all the flags on there well but obscured the Nazi one sufficiently. Excellent mix of ships and aircraft, complete with the Yamato, a USN carrier landing and a freaking Tiger on the move. Probably the best mix of wartime leaders we have yet seen on A&A box art. Overall the best box art for A&A.

I never even thought about this at all… until you mentioned it… to be honest, the original Classic box is the ONLY box to show the German Reich flag… it’s completely obscured in every other edition… so much in every edition you can only see a little bit of red.

Political correctness at its finest. I know Germany has laws against it, but I imagine if they make a rule book in German, they can make a different box cover for them too. Come to think about it, if Classic had a clearly displayed swastika on the box (and it did), did Classic not sell in Germany, or did they have different box art for Germany in the 80s, but went full-PC after the 80s ended on all future editions of A&A?

@Imperious:

I think my file prints out at double the OOB size. 8x4 is a bit large, but i did one map that large in the past. Only use “Showfloor” material, which is superior to any other rollup

IL, did you take your maps to a local shop to do the work, or did you do it through an online shop? Do you have more info on “showfloor” material? I’m always looking for better options… our group plays AA50 almost exclusively now (we just don’t have time for Global anymore as much as we love it)… we’re looking to get a good map printed and going over all the options… we want our AA50 map to be the best.

@RABIDFOX50:

As to printing out a bigger map, IL’s map is a thing of beauty and I may go that route if it will be cheaper.

I doubt it would be cheaper than a sheet of plexiglass, but it would be better overall… to print a decent-sized map (note, it would be LARGER than the AA50 gameboard itself), you’re probably talking $100-ish (give or take)… a little more or less depending on just how big a printing you make… things to keep in mind when printing a map as an advantage over the OOB AA50 map:

1. it can/will be larger than the OOB map
2. it won’t warp
3. you can roll it up if you don’t want to make it part of a permanent board
4. doesn’t require plexiglass
5. no seams/cuts/splits in the map/board

@LHoffman:

That is just nuts. I did a slight bit of modification on one of mine to make the OOB Shinano look like Zuikaku, but that was about it. I will say that this is inspiring me to a whole new level of tiny detail though. The sides of the hull are especially magnificent. Excellent work from you and your friend. It will be a pleasure to see more.

That’s one finely detailed ship…

Now… just multiply that detail by like about 600 units… lolz…

This is a project I could only imagine to take-on if I was retired and had no life (and about 1,000 times more skilled than I actually am).

Hats off to some amazing work that I could never compete with.

@GeneralHandGrenade:

I believe it was the Germans who had orders to eliminate Cuthbert if he gave them any trouble. They had no idea who Cuthbert was but they were certain that he was up to no good.

Uh oh, you don’t know your own trivia question… :wink:

@Wikipedia:

Before making her escape, she signalled to SOE that she hoped Cuthbert would not give trouble on the way. The SOE, not understanding the reference, replied, “If Cuthbert troublesome, eliminate him”.

You don’t have to quote German law, it’s a well known globally what law they have, all you had to do is say “I’m German”.

I’m still waiting to see all the WWII movies replace German uniform armsleeves with crosses… it’s coming, I’m sure.

Anyways, keep up the good work to all you modders, Dedo, IL and others.

Well Virginia was given a direct order to eliminate Cuthbert if he gave her any trouble.

Speaking of requests, any chance either IL and/or Dedo could make an optional German-controlled territories with Swastikas instead of Crosses? (To me, it’s just an accuracy thing, like moving Honolulu to Oahu). I noticed IL’s Phase-1 map was sporting them, but both IL’s and Dedo’s more current maps both had the crosses. I know some prefer the cross which is why I ask for maybe just an alternate download with swastikas as opposed to a change for all.

Ugh… I plan on printing ONE AA50 map for personal use with my friends in the next month or so… I’m trying to find something as close as possible to OOB AA50 2nd Ed, with possible exceptions to obvious improvements that don’t change the game (like moving the victory city from the big island to Oahu is a nice touch).

