War Room: First Impressions Review

There, obligation fulfilled. 
If you enjoy Axis and Allies, but wish...

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I'm not a war gamer, but this game looks so fantastic, I'd love to play it some day. Unfortunately, the player count and time pretty much means I never will; if I can get people together for that duration, I'll be pushing Dune.

I'm out at the mention of Axis and Allies, but these component choices are so welcome. Axis and Allies is a game that makes a lot of sacrifices with regard to readability of the board state to put in the plastic toy soldiers.

The map perspective is also super striking!

Very impressive. if this had been published in the 80's or 90's when I actually had 7 people who would cheerfully commit to 10 or more hours in a day for such a beast then money would have been no object. It doesn't seem overly expensive even now based on what I see.

I may buy this, plus the upgrades just have have the damned thing. Actually playing it would be the gravy on the main course. Good overview.

That looks amazing. Thinking of getting a copy to squirrel away for a couple decades until I end up at a retirement home with a bunch of other gamers with nothing but time.

I saw a copy of this at a friends house a couple weeks ago. Physically its a pretty impressive package - almost imposing. The box is ginormous, easily bigger than the old FFG coffin boxes and unlike those, packed to the brim with components. So on top of the already hefty price tag, shipping this thing ain't gonna be cheap.

I have a hard time getting enthused about Axis and Allies on steroids, esp at this price point. Granted it has a lot more depth than its predecessor. A few years from now I suspect it will be available second hand a lot cheaper.

"War Room is not uniquely expensive in the age of Kickstarters with hundreds of miniatures"

I think $240 just for the base game must be close to unique, apart from the games rolled out just for the quality miniature suckers collectors - for a deluxe version of A&A that is pretty jaw-dropping.

Probably a game I would have wanted to play 10-15 years ago, maybe I'd still try it now though there's no way I'd find enough players for even a European war. But I'm sure the gaming masses are vast enough just in the US that there will be a decent market for this.

I went and looked at the KS page - they got like 1700+ backers. I had never even heard of it til well after it released so I am guessing those backers were died in the wool Axis and Allies fans. There is a somewhat similar game that has been played at CSW Expo for years - think mega Axis and Allies, the map is like 8 feet long and 3-4 feet tall. Here is the website:

www.ww2wargame.com/

At PAX Unplugged they were giving out coupon codes for free shipping so that may be an option.

War Room was $149 for the core set on Kickstarter, and $245 with the extras, so that is comparable to the KS miniatures extravaganza games. The Batman game on KS now is $125 for the core game and $225 for the all-in.

dysjunct, I thought about that, but with two kids in college next year, it's not an option.

Thanks for the overview. It's impressive. Too big and too long, but so it goes. I esp. like the hidden orders for some planning tension. A splash of Shogun.

But come on: the victory conditions are ridiculous. Once again, it's Axis high tide and then resignation. There is no incentive to play it out to the end, for D-Day, island-hopping, etc. This problem was perfectly solved with A&A Pacific (the original Hasbro/AH one), or any number of wargames that use an "outperform your historical counterpart" condition. Ugh.

I noticed in the write up that the game starts on the eve of Barbarossa . While it allows the designers to neatly sidestep the issue of a political system, it robs the players of developing much of an alternative narrative for WWII which is one of the things I like about CATACLYSM and TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY .