[Q] Anyone play the board game Axis & Allies or Shogun?

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Javelin

Senior member
Oct 13, 1999
281
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Axis and Allies is a great game... but its too unbalanced. Axis have near-zero chance of winning. Whenever I play, I give them a few advantages to even things out. Its also great to play with mods and totally new scenarios.

Shogun is cool too, but I never got to play it that much. Using the Ninja to assasinate people was always fun. Fortress America sucked though. I tried to play it a few times but it was just boring.
 

freebee

Diamond Member
Dec 30, 2000
4,043
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The thing with Axis and Allies is all dependent on the rolls of the dice. I have personally lost an entire fleet of battleships and carriers to a bunch of transports and subs. My cannon fodder gave out early, and I could not roll anything remotely close to a hit. Damn, and I think those transports sunk more battleships than the subs did!.

Being one of the worlds unluckiest people. these games are always lost for me.
 

CinderElmo

Senior member
Jun 23, 2000
732
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Freebee, that reminds me of Civilization II somewhat. You could use your battleship to attack an enemy phalanx (spear-chucker) and 99 of 100 times you will win...but just the fact that you could LOSE at all is somewhat disconcerting.

Can transports attack? Doesn't seem possible.
 

AndrewR

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
11,157
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Doesn't matter who is playing Axis -- they still can't win. Game is basically decided in first round. Some rules modifications make it more interesting, which is what we ended up doing (allowing different force placement, for instance).

Fortress America, that's it. That one was interesting, but I only played it a few times. It wasn't as good as A&A or the Roman one (is it Conquest? Doesn't sound right).

Squad Leader was AWESOME. I was very saddened when the computer port fell through because it would have been great to have that online.

Ah, my youth. :)
 

GasX

Lifer
Feb 8, 2001
29,033
6
81
AndrewR - please explain the strategy for deciding the game in the first round.

I think you are SO wrong. I have played both sides against some of the smartest people I know and you cannot predict what will happen.
 

flavio

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
6,823
1
76
errrm.....I have won with Axis.

of course it's all about the Japanese laying the smack down on the U.S. right away. While you're not going to take the U.S. it keeps them from sending backup to other countries where the Nazi's are going to town.
 

Lemon2001

Banned
Jun 20, 2001
22
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man, that Diplomacy...we played 4 players. 8 hour days, played a whole week until we all just gave up. it was insanely fun but then we realized that we wasted a whole week without seeing the sun too much. or our families. we would go home and call each other up to devise new strategy. started spending every waking minute of the day thinking about that game. we never did finish a game. it was fun backstabbing everyone else and you being the only one to advance a get a new territory.
 

Javelin

Senior member
Oct 13, 1999
281
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Andrew is right, Axis can't win under the standard rules. Japan is almost irrelevant. They can do a lot of damage to the US fleet but they'll never take the mainland, which means all they gain is Hawaii and Midland which isn't worth anything(well Hawaii is worth 1 IPC). THe US can afford to pay minimal attention to the Pacific theatre and concentrate on fighting the Germans. So, it ends up being 3 on 1 against Germany, and thats not much of a contest. Japan can move inland against Russia but they can never get there in time.
 

Aquaman

Lifer
Dec 17, 1999
25,054
13
0
I think the Japanese must immediately build factories on the mainland and start pumping out tanks. Don't fight the Russians until you've wiped out the British & Americans in that area. After that, fight the Russians and if there is territory still available in Africa (if the Germans have not taken it) take it. It's all about IPC's baby ;)

Cheers,
Aquaman
 

Electric Amish

Elite Member
Oct 11, 1999
23,578
1
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If played correctly, the Axis will usually win. Russia should be all but dead in the first round or 2. That makes it 2 vs. 2.

I've been playing this game for 15 years. It took me an my friend 3 months of planning to come up with a strategy that would beat the Axis, if you rolled well...

We invented a really cool way to play it. Every player had to have his own board and be located in separate rooms. There were 2 judges that went around to each country for their turn and via walkie-talkie, communicated with the other judge during a battle. You didn't know what units were located more than 1 province away. YOu could send and/or intercept messages between allies. Perform recon flights. It was very cool! Took a long time, tho...

amish
 

Buddhist

Golden Member
Jan 15, 2000
1,776
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"If played correctly, the Axis will usually win. Russia should be all but dead in the first round or 2. That makes it 2 vs. 2.

I've been playing this game for 15 years. It took me an my friend 3 months of planning to come up with a strategy that would beat the Axis, if you rolled well...

We invented a really cool way to play it. Every player had to have his own board and be located in separate rooms. There were 2 judges that went around to each country for their turn and via walkie-talkie, communicated with the other judge during a battle. You didn't know what units were located more than 1 province away. YOu could send and/or intercept messages between allies. Perform recon flights. It was very cool! Took a long time, tho...

amish"

Woah!
I may just have to drive up towards your area and join in on one of these games!
-M.T.O
 

maometh

Junior Member
Dec 15, 2000
7
0
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I'm with Javelin and Andrew. Even with the "No Russia 1st Turn Attack" rule, the Axis are at a serious disadvantage against Allied players that know what they're doing.

Karelia can be held effectivly by Russia until the US and UK start landing troops in Norway and re-enforcing, once thats done, its only a matter of time until Western Europe gets pressured, drawing away all of Germany's attention and putting them totally on the defensive.

I still enjoy the game a lot though, I'm always looking for the trick that will allow Japan to get to Russia in time, but they're always a couple turns too late.

