Axis and Allies
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AxisAndAlliesBox.jpg
Axis and Allies is a strategy board game by the Milton Bradley Company set during World War II. Milton Bradley released it as part of their Gamemaster series in 1984 and it was the most successful of the five; in April 2004, Hasbro released the Revised Edition under the Avalon Hill name. Up to 5 players can take control of one of the Axis (Germany or Japan) or Allied (UK, Soviet Union or USA) nations. The object of the game is to win the war by capturing enough critical territories.
For a boardgame with a realistic setting, Axis and Allies is a fairly casual game; in fact, it is often played in high school classes to help teach students about the economic climate and tensions the world was involved in during World War II. A&A is not a strict historical wargame, due to its streamlining for ease of play and balancing so both sides have a chance. For instance, the economic model is rather bare-bones, with each territory producing a number of "IPCs" (Industrial Production Certificates) good toward the purchase of any unit. Moreover, the game is supposed to start in spring of 1942, but Japan is immediately in position to attack Hawaii again, while Germany is pressed well into the USSR with an initially superior force. Another significant difference is that the Soviet Union and Japan are opponents at the start of the game; historically, they did not go to war with each other until 1945. If this game were truer to history, the Axis empires would be at their apex at this time, about to be pushed back home – but of course that would not be a very competitive game.
While the original edition was recognised as a classic, many experienced players felt the game quickly became unbalanced and repetitive, finding strategies that would ensure an Allied victory.
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Original Version
Basics
The essential mechanics to the game are easy to pick up. Each side's objective is to conquer enough of the enemy's territory. This can be accomplished by holding two enemy national capitals, but the Axis can also win an "economic victory" by gaining enough territory, which is more common in practice due to the difficulty of attacking London or Washington.
Each player progresses in order: USSR, Germany, UK, Japan, USA. On each turn, the player declares IPC spending for production and research (which gives a random chance to enhance units). The player then declares combat moves, attacking enemy-held territory. Much of the playtime is spent resolving battles. Each round, all the attacking and defending units get a chance to hit once. A unit scores a hit if the player rolls, with a six-sided die, a number less than or equal to the unit's attack or defense score (e.g., infantry makes a better defender than attacker). Each player gets to choose how to distribute casualties amongst his or her own units and removes them from the battlefield. (This provision makes it practical to bring cheap cannon fodder units along to soak up hits.) The battle continues until either force is destroyed or the attacker withdraws.
After all battles are concluded, the player moves noncombat actions: moving reinforcements, landing aircraft, etc. Then he or she deploys units purchased at the beginning of the turn in territories with an industrial complex and finally collects income from all occupied territories to end the turn.
This cycle continues until, after USA's turn, the victory conditions are met for one side.
Units
A&A units, including costs and Attack/Defense/Movement values
- Infantry, 3 IPCs 1/2/1
- Armor, 5 IPCs 3/2/2
- Fighter, 12 IPCs (10 in revised edition) 3/4/4
- Bomber, 15 IPCs 4/1/6
- Antiaircraft, 5 IPCs 0/0/1 (AA guns get a chance each turn to shoot down each overflying aircraft)
- Battleship, 24 IPCs 4/4/2
- Aircraft Carrier, 18 IPCs (16 in revised edition) 1/3/2 (may carry up to two fighter units)
- Transport, 8 IPCs 0/1/2 (can carry up to 2 infantry, or one of any other land unit)
- Submarine, 8 IPCs 2/2/2 (gets to bypass some combat rules, for "free shots")
- Industrial Complex, 15 IPCs (immobile factory, allows production of new units)
Strategy
Axis & Allies centers around co-operation among the powers to ensure victory. The following strategies are based on the classic edition. Experienced players focus on dominant strategies, listed below. However, individual creativity and the element of surprise are important in many games.
U.S.S.R.
