Axis & Allies

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Axis & Allies

Designer	Larry Harris
Players	2-5
Age range	12+
Setup time	5-15 minutes
Playing time	2+ hours
Random chance	Medium
Skills required	Tactics, Strategy, Economics, and Teamwork

Axis & Allies is a popular series of World War II strategy board games, with nearly two million copies printed.^[1] Originally designed by Larry Harris and published by Nova Game Designs in 1981^[2][3][4], the game was republished by the Milton Bradley Company in 1984 as part of the Gamemaster series of board games. This edition would be retroactively named Axis & Allies: Classic to differentiate it from later revisions.

Axis & Allies was the most successful of the Gamemaster games and, long after the Gamemaster name became defunct, was moved to the Avalon Hill lineup following the acquisition of Milton Bradley by Hasbro. The game itself has gone through several revisions, most recently in 2009. The object of the game (and its spinoffs) is to win the war by capturing enough critical territories in a recreation of World War II.

In 1996, Axis & Allies was inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame.^[5]

The Axis & Allies name has led to many spinoff games using more or less the same mechanics: in 1999, Axis & Allies: Europe was released, with slightly updated rules and focus on the European theater of World War II, this was followed in 2001 by Axis & Allies: Pacific with similar rules and focus shifted to the Pacific theater. In 2004, the first major revision to the core game, often termed the Revised Edition, was released, with elements taken from Europe and Pacific. In 2008, Axis & Allies: 50th Anniversary Edition was released as one of the three games celebrating the 50th anniversary of its publisher, Avalon Hill (the other two games were Acquire and Diplomacy). This was followed by Axis & Allies: 1942 in 2009, the second major revision to the core game, with mechanics taken from the anniversary edition, also celebrating the 25th anniversary of Axis & Allies itself. A major revision to Europe and Pacific will be released in 2009 and 2010.

Axis & Allies is not a strict historical wargame, due to its streamlining for ease of play and balancing so that both sides have a chance. For instance, the economic model is simplistic, 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 the spring of 1942, but Japan is immediately in position to attack Hawaii again, while Germany is pressed well into the U.S.S.R. with an initially superior force. If the game were truer to history, the Axis empires would be at their apex at this time, about to be pushed back home.

Contents 1 Gameplay 1.1 Units 2 Revisions 3 Spinoffs 3.1 Board games 3.2 Miniature games 3.3 Computer games 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Gameplay

In every edition of Axis & Allies, players play as the major belligerents of World War II: Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, or the United States; the anniversary edition also includes Italy as a third Axis player. The players playing the Axis powers team up against those of the Allied powers in an attempt to conquer key territories, represented by regions on the map board; in earlier editions, this typically entailed capturing and holding of territories representing the opposing faction's capital cities, but in later revisions has also included other territories on the map, known as victory cities. In the original Milton Bradley edition, the Axis powers could also win by capturing enough territories to gain an economic advantage, which was dropped in later editions.

Each round of a game involves each of the powers moving in turn according to a prespecified order; the game ends when either the Axis powers or the Allied powers complete their objectives. When each power takes its turn, they must first declare how they are to spend the IPCs ("Industrial Production Certificates", an abstract currency representing one million man-hours of labor) in their possession: this may go into buying new units, improving units through research (in earlier editions), or repairing damaged structures (in later editions). Players then declare any movements made that would result in combat, moving their pieces as appropriate, and after resolving combat, declaring any non-combat movements. At the end of the turn, players then place any units that were purchased at the beginning of the turn.

Combat is typically divided into several types: in all of them, however, combat is divided into rounds. In each round, attackers and defenders roll dice to determine which of their units deal hits on the opposing side: if the number rolled is less than or equal to the unit's attack or defense rating (where appropriate), the unit scores a hit on an opposing unit of the opponent's choosing. Some types of combat, such as strategic bombing raids, naval bombardment, or anti-aircraft defense, last only one round, though in others the attacker has the option of either continuing with another round of battle or retreating. Combat is fully-resolved when either side loses all their units or the attackers choose to retreat. Though combat in different territories may be resolved in any order, combat in one territory may affect the number of combatants in another, in the case of an amphibious assault.

