Axis & Allies
| Axis & Allies | ||
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| Wargame published by Milton Bradley |
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| No. of Players | 2-5 | |
| Session Time | 5 hours | |
| Authors | Lawrence H. Harris | |
| First Publication | 1981 | |
| Essential Books | History of WWII | |
Axis and Allies is a board game based off WWII and is thus awesome. Through its many expansions, it covers most if not all theatres of the second World War.
If you enjoy strategy, battles and an extraordinary dose of awesome: PLAY THIS GAME.
If you don't, go find a bridge.
The Armies
The full version of A&A is a 3v2 team game with the Soviets, British, and Americans allied against the Germans and Japanese.
Soviet Union
It is advised that you randomly distribute the armies among players rather than having players choose. This is because there will be nonstop arguments over who ends up playing Russia, or else the unfortunate player with last pick will end up getting stuck with Russia like that scrawny loser in gym class who'd always get picked last (i.e. probably you if you read this site) and if there was an odd number of total players both teams would try to coax the other teams into taking him. This is because playing Russia in Axis & Allies is not a game. It is a chore. A necessary sacrifice. The sweat of the laborer's brow that must be given up for the greater good of one's comrades and the communal whole. Somebody has to be the poor sod who says "I buy five infantry" turn after turn as he watches everybody else have a good time. The height of the Russia player's excitement is when he rolls lucky enough on those attack dice that he can afford a tank too.
While the most boring faction to play, it is also the most crucial. The entire metagame basically revolves around either protecting Russia (for the Allies) or crushing it (for the Axis). The Russia player has surprisingly little to say in this however, since all he can do is spam infantry and pray for the best (scratch that; communists don't believe in prayer). The player who willingly chooses Russia will be honored by other players for his noble sacrifice that allowed the rest of them to choose factions that are actually fun to play.
Germany
You will start the game with a fuckhueg army, which is good because you're surrounded on all sides by people who want you dead just because you wanted to unite the world under the rule of the glorious master race. Poor Hitler, nobody likes you. Well, you'll show them for kicking you out of art school. You'll show them ALL!
Better get cracking right away stomping those filthy commie scum because the Axis player's strength is in their early-game advantage. If you allow the Allies any time at all their economic advantage will overpower you. Sink those British ships and then get to work Panzer spamming. Playing Germany is a tense action-packed ride all the way through; not for everyone but then neither is liquor and Aryan whores.
United Kingdom
Arguably the funnest and most desired. This is the army for people who fancy themselves geniuses of tactics as they start with units fucking EVERYWHERE on the map. The Brits probably have the most options available to them out of all the armies, with troops and economic power in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Pacific, and Canada. The drawback is that while you have a presence everywhere, none of these forces are particularly formidable on their own, so it's especially important to be strategic and choose your targets wisely. Played wisely, the Brit player is the most hated and deadly foe of both Germany and Japan. Played poorly, their territories are just so much Nazi food. Not an army for nooblets, but very rewarding to master.
Japan
Has, like, all the navy pieces at the start of the game. So many battleships and carriers and subs you won't know what to do with them all. Despite going 4th in the turn order Japan is very difficult for the Allies to damage on their first turn, so you'll often have most if not all of your starting forces available on your first turn. On top of that most of your economy is in islands and with any luck you'll have undisputed control of the seas for the first two turns or so. As a result Japan, like the UK, gets quite a degree of freedom in deciding what strategies to pursue, but your overall goal should be "squeeze Russia like a vise between you and Germany". Japan is safe for the first two turns or so but Germany will die pretty quickly with all three Allied nations bearing down on them, so you need to make like an MMORPG tank and draw aggro. Do this by eating away at Russia and Britain's economies while forcing America to spend all their dosh on expensive-ass warships.
If you like the idea of gradually expanding from a small but secure position into a huge empire, Japan is the army to play. Your economy starts off on the weak side but you have to most potential for growth. Sadly you cannot kamikaze except when using the optional rules.
United States
You have strongest starting economy and are basically immune to direct assault. The two massive oceans on either side are a mixed blessing. On one hand, any serious effort by the Axis to attack you is going to be a futile waste of resources. On the other hand, it's going to be a couple of turns before you can even seriously participate in the game. Don't think you're going to do something clever with those troops in China or those ships in Hawaii because chances are Japan will wipe them out before you've even have a chance to move. Sounds unfair, but so is being a president with polio in the middle of a world-spanning war.
US can bring some serious firepower to the table, but only after they've built some transports and shipped them to where the action actually is. Continuing the MMO analogy, if Japan is tanking the boss (Russia + UK) for Germany then America is the boss's enrage timer; if the Axis haven't crushed Russia and/or crippled UK before America thinks it's had enough time to build up, then it's pretty much game over for the Axis, barring some mad dice luck. There's no taking you on directly until the game's pretty much decided, so America is the perfect army for people who like long-term planning, or for girly-men who don't like being attacked.