Review of Axis & Allies 50th Anniversary Edition
By Rick Pennington
Remember the original Axis & Allies folks? Remember how the Allies had a huge advantage? Remember how few sea battles there were? Remember how quickly the US or Japanese could cross the Pacific? Remember how easy Japan could cross China? Remember those huge troop chip pileups in Karelia? Remember heavy bombers making the game one of Nuke The Opponent and turning the game into a slaughter?
You won't have to remember any of those things in the newest and actually highly improved version of Axis & Allies. The game's original creator, Larry Harris, has made some mild reworkings before but this is THE definitive remodeling that takes all the old problems and creates few new ones.
Played with a 1941 (pre-Barbarossa) or 1942 (pre-Midway) setup, both setups offer roughly equal chances for both sides to win. Matter of fact the hardest thing is to knock the game out of balance early on and if you wind up going 5 turns and seeing a potential stalemate, you may even wish to hand out some weapons tech from the new chart to increase the lethality of the forces on the board to hurry the game along.
Lower costs for naval units, new rules for submarines and more IPC's in circulation make for more war at sea. The Italian fleet comes in with a battleship and a pair of cruisers, so it isn't going to go away any time soon. The German fleet is a bit better than the feeble submarine and transport in the Baltic and given the turn order in both of the games as well as the extra IPC's, Germany proves quite capable of continuing a naval presence. In the Pacific look for the massive American naval buildup to take place that eventually does catch Japan but the operative word is "eventually". Until that point in the game is reached, there are plenty of play opportunities for both sides. The British have units all over the place as in the original game and they will have to fight hard to survive the onslaught of German U-boats, surface ships and aircraft just as they did in the real war during the Battle Of The Atlantic. A small force in the Indian/Pacific theater can either tempt the Japanese to do what Nagumo did in his Indian Ocean campaign or else those forces can be left alone and provide a small but signifigant help to the Allied cause in holding the line. The Red Navy has very little and does very little as in the original game but that is how history went so there is no loss here of historical accuracy or playability.
A major change to the map shows many more spaces exist in areas where the land masses suggest they should exist. Siberia really is a long ways from Moscow. Tokyo and San Francisco are widely separated. China is a large country with lots of territories to deal with and the force levels balance out so well to show how Japan was bogged down in China. You don't cross the Sahara or the Himalayas with ground units in real life and you don't do so in this game either. Advancing on the Eastern Front is a long slog, not just a matter of capture one territory and you are in front of Moscow. New costs for territories and bonuses for taking certain territories lead the war to develop along historical lines as does the initial force setup. The simplistic map of the past has been well superceded.
The victory city concept to determine a winner sounds good but I do recommend playing at 13 cities instead of 15 or all 18 in order to make the game fit into a long afternoon/evening session. It takes a LOT of work to knock out the other side and one thing I noticed was how the game flow would set itself up to deliver the equivalent of a superpower on each side, an imperiled island nation on each side, Africa as a sideshow worth pursuing and the main area of conflict that all must aim for (the Eurasian land mass) being one that is not easily defended or easily attacked. You want lots of battles and you will have them in the new Axis & Allies 50th Anniversary edition.
The new weapons tech charts offer two columns and 12 capabilities. You buy tokens and you get to keep rolling the dice for each token you have at the start of a turn until you get a 6 and the payoff. Then you pick the column you want to roll on and see which tech you get. The heavy bombers only roll 2 dice now so they are not as overpowered as before. Jet fighters attack at 4 instead of defending at 5 so they are a bit more rounded a unit at 4/4 instead of the previous 3/5. Artillery support, which allows one artillery to attack at 2 and one infantry unit to attack at 2, can be improved so one artillery can support two infantry units. Mechanized infantry allows them to keep up with the tanks. These and other bonuses all play out well and give a side a boost that gets them but they do not overpower the game or come across as wasted tech so often.
The addition of Italy as a separate power and a US-controlled China that plays out it's actions on their own front and in their own way bring the Mediterranean and Chinese theaters into the war in a rich and satisfying way. For a relatively small amount of force, these two nations do have quite the impact on how the game is going to go. A bit of help from Italy can turn the tide in Russia. A Chinese army that is hard to kill ensures the Japanese cannot ignore that front. For being the most minor powers on the board, they play a solid role in the game.
The game itself comes in the neatest possible packaging, with a container with lid for each nation that lets the game itself be laid on it's side when not being played and no pieces escape. Two more boxes contain all the rest of the pieces like factories, AA guns, chips, money, tokens and such. The board comes in 3 separate pieces so no need to worry about the fold creases breaking. The only down note is that there are not enough playing chips, so adding some from other games will be needed. The rulebook is easy to understand other than the section on submarines and the gaming boards where combat is decided and IPC/tech is accounted for do their usual good job.
With a retail price of $100 and a discount price running around $80, people may think that this version is expensive for a game. Compared to new video console games that run $60 and quickly go obsolete, this game will hold it's play value for years and be a bargain for the amount of time it is around as the latest generation product as well as for the many years the game can be enjoyed. Being a limited edition game also means there is a good chance of it going up in value, so a person could buy a pair of these and set one aside to recuperate the expense to some degree. The production values are high and you do get what you pay for in full with Axis & Allies in it's latest and greatest incarnation.
