Errata: Axis & Allies Memories
This week’s question touches on a one-time favorite of mine, Axis & Allies. While I’ve fallen out of love with war games in general, there was a time when I played A&A nearly every weekend and my friends were absolutely hooked. The Allies won more often than the Axis, but it was always a great time.
A&A Gamer asked, “I was looking for an Axis & Allies game that I remember playing as a teenager but there seem to be so many it’s a bit confusing. I cam [sic] across your website and thought you might know. Or is there some better game along the same lines?”
The original game is linked above. If you’re looking for an A&A title, there’s a list of them on BGG. Depending on how long ago teenager time was for you, it could be any of them. But my guess is the original. It debuted in 1981 and was the only A&A game in town for almost two decades. The original isn’t ranked that highly on the Geek, but I think that’s a product of user bias. Most BGGers tend to like euros, so wargames get downgraded anyway, and the really hardcore wargamers tend to feel that A&A is too light. While by no means my personal favorite, it’s better than its ranking would suggest.
As for a better game, that’s tough to say without knowing your tastes. If you’re looking for a better wargame, you might look into the wargame list on BGG, which ranks them based on users. By limiting it to just wargames, you weed out the folks who downgrade them based on that one characteristic. As I’m not much of a wargamer, I can’t be especially helpful in recommending titles.
But if you’re looking for a game in the 4-5 player range which has a lot of conflict, I can recommend Chaos in the Old World (fantasy setting, but area control and combat akin to A&A), Small World (another fantasy setting, though combat is deterministic and not decided by die roll), and even Tammany Hall (an area control game set in 19th century politics).
Got questions about strategy, specific games, or the hobby in general? Post them in the comments here, email me at geekinsight at gfbrobot dot com, or send them to @GeekInsight on Twitter and check back next week for answers!
