This is my third set of plastic game miniatures. I hope to make at least one other post like this one this month and I do have a few others planned.
Four random miniatures will be featured. The four featured miniatures will be made exclusively of plastic, unpainted, and be from some sort of game.
Mobilization Zone
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UNIT STATS
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Cost
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Move
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Attack
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Defense
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Land
Units
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Infantry
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2 for 5
OR
3 a piece
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1
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1
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2
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Tank
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5
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2
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3
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3
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Air
Units
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Fighter
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8
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4
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3
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4
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Bomber
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10
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6
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4
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1
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Sea
Units
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Submarines
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6
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2
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2
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2
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Transport
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2
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-
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1
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Destroyer
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7
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2
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2
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2
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Aircraft Carrier
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10
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2
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1
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2
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Battleship
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14
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2
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4
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4
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What is nice about the Historical Board Gaming site is that you may order supplement parts from many different versions of Axis and Allies. I currently own a copy of Axis and Allies 1941, but I was able to add some unique pieces to my game from different versions of the game.
I made the order to obtain several sets of dice for other games, but since Historical Board Gaming were offering some of their parts on sale I decided to purchase a few of these game pieces. Some of the more unique pieces that I purchased were a set of American WWII P-38 fighters, several Liberty transport ships, and a set of Japanese Type 95 ha-Go tanks.
These parts will be a welcome addition to the game, as the game no longer provides enough pieces to go around. Instead you must use markers to represent multiple pieces. Markers are a good thing in that they keep the very congested board from becoming impossible to work with. However, it is still nice to have additional pieces to pull from, when the need arises.
Axis and Allies 1941 Game Board
I played my first game of Axis and Allies 1941 the other day. There were only two us and I won the best out of three in a coin toss and picked the axis powers. That left the three allies for my opponent. We played for four hours and had to quit; so much for a quick game.
Germany had the advantage of having a large force contained in a relatively small area and did not have to worry about supply lines as did Britain, US, and Japan. Coupled with the fact that Russia, although fields a large infantry, has nothing much of an air force or mechanized units, by the end of the second round Germany had sacked the Russian capital and Russia was basically out of the game.
Like I alluded to before, the game dragged on, and toward the end of the game the only countries that had any air units were Japan and the US. Japans navy was non-existent, Germany had no navy or air units, Britain did have a few transports, but little else. The only power that had substantial force was the US, but it had to transport units across the Atlantic and Pacific. Since neither Japan nor Germany had any way to bring the war to the US or England, I believe that the US would have eventually won the game.
I few things I would have done differently if I could have hit rerun. First of all I should have, after sacking Moscow and gaining one of Russia industrial complexes, built up my forces substantially here before moving on to take other territory. Secondly, after I had gained so many IPC points, I had at one time 21 IPC; I should have built up my forces not only in the territories I had just conquered, but also back in Germany’s original domains. Lastly, I should have made better use of my navy resources; I pretty much ignored these units.
I set up the game the other day. It took me near twenty minutes to place all the units for all the nations. I wanted to get a feel on how the pieces were deployed on the board. Like I had mentioned, in an early post, the manufacturer does not provide as many game pieces as they once did, here is a breakdown:
The idea is to use the supplied cardboard unit counters. The problem I had that there were not enough of the one unit counters for the initial set-up and I forced to make use a multiple unit counter in its place. I fell short with the placement of infantry units.
Recently, I came upon a site that supplies supplement piece for Axis and Allies. The Historical Game Boarding site offers pieces for several different versions of Axis and Allies, including Axis and Allies 1941. Pieces can be purchased separately or they can be purchased in battle packs.
By choosing other versions of Axis and Allies you can find pieces in more authentic castings, like the Bf-109 Fighter or Sdkfz-251 Personal Carrier for Germany or the P38 fighter or the M4 Sherman tank for the US.
Axis and Allies 1941 Combat Piece Totals
I am still waiting to play this version of Axis and Allies. Getting everyone together is proving to be a real dilemma. However, in the mean time I have time to strategize and I have been looking at the game from every conceivable angle.