[edit] Units

Unit Comparison: The Three Editions

UNIT NAME	EDITION	IPC COST		ATK	DEF	MOV		NOTES
Infantry	Original	3		1	2	1
	Revised			1*				*Infantry attack increases to 2 when combined with Artillery.
	50th Anniv.
Artillery	Original	n/a		n/a	n/a	n/a
	Revised	4		2	2	1
	50th Anniv.
Armor/Tank	Original	5		3	2	2		Was known as "Armor" in the original release, but was renamed "Tank" for subsequent rereleases.
	Revised				3
	50th Anniv.
Fighter	Original	12		3	4	4
	Revised	10
	50th Anniv.
Bomber	Original	15		4	1	6		May make a bombing run against opponent's IPCs.
	Revised
	50th Anniv.	12						May make a bombing run against opponent's industrial complexes.
Submarine	Original	8		2	2	2		Gets to bypass some combat rules, for "free shots"
	Revised							Has first strike capability, can submerge instead of withdraw, and can also move past hostile ships.
	50th Anniv.	6			1			Previous powers retained except subs can no longer force a moving fleet to stop.
Transport	Original	8		0	1	2		Can carry up to 2 infantry, or one of any other land unit.
	Revised							Can carry any one land unit, plus one infantry.
	50th Anniv.	7			0			Uses Revised Edition cargo rules. No longer has combat value, and chosen as a casualty only if there are no other eligible units.
Destroyer	Original	n/a		n/a	n/a	n/a
	Revised	12		3	3	2		Negates submarine first strike and submerge abilities
	50th Anniv.	8		2	2			Negates submarine first strike, submerge, and undetected movement ability
Cruiser	Original	n/a		n/a	n/a	n/a
	Revised
	50th Anniv.	12		3	3	2		Can conduct shore bombardment in amphibious invasions
Battleship	Original	24		4	4	2		Can conduct shore bombardment during amphibious invasions.
	Revised							Also, now two hits are required to destroy, and it is automatically repaired if not destroyed during battle.
	50th Anniv.	20
Aircraft Carrier	Original	18		1	3	2		May carry two fighters.
	Revised	16
	50th Anniv.	14			2
Anti-aircraft gun	Original	5		0	0	1		Gets one defensive shot per attacking aircraft before the first round of combat only.
	Revised
	50th Anniv.	6
Industrial Complex	Original	15		0	0	0		Initial complexes have unlimited production.
	Revised							All complexes' maximum production limited to the territory value.
	50th Anniv.							Can be damaged by strategic bombing, reducing the complex's maximum production.

[edit] Revisions

Although not the very first edition, the Milton Bradley release was the first to establish the well-known game mechanics. There were three versions of the rules for the Milton Bradley games, though only the first two were included with the game itself; the third edition was exclusive to a computer implementation released in 2004. The three editions differed by minor details.

The first major revision to the rules was designed by Harris and Mike Selinker (who would later develop the board game Attack! based on the experiences learned with working with Harris), which had tried to address many of the Milton Bradley version's shortcomings, including removing the Axis economic victory condition and the requirement of capturing enemy capitals in favor of victory cities, which has been used in every revision since. With victory cities, the Axis and Allies start with an equal number of victory cities (specially labeled territories), and strive to capture enough victory cities to gain a majority of them (the size of the majority being agreed upon by the players prior to the game). This allowed players to play shorter or longer games, depending upon the number of victory cities a power requires to have in control in order to claim victory.^[6]

With each revision, there were also balance changes in order to make gameplay more dynamic: in the Milton Bradley edition, infantry were cheap units that tended to be most useful as defensive cannon fodder, due to their token attack and slightly better defense. This had led to many areas of the game board being heavily fortified, bogging game play down to a matter of who could build more infantry faster. To counteract this, the tank, whose defense ability was equal to infantry in the Milton Bradley release, had its defensive capabilities improved in the revised edition, so as to encourage players to use combined arms.^[7] Other balance changes included altering the costs of the various units, and altering the transport capacity: in the Milton Bradley edition, transports could only carry two infantry or one of any other land unit; later revisions had transports able to carry one infantry in addition to one of any other land unit.

In addition, the variety of land and sea units was increased by introducing the artillery and the destroyer from Europe and Pacific to the revised edition: the former increased the effectiveness of infantry in attacks, while the latter limited the usefulness of submarines and acted as a lower-cost substitute for the expensive battleship. Cruisers were introduced in the anniversary edition to effectively split the destroyer's many abilities: while destroyers continue to limit the usefulness of submarines, the stronger cruisers now acted as the lower-cost battleship.

The game board itself was also reworked in each revision: the Milton Bradley release featured largely vibrant colors, while the revised version featured mainly darker tones. The anniversary edition (and 1942) has a more realistic terrain with only subtle hints of color to denote which power has initial control over a particular territory. The composition of territories was also slightly altered (for example, the number of territories between Berlin and Moscow had been increased for the revised edition, including adding many Soviet ones of strategic importance.^[8])

Strategic bombing was also altered over the years: up until the revised edition, strategic bombing caused opposing players to lose the IPCs they had on hand, but the anniversary edition changed it so that industrial complexes were damaged instead. Damaged industrial complexes had less capacity to deploy units, but could be repaired at the cost of IPCs.

