An amazing reworking to the greatest of wargames, Axis & Allies 2004
Written: Jun 18 '04 (Updated Dec 07 '05)
Product Rating:
Pros: Every update a fan could want, same great gameplay, the best pick-up-and-play wargame no contest.
Cons: LONG game times on 10-point victory games, no trays for units are included.
The Bottom Line: If you already have Axis-&-Allies, I still recommend you pick up the new version. If you don't own it, go get it right now! You and 4 friends will have-a-BLAST!
In 1984 Larry Harris released the original Axis & Allies boardgame under the Nova Game Designs label. These very early editions are quite rare, since A&A was soon moved over to the Milton Bradley company. As a wargame Axis & Allies wasn’t your typical M.B family game, and was aimed toward a more adult audience. It was one of five games grouped in a sub-category titled The Milton Bradley Gamemaster Series, which included the less popular Shogun, Fortress America, and Conquest of the Empire. Over the last twenty years the game’s popularity has increased greatly, and it’s more popular than ever now that it’s out of print. The beauty of this game lies in the attention to detail and its simplicity. Over 400 miniature combat figures were included in the Milton Bradley version, which enabled mature and responsible adult men to still blow the heck out their buddies little plastic army men.
Fast forward to 2004 and the next generation of Axis & Allies. Avalon Hill took over distribution rights to the A&A series, and despite the misgivings of die-hard A&A fans the new owners have worked wonders with the game. Larry Harris has been involved in the maturation of the series, and the smaller conflict zones of Axis & Allies Pacific and Axis & Allies Europe still were top-notch wargames on their own. After many years of suggestions, demands, and less polite rants ‘n’ raves by game players, Larry decided it was time for a full-scale update to the Axis & Allies game.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----- What’s Axis & Allies about, and will I play it? -----
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Before I get down to the many improvements over the old game, I’ll give a quick rundown of the basic game mechanics. If you already know about the game and just want to read about the updates, feel free to skip to the next section.
Axis & Allies (A&A) is a large-scale recreation of WWII starting in the spring of 1942. Germany is poised to engage Russia in a full-scale invasion, while also pushing into North Africa and locking horns with the U.K. America has rebuilt from the first crushing blow at Pearl Harbor, while Japan is poised to make a 2nd major attack. The United Kingdom has a strong economy as the game opens, but can suffer catastrophic losses if Germany presses hard into Africa and India. The fate of the world is in your hands as you and your fellow gamers control the destinies of millions of soldiers. You must work as a team within your alliance, coordinated and working toward your goals. As you recreate the greatest war the world has ever known, one side will emerge victorious, and history will never be the same again.
The game is designed so each nation going in the following order every game turn:
Russia
Germany
United Kingdom
Japan
United States
There are several phases to each player’s turn that always take place in the same order:
Buy Units
Combat Movement
Combat Resolution
Non-Combat Movement
Place New Units
Collect Income
Income is represented by “Industrial Production Certificates, and is distributed by how many zones (territories) each player controls. Certain zones that have a high population and massive manufacturing capacity are worth more than others, with Eastern and Western U.S.A. worth 10 and 12 IPCs respectively. Smaller zones such as India have a lower industrial output and are worth only 3 IPCs. Africa is important strategically, but most territories are only worth 1 IPC.
Units are purchased using IPCs, and vary in cost from a standard infantry unit (3 IPCs), tactical fighter plane (10 IPCs), or massive battleship (24 IPCs). Purchasing the right units at the right time is crucial to military success, since fielding a nation-crushing wall of tanks doesn’t help when there’s enemy invasion fleets off your shore and bombers in the sky over your capital. Balance is the key to victory, yet you also must be able to forecast swings in the battle, be able to spot gaps in your opponent’s defenses, and have the units to take advantage of those gaps.
Combat is resolved using 6-sided dice, with each unit possessing different attack and defense qualities. Unlike Risk and its variants, Axis & Allies handles battles with a hit-or-miss system. The best roll is 1, at which every unit will successfully attack or defend. Tanks have a 3/3/2 rating, which means they will attack and defend at a roll of 3 or less, and they move two spaces on the map. Bombers are much more attack oriented, and have a 4/1/6 rating. Battleships are great all around units, and with 4/4/2 they are the centerpieces of your naval battlegroup. Combat usually takes place with 5-10 units on each side, and combining different unit types will give you an advantage.
