We will fight them on the beaches... (Axis and Allies)

Member Name: fromage

Product:	Axis and Allies
Date:	25/05/05 (957 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Planes, Tanks, Battleships

Disadvantages: It's no fun being Russian

World War 2 is very much talked about this year, what with the 60th anniversary of VE day just passed, and that of VJ day not far off. A good thing too. As the number of actual witnesses to the conflict dwindles, it's becomes ever more important that each new generation is educated about the last time the world was caught up in the catastrophe of total war. Personally, the more I read on the topic, the more fascinating I find it. And the clearer it becomes that it's impossible to underestimate the impact of the war and its outcome on the way we lead our lives today.

Perhaps this worthy desire to deepen my knowledge and understanding of that period of history goes some way to explain why I'm currently so obsessed with Axis & Allies. Or perhaps it's simply that it's a brilliant game. Or perhaps (and, I confess, this is probably closest to the truth), I'm just a child who never grew up and I love playing with little toy soldiers, tanks, aeroplanes and boats. Whatever the truth of the matter, I love Axis and Allies, passionately (nearly obsessively), and I can't resist the opportunity to tell you all about it.

Axis & Allies is a board game that has been about for many years now. Originally published in the 70s it has endured in one form or another ever since. It probably achieved its greatest popularity while published by MB through the 90s (MB first included plastic playing pieces to represent the units, which are cheerfully reminiscent of the 1:72 scale airfix models we all used to have, and in which in our secret hearts we all still hanker for). It is now published by Avalon Hill games, who are a subsidiary of Hasbro. The game can be played by 2 to 5 players, and allows each player to take control of one of the major powers involved in the war, on the Allied side Russia, the UK, or America, on the Axis Germany or Japan.

The game board is a map of the world, divided between the five antagonists in line with the disposition of land and troops that prevailed in spring 1942. So Germany controls almost all of Europe, and menaces Moscow in the east. Japan has occupied the east coast of Asia, and is threatening India, China, and Eastern Russia. The UK is alone in Europe, and clinging on to the remnants of her colonies around the rest of the world, her troops spread precariously thin. America is fairly isolated in her hemisphere, having a greatly reduced Pacific fleet after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbour, and few ground troops near the action.

From this starting position each player takes control of the military destiny of their power, controlling not just the armies on the board, but the industrial spending of the nation, so that in addition to commanding the units on the board at the start of the game, one also buys units to be used in the next turn's attacks. Depending on what you decide to purchase you can build an enormous land invasion force to assault your near neighbours, or a huge fleet to defend your shores against hostile armadas. You can attempt to bomb your enemies into submission, or blitz them off the board with combined tank and fighter assaults.

Victory goes to the first power to conquer a predetermined number of 'victory cities' - cities of strategic importance, of which there are twelve on the board - at the start of the game each side controls six apiece. These include the capitals of all the powers, plus Paris, Rome, Leningrad, Calcutta, Shanghai, Manila, and Los Angeles. You can play to a minor victory - one side must take two additional cites, a major victory - for which one side must take four, or if you have time on your hands and want to play on until the utter ruination of the other side, and laugh cruelly as your adversaries weep over the ashes of their once mighty empire, you can play until one side holds all victory cities.

I bought the game a few weeks ago, realising that I needed a five player game to play when some friends came over for a weekend. I also knew that this kind of light wargame would be right up their alley. I bought it online from Maddison Games, who delivered it promptly. The cost was a shade under £40 including P&P. The odd games shop will stock it as well (I also saw it on the shelf of a fantastic comic shop in Bristol), again the price around the £40 mark.

Great was my delight when I opened the box discovered all of the little plastic men, and planes, and tanks, and boats. However, I confess that I quailed a little when I saw the rule book (or 'Operations Manual' as the designers have styled it). There's an awful lot there to assimilate. Furthermore, if you're about to play it for the first time with four other people who've never played it, there's an awful lot there to explain. In the end I settled for reading out almost all of the rulebook while the other players set up the board. That seemed to go off fairly well (I flatter myself that I have an entertaining speaking voice), although it took a very long time and the two ladies present paid little attention (but that is the way of ladies). We did get a couple of things wrong, however. I found the rules to be obscure on a couple of points the first time round, and it is only now, with a few games under my belt, two re-reads of the book, and a visit to the FAQ section of the Avalon Hill website that I feel pretty much completely au fait with what's allowed and what's not. It would probably be best, when playing against inexperienced players, to give them the rulebook for a read-through in advance. There's more information in there than can be conveniently explained, and it's quite possible for your strategy and tatics to be limited by not knowing the special capabilities of your units.

Setting up the board takes a fair old time. The rules dictate the initial disposition of everyone's troops, so the first thing each player has to do is put thirty or forty plastic pieces on the board to represent their army. One person doing all five powers alone takes about 40 minutes. Once everything is in place, each player takes a turn. The Russian player always goes first, followed by the German, then the UK, then the Japanese, then finally the USA. As the starting position is always the same, the first moves tend to assume a familiar pattern, but there's so much variation in the game that, by the time the second turn comes around, you're likely to be presented with a wholly unfamiliar tactical situation.

