I played the original (pre-Milton-Bradley) version way back in 1980 when I was 11... my introduction to strategy gaming, aside from Stratego and chess. Later that year (or maybe 1981, I forget), we discovered Diplomacy and A&A went into the closet.

I was recently talking with a friend about building an online A&A implementation, but mainly for nostalgia reasons -- I think Dip is the superior game. I'm not really a fan of dice. :)

I'd love to find a way to make A&A be less random factor dependent. When you see a fighter take out an entire battle group at see, you realize that it is impossible as the fighter doesn't carry enough munitions for that effort. And the old version (domn't know if they updated this) didn't allow for Kamikaze pilots. All planes had to be able to return to base to fly the mission. Even the US did missions where that was questionable (Doolittle's raid over Tokyo).

But I love the reliability of knowing who my friends are and who my enemies are once in a while.

grrrrrr at sea

You mean you guys haven't played the Anniversary Edition? I am really hooked on that one. This version is much more balanced and more detailed in respect to the number of territories between Berlin and Moscow.

Check out:

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/

..for some great discussion on A&A.

There are some very nice tools for playing A&A. However, not anything like Webdiplomacy though.

TripleA is the best thing right now for playing A&A imho.
Think the DL link is:

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?wn3mjmen3yk

I play it sometimes usually I perfer Mare Nostrum

Pale in comparison to Diplomacy. I tried playing it but it didn't seem to have the same appeal to it as Diplomacy had.

So does the Anniversary Edition exclude die because that is the only reason I don't like the game. I'm not into most die games... except D&D :P

the game does not exist without dice. I love A&A, but i like diplomacy more.
TripleA is the shit, 1.0.4 will be out soon, but until then look for 1.0.3.4

i love axis and allies, but i havent played the anniversary edition...last time i checked it was around 90 bucks :O definitely way too much to spend.

how can you not love a and a its the best letter and letter game since d and d

i know thats weak but truly its a great game for any avid military history fan

also with the new anniversary edition there are far more territories having many split up making many more strategical plans possible

I started playing that game when I was 5. lol I've veered away from it though mostly due to Diplomacy not involving dice. I haven't played the anniversary edition though, perhaps it would be better with more territories.

Axis and Allies really is a great game - I'm a huge fan. Diplomacy and AnA are just different - it isn't really fair to say don't like it, it uses dice... (Then again, I play all three games workshop systems - we love dice!)

i played it, once. and then i researched it and found that the axis powers are dead with correct play by the allies, and baring bad luck.

I enjoy me some A&A. While lacking many of the things this site has (community/forums, scoring, etc), you and some friends can get a game on at gamesbyemail.com.

>the axis powers are dead with correct play by the allies

That's just part of the realism!

Never really liked the Hasbro version. Even though the Anniversary Edition is expensive and it comes in a large, flat box, I think it is definitely worth the capitol. There is this global history teacher at my high school who runs a strategy gaming club. After school students can go and play many different board games like Stratego, Nexus, Axis and Allies Revised, Axis and Allies Anniversary Edition, Risk, Axis and Allies Europe, Chess, Checkers, etc. For some reason every time we played Axis and Allies or Diplomacy we could never finish a single game

I got into diplomacy only after seeing the ad on my copy of Axis and Allies, Europe.

@hamilton- same story goes for me. and im wary of spending that much money on the anniversary edition, im not quite sure i could get my friends together to play it enough to justify the large price tag.

the nice thing about the europe edition is you only need 4 people. And yes, its hard getting friends together to play a board game.

Wait, the game is balanced against the Axis? Tell that to anyone who I've played with.

if we're talking about 50th anniversary edition, I find that it's one of the most balanced games so far. Or am I thinking of the wrong version?

come to think of it, is there an online website for A&A? that would be perfect!

I am a fan of Axis and Allies Europe. I demolish every other country as Germany. The trick is a strong relation with the communists until you defeat England.

To Rommeltastic (and everyone else, for that matter):

http://triplea.sourceforge.net/mywiki/Forum#nabble-td3251158%7Ca3251158

Before you weep, notice subotai's comment (second-to-last on the first page). The link to the "stable" game is version 1.0.0.3 (released Saturday, June 29, 2008), the same as from from the link given by Perry6006. The link to the "unstable" game is the 1.0.3.4 (released Monday, June 14, 2009), mentioned above, whch has about a year of development more than the other.
(The thread is also interesting.)

If you have a strong relationship with the communists I'm not sure you are playing correctly.

That's just how the real war went until Hitler threw away his success.

If you read, all three are on the same side, but there is a DMZ between Russia and Germany. You keep that zone clean. Focus on building forces, than steam roll through England, then Russia, then America.