Axis & Allies

[RangerWickett]

I have been watching the phenomenal YouTube channel "World War Two" - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP1AejCL4DA7jYkZAELRhHQ - which has been covering the events of the war in 'real time,' with one episode per week covering the events of whatever happened that week 79 years ago.

(The same people also have a series covering WW1, and another called Between Two Wars, and various side projects. They're neato.)

This has been making me want to play some good old Axis & Allies, probably the most 'mass market' board game related to World War 2. The last time I played was probably 23 years ago, and I had only the barest sense of what the real war was like back then.

So I'm curious, does anyone still play this game? I know they've had new editions. How are they? What would you recommend? Or should I find a different game to scratch the itch of smashing nations against each other?

 

[Dire Bare]

I have been watching the phenomenal YouTube channel "World War Two" - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP1AejCL4DA7jYkZAELRhHQ - which has been covering the events of the war in 'real time,' with one episode per week covering the events of whatever happened that week 79 years ago.

(The same people also have a series covering WW1, and another called Between Two Wars, and various side projects. They're neato.)

This has been making me want to play some good old Axis & Allies, probably the most 'mass market' board game related to World War 2. The last time I played was probably 23 years ago, and I had only the barest sense of what the real war was like back then.

So I'm curious, does anyone still play this game? I know they've had new editions. How are they? What would you recommend? Or should I find a different game to scratch the itch of smashing nations against each other?

It's been a while for me too, but the last edition I picked up was the "Anniversary Edition". The various editions over the years haven't changed the game much, just mostly tweaks to the rules.

Axis & Allies 1942 is the basic game you know and love, using the 2nd edition of the rules. A good place to start.

The Anniversary Edition has a much larger game board and allows you to play Italy and China, in addition to the countries from the original game.

There are also 1914 and 1941 versions of the game, but I'm not familiar with them. I'm assuming 1914 is a WWI variant? Not sure of the difference between 1941 and 1942 editions.

A fun (but expensive) version is the combo of A&A Pacific 1940 and A&A Europe 1940. Two games each focusing on a different theatre, but the boards can be placed side-by-side for a "global" game on a giant board!

More recently is Axis & Allies & Zombies, which adds . . . . . . clowns to the game! I haven't purchased or played this one yet, but it's on my want-list.

All of the above are all essentially minor variants of the same game.

There is also A&A D-Day, A&A Battle of the Bulge, A&A Guadalcanal, and the A&A Miniatures game . . . all of which are completely different games from the original and each other, just a part of the same franchise and all set during WWII. I have no experience with any of these.

 

[Rune]

Still a great game. There are different versions that have significantly different feel based on the scope, so you kind of want to pick the game that fits the scale you want to play.

If you want a more casual game, Axis & Allies 1942 2nd edition is probably the way to go (or, if you want super-casual, Axis & Allies & Zombies). On the other end of the spectrum, there’s Axis & Allies Global 1940, which requires that you put together A&A Europe (2nd edition) + A&A Pacific (2nd edition). Global is comparatively massive and granular in scale and gameplay reflects this.

A&A Anniversary edition is a middle ground (though closer to casual, I’d say). It got a reprint a year or few ago and is therefore affordable.

Personally, I’d look into Nightingale Games’ War Room, which (being designed by A&A creator/designer Larry Harris) has a lot of great things that make A&A fun, plus other great things (team-coordinated secret orders/movement/bids for initiative). It’s really great, if you can get a copy. And play in person.

 

[DemoMonkey]

Or should I find a different game to scratch the itch of smashing nations against each other?

I would - and do - play a board game called Quartermaster General instead of Axis and Allies.

It's fun, it's interesting, it sets up in 5 minutes, and you can play the entirety of WW2 with 6 people in under two hours.

If anyone has ever gotten in two complete Axis and Allies games in an evening, including setup, I have never heard of it.

 

[payn]

I find Axis and Allies to be a bit fiddly. I do really like the game Diplomacy and think online is the best format for it.

 

[dragoner]

We used to play it a lot years ago, with the original, it often came down to the USSR building infantry while Germany built tanks, and while probably somewhat realistic, it wasn't a huge amount of fun. They may have fixed that in later versions.

 

[Bedrockgames]

One of my all time favorite games. There was a time when we could not stop playing this

 

[Rune]

We used to play it a lot years ago, with the original, it often came down to the USSR building infantry while Germany built tanks, and while probably somewhat realistic, it wasn't a huge amount of fun. They may have fixed that in later versions.

Not really. Turtling and building stacks of units that stare at each other over a border is a thing that happens in all versions of A&A (except, maybe, the campaign-scale games – and the miniatures games, which are a different thing entirely).

The aforementioned War Room fixes this by focusing the game on waging a war while war-fatigue creeps up on all of the powers. Also, the secret movement orders and the secret build orders.

 

[dragoner]

The aforementioned War Room fixes this by focusing the game on waging a war while war-fatigue creeps up on all of the powers. Also, the secret movement orders and the secret build orders.

That stuff sounds fun, kind of like Diplomacy.

 

[Rune]

That stuff sounds fun, kind of like Diplomacy.

Like if Diplomacy was a team game with combat that resembles A&A. Loosely.