World at War Xeno Games

	Rating	Grade (1-10)
	Graphic Presentation	2
	Rules	1
	Playability	3
	Replay Value	1
	Overall Rating:	1,75

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World at War (Xeno Games)
Review #1
written by: Andreas Ludwig

Graphic Presentation Everyone buying WAW as an expansion for his A&A game has certain expectations about the map graphics or the plastic figures - because these are of a very high quality in Axis & Allies. It's certainly not too harsh to say that these expectations will be heavily disappointed! The map looks ugly and penetrant, thick red border lines separate the countries which have a comic like color. In contrast to A&A, the map isn't mounted but is a simple print on glossy paper. Without laminating this map, playing on this card is quite difficult. The figures are terrible and sloppy and their colors don't even match the original A&A colors! The quality of this game is the lowest I've ever seen in a wargame!

Rules You will be surprised to hear that the rules are even worse than the presentation of this game... Xeno included a sloppy produced rule"book", which is intended to be used as an add-on to the original A&A rules. Alas, it is almost impossible to play a game with these rules - inconsistences, black holes, relevant and basic things not even mentioned etc. leave the player alone in a sheer rules chaos, forcing him to develop house rules in order to make this game playable. Nothing seems to be playtested by Xeno, and the additional rules slow the game down in a very boring manner without enhancing the game quality of the original A&A.

Playability WAW changes the original A&A (which is problematic itself because of the combination of very long playing time, simple mechanics and few strategic options) into an extremely time consuming monster. The very long political pre-war phase (Germany vs. France / Poland; Japan vs. China) without participation of the allied players (the US are practically damned to inactivity until turn 7!) is annoying. You get the feeling of sitting hours and hours in front of the map without anything thrilling or even interesting happening. The game tries to add some "historical aspects" to A&A, but completly fails in doing this, because the game mechanics don't integrate these aspects very well. So the players are forced by the rules to conduct some game actions in given turns, which leads to complete boredom. The fact that this game is announced as a "7 player game" is complete nonsense, because France as well as China don't play any role in this game. The possibilities offered by WAW in contrast to A&A are somewhat nice (but only because I'm glad about any increase of possibilities in A&A), but not so good that the boring game gets any more interesting. This game isn't worth it's (high) costs!

Replay Value With WAW it's the same as with A&A. The variety of options remains limited, core strategies are quite clear from the first moments of playing, so that any motivation of playing this game more than once or twice is reduced to zero. This is even more true with WAW because it takes much, much longer than A&A, with an annoying and boring game procedure and very ugly done game pieces and map.

Creativity WAW wants to bring more options into the A&A game system, which may be true in some cases. I won't call this creativity, at least not by XENO, because most things included in WAW are only a re-integreation of aspects eliminated by MB when they republished the old Nova Edition of the original A&A. So the Nova Edition of A&A would serve this purpose much better.

Simulation Value WAW tries to push a family board game with WWII topic in a simulative direction in a very spasmic way - but it only proves that this game isn't suited for this. Everything seems artifical and only "imitates" historical events (for example the France / Poland topic or Russia's role as an "unallied" part of the Allies). The simulation value is somewhat higher than in A&A, but this is only a relative value. Objectively, the simulation value is as low as in A&A.

Solitare Factor None. Too long, too boring, too time consuming, too slow.

Can be compared to WAW is one of the expansions and add-ons which want to "enhance" Axis & Allies. Others are, for example, the expansions from Gamers Paradise or ideas such as Bakers Enhanced Realism Rules. Given the quality of the game and the high price, WAW belongs to the worst expansions and should be avoided.

Short Review
I'm aware of the fact that by posting this review I won't get any friends among the hardcore A&A fans - because many of them see WAW as an enrichment to the original game, but I must say that - despite the fact that I think A&A plays an important role in the wargaming community as a good starter - the Xeno product is an offense and impudence.

I've seen very few games which had as lousy rules, were as unattractively done, are as expensive and as boring as WAW. It isn't entertaining when you permanently encounter questions and get the impression that the "developers" didn't even playtest the rules once, because if they did, they would have encountered the same questions then. If I see that each country owns so-called submarine pens in their own colors, but the rules allow them only for the german player, I get somewhat amazed. Or if I see that China can (theoretically) build all unit types but actually cannot use any of them, I ask for a deeper meaning. The idea of enhancing A&A in a more realistic, simulative way, cannot work. Especially if done in a very unfunny and boring way as done in WAW. I would, at any time, prefer the Enhanced Realism Rules to this lousy A&A expansion, because Baker invested time and thoughts in working out how to compensate A&A's inherent problems and developed some interesting alternative rules. In addition, if I think of the fact that WAW costs about 50-70 Euro, which it definitely isn't worth, I don't feel like playing or even buying this game.

