Axis & Allies goes down to squad-level combat in the fastest-play A&A game yet!
Written: Jan 22 '06 (Updated Jan 29 '06)
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Pros: Scaled-units, quality-paintjobs, collectability keep games fresh. Gameplay lives up-to A&A standards while knocking game-times down.
Cons: Need to purchase numerous boosters to get balanced forces for both Axis and Allied sides.
The Bottom Line: For a whole new style of wargaming focused more on strategy and less on dice rolls, Axis & Allies Miniatures is a clear winner. Collectability of units is a side-bonus.
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| openroad's Full Review: Axis and Allies Miniatures Base Set Starter Pack |
Axis and Allies: Miniatures Starter Set
Publisher: Avalon Hill
Release date: 2005
Street Price: $19 - $25
Game Details: 2 players
Ages: 12 and older
Game Time: 60-90 minutes
12 pieces
----- What is squad-level combat and why is it different? -----
Ever since Milton Bradley released Axis & Allies back in the 80's it's always been about conflict on a global scale. Essentially Axis & Allies recreates World War II from its early moments through the fall of either the Axis or Allied powers. Axis & Allies Revised will always be one of my favorite games, but as time moves on and my friends move away it's become a once-a-year occurrence to get a full game in.
Since Avalon Hill has acquired publishing rights to the A&A series they've pushed in new directions several times already. After the success of the 4 player Axis & Allies Europe and 3 player Pacific Edition, Avalon Hill deciding to release a game focused on just one battle, Axis & Allies D-Day which came out in 2004. This game was only two players and featured very different rules than any previous A&A games. Thanks to D-Day players were finally able to game it up without finding 4 people with 4 or 5 hours to spare. The downside of D-Day was the rather limited replayability options and still lengthy gameplay time, usually around 2-3 hours.
Avalon Hill finally decided to make a completely new squad-level combat series based on WWII entitled Axis & Allies: Miniatures. Squad level combat takes battles and reduces them down to indidual units instead of groups of units. A military squad is made up of 8-12 units including all infantry and commanders. Squads are usually commanded by officers in the Corporal to Staff Sgt. range and operate as a small attack force or possibly a heavy recon unit. The oldest and first hit in squad-level board gaming was Squad Leader released in 1977. This game was for serious tacticians only as it wasn't pretty and had rules for everything. Other squad-level games with similar collectability to A&A: Miniatures are Mechwarrior and Warhammer, both are a little to sci-fi or Warcraft-ish for me to get into.
What squad-level combat does for a boardgame is reduce the percentage of luck involved in combat resolution. In A&A there's usually one or two pivotal battles in the game where one side wins every friggin roll and completely wipes out a superior force. When several of these one-sided battles occur to the same players, the game becomes skewed and the losing player's country is ripe for the taking. This is what happens when you resolve combat on the battalion or regiment level using only a six-sided die. Squad level combat lets individual tanks fire against individual bazooka teams or jeeps using a much better combat system (which I'll explain later). I'll cut short my rambling comments and start actually describing the game now.
----- A&A: Miniatures Overview -----
For starters this game is as much a collector's game as it is a gamer's game. The first release of A&A:Miniatures featured 48 units from both Allied and Axis forces. These units included infantry, recon units such as jeeps and armored cars, artillery and anti-tank guns, and of course tanks (armor) of all sizes. Each unit is very detailed, painted instead of sprayed one color, and is set to scale against the other units. In other words an M1 Garand Rile team is about the same size as a standard A&A infantry piece. An SS Panther Ausf. G is 3" long and 1" wide while a US M4A1 Sherman is only 2" long. This gives an actual feeling of scale to battles involving armor and infantry instead of the universal unit size of the standard A&A games.
Individual Units: However, this starter set only includes 12 units out of the 48 possible units. Some of these will also be duplicates as many infantry units are classifed as common. There are three collectability ratings possible; most common units are (unsurprisingly) listed as Common, many of the better anti-tank units and commanders are listes as Uncommon, while the strongest and coolest tanks and mobile artillery are labled Rare. This means you'll have to also buy several Base Set Booster Packs to get those hard to find units. Much like buying baseball cards or other collectibles there's a feeling of excitement and suspense every time you open a new booster pack. Avalon Hill isn't stupid, since this game came out there's already a Set II Booster Pack with 48 more units to add to the game. In March of '06 the latest booster set will hit the shelves, this time aircraft will join the mix in Booster Set III: Contested Skies. As a quick note, the detail on these units is very good for plastic models. Each turret rotates and the guns raise and lower for elevation. The infantry units are painted historical colors and weapons are quite realistic.
Starter Set Contents: Okay, now I'll get back to the starter set review and what you get for $20. Included in the starter set is your first 12 units, eight 6-sided dice, four double-sided full-color battle maps, quick-start instructions and detailed game directions. The 12 units included in the starter are guaranteed to include 2 tanks, 2 antitank guns, 2 commanders, and 5 infantry units. It's also guaranteed that you'll get one random rare unit in your starter set. As a note, all booster sets are completely random, no 'guaranteed' units. You might get 9 assorted units including 3 tanks, you might get 9 US Bazooka units. As you can see it takes awhile to assemble a full force of units!
