My wife wants to get me a new boardgame for my birthday - she’s never been a game player but my kids are finally old enough to start playing some interesting games (they are 6 and 8 and have learned to play games like basic Settlers of Catan, Carcassone and Ticket to Ride. They also have older teenage cousins who like boardgames).
Anyway, she wanted to know what to get me and since I’m not up on the newest and greatest games I suggested an old classic, Axis and Allies, which I used to play with my friends when I was in high school.
So she starts looking around and - good Lord! There are a million versions. The old style game I’m used to sells for hundreds of dollars so is apparently out of print, which is understandable. But she’s finding “A&A 1940 Europe”, “A&A 1940 Pacific”, “A&A 1941”, “A&A 1942”, “A&A D-Day” …
So what I want to know is - which of these do I want, which would be closest to what I played in the 1980s?
The closest would be [Axis & Allies: 1942 (Second Edition).](Axis & Allies: 1942 (Second Edition))It’s not the same game, but it’s closer than the others.
That said, if you want recommendations other than that, might I suggest:
Quick Family Games: Escape from the Temple Curse which is on the opposite end of the spectrum from A&A, but so much fun. It plays in 10 minutes, it’s a fast paced cooperative game that even non-gamers love.
6 Nimmt, No Thanks! and Coloretto. I introduced these to my sister, her husband, and her kids (8+18) and they’re both a lot of fun. Quick card games that uses strategy, luck, and a little back biting.
Longer Family games:
Fortune and Glory. This is a great party game and plays well across the ages. You can play cooperatively against the Nazis or competitively against each other. It’s ameritrash-y like Axis and Allies, but in a fun pulpy way.
Similar but (IMO) better than Axis and Allies: War of the Ring which is based on Tolkein’s work and is really as epic as the books.
And Here I Stand is another war game that really is quite a gem.
(Links all go to amazon due to lower shipping costs, but boardgameprices.com is a good place to price out games and find the lowest prices while they might have higher shipping.)
Thanks stpauler. Before clicking on the link I thought War of the Ring was going to be Lord of the Rings co-operative board game, which I have played with my older nieces and nephews but is a bit over the heads of my kids.
Maybe I should go poke around boardgamegeek; I haven’t been there in years. First though I’m curious about the differences in the various Axis & Allies options, though, even if I end up not getting it.
Axis and Allies is a great game. It was my first really weighty board game and, while I’ve more or less outgrown it, I still have really fond memories of long sessions. Never seen the rules for the version linked above - the last one I played was the 2004 edition.
That said, it’s probably too heavy for your little ones. There’s a ton of stuff to keep track of, especially if you play with fewer than five players. The older cousins might find it interesting, though.
I used to play A&A with someone who was obsessed with “making change” and “cleaning up” my excess little plastic tanks and soldiers, using markers under one of each to represent the number.
I kept trying to tell him that playing with piles of plastic tanks and soldiers is the point of playing A&A.
My two favorite moments in A&A:
Once, as the Germans in a pick-up-game, I was saddled with a terrible ally playing Japan. He repeatedly offered no help to me and no threat to any of my opponents, despite my pleas. Soon realizing I was going to be on my own against the US, UK, and USSR, I pushed everything I could find into Russia in an all-out attack, trying to cut my way in before the Western Allies could get their act together to D-Day me.
Amazingly, it worked. I certainly had good luck with the dice, but the Russian player (a very good player) wasn’t mad about it – he recognized that my only sensible play had been to be aggressive and hope for good dice, so he was philosophical about it as I smashed my way into Moscow with a few remaining tanks. It would have been a stupid gamble in a normal game.
The other time, I was the USSR player. I hurled a substantial force into a zone occupied by a single Japanese infantryman. All my guys missed. He hit. All my guys missed. He hit again! Over and over I pressed the issue, waiting for my luck to even out, but this one guy wiped my whole force off the map. In the moment of stunned silence that followed, the Japanese player struck a Karate pose and made a drawn-out “whaaaaahh…” martial-arts-movie sound.
That was the hardest I’ve ever laughed while playing Axis and Allies.
Recently I played for the first time in over 25 years and I was Japan. On my first move I agressively attacked the USA’s pacific forces, wiping out all his naval forces and clearing the way for me to take Hawaii and Midway. I actually occupied western Canada before he regrouped. He was astonished at my aggressiveness but I thought that’s how Japan was supposed to play? It helped that the USSR was mostly ignoring me.
I’m a little astonished that Axis & Allies hasn’t in some way been supplanted by better games, but I guess the “war game” genre has its devotees that aren’t troubled by things like the enormous amount of time they tend to take to play.
All that said, I don’t really think a 6 and 8 year old are going to have anything near the patience required to finish a game of Axis and Allies or War of the Ring. Unless you fall into the aforementioned “war game fan” category, I’d actually suggest you steer clear of them and go for some stuff that’s a little simpler and finishes in less than 6 hours.
Maybe Smallworld, which is still a “conquer the map” kind of game, but one in which no players are ever “knocked out” and which takes much less time.
I also rather enjoyed my playthrough of Seven Wonders, which, I suppose, is technically not a “board game” but still worth a look.
There are a lot of really good, elegant boardgames out there, and I think you’re doing both yourself and your children (especially at their current ages) a disservice by going for Axis and Allies.
About two years ago I sprung for a used version of the original game (I think I won it for $60 on eBay) to play with my son who was 11 at the time. Man, I forgot how LONG that game can be and after a couple nights we barely had things heating up. Granted, we were slowed down by having to teach him the game but it’s not all that complicated rules-wise.
Unfortunately, we have a toddler in the house now (he’s not the ‘unfortunate’ part) so leaving a giant game board with a billion little tanks and boats and soldiers for days at end just isn’t going to work.
Are you familar with Tabletop, the Youtube series on tabletop board gaming with Wil Wheaton? Wil and friends play a different tabletop game in each ep, and he has some entertaining friends. It’s a good way to find out about games and it’s fun to watch, even if you are not into board gaming. I’m not just saying that … I’m not into board gaming.
Hmm, thinking about it more practically, I hadn’t considered that I would never really get to play A&A - my kids are too young, and the older kids can’t be counted on to be available for a four-hour game. Plus I’m not sure the girls would get into it.
Checking out the ratings at boardgamegeek I think I’ll take a look at either 7 Wonders or Small World.
I’m still curioius as to what the difference is between all those A&A variants, though.
I’ve never played Axis & Allies, but if you want a game where you get to play with little figures of soldiers, you might try Battle Cry, a very playable two-person Civil War game. There’s also a WWII version, Memoir '44.
My family also enjoys Settlers of Catan and Mystery of the Abbey. Neither is a wargame, but hey.
And you know what? At first I scoffed, but the more I think about it the more I like the recommendation for Here I Stand. The kids won’t understand all that’s going on, but every nation has their own agenda and it really is a good game with a pretty basic easy to grasp core.
Which one? The 2001 ‘original’, the 2009 Pacific 1940 or the 2012 Pacific 1940 2nd edition?
I’ve got the 2001 iteration which is pretty good but I miss the global scope of the original. A game of the combined Europe and Pacific 1940 versions sounds awesome, but I shudder to think of the setup time.