Axis & Allies 1942: Depression Edition

It’s a Depression Here!
This weekend I had the pleasure of playing the latest edition of Axis & Allies – Axis & Allies 1942. I called it the “Depression Edition” because once I opened the box, it was painfully obvious that Wizards of the Coast did not want to spend any money producing this game. What you will not find in this Axis & Allies game are industrial complex damage markers, a decent battle board, a place to put your pieces, and MONEY! That’s right, Axis & Allies 1942 completely did away with the IPC as you know it. What used to be the Industrial Production Certificate, the currency of the Axis & Allies world, is now called the Industrial Production Credit. The Industrial Production Credit (the new IPC), is now managed via paper and pen; you have to assign a banker that will manage all the money. There was no way we were going to play like that. We had Axis & Allies Europe handy, so we took the IPCs from that game to use in the 1942 Edition.

There are many other noticeable differences in this game. The game board now comes with the national production chart embedded in the bottom of the board. Again, this was done to save on printing and material costs. It’s not a bad idea, however, the playable portion of the game board is now significantly smaller. It is much harder to keep track of how many units are in one space, especially in the sea zones. At one point, we had to place a control marker in a sea zone to identify a large amount of units off the game board. This is a dumb down game board compared to games that date as far back as 2nd Edition. Remember the blow-up squares in 2nd Edition? We certainly could have used that in this game.

The Game-play
Although the physical game was obviously at a budget, the game-play is as good as ever. A&A 1942 has a few differences from all the previous A&A games. The most obvious difference is that technological development is gone. This I did not mind since I never used technology anyway. I did like the way technology was revised in Anniversary Edition, but it didn’t need to be included in this game, and it was a great move to get rid of it.

There were some changes that made it in from Anniversary Edition. For example, when you bomb an industrial complex, instead of your opponent paying at once, he/she must place damage markers under the complex only to be removed when the owner sees fit (or if he/she has no choice in order to build). The other rule that carried over was the rule on transports. Transports cannot defend. They can go into combat, but do nothing while there. Cruisers also made it into this version of the game; they still attack and defend at a 3. Lastly, the prices on units carried over from Anniversary. Carriers are 14 IPCs, planes 10 IPCs, and Bombers 12 IPCs. These are noticeable discounts that I enjoy very much.

The Verdict
There aren’t any major changes from 3rd Edition, but the little changes are enough to keep this game as your definitive set when company is over. That is, unless you have Anniversary Edition; but even still, you’ll want to have this game handy for shorter games (Anniversary Edition usually takes longer to play). A&A 1942 was a lot of fun to play, but I can’t forgive how cheap the creators were when constructing this game; they really didn’t have the fans in mind. Buy it, but try to have some IPCs handy.

- The Crumb

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You can order A&A 1942 at CoolStuffInc.com for $20.00

1. 

   Octopus says:

   September 8, 2009 at 11:18 am

   The rules for this board are the same as the Anniversary Edition. I would compare the board to the Revised set. I do enjoy the setup of the game where you cannot lose the game on the first turn (specifically Germany). Germany starts with 6 fighters which gives them a great deal of flexibility on their offensive scheme coupled with strong defense. This allows a possible African campaign to be successful.

   One thing I did find fun was the British fleet off the coast of India. Long ago, on the back of an old school 2nd edition box was a photo of this fleet setup not realized until this game came out.

   The map is small so I call this game the travel edition Axis and Allies. For the price you will get a lot of game. I can deal with weak setup cards and no money…..but I think it is kind of weak to not include them.

   [Reply]
2. 

   14 Point Failure says:

   December 16, 2009 at 12:32 pm

   Just wanted to let you know that I enjoy your analysis of A&A 1942. I too really enjoy the gameplay I believe that any nation has the chance to win the game whereas other editions were more heavily favoring one side or the other. Check out my blog, you may be interested.

   http://axisallies1942.blogspot.com/

   [Reply]

   Mr. Crumb Reply:
   December 22nd, 2009 at 10:15 pm

   You have a very impressive blog. Great work!

   [Reply]