Axis & Allies is a series of World War II strategy board games. The first version was published in 1981 and a second edition known colloquially as Axis & Allies: Classic was published in 1984. Played on a board depicting a Spring 1942 political map of Earth divided by territories, players take the role of one or more of the five major belligerents of World War II: the Axis powers of Germany and Japan, and the Allied powers of the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Turns rotate among these belligerents, who control armies of playing pieces with which they attempt to capture enemy territories, with results determined by dice rolls. The object of the game is to win the war by capturing enough critical territories to gain the advantage over the enemy.
More than ten spinoff games have since been produced. Some of these editions are revised versions of the classic game, while others depict a specific theater, campaign or battle of World War II.
Game development
Axis & Allies was designed by Larry Harris under the prototype name 1942 in the late 1970s.[1] In 1981, Harris partnered with a local Connecticut hobby shop, Citadel Game Store, to publish Axis & Allies under the company name of Nova Game Designs, with the name originating from Pat Flory, the owner of the shop.[2][3] In 1984, the game was republished by the Milton Bradley Company as part of the Gamemaster Series of board games.[4] This edition has been retroactively named Axis & Allies: Classic to differentiate it from later revisions.
In 1996, Axis & Allies: Classic was inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame.[5] Games magazine has inducted Axis & Allies into their buyers' guide Hall of Fame, an honor the magazine extends to "games that have met or exceeded the highest standards of quality and play value and have been continuously in production for at least 10 years; i.e., classics."[6] Axis & Allies: Classic was the most successful of the five Gamemaster Series of board games.[7]
After acquiring Milton Bradley (1984) and Avalon Hill (1998), Hasbro transferred the Axis & Allies: Classic (1984) board game from the Milton Bradley division to the Avalon Hill division in 1999. In 1999, Hasbro acquired Wizards of the Coast. In 2004, Hasbro made Avalon Hill a subsidiary of Wizards of the Coast (WotC). In January 2021, after corporate restructuring, Avalon Hill became a subsidiary of Hasbro Gaming instead.[8]
In 2022, Renegade Games Studios entered a partnership with Hasbro, to publishing future versions of Axis & Allies, among other games, and organize an Axis & Allies world championship, and run an Axis & Allies website, starting in 2023. In 2023 the company released reprints of Axis & Allies: 1914, Axis & Allies 1941, Axis & Allies 1942, Axis & Allies 1940 Europe, Axis & Allies 1940 Pacific, and announced a reprint of Axis & Allies: Guadalcanal, as well as two new, upcoming games: Axis & Allies: North Africa and G.I. Joe: Battle for the Arctic Circle, a board game centered on the G. I. Joe line of action figures, that will use the Axis & Allies game engine.[9][10][11][12][13]
The mainline Axis & Allies game has gone through several revisions, most recently in 2018, and the game has several spinoffs. The series is currently published by Renegade Game Studios through a licensing agreement with Hasbro. There are 15 board games in the Axis & Allies series, not counting second editions, 5 of which are currently supported by Renegade Game Studios. These are Axis & Allies: 1914, Axis & Allies: 1941, Axis & Allies: Europe 1940 2nd Edition, Axis & Allies: Pacific 1940 2nd Edition, and Axis & Allies: Spring 1942 2nd Edition. Many out-of-print A&A board games can be found on auction websites.
Gameplay
In almost every edition of Axis & Allies, players play as the major belligerents of World War II: Germany, Japan, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The A&A: 50th Anniversary Edition includes Italy as the third Axis power and China as the fourth Allied power. The A&A: Pacific 1940 edition includes China and ANZAC (Australia and New Zealand armed forces). The A&A: Europe 1940 edition includes Italy and France.
The players playing the Axis powers team up against those of the Allied powers, usually in an attempt to conquer key territories, represented by regions on the map board. In earlier editions, this was done by capturing and holding until the end of a round of play, certain territories where the opposing alliance's capital cities are located. In later editions, this included other territories on the map, where "victory cities" are located.
Certain versions of Axis & Allies have their own custom victory conditions. In the original Milton Bradley edition, A&A: Classic, the Axis powers could also win by capturing and holding until the end of a round of play enough territories to gain an economic advantage. This "economic victory" was dropped in later editions of A&A.
In Axis & Allies: Pacific, Japan gains a point for every 10 IPCs they collect and can win the game if they collect 22 points. In Axis & Allies: D-Day, the Allies need to control the three cities of Cherbourg, Caen, and Saint-Lo at the end of the 10th round. In Axis & Allies: Guadalcanal, victory is achieved by controlling airfields. In Axis & Allies: Battle of the Bulge, the Germans need to control territories totaling up to 24 points before round 8.
Spinoffs
Due to the success of Axis & Allies: Classic, as of 2026, there are nineteen spin-off games in the A&A franchise. Most use more or less the same mechanics. Four are updated or expanded versions of the original global A&A: Classic game. An additional five games are theater games depicting combat in Europe, Africa, or the Pacific. Four games are local games of specific battles. One game takes place at the beginning of World War One. One features a global theater with the addition of a zombie apocalypse.