The genius of the game is the strategic flexibility offered by the fact that you decide what kind of troops you will buy to carry out your strategy in later turns. It virtually guarantees that no two games will be exactly the same (unless you happen to be playing the Russians - more on that later). History tells us that Hitler never achieved dominance in the Mediterranean, which made resupplying Rommel more difficult and prevented him taking Africa. Well, if the German player decides that was a mistake he can buy himself a couple of ships in the first turn, use them to kick the British navy out of the med, and stream tanks and troops across to reinforce the Afrika Korps. The Americans can choose to buy troops and transports and to invade the European mainland, or build a huge navy to turn the tables on the Japanese.

Like most strategy games, Axis & Allies is played in turns, each turn divided into phases. Each time it is his turn the player has the opportunity to perform 7 actions. These are conduct research, buy new units, combat move, resolve combat, non-combat move, place new units, then collect Industrial Production Credits (which are the money of the game).

Research allows you a chance to develop new and more powerful weapons to use against your enemy - however it is expensive and has no guarantee of success. And, alas, the atom bomb is not available. Research and new units are paid for with the aforementioned Industrial Production Credits. The number a player receives is based on the amount and quality of territory he owns. The industrial heartlands of Germany and America yield huge amounts of IPCs. Africa and the back waters of Russia, very few. The Americans begin the game with the highest income, closely followed by the Germans. Japan and the UK are on a par with each other, and the Russians have the least. Any units you buy are not usable until the next turn, so you have to plan ahead, and think about what you're likely to need in a turns time. Combat is resolved with dice, based on the characteristics of the attacking and defending troops. Infantry defend well but attack badly, tanks are good at both, aeroplanes are expensive but can move a long distance and attack well.

It's all too easy, in your enthusiasm to get on with executing your fiendishly planned pincer attack, to forget completely about buying new units. This happened to a couple of players in our first game, and we imposed a strict reading of the rules, disallowing them to step back and buy their units, which was a considetrable setback to the attacking designs of the players involved. After that experience, I would now recommend a certain flexibility in respect of this kind of thing, certainly if the players in question are new to the game. As I've said before, the rules are complex, and winning through being a stickler is strangely unsatisfying.

Not that I can claim to know much about winning, whether through strategic mastery or low pedantry. I've played the game seven times now, and have won but once. As five of those games have been played between myself and my wife, I as the Allies, she as the Axis, this has been a desperate situation for both the freedom of the world at large, and for my own self-respect in the domestic sphere. The first four games she won with ease. I clung with dogged tenacity to the conviction that if I only persisted, eventually I would come up with a strategy to conquer her. I began four games with boundless optimism, only to see my little plastic armies and navies destroyed by the Axis. It began to affect my sleep, and my work. By day I would bore my colleagues into a glass-eyed stupor by describing the game I'd played the night before. By night I would lie awake, trying to conjure a strategy that would turn the tide, while beside me my wife would snore the contented snore of the victorious. Worst of all, I would sulk after a losing game, which, besides being contemptible, ran the very real risk that she would simply stop playing with me and leave me dangling, useless and impotent, a General without a war.

Eventually I came to the consoling conclusion that in the early stages the game is biased toward the Axis. Germany and Japan begin with large concentrations of troops close to inadequately defended victory cities. As the starting position is always the same, it is highly possible for them to win a two city victory in the first turn, unless the Allied player is particularly adroit. I finally managed to win a four city game as the allies (well, after two nights of play I was declared the winner, however, I hadn't actually managed to take four cities. We just decided between us that I was in the dominant position), however, had we been playing to two cities I would have lost in the first turn. Later in the game, assuming the Axis don't steal an early victory, the Allies, with their greater production, tend to get to terms. The test of this will come when I finally play as the Axis, which I haven't done yet, and hopefully smash my wife's forces with consummate ease. If the game is so imbalanced (and if it isn't I'm clearly missing something), it's a big flaw, as it renders the shorter, two city game more or less superfluous.

The rulebook suggests that a two city victory game should last roughly two hours, a four city victory about four hours, and a total victory longer still. In my experience, unless the Axis players win very quickly, even a two city game will take well over two hours. Whilst I find the game absorbing and compelling, however long it takes, my wife has taken to complaining about the length of time she has to wait between turns. It is true, particularly if there are five players, that there is likely to be a fair bit of sitting around. Unless you're inclined to spend that time watching the action like a hawk and honing your strategy based on unexpected events, you'll likely find the game to be a bit slow paced.

Another slight niggle with the game is that the Russian player is at a significant disadvantage. Russia begins the game with a whopping German army on its western border, and the Japanese (who are, contrary to historical fact, unbound by any non-agression treaty) to the east. Under such circumstances the Russian player has no choice but to go entirely on the defensive, knowing that one mistake on their part will hand a quick victory to the Axis. This leaves the hapless player little scope for imaginative play, or indeed for doing anything other than trying to hang on long enough for the other Allied powers to get into position to help.

However, these complaints aside, I heartily recommend Axis & Allies. If you're the kind of person who enjoys Risk, Diplomacy, Civilisation, or indeed strategy computer games like Command & Conquer or Sid Meier's Civilisation, you'll find plenty to enjoy here. If you're never heard of any of the above, but find Ludo, Monopoly or Cluedo a little bit random and unchallenging, then Axis & Allies might be for you. At £40 it's a little expensive to pick up on the off chance, but if you take to it it'll guarantee you hour after hour of enjoyable, stimulating play.

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