Russia's main goal is to take out Berlin. Japan may be distracted by the United States in naval conflicts and Russia lacks production on the Pacific coast. Russia generally should pull back from the east and consolidate her forces in the area in one territory to ward off Japan picking off the units easily and seizing the entire Soviet Far East. Russia's production should be focused on keeping Karelia and purchasing as many infantry as possible. Russian tanks and fighters are invaluable and should not be left stranded and vulnerable to attack by the Germans or Japanese. On the other hand, Germany may blunder and leave several tanks, fighters, or a bomber unprotected in a forward territory. These must be taken out, as they cannot be replaced. Once Berlin is taken out and a decent amount of Europe is under Soviet control, Russia will use her IPC power to kick Japan off the Asian mainland, and possibly build industry on the coast to launch an invasion of Tokyo.
Germany
Germany's general strategy is to use her superior forces to quickly take Moscow to get Russia off their Eastern front, while trying to expand their sluggish economy through conquest in Africa and beating back amphibious invasions. In the early turns, Germany must take calculated risks to use its air force to destroy the Allied North Sea fleet (to delay D-Day as long as possible). Inexperienced players tend to underestimate the value of infantry units bought early. A Germany that buys all infantry the first 5 turns will be in a position to defend Western Europe from the Anglo-American onslaught while being poised to mount its best attack on Russia. Once their foothold in Europe is secure, the Axis have usually won an IPC victory. If the game continues, Germany can build a Mediterranean fleet with the invasion of Britain in mind.
U.K.
England has the duty of distracting Germany from focusing all its efforts on Russia. England can accomplish this by sinking the German fleet the first turn. They must immediately buy a navy to defend the North Sea, encouraging Germany to risk and deplete its air force. The British African forces provide a counterweight to Germany, preventing them from taking total control of the continent. Eventually, seizure of Africa is necessary to strip Germany of her IPC's. England must prevent Germany from amassing any sort of navy, quickly taking out ships before they can be deployed, or she'll find herself blockaded. The English player must also take advantage of a distracted Germany to invade either Western Europe or Scandinavia when the opporunity arises, stripping the Fatherland of much needed IPC's and providing a site for the invasion of Berlin.
Japan
Japan has two major obligations in the game, to capture Russia and keep the United States out of the European and African theatres. With scarce Soviet forces in the East and Russia focusing on the Germans on Moscow's doorstep, Japan should try to expand her industrial abilities by seizing the Soviet far east and pushing the Russians back, hopefully eventually meeting up with German forces from the west. Japan should quickly take the Asian continent. Japan's second goal is to keep the US out of Europe, and may be able to trick an inexperienced player into a protracted Pacific war by attacking the US fleet at Hawaii on its first turn. Japan's first purchases should be infantry and transports. Manchuria is a good staging area for Japan's armies and the Japanese should aim to land at least 10-12 infantry per turn on the continent of Asia. Japan experiences the greatest economic success of all players and must use it to stockpile infantry outside Moscow. Once Russia has fallen, Japan can invade North America through Alaska and Western Canada. The Japanese player should not divide up his navy and get distracted into invading Pacific islands as he hopes the USA will do.
U.S.A.
The United States is the most difficult nation for a beginner to play well. While it may have the most industrial might at the onset, America has no easy way to get its troops to the fighting. Naval supremacy in the Atlantic and especially the North Sea is critical for the US to get involved. If the Atlantic is kept clear, America can invade Western Europe and supplement English forces in driving Germany out of Africa. There is some debate as to whether the United States can pursue a winning strategy in the Pacific. Although the US seems the most likely and best-positioned to counter Japan, the wide expanse of the Pacific compounded by Japan's great air and naval power make an early assault on Japan impossible.
Many experienced players pursue the "Germany First" strategy used in the historic war. To this end, in the first turn the US buys large quantities of infantry in Eastern USA. The US fully withdraws its surviving ships from the Pacific through the Panama Canal and sends its air force to Britain (possibly landing a fighter on a British carrier). Subsequent turns split production between infantry and transports and excess infantry march to Eastern Canada. The US can sustain a D-Day invasion each turn, with Eastern Canada infantry being picked up by North Sea transports and deposited in Western Europe or Finland/Norway. While this is going on, the US can often spare a transport and two infantry to land in Africa. Under these conditions, Germany nearly always loses, thus various balancing mechanisms are often used in expert play.
Summary
For both sides, there are a few key things to keep in mind. First, possession of Karelia is critical. If Germany takes it, the Axis will have a factory to launch fresh units directly into Moscow. If Russia holds it, it's just a hop, skip, and a jump to Berlin.
