Axis & Allies

The Good
I like to play A&A, and this really speeds up the game. The graphics are clean, there are new rules you can tweak on or off, and you get little explosions when your pieces die.

The Bad
You absolutely must have a human opponent. Even if you play one country and set your teammates to as stupid as possible, and your opponents as smart as possible, the AI is still dumb as a box of rocks. They once shipped the same troops between Hawaii and the West coast 4 turns in a row, with no apparent reason. Also, sometimes bugs prevent your pieces from doing what you want them to do. I've frequently lost planes because I couldn't land them on a carrier. This could be critical if you're playing against a good opponent. (There may be a cheat to get them back, but I don't know about it)

The Bottom Line
If you have somebody to play against, it can really be a speed advantage over the board game. Still, the board game appeals to me for the table talk, and the little toys you get to play with. :) At the price it can usually be found at, if you like simple war games, snatch it up; just don't expect the computer to be a challenge!

The Good
Research, territories going back to allies, fleets and transports, and factories. Historically and strategically accurate. You can win as any player.

The Bad
Transports should be allowed to stay in port when built instead of getting wiped out when no protected. They of course should need protection to more troops. Just sacrifice enough infantry which is cheap and you win! Historically accurate, the Russians did it but note humane. Try and play humane I suppose, makes it more challenging. The waits between turns and TOO LONG......... Should have non-aggression pacts, like between the Soviet Union and the Japanese Empire. Break them and the AI should really go for you.

The Bottom Line
Brilliant strategic and historic game!

The Good
It’s Axis & Allies! The game design was time-worn and well-tested, long before the PC version came out, so it’s pretty solid.

The historical setting is undeniably compelling. You get to re-fight WWII on a grand strategic scale, with your choice of the five major Allied (USSR, Britain, USA) and Axis (Germany, Japan) powers. There is a nice selection of different unit types to fill out your army/navy/air force, and they seem to be well-balanced overall.

The graphics are appropriately colorful and true to the board game. The big red arrows that show unit movement paths are an especially nice touch, as they remind me of those wonderful old “World at War” documentaries. The country-specific music is ok, although it gets annoying after a while (except for the bagpipe music that plays for England, which is instantly annoying). Fortunately, you can turn it off. As for the sound effects, they’re actually good enough that you’ll probably leave them turned on.

You can customize the game to a fairly remarkable degree, considering that this is a conversion of a board game—and a fairly static one, at that. You can modify unit values, and you can also use all kinds of alternate game rules. You can adjust the difficulty level by changing the general in command of each nation. So for the USA, Eisenhower is 5-stars, Patton 4-stars, Bradley 3-stars, and so forth.

A really outstanding feature is the “time machine,” which lets you go back to previous turns, or phases within a turn, and start over again from that point. This helps keep you off of the save-reload-save-reload treadmill and encourages the player to go ahead and experiment, as there is no irreversible penalty for making a mistake.

The instruction manual is slim but decent. More impressive is the built-in tutorial and strategy sessions provided for each nation. This is great stuff for beginners, and even an experienced A&A player might use these things, if only to brush up on the rules and setups a bit.

Last but not least, there is a very good video interview with the original A&A creator that plays with the ending credits. Long-time fans of the board game will appreciate hearing his discussion of the game’s origins and his insights into the game’s dynamics.

The Bad
Well…it’s Axis & Allies. The design has all of the inherent limitations of the original. Not least of these is that the game gets stale too quickly, mainly because the game always simulates the exact same historical situation. If the diplomatic status or starting position of a nation could be changed, it would add significantly to the replay value. As it stands, A&A straightjackets you into playing the same scenario every single time. Sometimes history is a burden…

Although the unit mix is good overall, there is still some room for improvement. There are no destroyers to counter submarines, which is historically inaccurate and leaves the naval game slightly unbalanced.

The interface may look slick, but it can be a bit clunky to use. It’s nothing unusually bad for a Windows-based program, but I think they could have made it a little more user-friendly.

I found the multiplayer component to be slow, buggy, and just plain not worth the trouble of setting up. Fortunately, I’m not a big fan of online gaming anyway, so I didn’t really mind sticking with the solo mode—especially since the patch makes the AI noticeably better (although still not great).

The Bottom Line
Embodies all of the strengths and weaknesses of the original boardgame, which is deeper than Risk but still pretty accessible. If you want to play good old Axis & Allies on your computer, here’s your chance. (Be sure to download the patch, though.)