I’m away from home and on my cellphone right now so can’t check the PDF’s in detail, but I thought there were some issues with control flags in China or something? I don’t know which version(s) fixed or didn’t fix these… IL, did you update any of your maps for AA50 2nd Ed, or did you just repost the links here to your 1st Ed maps?

At worst, I just have to choose which map is best for me, as opposed to not having any maps to choose from, so if that’s my only problem, its a good one to have.

I’m so confused.

P.S.
Also, IL, you posted three links to AA50 maps… what are the differences between the three links… I know Dedo’s two links is one with and one without an income track… what makes your three links distinct from each other?

@dedo:

No problem with the IPC Tracker. It is just a layer (something like a transparency) which could be switched off easily. Please find below the link.
Personally, I found it more convenient to track the IPC on the map, this avoids the use of an additional tool on the table.

Differences between IL’s map and the Anniversary 2ed:

• territory Malta was deleted/does not exist
• territory Acores was deleted
• victory city Polesti was deleted
• victory city Cairo was deleted
• territory Corsica was deleted
• territory Sardinia was deleted
• territory Silicy was deleted

Thanks for the clarification and the updated map file sans-IPC track… while I understand why you include it on yours, I was happy that Anniversary had a separate board… not sure why, but in our games (of 1942.2 with the IPC track on-board), someone always manages to bump the IPC markers while moving units around (being so close to Russia and what-not)… when we have it on a separate board, we can put it out of the way of careless players! Appreciate the new maps!

Awww… you put a money-track on the top of the board… why did you do that when we got the far-superior separate tracker for that? The original gameboard doesn’t have a tracker on the map either. Don’t suppose you could offer one without the money track?

Still a very nice map… we should get these their own stickied thread like what is in the 1942 and 1941 forums.

P.S.
Besides the money-track (present in Dedo’s, not there in IL’s), what is the difference between Dedo’s AA50 2nded map file and IL’s AA50 1sted map file? Also, I think Young Grasshopper mentioned on his channel he was going to do a AA50 mapfile? Is that still a thing?

@SirPsychoSexy84:

Now, a question: I’ve read (the boxes are not yet came to my home) and I’ve seen that in this verion there aren’t miniatures for industrial complexes (wich are of two types), airports and ports. Since I would like to have these miniatures instead of the paper tokens, can someone suggest me where o buy some decent miniatures of that kind?

Aside from the previous excellent suggestions (notably perusing Historical Board Gaming’s website [HBG]), there are some cheaper alternatives out there that might suit your needs.

You can obtain the industrial complexes from earlier versions of Axis and Allies from second-hand sources such as E-Bay… simply do a search for A&A industrial complexes, a lot of times you will find people selling them separately on E-Bay at very reasonable prices.

Since Global 1940 uses two different types of Industrial Complexes, a lot of people (at least that I know) like to use the “cities” from Risk Revised (2008)… once again, this version is out of print but was mass produced at the time and if you do a search on E-Bay for Risk Revised cities, you can find very nice sculpts that work great as Major Industrial Complexes.

Just some additional options aside from the others previously given… all valid choices.

@Booper:

I’ve purchased Global 1940.2, but realized it’s going to be too overwhelming for my kids to learn.

We played 1941 a couple times over the Christmas break, but I’m wondering which would be the best intermediate step for them before going Global - AA50 or 42.2 (or other - I have seen 42.1 being sold fairly cheaply)? Or should I try to just do Europe or Pacific 1940?

They are still elementary schoolers, so it will be a few years before we get to it. :)

The intermediate step between 1941 and Global for elementary schoolers is probably to wait till they get to High School.

Having said that, you mentioned playing 1941 with them, but you didn’t mention how WELL they played 1941… it’s one thing to understand basic mechanics (move into enemy territories to start combat, roll low to score a hit), but its an entirely different thing to formulate winning strategies (should one go KJF or KGF, how best do I spend my money, etc, etc). This is a lot on a young child… there’s nothing at all wrong about getting them into board gaming (preferable to zoning out on a TV or computer screen), but once again, playing and strategizing are two different things… are they ready to move beyond 1941, or did they understand the game, but were poor on strategy?