The computer AI is terrible. So I can sometimes be found hanging out in the A&A Gspy room looking for takers. BTW, does anyone know if the computer game has a chat or text system built in? A friend told me it did, but he couldn't remember how to access it, and I could never find it either.

-Maometh
 

Electric Amish

Elite Member
Oct 11, 1999
23,578
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Dude! There is NO WAY UK & US should be landing troops in Norway. UK/US shouldn't have a Navy in the Atlantic. Period. Whoever's playing Germany is not very good. With all of Germany's AF & beginning navy, they should totally wipe out all navy in the Atlantic.

amish
 

Cerebus451

Golden Member
Nov 30, 2000
1,425
0
76
Axis and Allies was/is a great game. Played it alot all through high school, college and beyond. Funniest thing I have ever seen was a guy was playing Germany and his girlfriend was playing Russia. He did his usual first turn blast into Russia with all his might. She got to roll around 12 dice or so for her infantry defending. 12 1's were rolled. Funniest thing I have ever seen. That was it for the Axis in that game.

I also have played Fortress America alot. It's an enjoyable game. Not quite as much dice rolling but still pretty much based on luch.

Shogun was the best of the three, though. Thoroughly enjoyed that one. I remember playing another similar game involving ships, but I can't remember the name of that one.

Also enjoyed playing Civilization/Advanced Civ (not the Sid Meyer computer games) as well as History of the World. Also the Hunt for Red October/Red Storm Rising pair as well, though those games were obscenely biased towards NATO winning.
 

JinxSOJO

Junior Member
Jun 1, 2001
7
0
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I would have to agree with Amish on this one.....But, that's because I'm the one that was playing Germany all those years. *grin* There was a time when I had the strategy for Germany down well enough that I could play while sleeping(probably did a few times, too *laugh*). I would love to play against some of the folks here in the forum that say the Axis can't win using the strategy that my friends and I have for the Axis. Amish wasn't exaggerating when he said they spent 3 months coming up with a strategy to defeat the Axis. We played just about every weekend at that point while they tried new strategies to defeat the strategy we were using for the Axis. Anyway, it would be fun to see some of the strategies that are being talked about for the Allies that make it impossible for the Axis to win.

The other way that Amish was discussing using different boards for each player with judges taking care of the all the moves was an extreme blast! But, count on spending the entire day playing it that way. I can't tell you how boring it got for the players, though. Every time we played it that way, I was one of the judges. It was fun seeing the new techniques that players used because of the style being played. One game saw Japan invade and basically take out America in two or three rounds. It was awesome!

Man, those were the days. :)
 

lamplighter

Senior member
Apr 25, 2001
383
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I like Axis and Allies, more than Risk but not as much as Warhammer (fantasy war game). I would play them more than once a year if they didn't take a day or two to play. :(
 

JinxSOJO

Junior Member
Jun 1, 2001
7
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Forgot about all the other games as well. I still have copies of those games:

Axis & Allies
Fortress America
Shogun
Conquest of the Empire
Civilization(the board game)
Mighty Empires
Tactics II
Diplomacy

During middle school and high school, Amish, myself and couple of other guys would play just about every weekend.

Man, those were the days :) (Did I already mention that?) *laugh*

Looks like I'll have to check out the European and Pacific versions of Axis & Allies.
 

Aquaman

Lifer
Dec 17, 1999
25,054
13
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Check out the Avalon Hill (Hasbro) website, they are making a History of the World board game soon.

Cheers,
Aquaman
 

ElFenix

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Mar 20, 2000
102,414
8,356
126
i'd like to hear these invincible strategies as well...

when i was playing i was usually axis and would win
then we got to playing with the two boards and my friend kept the same strategy of russia building tons of tanks...

meanwhile i built tons of tanks in germany (after taking out england by bombing it into the stone age), put them on transports and took out the eastern US, fun fun fun.

has anyone ever played settlers of catan? theres a fun gmae. been playing it a lot for the past couple of months. last game i quietly built my towns into cities, and no one noticed that i had 2 dev cards i wasn't using... had 9 points and no one saw the victory coming. bought a dev card and it was the last victory point. :D
 

maometh

Junior Member
Dec 15, 2000
7
0
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<< Dude! There is NO WAY UK &amp; US should be landing troops in Norway. UK/US shouldn't have a Navy in the Atlantic. Period. Whoever's playing Germany is not very good. With all of Germany's AF &amp; beginning navy, they should totally wipe out all navy in the Atlantic.

amish
>>



Here's the way it usually went in our group....
Germany takes out UK naval square 1st turn, thats a given. Eventually though (usually 1 or 2 turns), Germany's navy is wiped out by UK airforce, or at their subs have to retreat from the UK sea zone. Any turn where the UK thinks its going to empty out that sea square, they buy a carrier, place it at the end of the turn. During the US non combat, land 2 fighters from Eastern US on that UK carrier, and its practically game over(OK, that might be an exageration, but its the beggining of the end anyway). Germany can't afford to lose its precious fighters taking out that carrier, and all the better if they try because IPCs are going to get real hard to come by pretty soon. With UK in control of that square, Russia can plow into Norway knowing that extra troops are on the way.

How did you as Germany manage to keep the Allies from getting control of that sea zone while moving troops to the Russian fron lines? I'd love to know because it would breath some life into my games.

-maometh
 

JinxSOJO

Junior Member
Jun 1, 2001
7
0
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hehehe, I enjoyed it when Russia would start building tanks. It meant I had to use less effort to roll over them. *grin*