Axis and Allies

Axis and Allies is one of my favorite board games of all time. It's a lot like Risk, only with many more units and a lot more sophisticated strategy, and yet it's accessible enough that you can learn it in an evening.

The setting of the game is September 1942. The Nazi advance has been halted at Stalingrad, the Japanese are having their way with the South Pacific, and the US has yet to enter the war. Each player takes control of one of five countries (US, Russia, Great Britain, Germany, and Japan), or if you have less than five players one or more players can double up on countries. The goal is simple: to win the war. There are air, land and sea battles, and everything is handled with simple die rolls. Strategy plays a big part in the game, but luck also figures pretty heavily, making it fun and unpredictable.

It's not a perfect game -- the Allies have a considerable strategic advantage, and a skilled Allies player can win the game in about three turns if the rolls go his way -- but it's still a blast to have the great armies of the world at your command. I usually enjoy playing as Germany (despite my utter hatred for the Nazis) because of the strategic challenge. Great Britain is also fun to play because of the myriad approaches you can take: do you concentrate all your air and sea forces in a combined assault with the US or do you strike at the Third Reich through the soft underbelly of North Africa and Central Asia?

The main drawback of the game is its considerable length. I don't think I played a single game that lasted fewer than five hours. I would play this game a lot more if it wasn't so physically draining.

Any other fans out there?

Axis and Allies was a lot of fun. I never played it much for the same reasons - it took too long, and it was pretty complicated.

Talking about complicated boardgames, have you ever played Supremacy? It was a bit like Axis and Allies, but with 1988 mindset. You could get nuclear weapons, L-stars (Star Wars missile defense), the oil and grain futures markets were really important to the course of the game, the game more often than not ended with everyone losing because of nuclear winter/WWIII. You could win by making the other players economically insignificant without ever firing a shot. Neat stuff like that.

I've never even heard about it. Then again, I don't play many board games. Sounds pretty neat though. It remind me of a game called Hero Quest in regards to it's length. When I was younger, some friends would come stay over and we'd hang out and play that all night, munching on snacks and stuff. I likened it to a little boy's poker night. Axis and Allies sounds something like that: a game you can hang out and play all night.

SC

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Stone
Axis and Allies was a lot of fun. I never played it much for the same reasons - it took too long, and it was pretty complicated.

Talking about complicated boardgames, have you ever played Supremacy? It was a bit like Axis and Allies, but with 1988 mindset. You could get nuclear weapons, L-stars (Star Wars missile defense), the oil and grain futures markets were really important to the course of the game, the game more often than not ended with everyone losing because of nuclear winter/WWIII. You could win by making the other players economically insignificant without ever firing a shot. Neat stuff like that.

---

That would make a pretty cool video game: an economy/polity sim. You could run your own country in the global economy while building up your political clout and whatnot. Kind of like that game where you get to be the leader of a third world country...Tropico or something like that?

SC

Supremacy, eh? Nah, haven't played it but it sounds really interesting. Reminds me of that old Apple II game "The Other Side" we used to play in junior-high computer class.

A couple new games have been added to the A&A catalogue recently: A&A Europe and A&A Pacific. I wonder if they're slightly more playable than A&A (i.e. don't take as long).

I love the game. One Summer, a neighbor of mine, his dad, my brother, and myself played it every night. Most times a single game would take more than a single evening, so we kept a ledger to record whose turn it was, plus all other vital informetion.

Good times, good times. :D

My one friend scares me shitless with his knowledge/skill at this game.

Europe is basically germany against the world, and tends to move a little quicker. If you don't move fast as germany, you squish. Pacific bores me to tears though. Hehe, last game I played i had about 65 ipcs as russia and still lost. NOOOOOOOO!!!!, damn you gamecynic and your soberness.

a LOT of effort... I used to be into games like this and loved to play them, but there was never anyone mutually interested, so the effort of learning to play them well was never justified. I used to like a samurai game called shogun if I remember correctly.

I haven't ever played a full game, but what I did play of it, was cool.

But speaking of Risk, my dad has a copy that's older than me. I should dig it out sometime.

Last summer my friends and I played every weekend. We always acted like the world leader of the country we were in, it was fun. I always liked being Hitler.