From: goudswaa@fraser.sfu.ca (Peter Goudswaard)
Subject: Re: A&A PRE-PRODUCTION VERSION!!!
Keywords: A&A
Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 07:08:07 GMT

cwk@athena.mit.edu (Chuck Krueger) writes:

>I don't know how many people out there realize that A+A was not "invented"
>by MB. About 12 years ago I played a game called Axis and Allies put out
>by Nova games (I believe the same Nova that makes Ace of Aces). I later 
>bought a copy for myself which I still have, although it is not quite 
>complete anymore. In the Nova version (which I'm sure MB bought the rights
>to) many of the unit costs were the same and the map was similar but had
>a few more territories. The most major change that MB made was in the land
>combat which was attack/move in the Nova game (allowing armor breakthroughs).
>Another major change was in the sub operations (In the Nova version, subs 
>were purely defensive, electing to take first shots if desired when enemy 
>ships entered their zone -- only then could the sub be counter-attacked). Also
>in the Nova game, the carriers were 1-1 (defense = 1 not 3), instead of heavy 
>bombers as an available technology you could get the atom bomb -- build for 
>1000 (MB $10) pts, destroys everything in one zone, and AA guns were weaker 
>(getting only one shot per fly-over). Finally, income was collected at the
>start of the turn so that newly captured territories did not yield income
>until they were controlled for one turn. The game had cardboard counters and
>a paper mapboard costing less than $20 in its day. Just a little FYI.

>Chuck 

Chuck, this isn't meant specifically for you, but to everyone who read
my original post called "A&A: PRE-PRODUCTION VERSION" or something like
that.  

   YES, I _KNOW_ ALL ABOUT NOVA'S GAME, I've known for years, but that's
not, I repeat, NOT, what I was referring to when I said pre-production
version.  I could care less about Nova.  When MB bought the rights to
A&A, they obviously changed the rules many times over to get what they
felt was a better game, or at least a more saleable game.  DURING THAT
TIME, they probably said, "okay, how about these rules?" and did some
playtesting.  Someone then said, "No, I don't like this..."  During
one of these bouts, it was nearing time for the box cover art to be
created, so they had to go with what rules were developed at the time.
(Are you with me so far?)

My original post was merely reflecting what that pre-production version,
(read: Milton Bradley's) was like.  Could it have been more exciting than
the current game?  Were original unit placement numbers cut down?  
Increased?  Did that game last longer on average?  Was it over quicker?
Was it too complex?  Too simplistic?

Those were the types of questions I was attempting to draw out.  I was
also hoping that someone had firsthand knowledge of those days of A&A
development at MB.  What kind of game did they want to change the
Nova rules into?  Did they actually accomplish what they set out to do,
or did game production deadlines cut it short?

Wouldn't it have been nice if one of the original MB (re)designers of
A&A had an "ultimate" version that never went into production because
of, say, deadline or cost limitations!  These kinds of discoveries,
although rare or perhaps nonexistent, are fun to talk about, IMHO.
And when given pictures of a game on the outside of a box that is not
the same game as the contents -- well!  I can't help but have my 
imagination explore the possibilities.

-- 
 Peter Goudswaard                  _________                     _________
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