Secondly, don't underestimate the power of an air force. Planes are expensive, but their range gives the player the ability to launch a decisive strike their opponents weren't expecting. Since no country can truly afford air units in the critical first few turns of the game, it is important to hold onto the planes you are given. Fighters are excellent at breaking naval blockades and seizing supremacy in the seas, especially since submaries can't shoot them down. Bombers are also vital in grinding the economies of stronger nations down so you can stand a chance, or preventing a crippled nation from stockpiling troops on their capital to take out as many of your troops as possible in their last stand.
Third, focus on one enemy at a time. Japan is much easier to take without Germany launching bombing raids, and the Allies fall much more easily with Moscow taken.
Fourth, attack with all you have. Unless you're planning to just take the territory and then lose it again, make sure you have enough soldiers that will survive to occupy the territory.
Fifth, spend your IPC's wisely. Infantry are excellent for the early part of the game, they're cheap and pack the same punch as tanks, but later on you will have to make critical decisions, between a small army of tanks, a few planes, or a battleship. Your scenario should dictate what purchases you make and when. Some players advise that you spend all of your IPC's on a given turn, using what may be left over on infantry, but if you don't spend IPC's, they do carry over.
Lastly, play to your personal strengths. Each player brings certain skills to the game, focus on where your personal strategy works best. Even though Japan is set to be a naval powerhouse, many players for the Empire simply give the Pacific to the United States and focus their attention on seizing Asia, and this tactic can be very successful. Use what you have to get what you need.
Odds
It is important for players to be able to estimate their chances for success in attack and defense. In skirmishes between small numbers of units, players can add up expected values of hits from their men and subtract them from their opponent's forces to judge who they face in the second round of battle. There are several different attack scenarios:
- Take territory (preserving your important air units)
- Take at all costs (enemy capital)
- Take and hold (leaving enough infantry to withstand a counteroffensive)
- Kill unit (high value armor, air, or naval unit)
Skirmishes between small numbers of units have a flat distribution of outcomes. For example, a bomber versus a battleship has 3 possible outcomes: either or both may die. Each of those possible outcomes is somewhat likely and represents a big swing in the game one way or another. A player who is losing the overall war wants to pursue these flat distribution style attacks in order to create opporunities for himself.
Experienced players like to amass large stacks of infantry on important territories for defense. This strategy is also good for risk-averse, conservative players who are winning. With dozens or hundreds of die rolls in an important battle, the outcome is much more certain but is sometimes hard to calculate. For example, Japan may attack a stack of infantry on Moscow with its own men and air units. The outcome may be 95% certain to be Japan wins with surviving forces of 4 planes, 1 armor, and between 3 and 9 infantry. Some serious players use spreadsheets or a computer based calculator (linked below). Serious planning and calculation may take some fun and spontaneity out of the game.
Balance
In order to make the original game more fair, several methods have been proposed even the odds for the Axis to win. Of course, among beginners and those learning the game, the original rules are quite fun and any side can win. Expert tactics such as infantry stockpiling and long term planning and coordination tip the scales in favor of the production-heavy Allies (who also enjoy one extra turn per round). While expert games are essentially two-player, informal five-player games that involve less coordination are pretty fair.
An informal auction using IPCs is a good way to choose sides. In a two-player game, they would generally both want to be Allies. One player starts the bidding by announcing "I'll take Axis for 30 IPCs." This one-time payout would be used to purchase men or tanks for Germany or Japan the first turn. The second player, knowing he will lose under such a disadvantage, bids Axis for 20 IPCs. This continues until they agree upon who can be Axis with the smallest economic advantage. A fair payout might be 10 IPCs. The MIT rules linked below contain many good ideas.
Revised Edition
To revise the original game, Mike Selinker led a design team that included Larry Harris, designer of the first edition. The revision aimed to address some major concerns with the original and make the game more fun. Selinker also wrote a series of articles (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=ah/article/ah20031205a) describing the changes.
