From: John Desmond Subject: Axis & Allies - D-Day: a review aafter one playing X-Yahoo-Profile: jafdesmond Salutations, gentlefolk, What can be said about a game after one playing - a review of _Axis & Allies - D-Day_ I thought a bit about the recent 'reviewing a game after one playing' discussion, and decided, after a match with my friend Frank Cunliffe, to give it a try. So what can I, validly, say about A&A-DD ? (Haven't read any other reviews of this game, so if I'm stating the obvious, please forgive). 1 - Physical bits and graphics: Aside from the quibbles below, it has quality components, great 'production values'. Not as big a box as some of the other 'Axis & Allies' series (Anybody here _not_ played at least one of them?), but still a lot of air inside when packed away after playing. Lotsa toy soldiers / tanks / artillery / planes, Brits in tan, Amis in green, Germans in black. Brits were short the last tank on the reinforcement chart (t'will be a tank casualty before that's needed), had extra arty piece, I didn't set up other forces. Some of the troopers needed gentle leg bending to get them to stand steadily. Frank thought the blockhouses could have been a bit bigger. Scale of game is: 1 piece = regiment or brigade for Allies (which I was playing). Some of the German pieces are smaller heavy tank units. Board graphics mainly in greys and greens, sometimes pieces were hard to see thereon. 'Victory City' circle around Caen took in parts of two other 'areas', we assumed that had no game effect. Frank thought the 'airborne landing arrows' were a distraction, I didn't mind. He also thought the 'French road sign' arrows marking the German reinforcement areas a bit confusing. 'Order cards' had a lot of distracting graphics, actual instructions could have been in much larger print, more contrast with background. 'Battle board' had sequence of play on side, 'brown on brown' printing. Could have been added at side of main gameboard. We didn't use the 'tactics card' variant - some of them may have mjor effect, some very small effect. Rulebook was VG, everything where it should be, pretty well laid out. Of course, is a fairly simple gamesystem. 2 - How it plays: The sequence of play basically is: First, air and naval stuff, Second, Allied move and combat, Third, Axis move and fight, Fourth, reinforcements (Both sides roll 2x2D6, number resulting is number of pieces brought onto board from Amer / Brit / Ger east and center / Ger west and center reinforcement tracks, in order) Only twists on usual A&A combat system is that there is only one round of die-rolling, and once pieces are in same area they stay there until one side is wiped out. Thus tactics of 'move into area, hope attacker survives to 'pin' enemy, force enemy to attack at worse odds' and 'Allied fighters patrol over combat site, attack incoming German reinforcements'. A lucky survivor can keep a group of enemy occupied for a while. Since armor moves two areas, other units 1 area, and game is only 10 turns, getting a battle going away from the 'victory cities' may find a significant enemy force unable to get to the main fight. The victory conditions - take Cherbourg, Caen, St Lo and hold for one complete turn - which mean the Allies must have cleared the Boche out on Turn 9 - lead, in our game, to an unhistorical 'Everybody to the siege of St Lo - forget about blocking the route to the Rhine' ending. It took us two - first playing of the game for both of us - about three hours, at a leisurely pace with some distractions. Close game, decided on last turn. 3 - Conclusion: Would play again. Don't know if there's a 'dominating strategy' either of us missed. Too long to be a 'light' game, definitely not 'heavy', IMHO. OK, I think there's some useful stuff here on the components, the system, how it plays. YMMV Yours, John Desmond