Game length will vary greatly, and is affected by different victory options, skill of all players, and how much you argue with each other. A quick game played to a minor victory should be over in under 2 to 2.5 hours. A longer game played with major victory rules can take anywhere from 5 to 7 hours.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----- The new stuff: Changes made in the 2004 revised edition. -----
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Almost everything has changed in the revised edition, so I’ll try to touch on the most important things first.
--- Victory Conditions: There are now three ways to win at A&A, and the style of game must be decided before the game begins. For starters, capturing capitols is no longer the objective for either Axis or Allied players. An economic victory thru IPC’s is also no longer possible. The new system uses 12 “Victory Cities” spaced around the board as the basis for scoring. Each side starts with 6 cities under their control, and must hold and/or capture the required number of cities to obtain victory.
A minor victory is reached when 8 cities are held, a major victory is declared with 10 cities, and total victory is obvious if you have all 12 cities. There really isn’t a point to playing the 12 point game, since after 10 cities the outcome is usually obvious. The game requires you to check for victory at the end of each turn cycle, that’s after all 5 countries have played. If an 8 city game is under way and the Axis have control of 9 cities at the end of Japan’s turn, if the USA retakes 2 cities on its turn the Axis will not win. Since the cities are counted at the end of USA’s turn no one had 8 cities at that time.
--- New Units: Both new pieces are carryovers from Pacific and Europe edition, and were eagerly anticipated by many A&A players (including me). The addition of both Artillery and Destroyers makes both land and sea forces more authentic, and keeps the stronger (and more expensive) unit alive longer in a heavy battle.
Aritillery Costs 4 IPCs, attacks with a 2 or less, defends at a 2, and moves 1 spaces. Artillery also has the benefit of increasing the attack of infantry units to 2 when matched with equal numbers of artillery. If you attack with 4 artillery and 6 infantry, you’d have 8 units attacking with a 2 or less, and 2 units attacking at 1. This simulates the increased effectiveness of combined arms and combat often utilized artillery strikes with attacking infantry .
Destroyer Costs 12 IPCs, attacks with a 2 or less, defends at 2, moves 2 spaces. Destroyers are very important to naval battle groups since they are the only unit that can effectively neuter submarines. When included in a group of naval units the destroyer eliminates the first-strike ability of submarines. If the Combined Assault technology is researched destroyers may also bombard on a hit of 3 or less when used with invading land units in an amphibious assault.
--- Unit Prices & Combat Values: Two key units have been reduced in price, both due to player feedback which indicated these units weren’t purchased or utilized enough.
Aircraft carriers used to cost 18 IPCs, now they are reduced to 16. Fighters were 12 IPCs in the last edition, price cuts bring the cost down to 10 in A&A Revised. This makes a fully loaded aircraft carrier lightens the wallet by 36 IPCs, vs 42 IPCs in the last edition. In the last few games of A&A Revised I’ve played the ratio of carriers and fighters purchased was MUCH higher than in the last version of A&A. This makes the game more historical, since in our games many of the biggest naval/air battles took place in the Pacific.
Tanks have received a very surprising defensive upgrade; they now defend at 3 or less instead of two. The cost remains steady at 5 IPCs, so the value is outstanding. The attack of 3 and movement of 2 makes them great attackers, and the defense of 3 means your victorious stack of tanks won’t be beaten out of your newly conquered square by a huddle of infantry.
--- Rolling For Technology: Rolling for tech advances has changed considerably, and it’s much more common to see players dropping 5 or 10 IPCs on tech every few turns. In the old game, 5 IPCs bought you one dice to roll for tech. If you hit a 6, you were able to roll for the actual tech you were going to get. This left players reluctant to roll when they had a 50/50 chance of getting a tech they didn’t need even IF they rolled a 6 in the first place.
New rules have given each tech a specific die number, and rolling that number gives you the tech immediately. For instance, Super Subs are a 3, Long-range Aircraft are a 4, and Heavy Bombers are on 5. Spending 10 IPCs gives you 2 dice to roll on the tech of your choice, for this example we’ll say you chose Super Subs. You roll the dice and hit a 5 and 3. The 5 gives you nothing, but the 3 is right on the money… you now have Super Subs. This format still gives you a 1 in 6 chance to get tech every die roll, but you’re rolling for the EXACT tech you want, which makes a big difference.
NOTE: The only tech that has changed is #2, which used to make every unit cost 1 IPC less. It has been replaced with Combined Bombardment which allows your destroyers to bombard at a roll of 3 or less during an amphibious invasion.
