Mike Selinker dropped us a note about Axis & Allies D-Day, a new “standalone expansion” for Axis & Allies set to hit next May, to coincide with D-Day’s 60th anniversary. “Standalone expansion” is apparently what A&A Europe and A&A Pacific are called, as well. Well, okay: Selinker was really writing us to complain that we said A&A was getting split into two parts in its upcoming revision, which it’s not. We didn’t actually say it was, but in the resulting confusion, well, I don’t even know what we did say. You should clearly just be listening to Selinker instead of me, which just got easier thanks to his new series of columns at the AH site.
The below is press release copy from Avalon Hill/WotC.
WIZARDS OF THE COAST TO RELEASE NEW AXIS & ALLIES D-DAY™ GAME
Axis & Allies D-Day edition honors the 60th anniversary of D-Day
December 10, 2003 (Renton, Wash.) — It’s the morning of June 6, 1944. As Allied forces prepare to storm Normandy’s beaches, the fate of Europe is in your hands! In honor of next year’s 60th anniversary of D-Day, Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. (NYSE: HAS), will release AXIS & ALLIES D-DAY, a new, stand-alone extension of the classic strategy game Axis & Allies. Axis & Allies D-Day, will allow players to re-create the largest combined military operation in history.
Scheduled for release in May 2004, Axis & Allies D-Day will feature detailed game components, including a new blockhouse piece, an extra- large game board and original artwork commissioned exclusively for the D-Day game box. Other elements of this new Axis & Allies variant include a pre-set deck with three card categories – Order, Tactics and Fortune – which add increasing depth and complexity to a player’s game play experience. Order cards determine play sequence and break turns into distinct phases, Tactics cards offer players more strategic opportunities, and Fortune cards add an element of unpredictability. Axis & Allies D-Day is designed for two to three players and can be played in two hours.
Axis & Allies D-Day begins as plans for Operation Overlord, the invasion of German-held Normandy, are underway. 130,000 soldiers of the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States are assaulting Fortress Europe. You and your fellow world powers control their fates.
One side is the Axis: Germany, which has turned the beaches of Normandy into a near-impenetrable stronghold. Breaching its defenses are the Allies: the United Kingdom (U.K.), Canada and the United States (U.S.). The future of Europe, and of the world, hangs in the balance.
Axis & Allies D-Day is the third Axis & Allies variant, following the successful Axis & Allies Europe and Axis & Allies Pacific, which both released in 2001.
Axis & Allies D-Day is part of Wizards of the Coast’s Avalon Hill® line of games, which includes Axis & Allies, Axis & Allies Europe, Axis & Allies Pacific, Risk, Diplomacy and many others.
Wizards of the Coast, Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. (NYSE:HAS), is a worldwide leader in the trading card game and tabletop roleplaying game categories, and a leading developer and publisher of game-based entertainment products. The company holds an exclusive patent on trading card games (TCGs) and their method of play and produces the premier trading card game, Magic: The Gathering®, among many other trading card games and family card and board games. Wizards is also a leading publisher of roleplaying games, such as Dungeons & Dragons®, and publisher of fantasy series fiction with numerous New York Times best-sellers. For more information, visit the Wizards of the Coast website at wizards.com <http://www.wizards.com>.
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Axis & Allies, Axis & Allies Europe, Axis & Allies Pacific, Axis & Allies D-Day, Risk, Diplomacy and Avalon Hill are trademarks of Hasbro, Inc. Used with permission.
Axis & Allies is manufactured and distributed by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast. © 2003 Wizards.