Axis & Allies:
Ralph Boerke's Tribute to Axis & Allies

Disclaimer: Axis & Allies is a registered trademark of Milton Bradley. The use of their trademark 'Axis & Allies' by Tacit Memnos Infinitum is not approved by Milton Bradley. RISK is a registered trademark of Parker Brothers. The use of their trademark 'Axis & Allies' by Tacit Memnos Infinitum is not approved by Parker Brothers.

Axis &Allies: Expansions: Tacit Memnos Infinitum last updated June 1, 2000

Generals of Waterloo

Tacit Memnos Infinitum [Top]

This is my company. I have written about myself and my history with A&A before. My company is also written about elsewhere in these pages.

I made my expansions because I felt that Axis & Allies was too small. For a game that wants to encompass an event as large as the Second World War you need a big game. I am doing that in my World at War internet game but some of the ideas I had during the development of my numerous game plans allowed me to make some other expansions for Axis & Allies.

I always liked the cards that were included with RISK and I felt that this random element would add to the playability of the game. Two of my expansions are card based. One is a new unit type called Supply Tokens which add a logistical element into the game.

I developed these for the original Axis&Allies so I do not know how well or even if they can be applied to the expansions from Xeno, Gamer's Paradise, Magic&Tactics, or Table Tactics. From personal experience they can be used with Gamer's Paradise's rules and Table Tactics pieces work great with them.

As of May 8th 1998. The quality of the cards and tokens is super. I have gotten them professionally printed on thick glossy paper stock.

GOW#2 The LARGE 1942 and 1948 maps - it is 39"x27" (100cm x 69cm). This is very large (160%) compared to the original of 31"x19" (79cm x 48cm) and slightly larger than the Xeno 1939 Expansion map of 36"x24"(91cm x 61cm). The map will be for Axis & Allies and will use the same powers as the original with more land territories and sea zones to make the game a bit more tactical in nature while keeping the strategical aspects the same. Again logistics will play a larger role in this game.

And the great news is I will be printing on BOTH sides of the map. So the one side will be the 1942 Large Map and on the other will be my latest expansion Nato vs the Warsaw Pact.

Nato vs the Warsaw Pact will use the same units as the original but will have a few new markers and a new unit: the A-bomb). This is a cold war game of 2 to 4 players. The goal here is to defeat the enemy by spreading your ideology around the world (capitalism/democracy vs communism), by defeating him economically, or through war, including global thermonuclear holocaust. More on this later.

GOW#1
GeoPolitics [Top]

This is a deck of 68 cards. Each card has two parts, Global Effects and Regional Effect, except for the special *Officer Cards.

Global Effects: This card is played at the beginning of each player's turn and effects all five players. Global effects consist of events like Strikes, Elections, Uprisings, Harvests, Supply, Neutral Aid, Neutral Allies, Partisans, Propaganda, Peace, League of Nations, Lend Lease, Economic Gains, Inflation, and Market Flux.

Example:
Neutral Aid:
USSR gets 2 IPCs for signing treaties with Mongolia and Afghanistan
Germany gets 10 IPCs from Spain, Turkey, and Sweden
UK gets 4 IPCs from Eire, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Portugal
Japan gets 5 IPCs from Philippinesand Thailand
USA gets 7 IPCs from Latin America

Regional Effects: This part of the card is used during combat. During any round of combat an Attacker can play one of his cards. The GeoPolitical effects do not take effect. The Regional Effects are: Hospital, Support, Support + 2 IPCs, Support + Infantry, Espionage, and Propaganda. Espionage has four types: UnClassified, Counter Espionage, Turn Scientist, Resistance and Sabotage. Propoganda effects the different nations differently.

Example:
Hospital:
The card is played before any dice are rolled. After the round of battle the Hospital will repair a casualty to active service. The Unit gets to fight again the next round. This is extremely useful when say a small force of a Fighter and some Infantry is overwhelmed by enemy Armour and Infantry. Playing this card will allow the defender to bring the Fighter back for another round of fighting even if the initial attack was overkill.