--- Starting Income: Three countries have been given a higher starting income in the revised edition, Germany now gets 40 IPCs up from 32, Japan gets 30 up from 25, and USA gets 42 up from 40.
--- Placing New Units: You may now place a limited number of new units at each factory during your place units phase. The number is limited to the IPC value of the territory the factory is placed on. Unlike Europe edition, this rule ALSO applies to factories you start with initially.
--- Map Revisions: Germany’s border with Russia now consists of 4 territories instead of 2, the massive single sea zone surrounding the United Kingdom has been split into 3 zones, Western USA is now two separate zones. The islands controlled by Japan have been raised in value, with Borneo and the East Indies worth 4 IPCs each. This forces the USA player to island hop and more accurately follows the historical Pacific campaign. Various other revisions include the numbering of all sea zones to eliminate starting placement confusion and as a rule ALL neutral territories cannott be purchased, flown over, or passed through.
--- The Appendices, Optional Rules: At the very back of the A&A manual is the list of optional nation-specific bonuses you can choose to play with. There are 6 bonuses for each nation, which allows each player to roll the dice and take 1 or more bonuses for the duration of the game. This is a great way to give novice players a boost and level the playing field a bit. You could give one player his choice of 3 bonuses, and give the others only one bonus.
The beauty of these optional rules is in how much they increase the replayability of the game. Some of these abilities last for the whole game, while others are a one-use type. I’ll list a few of the rules below to give you a quick idea of the bonuses they include:
USA: B-29 Superfortress
Bombers are immune to antiaircraft fire.
Germany: U-Boat Supply Interdiction
During the collect income phase of the U.K. and USA turns, subtract 1 IPC from the collecting power's national production total for each of your submarines on the game board.
U.K.: Joint Strike
Once during a game, on your turn, you may declare a joint strike. You complete your turn as normal, except you skip your combat move and conduct combat phases. On the U.S.'s turn, the USA player can move any of your units during his combat move phase and conduct combat with them, as if they belonged to the USA.
Japan: Tokyo Express
Each of your destroyers may act as a transport for one infantry unit. These destroyers follow the same rules for loading and unloading as transports do.
Russia: Soviet Winter
Once during the game in your collect income phase, you can declare a severe winter. Until the start of your next turn, your infantry defend on a 3 or less.
These are only a handful of the 30 abilities available in the game, and rest assured there is an ability for every playing style.
----- In Closing… -----
WWII has always been a very fascinating period of history to me, and I read extensively on the subject in my younger years. This was a pivotal battle in the course of United States history, as we’ll never fight a war the same way again. WWII was that last big “human conflict”, since most of the actual combat was left to infantry and ground units. Now our wars are much more technological in execution, since we have precision guided missiles and bombs to soften up the enemy before we even attack. WWII was the fading glory of huge field engagements and large-scale armies meeting face to face to decide the fate of nations. Currently any nation worth anything has nuclear capability, which allows them the threat of long-range annihilation to their enemies. WWII had young men engaged in battle right out of high school, and coming home to a welcoming and grateful nation, something that hasn’t happened since 1945.
As I went through my high school years I picked up new interests and didn’t have as much time to read, but I did learn more about the actual conflict thanks to the original Axis & Allies. I have the utmost respect for the men who fought in this 2nd World War, as they defeated the enemies of freedom, returned home and proceeded to build the greatest economy in history. This game is about more than just plastic pieces, it’s about the struggle that millions of people endured only 60 short years ago. It’s amazing after playing this game many times how close the Axis were to pivotal victories. Luckily Hitler was an egomaniacal sociopath that didn’t take the advice of his best military strategists, and the war was his to lose.
I encourage you to play Axis & Allies with your friends, kids, and grandparents. As you play you’ll learn more about combat tactics, supply problems, naval blockades, and many more important details used both in WWII and today. Maybe you’ll find your interest piqued enough to talk to an elderly relative about their experiences, or look up a book or two on the subject. Learn from the mistakes of real military leaders, then play your friends and beat them with skill instead of luck. I’d like to thank Larry Harris for taking the time to design this revised edition of Axis & Allies, in doing so he created a fitting tribute to the men who fought for our nation and the world. He also created a dang near perfect game that will give you hours of educational entertainment for years to come.
For a look at the new map, check out the image below.
http://images.funagain.com/back/huge/14679.jpg
---( Other game reviews that might interest you: )---
All New Updated Version! Control the fate of the world in this incredible game of military strategy, courage, and cunning, updated by Larry Harris, th...More at Amazon Marketplace
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.