Perhaps most importantly of all… do your children want to move on to something “meatier” in the A&A lineup? Or are you asking because you desire more opponents in your house for A&A? Push them hard too early, you may scare them off.

Being honest, the differences in gameplay between 1942.2 and AA50 aren’t huge… mostly AA50 has a bigger map, Italy and slightly more involved China rules, but otherwise is very similar to 1942 (rules-wise anyways). Both games are intermediate between 1941 and Global, but I’d be more apt to ask how your elementary-aged children actually handled 1941 in detail, and if they want to move on, before giving advice on the matter.

At that age, getting them to play something along the lines of Risk is usually more apropos, but of course every child is different. Good luck adding more A&A members to your family and the community, but don’t push it if they’re not ready… you don’t want to scare them off!

The Last Jedi was clearly superior to Empire Strikes Back… proof is all here (possible sarcasm)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8h3Iv4oiDdw&t=7s

@Gargantua:

I heard the new Han Solo is black.

Yawn… Han Solo was once married to a wookie (google it)…

Or, just print the map and not worry about board warping and split maps…

Map files are here:
https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=23325.0

@Ferris1971:

Hello all, just signed up.

I just got AA50 and am reading that the Allies are slightly disadvantaged. I also noted that there,s no representation of the Richelieu in the game. I’d like to house rule that the cruiser off of southern France be upgraded to a battleship. I know a lot of the imbalance in the game comes from the Japanese navy, but this could be a step in the right direction? I was thinking this and maybe an Ally bid of 10.

What does everyone think?

Well neither the Richelieu nor the Jean Bart were completed by the fall of France (though the Richelieu was near completion)… to be honest, A&A game-scale of units is really iffy and up for a lot of interpretation. While a lot of people like to assume or assign gamescale to ships (is one battleship on the gameboard ONE battleship?) you will end up with a LOT of ships that aren’t represented in the game (for example, lets just say both Japan and the US have THREE battleships on the game-board… that is a nice sized fleet for A&A, but heck, that doesn’t even cover half of either nation’s battleships… same for carriers… i’ve seen some people put names on A&A carriers for instance, but the Japanese used SIX carriers at Pearl Harbor alone… how many games have six Japanese carriers on the board?). I’m also guilty of writing a really long run-on sentence I believe. Let’s be honest, a lot of us (self included) are saying this or that ship on the board is this or that ship when gamescale is so up for grabs (but it’s fun, isn’t it?). I just want to see how many have a German battleship and claim its the Gneisenau, not the Bismarck.

Back to the other point… by all means, upgrade it to a Battleship if its for game-balance purposes… but there aren’t any French units in Anniversary… and there are plenty of British battleships to choose from if one unit is one battleship!

Happy New Year everyone!  :-D

@Dauvio:

I just received my game with that cardboard divider on top, and my game has no damage.  8-) 8-) 8-)

The cardboard divider is always on top… it’s how they stacked it BELOW the cardboard divider that matters (and a little luck during shipment from China or wherever).

@barney:

epic battle is right :)

The Hood’s guns would have greater range I believe ? Not certain. Did the Scharnhorst carry torpedoes ? Not sure about that either but don’t recall hearing that they did. I know DDs in most navies did but the larger capital ships Idk.

Just saw Marc’s post. So longer guns perhaps the Germans may have had the range afterall ? Know Bismark was supposed to have excellent fire control so maybe the Scharnhorst as well

In the engagement with HMS Glorious during Operation Weserübung, Scharnhorst struck HMS Glorious at a range of approximately 24,200 m (26,500 yd), one of the longest recorded hits in the history of naval gunfire. There is also some debate that it may have been an 8" hit from Prinz Eugen that doomed the Hood, not a 15" hit from Bismarck.