As you can see from the chart there are some major disparities’ between several of the opponents when it comes to battle pieces. Take for instance the totals for the Soviet Union. Compare these to Germany’s. Coupled with the facts that the Soviet Union only collects 7 IPC per turn, and it does not own a bomber. If that wasn’t enough its capital sits smack up against a pretty strong force on Germany’s side, I don’t expect the Soviet Union will last more than a couple of turns.
The United Kingdom and Japan both process large starting navies. Japan has a slight advantage over the UK in their infantry and the number of fighters they process, but Japan only starts with 9 IPC compared to UK’s 12. Japan has one industrial complex. UK has three, whereas two of those are located in the Far East.
The US is pretty well prepared, but goes last and will most probably have to make some type counter attack on its first turn. The US must transport all of the wares, whatever theater they decide to participate in. The US has the largest IPC count, they start with 15 IPC and can pick-up two additional IPC without too much trouble, however they may need to replace units they might have lost in the preceding turns of its opponents.
I am still waiting to play Axis and Allies 1941. It is very hard to get four or five people together when we all live very busy lives. In the mean time I have read through the rule book once and I am strategizing. I have looked at many different aspects of this game and will be sharing my thoughts on these points in upcoming posts. One point I wanted to mention today is the mobilization process.
As you can see from the accompanied chart, there are three types of units that can be purchased: Land, Air, and Sea. Each county is given a starting amount of Industrial Production Certificated (IPCs) and must plan ahead and purchase units best suited for their upcoming movements and strategies.
Land units consist of infantry (3 IPCs) and tanks (6 IPC’s). Infantry units defend at 2, but only attack at 1, however they are very economical units to purchase and a player should make sure that they have at least three infantry units for every one tank in the defensive mode.
Tanks are not too expensive, at 6 IPCs per unit. They attack and defend at 3. Their advantage is that they move 2 compared to infantries movement of 1. Like I mentioned before, purchase 1 tank for every 3 infantry in the defensive mode.
Next are the air units. There are only two of these units, the fighter and the bomber. Fighters are more economical (10) compared to the bomber (12). That is only a difference of 2 IPC you say; yes, but look at the other aspects like attack and defense ratios and you will notice that the fighter is more economical to purchase than the bomber. That being said, a bomber is better for offensive movements. It has a movement of 6 and they attack at 4. Just don’t send your bomber without support from a fighter or two.
That brings us to the sea units and we have quite a few types of units to think about. They all have their advantages and disadvantages. None of these units have all that great of an attack or defense rates, with the exception of the battleship, which has an attack and defense rate of 4. However, at 16 IPCs per unit, you don’t want to send them out without some type of support, perhaps with a submarine and at least one destroyer. The destroyer nullifies a surprise attack by a submarine. The same with aircraft carriers, at 12 IPCs per unit and with a defense rate of 2, you want to provide as much cover as possible.
This is the second Axis and Allies game I have purchased, the first years ago was an old Milton Bradley Company edition. It was left at a friend’s house and because of my having to relocate several times, I never returned for the game. Years later when I asked about the game I was told that his sons had gotten a hold of it and had played with its miniatures. Meaning-the game was probably missing pieces and who knows what shape it was in.
The Axis and Allies 1941 edition seems to be quite different than I remember Axis and Allies being. The board is different, the Industrial complexes are now printed on the board and there are no industrial complexes pieces available, In addition there are no longer any anti-aircraft guns.
There are many differences between the original and this 1941 edition. The 1941 edition has an additional sea unit the destroyer, but fewer pieces. The old edition had a lot of pieces, this edition uses of cardboard chips to replace units. IPC’s are no longer offered and all commerce is officiated via pen and paper. In addition, each player receives fewer IPC’s to start off with and there are fewer territories that allow a player to gain additional IPC’s easily. (I remember playing one game as Great Britain and having picked up several unoccupied territories in Africa, which increased my total IPC’s to extent as to make the game considerably more challenging for the Japanese player.)
The rules seemed to be have been simplified and do not seem to be as complicated. The game, according to the rule book can now be played in about ninety minutes, compared to the original Axis and Allies, four or five hour time span. Technological advances have also been omitted from this edition, but I suppose you could add whatever house rules you wanted.
All differences aside I am still looking forward to playing this new edition of Axis and Allies. I have already started to think about different starting strategies for each country and will post my ideas as soon as I get them formulated.