Additional games have been published by other game designers with similar mechanics, with some requiring components from an Axis & Allies or similar game.
In 1999, Axis & Allies: Europe was released, with slightly updated rules and a focus on the European theater of World War II. In 2001, Axis & Allies: Pacific was released, with similar rules and a focus shifted to the Pacific theater. In 2004, Axis & Allies: D-Day focused on the Allied liberation of France. In 2004, the first major revision to the core game, Axis & Allies: Revised was released, with elements taken from A&A: Europe and A&A: Pacific, celebrating the 20th anniversary of Axis & Allies.
In 2006, Axis & Allies: Battle of the Bulge focused on the Battle of the Bulge in Europe. In 2007, Axis & Allies: Guadalcanal focused on the Solomon Islands Campaign in the 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. In 2009, Axis & Allies: 1942 was the second major revision to the core game, with mechanics taken from the anniversary edition, celebrating the 25th anniversary of Axis & Allies.
Versions
- Notes
Units
Revisions
Revisions followed shortly after the game release, as the rules didn't always produce results which made sense in the context of the historical setting. For example, the abstraction of submarines fighting airplanes, initially had a restriction that the bomber was the only kind that could attack a sub. This was later revised so that all aircraft could attack submarines.
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. The third edition rules were exclusive to the 1998 computer video game Axis & Allies by Hasbro, and Axis & Allies: Iron Blitz with minor additional rules released in 1999. The three editions differed by minor details. There is also a newer RTS video game released in 2004, a departure from the original A&A: Classic world map and introducing several tactical battle scenarios.
The first major revision to the rules was designed by Larry Harris and Mike Selinker, who later developed the board game Attack! based on the experiences learned working with Harris. Harris and Slinkier 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, with the size of the majority being agreed upon by the players prior to the game. This allows players to play shorter or longer games, depending upon the number of victory cities a power must control in order to claim victory.[27]
Board games
In addition to designing the board games, Larry Harris designed A&A: Europe and A&A: Pacific, which had the core mechanics of Axis & Allies adapted for a specific theater. This 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 released two completely new editions, Axis & Allies Pacific 1940, in December 2009, and Axis & Allies Europe 1940, released in Summer 2010, which include a variant that combines both games together.
Other Harris-designed Axis & Allies games were more tactical in nature, and focused on individual battles in specified, small areas. 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. 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.
Reception
In 1985, Warren Spector reviewed the 1984 Milton Bradley version of Axis & Allies in Space Gamer No. 72.[30] Spector commented that "Overall, Axis & Allies is a winner. It's simple to learn, easy to play, requires lots of thought, and has immense replay value (since each country has unique goals, resources, and geography)."[30]
In 1999, in a retrospective review in Issue 4 of Simulacrum, Joe Scoleri noted, "Sometimes seen as the bane of 'serious' wargamers, this design has stood the test of time and the Milton Bradley re-release served to introduce a whole new generation to wargaming. While it won't please the Advanced Third Reich crowd, it is an entertaining game nonetheless."[31]
In August 1996, Axis & Allies was declared the best-selling physical wargame, having eclipsed the 275,000 copies sold by PanzerBlitz, the second-highest seller in the genre.[32] It sold roughly 1 million copies by 1998.[33]
Video games
Two video games based on the official board game were released in 1998 and 2004. In 1998, Axis & Allies was released by Hasbro. It features a departure from the original A&A: Classic world map and introduces several tactical battlefield scenarios. In 1999, Axis & Allies: Iron Blitz was released as an updated version, with minor additional rules and features marines, paratroopers, destroyers, and kamikazes. In 2004, Axis & Allies: RTS by TimeGate Studios was released and is primarily based on real-time strategy gameplay. In 2006, Axis & Allies: RTS Collector's Edition was a released as an expanded version. The game became TimeGate's best-selling game.[35]
In 2008, Wizards of the Coast created an online version of Axis & Allies as part of their Gleemax game site. When Gleemax was cancelled, the game found its way to the GameTable Online game site, who programmed the game for Wizards of the Coast. The initial version was based on the 2004 Revised edition.[36] In September 2010, GameTable Online developed a new version based on the Axis & Allies: 1942 set.[37]
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, with Axis & Allies Air Force Miniatures: Angels Twenty being released in October, 2011. There have been several additional A&A Miniatures booster set releases. Currently there are 20 countries represented in A&A Miniatures.
External links
- Official website of Larry Harris Game Design, Creator of Axis & Allies
- Review in Games
References
- Interview with Larry Harris Jr. about his life and his career as a game designer (2020) Legendary Games Podcast, retrieved 2021-08-31^
- Bruce Whitehall. 25 Years of Axis & Allies Knucklebones, Jones Publishing, March 2008^
- Thomas M. Reid. Hobby Games: The 100 Best Green Ronin Publishing, 2007^