Axis & Allies

[davep]

Axis & Allies turns 50 years old
Never played the game, but I know they have many variation on the basic game

[bthodgson]

This game is very fun, however it is quite time consuming. I remember starting a game with my two brothers and it went on for an entire week!!

Once you get the hang of it, though, it becomes a lot of fun, and it really puts your wits to the test.

I also have a computer game version of this game it's really awesome. You can do a quick battle, follow a storyline, or even fight all of World War Two. I play it on my laptop all the time.

You control a regiment sized units as the basic field unit. You can build fortifications, extend your supply lines, make sure you balance your ammunition and oil production to keep up with the current units you are recruiting. You can field infantry, paratroopers (which can be parachuted in or deployed as regular infantry), mechanized units such as various models of halftrack regiments, and armored regiments.

It sounds a bit complicated, but it is much easier than all of that. Definitely recommend it.

[barcelonablom]

Pffft. Brett you want long AND a challenge?

Play Avalon Hill's The Longest Day...




Invasion, Buildup *and* Breakout in France.

Whats funny is one scenario my dad played back in the day he ran the German reserves right up the dividing line between Omaha and Utah on D-Day and pretty much stunted the Allies into pockets on the coastline that could never fully buildup nor breakout.

[bthodgson]

Rich, that game looks amazing!!

Where can someone get that? Do they even make it anymore?

[jdfinney]

As a kid growing up in the 60/70s I was a 20/25mm wargamer using a 20'x20' sandtable, we'd have games that would last over a month with up to 20 people playing, on average we'd play using around 4000/5000 individual figures and no less than a few hundred vehicles, I think for Kursk we had over 900 vehicles. Our Waterloo game consisted of over 8000 figures complied from 20 collections, I myself had over 1500 Napoleonic figures painted {that's a lot of white Straps to paint not to mention the gold buttons, I could paint 400 per week if I put my mind to it}, mind you we had to paint all the figures and build/paint 70% of the vehicles, ROCO came built but you had to paint them, everything had to be painted to use it in a game. We'd take a month off between games for research, during these down days some of us would get together on weekends for Avalon Hill board games, I think my favorite was Tobruk, but the Longest Day was Awesome as was Waterloo, we played both over and over, two others I remember were Stalingrad and France 1940 with France 1940 being the last one I ever played, around 1977 or so. Back then there wasn't much for rules in 20/25mm so we had to write our own, often we would use or develop rules using Avalon Hill as a guide, sometimes it would take months to write the rules for a single game, getting 20 wargamers to agree on anything is a huge task.

I think my single greatest victory came on Masada, as an Israelite I held Masada from the Romans for so long that the game was considered a tie, I was out numbered 25 to 1, there were two of us playing Israelite and 9 guys attacking as Romans. I also won Waterloo as Napoleon capturing Wellington, the goal was to defeat the English before the Prussians could take to the battlefield. I did not attack Scottish Squares with my Cavalry, I ran my Cavalry towards them then stopped just short of the Scots, right behind my Cav was my Artillery, I just blasted them with Artillery until they broke, then I ran down the stragglers, the rest of the Brits were tied up with my Infantry and other small units at Hougoumont/La Haye Sainte.

My worse defeat was being thrown back into the sea on Anzio beach, everything went wrong that day, some days the dice work for you and other days they just don't!

Jeff

[bthodgson]

Jeff, that is really awesome!!

I remember you telling my brother Wyatt and I about some of those great times you had playing. Thanks for sharing that with us! It's pretty cool that you used to do that and put all the work into those things!!

[barcelonablom]

Sorry Brett Avalon Hill as it was is out of business. Milton Bradley markets its modern "war" games under the AH name but the true days of the Bookshelf games and other more traditional ("grognard") games are gone. You can probably scrap up Longest Day on Ebay but expect to pay in excess of $200. What stinks is I think my dad's is just missing a handful of counters...

[m14msgt]

Axis & Allies makes a DDAY version also. Used to play that game with my buddies in the barracks back in the old days. Awesome game. You can probably still get it on EBay.

[bthodgson]

The PC version of Axis and Allies that I have doesn't go by the hexagonal or overall country capture system.

You can play a World War Two version in which you do capture countries throughout the world, but you can also choose to fight the battles in the country.

There is also a storylined version in which you play mutliple battles from World War Two and as different sides.

All in all, its a convenient and fun game on your PC.