* Officer Cards: These are the wildcards in the deck. They consist of the Admiral, General, Air Marshall, Banker, Field Marshall, Sergeant, Spy Master and Scientist. Each of these cards will give the holder the ability to play it during combat and get some advantage then and also after it has been played it remains part of the player's nation, Face Up, and has effects each turn.

Example:
Admiral:
Played during battle: The Defender can play this. The Attacker can not retreat and the Defender gets 4 Phantom Submarines for the rest of the battle.
Played Face Up: One naval attack can have a Phantom Submarine attached to it each turn.

GOW#1
TheWeather [Top]

Another set of cards, 54 in total. Has Seasonal Effects and Battle (Forecast) Effects.

Seasonal Effects happen each game turn. Before the USSR player starts one card is flipped to give the season: Summer/Dry, Winter/Storm, or Spring/Rain. Each Season has its own effects on the units. Summer increases the range of most ships (Transports not included). Spring shortens the range of aircraft, increases the power of Submarines. Winter lowers the attack strength of Armour and attack and defense of aircraft.

Forecasts: The cards are played like they are in geoPolitics but here an attacker's card can be counter with a remedy card. For instance the attacker throws a Storm card which would normally eliminate your aircraft from the battle and hold off your attack or defense capability for one round of battle. The cure for this is the Wind card which blows the storm away.

Example:
Summer Season:
Attacker plans his battles and picks one battle for his card. He throws Clear Skies, the Defender throws Sunshine. The remedy did not effect Clear Skies. The Attacker gets +1 for his Fighters and Bombers when they attack, so does the Defender but the Attacker would pick a battle where the Defender has no airpower. As it is summer his Battleships, Carriers and Submarines get an extended range of 3. The Attacker would play this card for a naval battle where the enemy had no air support.

GOW#1
SupplyTokens [Top]

This I think is my greatest contribution to the game.

These are another form of economic wealth in the game. I looked at Axis & Allies and saw that the UK and Japan had foreign colonies and worldwide sources of income. But in the real war these nations relied on a merchant marine to deliver this wealth. The game still uses IPCs from each territory to reflect the industrial output of these colonies adn territories under the nation's control. But SupplyTokens is an attempt to get the resource flow from the colonies to the mother country where the supplies could be used to fight the war.

Supply Tokens are produced on each territory that has an IPC value greater than 1. The ST produced is usually 1 less than the IPC value except on the big territoes where it is limited to 3. Factories also produce 1 ST per turn automatically. ST can also be purchased up to a maximum of the IPC value of the Factory territory minus the 1 automatically produced at a cost of 1 IPC per ST. ST are produced at the beginning of a player's turn unlike IPCs which are produced at the end.

List of Production:
Russia gets 4 ST, Caucasus gets 2, Karelia gets 3, the other USSR territories gets 1 ST each.
Germany gets 4 ST, W. Europe gets 3, S.E. gets 4, E.E. gets 2, Ukraine gets 2, Norway gets 1.
UK gets 4 ST, Canada 2, Australia 1, India 2, Egypt 1, S.Africa 1.
Japan gets 4 ST, Manchuria, Kwangtung, Burma each get 2, Philippines gets 2, East Indies gets 1.
USA gets 4 ST for E.USA and W.USA, 2 for Brazil, 1 each for Sinkiang, China, Mexico and Alaska.

Supply Tokens can be carried by ship or by Bomber. They can also move by themselves over land. They are never lost in regular transit.

ST can be Strategically Bombed.

When moved into combat they undergo some effects. Each ST must roll a die. Depending on how it is moved it can be deflected, make it through, be lost or dropped on the enemy (who then gets to keep it).

