My dad's 1980 copy of Axis and Allies has paper money I still refuse to throw out
We played that same battered box every Sunday in our basement in Akron from 1994 to 2001 and the little cardboard chits and paper bills never bothered me once. Now I see people online saying old editions are unplayable junk and you have to buy the $80 anniversary set with plastic minis and a mounted board or you're doing it wrong. Did anyone else grow up on the cheap version and still think the worn out pieces are the whole point?
We had the 1984 edition with the flimsy paper board that never laid flat, and my brother and I fixed that by sliding a big atlas under it. The bills got so soft from sweat and Doritos that a five looked like a one, so we just kept a pencil nearby and wrote the values back on. When a stack of infantry got knocked over we counted it as a dice roll, which honestly made the game better. The new set looks nice but it can't give you a pile of money with tape on it.