Later revisions have also included changes in research (which was generally not a worthwhile investment in the Milton Bradley edition due to its high cost and low probability of success) to have more of an effect, with mixed results - 1942 eliminates research altogether. Another feature that was implemented but was later dropped was the revised edition's "National Advantages", which represented tactics and technologies used by a specific power during the war (for example, a British ability allowed the British player to delay their combat movement until the American player's turn once per game, in order to perform a coordinated attack).

Finally, later editions had minor cosmetic changes in the pieces that come with the game: in the Milton Bradley version, only the infantry pieces were unique to each power in appearance, which was later spread to include nearly every unit in later editions: for example, as opposed to the generic fighters of the Milton Bradley release, the Supermarine Spitfire were used in later editions to represent British fighters, while the A6M Zero was used to represent Japanese fighters, while two different fighters (the F6F Hellcat and the P-38 Lightning) represented American fighters. The color scheme to associate units with powers was also standardized across all Axis & Allies series games, based on the colors used in Europe and Pacific (which had been different from those used in the Milton Bradley release).

[edit] Spinoffs

Due to the success of Axis & Allies, many games have since been established under the Axis & Allies name, while other games have been published by other game designers with similar mechanics (some of which requiring components from an Axis & Allies or similar game).

[edit] Board games

In addition to designing the board games, Harris had also designed Europe and Pacific, which had the core mechanics of Axis & Allies adapted for a specific theater. This, in turn, served as the catalyst for the revised edition. Although there were preliminary plans for a variant that allowed players to combine Europe and Pacific together, it had never been published. Larry Harris has announced two new completely new editions, Axis & Allies Pacific 1940 to be released in December 2009 and Axis & Allies Europe 1940 to be released in Summer 2010, which will also include a variant that combines both games together.

Other Harris-designed Axis & Allies games were more tactical in nature, and focused on individual battles: Axis & Allies: D-Day (2004) focused on the Allied liberation of France, Axis & Allies: Battle of the Bulge (2006) focused on the Battle of the Bulge, while Axis & Allies: Guadalcanal (2007) focused on the Solomon Islands Campaign. Though these games retained many of the traditional mechanics, some were specific to the particular game.

[edit] Miniature games

In 2005, Axis & Allies Miniatures was released as the series' first foray into miniature gaming. This was followed up by Axis & Allies Naval Miniatures: War at Sea.

[edit] Computer games

Several computer games are also based on Axis & Allies. They are mainly turn-based strategy games closely based on the board game, but more recently in 2004, a real-time strategy game was created based on the board game, similarly called Axis & Allies. The real-time strategy game includes a turn-based mode that is closely related to the board game, but you can only attack one enemy-occupied territory per turn. The player can either fight battles in RTS mode or have the computer calculate the outcome. There is also a campaign mode in which you can fight historical battles playing as the Allies, or try to change history by playing as the Axis. All of the battles in the campaign mode are fought in the RTS mode.

An online version of the 2004 revised edition was recently released on GameTable Online. Originally created for Wizards of the Coast's website, the game found its new home when Wizards of the Coast changed their online strategy. The game includes live play against both human and AI opponents (or a mix of the two). It is now also available to play on Facebook.

An open source version of the game called TripleA also exists in which one can play alone or online against other players. It has multiple versions of A&A, including 2nd Edition, Revised Edition, and Anniversary Edition. Triple A has been accused of copyright violation by Hasbro and therefore disabled download of the program on July 13, 2009. However, since TripleA is a more general strategy game engine, a new version is released and ready for download since October 30, 2009. It does not bundle any maps resembling the board-game anymore, and has all internal Axis and Allies references removed. It is capable though of downloading and running user created maps from fan based map repositories among them all popular versions.

[edit] See also

• Axis and Allies Miniatures
• Axis & Allies (1998 video game) - This was true to the board game and is very rare and sought after (particularly Iron Blitz).^{[citation needed]} The 1998 release has several bugs that the Axis and Allies World Club has fixed in an unofficial patch.^{[citation needed]}

• Axis & Allies (2004 video game), a real-time strategy variant of the board game

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Avalon Hill's official Axis & Allies site
• Official website of Larry Harris Game Design, Creator of Axis & Allies

v • d • e Gamemaster series Axis & Allies • Conquest of the Empire • Broadsides and Boarding Parties • Fortress America • Shogun

v • d • e Axis & Allies created by Larry Harris Board games Axis & Allies (Comparison) • Europe • Pacific • D-Day • Battle of the Bulge • Guadalcanal • Pacific 1940 • Europe 1940 Miniature games Miniatures • Land Version • War at Sea Video games 1998 • 2004