When used in combat they will take hits for the units they represent. 1 ST can take a hit for 1 Infantry and allow the Infantry to survive to the next turn. It requires 2 ST to supply an Armour, 3 ST for a Fighter, 4 for a Bomber, 2 for a Transport, 2 for a Submarine, 4 for an Aircraft Carrier, and 6 for a Battleship. Supply Tokens can not retreat.

Example Turn:
Germany has lost the Ukraine. Germany gets 13 ST for its territories and 2 ST for its Factories and places these immediately on the territories where they were produced.
Germany also spends 2 IPCs and buys 2 ST and places these and all other units purchased at the end of the turn (as usual).
Germany attacks the Ukraine with 5 Infantry, 4 Armour, 2 Fighters, 1 Bomber, and a Battleship (Amphibious Assault).
Germany has 5 ST on E.Europe (3 from before and 2 newly placed) it moves 3 ST into the combat, brings 2 ST on the ships in its Amphibious Assault, and brings 1 ST via its Bomber (air drop).
There is no AAGun on Ukraine so the Bomber is not shot at, the Bomber can take a hit in the battle or fly home, it does not drop bombs (no attacks).
The 3 ST coming from E.Europe roll to see if they can enter the combat zone, one ST is repulsed.
The 2 ST from the ships can not enter the battle until the second round.
The first round Germany has 3 ST that it places under 3 of its 5 Infantry. The other units are not supplied.
Germany does well and gets 4 hits, one of which removes the USSR's last ST and the other three hits take away USSR units. The USSR only gets 2 hits and Germany removes 2 ST.
The second round. The German naval ST attempts to land and one is lost and another is stuck on the beach.
The second round of combat sees Germany hit the last two USSR units and the USSR gets one more hit on Germany so Germany removes 1 ST.
The battle is over and the Bomber and Fighters fly home. The ST on the shore is now on land. No other ST survived the battle.
The ST that was refused entry into the battle from E.Europe can not be moved.

In this example the ST are moved by land, sea and air into a combat situation.
Over land there is a 1 in 6 chance of being repulsed and 1 in 6 of being lost.
By sea the ST is delayed, just like D-Day the Allies could not land supplies immediately but had to capture a port or build a harbour, the delay of one round of battle elumates this. On the second round it has a 1 in 6 chance of being stranded on the beaches (victor of the battle gets to keep it) and a 1 in 6 chance of being lost.
By air the ST has a 1 in 6 chance of being dropped on the enemy (for him to use immediately!) and a 1 in 6 chance of being lost.

If in this example the USSR only had 1 Infantry but had 3 ST on the Ukraine, Germany would have, with its two hits on the first round of combat, killed the Infantry and 1 ST the Infantry used for support and the remaining 2 ST would have been captured!

For naval battles there are some more effects and situations. Safe Harbours allow a Ship by the coast to receive ST via the port during a battle. Ships are limited to the number of ST each can carry.

Submarines (and other ships) can transport ST and give them up to Infantry (or other land units) during combat and non-combat movement. Simulates the Japanese reinforcement of island bound troops.

Defenders can also move ST to help defend. 1 ST per battle from a non embattled neighbouring territory.

With the Supply Tokens I feel that the units purchased can go a lot further. they do not die so quickly in the battles and that allows for more rolling and I feel this gives the dice a better chance of being honest (the calculated odds come closer to what is actually thrown), but then again if you are on a hot streak you can win big without losing your wealth in units.

The African colonies of Egypt and South Africa produce 1 ST each and every turn during the game and can accumulate a small stack over time. The UK player will try to move these away from where Germany can get them (probably down towards S.Africa). This stack represent wealth on the board that can be captured.

The Pacific islands of East Indies and Philippines also build up ST, the Philippines at 2 per turn. These ST the Japanese player wants to keep and must send a Transport to fill up with them and return to the mainland or to Japan's home island. If Japan fails to do this the US player will try to get them.

The territory of Brazil is finally brought into the game as it too produces 2 ST per turn. The US will have to send a transport to get these or a Bomber to relay them back.