Unit Cards: All units come with a detailed unit card used through the entire game. Cards have either green backrounds for the Allies or grey for Axis. These cards included information such as; Nationality and unit type, cost to purchase, speed rating, attack/defense vs infantry and vehicles, ranged attack, special abilities (if any), set number and collectability rating, and a small info blurb about the actual real-life unit. Each unit has information stamped into the unit base which matches its card exactly. This makes sorting out units much easier when setting up battles.
----- Playing the game -----
Setup: First of all you decide who will play Axis and who's the Allied forces. Next you each build an army from your own unit stock and spending only 100 purchase points. Each unit has a point value located on the top-right of its unit card. The combined value of all your units for this battle may not exceed 100 points. For example if you had 1 Panzer IV Ausf G. (30 pts.), 2 PAK 38 Antitank Guns (10 pts. each), 2 MG42 Machine Gun Teams (10 pts. each), 3 Light Morter Teams (4 pts. each), 1 SS-Haupsturmfuhrer Commander (7 pts.), and 3 Mauser Kar 98k Infantry (3 pts. each), your total cost for a 12-unit army would be 98 points. Do NOT show your enemy your army build, instead keep your unit cards in your hand until the map is chosen and placement begins.
Now you roll one die and see which map you'll be playing on. There are 4 separate map sections that when put together create one large battle map. Flipping each section from side A to side B creates the 6 possible map variatons. Now both players flip a coin to see who starts first. First player then gets to choose who places units first. Once deployment of both sides is complete the game begins!
Turn Phases:
1: Initiative Phase (both players)
2: First Player's Movement Phase
3: Second Player's Movement Phase
4: First Player's Assault Phase
5: Second Player's Assault Phase
6: Casualty Phase (both players)
End of turn...
Initiative is determined before every turn, this gives each player the chance to be first on this turn and place their units in a better position. Commanders play a crucial roll in the intiative phase as they add a bonus to initiative rolls.
Movement phases for both players allow you to use some or all of the movement points located on each unit card.
The Assault phase allows you to attack units and either Disrupt, Damage, or Destroy them depending on your rolls. Each unit has an attack rating for 0-1 hex away (short range), 2-4 hexes away (medium range), and 5-8 hexes away (long range). Each unit also has a defense rating (tanks have separate front and rear defense) from 1 to 6. I'll run through a quick demo-battle so you get the general idea.
Demo Battle: This battle is between an Axis MG42 Machine-Gun Team and a US Bazooka Team located 2 hexes away. The MG42 has an attack rating of 8 at medium range vs infantry units and Bazooka Teams are rated at 4 defense. The attacker will roll 8 dice for the MG42 and hope for rolls of 4 or higher. Throughout the whole game 1, 2, & 3 are considered misses while 4, 5, and 6 constitute a hit. The MG42 rolled exceptionally well with 2 ones, 1 three, 3 fours, 1 five, and 1 six. This means he hit 6 times successfuly against the Bazooka Team. The Bazooka had a defense of 4 which means the Bazooka is destroyed. Units incur one hit when attackers tie their defense (4 defense, 4 successful hits) and two hits when attackers hit a greater number of dice than their defense.
Other Factors: This battle was simplistic as far as the average game battle, usually there would be line-of-sight rules and terrain cover rolls somewhere in there, but now you have an idea at least. Tanks and vehicles must be hit a total of three times to be destroyed, infantry only require two hits. Most unit-vs-unit battles don't last very long, usually about 5 minutes. Impassable terrain, roads, covering fire, all these things give A&A: Miniatures a style all its own and make replay value much better than most wargames.
Victory Conditions: Victory may occur at the end of turn 7 if one player controls the objective hex without an enemy unit also next to the objective. If neither player has complete control of the objective by the end of turn 10, count up the purchase point cost of units remaining alive on the board. If the game continues to turn 10 the player with higher point-value remaining wins the game.
----- Final Comments -----
I hope after reading this you've got a better idea how the game plays and what makes it different than other Axis & Allies games. I love being able to sit down for an hour or so and finish a complete game. This version only takes one other friend to play with, which makes it much easier to pick up and play on a Saturday afternoon. The random booster packs mean you'll never have quite the same game again, your friends will have different units than you and the more expensive rare tanks require varied strategies to defeat.
I'm quite sure if you liked the older Axis & Allies games you'll love this one. Your strategic skills will be pushed to new limits as you plan your assault force and implement combined forces attacks. As a gift this is a great game since the recipient can expand the game at their own pace. I had no idea Avalon Hill would take the A&A series in this new direction, but I'm sure glad they did. Make sure to check out their website where you can play a mini-battle for yourself.
NOTE: If you're trying to figure out a way to store your miniatures when not playing, I've found that tackle boxes with adjustable compartments work very well. I started with plastic baggies but the tank barrels were bending in storage. I personally use a Plano double-sided tackle box with clear lids on both sides.
For quick and easy online board game shopping, try Funagain.com
Funagain.com Online Store
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Thanks for reading and feel free to comment!
openroad
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 20.00
Type of Toy: Board Game
Age Range of Child: 9 Years or Older
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