Just my 2 cents, of course ;-)

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World at War (Xeno Games) Review #1	written by: Andreas Ludwig
Graphic Presentation	Everyone buying WAW as an expansion for his A&A game has certain expectations about the map graphics or the plastic figures - because these are of a very high quality in Axis & Allies. It's certainly not too harsh to say that these expectations will be heavily disappointed! The map looks ugly and penetrant, thick red border lines separate the countries which have a comic like color. In contrast to A&A, the map isn't mounted but is a simple print on glossy paper. Without laminating this map, playing on this card is quite difficult. The figures are terrible and sloppy and their colors don't even match the original A&A colors! The quality of this game is the lowest I've ever seen in a wargame!
Rules	You will be surprised to hear that the rules are even worse than the presentation of this game... Xeno included a sloppy produced rule"book", which is intended to be used as an add-on to the original A&A rules. Alas, it is almost impossible to play a game with these rules - inconsistences, black holes, relevant and basic things not even mentioned etc. leave the player alone in a sheer rules chaos, forcing him to develop house rules in order to make this game playable. Nothing seems to be playtested by Xeno, and the additional rules slow the game down in a very boring manner without enhancing the game quality of the original A&A.
Playability	WAW changes the original A&A (which is problematic itself because of the combination of very long playing time, simple mechanics and few strategic options) into an extremely time consuming monster. The very long political pre-war phase (Germany vs. France / Poland; Japan vs. China) without participation of the allied players (the US are practically damned to inactivity until turn 7!) is annoying. You get the feeling of sitting hours and hours in front of the map without anything thrilling or even interesting happening. The game tries to add some "historical aspects" to A&A, but completly fails in doing this, because the game mechanics don't integrate these aspects very well. So the players are forced by the rules to conduct some game actions in given turns, which leads to complete boredom. The fact that this game is announced as a "7 player game" is complete nonsense, because France as well as China don't play any role in this game. The possibilities offered by WAW in contrast to A&A are somewhat nice (but only because I'm glad about any increase of possibilities in A&A), but not so good that the boring game gets any more interesting. This game isn't worth it's (high) costs!
Replay Value	With WAW it's the same as with A&A. The variety of options remains limited, core strategies are quite clear from the first moments of playing, so that any motivation of playing this game more than once or twice is reduced to zero. This is even more true with WAW because it takes much, much longer than A&A, with an annoying and boring game procedure and very ugly done game pieces and map.
Creativity	WAW wants to bring more options into the A&A game system, which may be true in some cases. I won't call this creativity, at least not by XENO, because most things included in WAW are only a re-integreation of aspects eliminated by MB when they republished the old Nova Edition of the original A&A. So the Nova Edition of A&A would serve this purpose much better.
Simulation Value	WAW tries to push a family board game with WWII topic in a simulative direction in a very spasmic way - but it only proves that this game isn't suited for this. Everything seems artifical and only "imitates" historical events (for example the France / Poland topic or Russia's role as an "unallied" part of the Allies). The simulation value is somewhat higher than in A&A, but this is only a relative value. Objectively, the simulation value is as low as in A&A.
Solitare Factor	None. Too long, too boring, too time consuming, too slow.
Can be compared to	WAW is one of the expansions and add-ons which want to "enhance" Axis & Allies. Others are, for example, the expansions from Gamers Paradise or ideas such as Bakers Enhanced Realism Rules. Given the quality of the game and the high price, WAW belongs to the worst expansions and should be avoided.
Short Review	I'm aware of the fact that by posting this review I won't get any friends among the hardcore A&A fans - because many of them see WAW as an enrichment to the original game, but I must say that - despite the fact that I think A&A plays an important role in the wargaming community as a good starter - the Xeno product is an offense and impudence. I've seen very few games which had as lousy rules, were as unattractively done, are as expensive and as boring as WAW. It isn't entertaining when you permanently encounter questions and get the impression that the "developers" didn't even playtest the rules once, because if they did, they would have encountered the same questions then. If I see that each country owns so-called submarine pens in their own colors, but the rules allow them only for the german player, I get somewhat amazed. Or if I see that China can (theoretically) build all unit types but actually cannot use any of them, I ask for a deeper meaning. The idea of enhancing A&A in a more realistic, simulative way, cannot work. Especially if done in a very unfunny and boring way as done in WAW. I would, at any time, prefer the Enhanced Realism Rules to this lousy A&A expansion, because Baker invested time and thoughts in working out how to compensate A&A's inherent problems and developed some interesting alternative rules. In addition, if I think of the fact that WAW costs about 50-70 Euro, which it definitely isn't worth, I don't feel like playing or even buying this game. Just my 2 cents, of course ;-)