GOW#1
NewRules [Top]

Before May 1998: I threw in this list of rules into the packages I sent, some made up by me and others I have seen elsewhere.

May 8, 1998: This I think I will discontinue ie creating and selling a manual. There are so very many rules out there on the web that it is easier for me to compile the rules on the web and give them away for free.

The Rules

The cost of the GWS package which includes the 68 cards for the GeoPolitics expansion, the 54 cards for the TheWeather expansion, and the tokens for the SupplyToken expansion and the three manuals covering the three topics now goes for $28 US !! This is $42 CDN. This is three great expansions that can be played individually or together - they require the original Milton Bradley Axis & Allies game but can also be played with some other expansions. The quality is great, the cards are multicoloured. The manuals are 13, 20 and 24 pages. Support via email is free if you have any questions about the rules or such. (Thanks to those who have helped make the second edition rules better).

GOW#2
1942 Large Map Expansion [Top]

This map has more territories, more IPCs, more tactics, more strategies, more logistics.

The time is still Spring 1942, the climax of the second world war. In our history Japan has not fought at Coral Sea or Midway yet, Germany has not yet reached Stalingrad and Rommel was still advancing on Egypt.

The neutrals play an active part in this expansion. Some neutrals supply the major powers with IPCs each turn. Examples: Sweden supplies Germany with 2 IPCs per turn and Arabia supplies the UK and the USA with 1 IPC each. This reflects the trade and resources that these nations provided to the world and military economies of the time. If attacked the Neutrals have military might.

The seas are larger. This remedies two necessary concerns of the original game: logistics and tactics. On the logistical level the US needs to ferry men and materiel to the UK and to Europe and should not be able to do so in one fell swoop. This life line should be more reflective of what actually happened during WWII. On the tactical level we now have the opportunity for German Uboats to try and disrupt this flow of materiel. In the Pacific we also have the opportunity to make the South Pacific of more strategic importance. Thus we will want both Japan and the USA to contest over the islands here.

The land is larger. On the Eastern Front we now have fourteen territories between Berlin-Rome and Moscow-Stalingrad. In the original we only have seven territories. This should allow for a more tactical deployment of forces here and thus a more mobile and fluid type of warfare that can not be duplicated in the original (the original had this effect only slightly represented in the eastern USSR and China). Africa can not be easily overrun by a few Panzers; South America is now a valuable target; and if the Axis make it to North America they face 14 territories and not just 6.

** It is recommended that you contact Milton Bradley and order more units (299 per set). These are pretty cheap (~$10 US S&H included!) and more cheap than I can produce. Even if you do not buy my map these extra units do come in handy in the original game.

I have an address for Milton Bradley in my links section http://www.kw.igs.net/~tacit/aanda/expansions/links.htm

** In the future I will have rules posted on these pages for users of the Table Tactics and Xeno expansions

GOW#2
Nato vs Warsaw Pact [Top]

I am producing a map so why the hell not use the other side of the paper?

My Nato vs Warsaw Pact will use the units from the original game with some added markers to represent Nato and Pact allies and for A-bombs.

The game is based on the cold war of around 1955-1965. It is an alternate timeline just as A&A is one that diverges from around April 1942. In this game I do not have the Korean war but I do have ICBMs being developed. The Space Race is on and new technologies are available. We still have conventional weapons (the original units) and we must manuever first and fight proxy wars. I go back to the very original NOVA game of A&A to grab some of the good early rules especially for Submarine movement.

The US/Canada and Western Europe are the two Nato Players. They have allies in the French, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and Isreal. The USSR and the Eastern Europeans are the two Pact players. They have allies in Mongolia, Yugoslavia, China, and whatever other ones they can get.

The goal of the game is for NATO to bankrupt the PACT, to limit the spread of the communism in the non-aligned nations, or to defeat it in combat in either proxy wars or in an all out battle. The PACT on the other hand must survive to spread communism to 60% of the non-aligned world to win.

