Interesting. I still have the Milton Bradley Gamemasters box of A&A. I don’t think I ever finished a game. Fortress Europe always repelled operation overlord AKA Britain and US and the Eastern front is just a mindless slog of attrition, although if Russia gets KO’d Axis victory is pretty much assured. Japan is there to really help kill Russia.
Would you guys be interested in me posting new board game releases every week? I already do it on the store Facebook page so it would be trivial to copy here. That way you would know about things like A&A&Z. Not trying to store spam just want to be helpful. 😊
I would, yeah.
Yeah, I’m down. I am clearly not keeping up on new stuff coming out very well on my own.
I get a few of these from online stores, but I’d be happy to hear more about releases and, if you have time of course, anything else you know about them.
It could spur some discussion! Seems worth it.
The 2 problems with A&A is that it’s been “solved” down to an exact optimal first turn, followed by a simple script for proceeding turns so that it all just comes down to the die rolls. The other is that out of all the purchase options, nothing but infantry is worth it (only exceptions are transports for UK & US, and at some point an industrial center for Japan on mainland Asia). Japan ignores the Pacific and focuses everything on helping Germany knock out Russia; if they do, they win, if not, they lose. U.S. ignores the Pacific and focuses everything on Overlord. If they land and prevent Germany from knocking out Russia, they win. If not, they lose.
We’ve tried SO many alternate strategies over 20 years. They are all vastly inferior to following that script.
A&A was an interesting attempt at a 4X grand strategy game using a historical setting everyone was familiar with, back in the 80s when all baordgames were either family classics or grognard hex fests. Outside of that context though, it really is a horrible game that comes down to luck and should have been left in the dustbin of history long ago like Cosmic Encounter.
So let me ask you, does the Aniversary Edition sufficiently change the fundamentals enough to improve strategic balance?
Because that’s the version I have, with the big box, playable Italy, and other bonus conditions that make it seem more strategically flexible. But I’ve not tried to research the ‘solved’ strategies and only have played a small handful of times.
And we’ve never tried running with the scripts, though as Germany the most I do with naval is buy some subs to hopefully harry the British fleet and delay Overlord.
It’s a beautiful box though.
Never played the anniversary edition. I gave up on all the new editions after the 3rd one that claimed to have “fixed” the game. At best they change the initial turn approach, but they all fall into the same “one true strat” rut with most of the purchase choices being not worth it.
Germany should never buy naval units. You delay overlord much more efficiently by spending that money on infantry in western europe. Or even better, more units to knock out Russia quicker. Putting it into subs is trying to compete with US + UK pound for pound, and that’s a fight Germany is going to lose badly.
Yes. This is exactly it. To a T. The script just takes too damn long to play out and we just quit the game at some point.
Fixed that for you. :p
I’m incredibly excited about Blackout Hong Kong after reading more about it. Sounds like it works similar to Mombasa (by the same designer) where you play and discard into three separate piles, then pick one up. I loved that mechanic in Mombasa, but didn’t really enjoy the rest of the game and hated the theme. Blackout has a way cooler theme and looks like it’s even more focused on that discard pile management. Really looking forward to it. There’s a local store near me that brings back a big set of usually Euro-games from Essen every year and they’re going to begin selling them tomorrow. Hoping I can pick up a copy of it there.
DO WANT.
-Tom
Ooh, we have a Cosmic Encouter hater up there! The difference is that Cosmic Encounter is simple and splashy enough that it will never be “solved” and will vary wildly based on the social dynamics at the table and the distribution of races. I don’t particularly care for it. It’s too splashy for my taste. But unlike 99% of every other boardgame invented before 2008, it’s a solid design that holds up.
-Tom
“Base for a base?” has been the beginning and end of social dynamics in every game of Cosmic I’ve seen, always ending on some anti-climatic 2 or 3 way win. Someone either has the final trump card or they don’t.
Cosmic would be improved if at the start, everyone just laid their hand of cards down on the table. Everyone could then just look at them, the races, and call the winner(s) right there before quickly packing it up and playing a better game (99% of games). It’s like playing out a half hour hand of poker with no money on the line, and nothing is more boring than no money poker.
Geez, next you guys are going to say that Steve Jackson games still hold up.
Have that report on how Arkham Horror 3 holds up over time on my desk by December 20th! Considering it as a holiday gift.
I can’t remember the specifics, but it seemed like every new and special edition of Axis & Allies tried to answer the question, “How do we make the Pacific not useless?”
And half the time the answer was “leave it out”.
(heck, even Quartermaster General suffered the same problem until the expansions added over a dozen cards trying to incentivize island hopping in the Pacific)
which game came out in 2008 that changed that, I wonder …
Also, the Kickstarter for Claustrophobia reprint is running, get it for a great asymmetric Space-Hulk-like feeling
(I own the 1st edition + De Profundis, so I skip it)
And Arkham Horror 3rd ed. really? How many more Lovecraft themed games are coming out… I heard good things of it, though. I own Elder Sign, Eldritch, Arkham 2nd, Arkham Card Game … and do not play them often enough to justify buying the next installment…
Matt Leacock invented the concept of good boardgame design in 2008 when Pandemic was published. It’s not a hard-and-fast rule, because Reiner Knizia accidentally made some good game designs before 2008, but he was – is? – a freak of nature and mathematics.
You know how Blizzard iterates on other people’s designs and relies on polish? Fantasy Flight does that with their own games. Third edition Arkham Horror is just a next step after the legacy card game, which was a sort of lateral step from Eldritch Horror, which was sort of a next step after the original Arkham Horror. Baby steps all the way, each for full price, and each resetting the slew of expansions you had to buy.
It really isn’t worth getting the new Arkham Horror you’ve still got stuff to do in Eldritch Horror and the Arkham card game.
-Tom
Oh. You were serious with that bit? Or are you still trolling? 2008? Really? Pandemic? I probably like it more than most here, but the modern board game revolution started a decade or more before that- I know because I was there, and playing them, and many, many still hold up (not just Knizia games). Just because that’s when they started going ‘mainstream’ in the geek community and y’all have the attention spans of gnats and constantly flock to the new shiny doesn’t mean before then designs were deficient.
Sorry, touched a nerve.
Lots of intriguing kickstarters lately. I decided to pass on Omega Protocol, missed out on Claustrophobia (my region’s copies got sold out really fast), and was tempted by Project: Elite. However, I think my overproduced dungeon-crawler money is probably going to be going towards the new Warhammer Quest, which looks fantastic (and not a kickstarter!).
Theres also City of the Big Shoulders, which, aside from having a really odd name, looks like another over-designed mess of systems that BGG-ers are sure to go crazy over. They even had the gall to categorize it as 18xx in the database, which was quickly corrected by actual 18xx players. Lucky for me, I will have an actual 18xx game coming soon for Christmas (18CZ), as well as a set of shiny new poker chips. I’m also playing a game of 1889 over Tabletop Game Simulator, which works surprisingly well.
Oh, and Quartermaster General: Cold War arrived yesterday! Can’t wait to check it out.