Axis & Allies

      I loved board games as a kid. So it is no wonder that I am fully enjoying the amazing world of modern board games that we live in. But there is a big leap from there to here. From Monopoly, Life and Risk to Terraforming Mars, Food Chain Magnate, and Wingspan. The game that bridged that gap for me was Axis and Allies.

      I was about 13 when Axis & Allies entered my life and I fell in love instantly. My best friend’s older brother had gotten it and when a game broke out we took over the basement for an entire weekend. We were kids, and the rules were hard. On top of that the game takes a long time to set up and longer to play with even experienced players.

      Axis & Allies is a game by Larry Hunt that game out in 1984 as part of Milton Bradley’s Gamemaster series. (The story of the game is longer, but that’s the version I played and how I remember the game.) I have played three of the five games in this series. Axis & Allies is a WWII based game. In the original version, up to 5 players play on of each of the main nations from the second world war, Germany, Japan (Axis), USA. USSR, or UK (Allies). Later versions sometimes added Italy, China, France, and dabbled with other nations and concepts (Anzac). the game starts in spring of 1942. So after Pearl Harbor, but before Midway. Just as the USA has entered the war. From there each side is award money (IPC) for each territory to buy military units and the two sides fight out to see who wins.

      For the 1980s, this was a heavy board game. It had everything a young teenager could want: war, complex rules to argue over, an excuse to ignore the world for a weekend, and a chance to crush your friends. It made Risk look like the most boring game ever. And I watched our older sibling play a two-board version of risk that I am not sure the rules of to this day. A&A had tanks and planes and battleships. The miniatures alone would have sold me. But it also came with poker chips! You got a stack of red and white poker chips to use as under your troops, because your armies were not counter limited.

      To top it all off the map was cut in a place that mad perfect sense, but was also unique to my Gen-x eyes. The USA was cut in half and shoved on either end of the board. This made so much sense but was also shocking to see in Reagan America. We were the after thought? This game was not Amero-centric? And to be fair, the US is useless in the first couple rounds. No one wanted to play as the US. It was weird, but also great.

      Further appeal of the game came from the era. It was the Cold War! Tom Clancy was approaching his peak, GI Joe was still cool, my dad watched every WWII film ever made, and my grandfather was a WWII Vet (Iwo Jima). The game was custom built for me and for the time. It was cool enough for someone’s older brother to bring into our lives, while still being a very nerdy boardgame. It was Diplomacy and Risk put together.

      I still love this game despite not playing it for decades. I did follow along with a lot of TripleA efforts on Sourceforge. This posts comes because I have fallen down the youtube rabbit hole of Axis & Allies gameplay vids.

      So yes, I did turn procrastination into a post. I am quite proud of myself for this. I do love this game and I will be writing more about it. I might even talk my board game friends into a game of it. Axis & Allies has a passionate following and the community is still active and variations of the game are still being made.