Remember the original Axis & Allies folks? Remember how the Allies had a huge advantage? Remember how few sea battles there were? Remember how quickly the US or Japanese could cross the Pacific? Remember how easy Japan could cross China? Remember those huge troop chip pileups in Karelia? Remember heavy bombers making the game one of Nuke The Opponent and turning the game into a slaughter?
You won't have to remember any of those things in the newest and actually highly improved version of Axis & Allies. The game's original creator, Larry Harris, has made some mild reworkings before but this is THE definitive remodeling that takes all the old problems and creates few new ones.
Played with a 1941 (pre-Barbarossa) or 1942 (pre-Midway) setup, both setups offer roughly equal chances for both sides to win. Matter of fact the hardest thing is to knock the game out of balance early on and if you wind up going 5 turns and seeing a potential stalemate, you may even wish to hand out some weapons tech from the new chart to increase the lethality of the forces on the board to hurry the game along.
Lower costs for naval units, new rules for submarines and more IPC's in circulation make for more war at sea. The Italian fleet comes in with a battleship and a pair of cruisers, so it isn't going to go away any time soon. The German fleet is a bit better than the feeble submarine and transport in the Baltic and given the turn order in both of the games as well as the extra IPC's, Germany proves quite capable of continuing a naval presence. In the Pacific look for the massive American naval buildup to take place that eventually does catch Japan but the operative word is "eventually". Until that point in the game is reached, there are plenty of play opportunities for both sides. The British have units all over the place as in the original game and they will have to fight hard to survive the onslaught of German U-boats, surface ships and aircraft just as they did in the real war during the Battle Of The Atlantic. A small force in the Indian/Pacific theater can either tempt the Japanese to do what Nagumo did in his Indian Ocean campaign or else those forces can be left alone and provide a small but signifigant help to the Allied cause in holding the line. The Red Navy has very little and does very little as in the original game but that is how history went so there is no loss here of historical accuracy or playability.
A major change to the map shows many more spaces exist in areas where the land masses suggest they should exist. Siberia really is a long ways from Moscow. Tokyo and San Francisco are widely separated. China is a large country with lots of territories to deal with and the force levels balance out so well to show how Japan was bogged down in China. You don't cross the Sahara or the Himalayas with ground units in real life and you don't do so in this game either. Advancing on the Eastern Front is a long slog, not just a matter of capture one territory and you are in front of Moscow. New costs for territories and bonuses for taking certain territories lead the war to develop along historical lines as does the initial force setup. The simplistic map of the past has been well superceded.
The victory city concept to determine a winner sounds good but I do recommend playing at 13 cities instead of 15 or all 18 in order to make the game fit into a long afternoon/evening session. It takes a LOT of work to knock out the other side and one thing I noticed was how the game flow would set itself up to deliver the equivalent of a superpower on each side, an imperiled island nation on each side, Africa as a sideshow worth pursuing and the main area of conflict that all must aim for (the Eurasian land mass) being one that is not easily defended or easily attacked. You want lots of battles and you will have them in the new Axis & Allies 50th Anniversary edition.
The new weapons tech charts offer two columns and 12 capabilities. You buy tokens and you get to keep rolling the dice for each token you have at the start of a turn until you get a 6 and the payoff. Then you pick the column you want to roll on and see which tech you get. The heavy bombers only roll 2 dice now so they are not as overpowered as before. Jet fighters attack at 4 instead of defending at 5 so they are a bit more rounded a unit at 4/4 instead of the previous 3/5. Artillery support, which allows one artillery to attack at 2 and one infantry unit to attack at 2, can be improved so one artillery can support two infantry units. Mechanized infantry allows them to keep up with the tanks. These and other bonuses all play out well and give a side a boost that gets them but they do not overpower the game or come across as wasted tech so often.
The addition of Italy as a separate power and a US-controlled China that plays out it's actions on their own front and in their own way bring the Mediterranean and Chinese theaters into the war in a rich and satisfying way. For a relatively small amount of force, these two nations do have quite the impact on how the game is going to go. A bit of help from Italy can turn the tide in Russia. A Chinese army that is hard to kill ensures the Japanese cannot ignore that front. For being the most minor powers on the board, they play a solid role in the game.
The game itself comes in the neatest possible packaging, with a container with lid for each nation that lets the game itself be laid on it's side when not being played and no pieces escape. Two more boxes contain all the rest of the pieces like factories, AA guns, chips, money, tokens and such. The board comes in 3 separate pieces so no need to worry about the fold creases breaking. The only down note is that there are not enough playing chips, so adding some from other games will be needed. The rulebook is easy to understand other than the section on submarines and the gaming boards where combat is decided and IPC/tech is accounted for do their usual good job.
With a retail price of $100 and a discount price running around $80, people may think that this version is expensive for a game. Compared to new video console games that run $60 and quickly go obsolete, this game will hold it's play value for years and be a bargain for the amount of time it is around as the latest generation product as well as for the many years the game can be enjoyed. Being a limited edition game also means there is a good chance of it going up in value, so a person could buy a pair of these and set one aside to recuperate the expense to some degree. The production values are high and you do get what you pay for in full with Axis & Allies in it's latest and greatest incarnation.
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