What’s the difference between “Aces & Armor” and “Trench Club”?

Thematically, Trench Club is set in World War 1 and Aces & Armor in World War 2. Both games have the same game mechanic and similar rules, but a very different gameplay. Is one better than the other? No. They are just different, and both deserve a place on your game shelf if you like the game mechanic. As key differences, Aces & Armor has…

• … streamlined rules, hence easier to learn and play
• … much shorter playing time(1.5-2h for a 4 player game)
• … more dynamic battlesreflecting WW2 vs. static front lines in WW1

If you have already played Trench Club and want to learn in detail what the differences from Aces & Armor are, here are more details:

Streamlined rules:

• There are no transport trucks, so no rules for these needed.
• Factories are only 1 hex in size (vs. 4 hexes for Forts) and work like normal hexes (you can be attacked when in a factory; there can only be 1 unit in a factory at any time; etc.) so no special rules needed here.
• The rule to use a remaining 0.5 movement point to move to a meadow was removed.
• There is no “enemy contact” rule
• Every player only has 6 different units (instead of 11 in Trench Club), so easier to familiarize yourself with your units. However, these 6 units are asymmetric, so e.g., the 6 units from the Soviets are different from the 6 units from the US player. In Trench Club 10 out of 11 were the symmetric.
• The repair and purchase rule were simplified

Shorter playing time:

• The units are generally faster and stronger. That means they can reach the fight quicker and deal more damage, hence removing enemies from the battle field quicker.
• You have the option to start with only 6 units for a quicker game.
• It is easier and therefore faster to capture factories and hence reach the victory condition (since e.g., mobile infantry is very fast and can easily reach factories; also, the factories are smaller so there are no situations where an enemy infantry can threaten your factory/fort from 4 hexes distance on the other side of it at the entrance)

More dynamic:

• The units a generally a lot faster
• Air battle play a much bigger role
• There is no “enemy contact” rule that stops enemy units automatically at the frontline. Instead, there is the “intercept” rule. This (together with the faster units) leads to a different game play. In Trench Club front lines build up quickly (thematically like in WW1), whereas Aces & Armor is more dynamic and allows break throughs
• The inactive player is now involved more during their downtime since they have to decide whether they want to intercept enemies