The overarching change is in the victory condition. To win in the original, either side could seize two enemy capitals, but the Axis could also win an economic victory by capturing enough resources. This rule gave the poorer Axis a leg up, but led to anticlimactic endings. Also, it often took many, many turns to finally capture heavily fortified capital cities. The designers scrapped this rule and implemented victory cities, where each side starts with 6 of the 12 cities. In addition to the national capitals, these include Paris, Rome, and Leningrad in Europe, Calcutta, Shanghai, and Manila in Japan's reach, and Los Angeles in the US. With this rule, players can decide what constitutes victory at the start – playing only to 8 victory cities makes for a shorter game, while more hardcore gamers can play until one side controls all of them. [1] (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=ah/article/ah20031223a)
Another important change concerns unit capabilities and statistics. In the original, infantry were a cheap unit and turned out to be most useful as cannon fodder, by taking hits that would otherwise destroy more valuable units. This tended to lead to massive buildups by players amassing stacks of infantry in neighboring territories, unable to do anything other than buy more infantry, which can be ineffective attacking units by themselves due to their miniminal attack value. While infantry were left unchanged in the revised edition, the tank unit defence was increased to encourage players to use combined arms rather than just rely on infantry, and to balance the value and effectiveness of comparable groups of infantry and tanks. [2] (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=ah/article/ah20040302a) Other changes include the addition of artillery units, which increase the attack of attacking infantry, destroyers, which negate the first-shot advantage of subs, and a significant increase in the usefulness and effectiveness of transports and amphibious assaults, by allowing transports to carry any one land unit plus one additional infantry unit.
The map was also reworked (http://www.wizards.com/avalonhill/images/aabigmap.jpg), with a new art style and many gameplay changes. One important change is the fragmentation of Germany's Eastern Front. The area from Berlin to Moscow now includes many small territories, a victory city (Leningrad), and a strategic industrial complex at the Caucasus. This change was designed to encourage more dynamic play in an area that often bogs down into heavy fortification. Another notable change is to the South Pacific region, which now provides much of Japan's starting income and is a much more valuable target for Allied incursion. [3] (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=ah/article/ah20040227b)
A new system of optional rules was implemented. Each power has six possible advantages, representing tactics or technologies used in the war. For instance, if the UK has the "Enigma Decoded" advantage, it may quickly move units during Germany's turn in response to an attack on UK territory. A number of these advantages can be chosen or randomly picked for each side at the beginning of each game to alter gameplay.
Many other changes are documented in the manual, available for download (http://www.wizards.com/avalonhill/rules/axis2004.pdf) from Avalon Hill.
Spinoffs
When Hasbro acquired the Milton Bradley Company, they kept Axis and Allies in print as part of their Avalon Hill lineup, a rather prestigious game company they bought in 1998. Under the same brand, they published two follow-up games, Axis and Allies: Europe (1999) and Axis and Allies: Pacific (2001), that were designed by Larry Harris, the original designer of Axis and Allies. The latter especially tinkers with the original game mechanics and tries to make the game feel less scripted while keeping the appeal of the original.
Larry Harris also designed the newest game in the series, Axis and Allies: D-Day (released June 2004). Based on the Allied liberation of France, the game plays at a tactical level (rather than a strategic one like its predecessors), getting rid of most resource management and using a smaller-scale world.
Several computer games were also based on Axis & Allies. They include turn based strategy closely based off the board game, while more recently a real time strategy game was based off of it. The real-time strategy (RTS) game includes a mode that is more closely related to the board game, but you can only attack one enemy occupied territory per turn and can either fight battles in RTS mode or have the computer decide the outcome. There is also a campaign mode in which you can fight as the Allies and try to defeat the Axis or be the Axis and try to change history and in the end defeat the Allies. All of the battles in the Campaign mode are fought in the RTS mode.
See also: Axis and Allies Members Club
External links
- Hasbro's Axis & Allies site (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=ah/prod/axis)
- TripleA (http://triplea.sourceforge.net/), an open source Axis and Allies game
- MIT's house rules for the original Axis and Allies (http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/usr/gc00/reviews/ana.mit.html)
- Philip Hall's odds calculator (http://members.tripod.com/~PhilipHall/aamain.html)
- AxisAndAllies.Org (http://axisandallies.org/forums), active A&A forum
- http://www.harrisgamedesign.com/phpBB2/index.phpde:Axis and Allies