The nuclear arsenal is the major weapon system in this game. But it has a maintenance cost that must be paid each turn and total destruction does not give a victory.

GOW#3
Tactical A&A - BARBAROSSA & CITADEL (Zitadelle) [Top]

This is a tactical map - a 'Hex' Map. It covers the Eastern front on June 21 1941 from Finland to the Black Sea and from Warsaw to Moscow. This is very different from the A&A you've played before and different from the Avalon Hill type games too. Each unit is limited to acting on one hex only. No stacking allowed (however Aircraft can fly over other units). Infantry move one hex but can shoot into a neighbouring hex. Armour move two hexes and can shoot into a hex that is two hexes away. Aircraft fly into combat and must land on or beside airfields. You can build airfields (over turned nation markers). Roads and Rail also help move your forces to the front (printed on the map) Rail can be bombed. Airfields can be bombed. Supply** can be stolen.

Germany must take objectives (towns and cities) to gain victory points. These points then increase the amount of IPCs they get. The USSR gets supply to help its forces and can also gain vicotry points if Germany fails in its attacks.

Barbarossa was the German sneak attack on the USSR in June 1941. The map shows the actual invasion plans of the Germans. The USSR can place his forces on the map anyway he wants to on the map (restricted by some rules) The Germans then place their forces as do the Romanians. The Germans and Romanians then attack. The Soviets counter this. Later in the game the Finns come into the battle as do the Soviet Siberian forces. This is a random event but will happen by the 6th turn.

Citadel uses the same map. But now is set up for the historically disasterous German attack on the Kursk salient of July 1943. Same rules as above but just a different setup.

Map is 34"x44" (86x111cm) full colour and laminated.

**As a bonus you get the SupplyToken expansion from GOW#1 thrown in. This map (GOW#3) uses Supply in a similar way as its used for GOW#1. The USSR and Germany both get ST but as the front moves the supply lines get longer.

** For the Victory Points you should use pennies. You will need about 100 of them. This is cheaper than using a new colour chip.

GOW#4
RISK#1 - RISK deWit [Top]

Frederick deWit created a beautiful map of the world in 1668. It was at a time when the more fanciful maps of earlier years were being superceded by the scientific maps of the age. This map includes the two hemispheres of his world map and is partitioned into a new map for RISK. This is a simple expansion. If you've played RISK you do exactly the same thing. However there are some differences. There are more continents and territories. So there are some rules for using the cards with the new territories and new values for the continents.

The Map is 28"x53"(71x134cm) . The rules sheet has the full deWit map (with polar areas and more of the images) on a laminated 10"x11" (24x26cm) sheet.

An extra Sheet of rules to use A&A pieces is also included.

Map is full colour and laminated.

Ordering [Top]

GOW #1 $28.00 US - Geopolitics, TheWeather, SupplyTokens, 3 manuals, 1 sheet of rules, 1 sheet for combined operations.

GOW#2 $60.00 US - The double sided maps: 1942 Large Map and NATO/PACT, 2 manuals, Nato/Pact tokens, A-Bomb/ICBM tokens, IPCs, Islands

GOW#3 $50.00 US - Single sided map of Barbarossa - Tactical A&A rules manual, SupplyTokens (with manual for MB A&A)

GOW#4 $50.00 US - Single sided map of deWit's world, rules sheet for A&A, rules sheet with full map for RISK.

Postage is included for the US and Canada. European and overseas orders should add $5 US ($7 Canadian). If you want priority (fast) mail then add $10 US.

Send a cheque or money order payable to:
Ralph Boerke

to:
Ralph Boerke
Generals of Waterloo
363 Dale Crescent,
Waterloo, Ontario,
N2J 3Y6 Canada

I will try to send them asap. I usually only get one order at a time and it takes a few hours to assemble a set of the cards, and produce a copy of the manuals. And I use regular mail so it should take about 2 to 3 weeks in North America.

To the Next Chapter: TMI's South East Pacific FREE

since August 1/98 28997