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.

Axis &Allies: Simplification of World War II

Axis & Allies simplifies the Second World War to the point of the trivial. Whenever we think about the war we must remember that it cost the lives of tens of millions of people and effected everyone on the planet in some way or another. Aside from this the game of Axis & Allies is fun to play.

The Simplification of the Powers [Top]

Germany in the game consists of Germany, Italy, Slovakia, Finland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Roumania, Croatia and all of the allies and semi-allies like Vichy France. It also consists of the conquered areas of Europe like Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, France, Belgium, Yugoslavia (Serbia), Albania, Greece, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and parts of the USSR (Ukraine, Byelorus).

The UK consists of Great Britain (without Northern Ireland), the Dominions of Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and India. It also has the colonial territories of Africa including that of the Free French and 'Free' Belgium and semi-colonies (pressured into being allies) like Egypt, Iraq, and Persia.

The USA has its economic allies of Brazil, Panama, Mexico and Central America. Included with the USA player is China with its Sinkiang provence.

Japan consists of its conquests, puppet states (Thailand, Manchukou, China, Philippines) and its empire.

The USSR consists of its 'empire', the old Russian Empire.

The Neutrals have no political entry into the war and are used for strategic purposes only.

The Simplification of Strategy and Tactics [Top]

Units used in Axis & Allies represent entire armies or corps of men and machines. In World War II Germany had 200 divisions of 20000 men each, at its height, and hundreds of Submarines, these are represented by 20 plastic Infantry units and 2 plastic Subs. These same units are played with in tactical situations where they are lost in full ie. 20000 men just removed from the war.

Combat: If one Infantry unit fights against one Infantry unit either both will be casualties or one will survive. In real world terms this represents 20,000 men fighting 20,000 men. One would expect that there woud be 10 to 30% casualties on both sides before the battle was decided and the remainder were retreated or withdrawn from the battle. We would have a result of 17,000 men winning the battle and 15,000 men retreating or someting like this. In A&A we have no half units and we have 20,000 winning and 0 men left on the other side!

Simplification of Time and Movement [Top]

Time is compressed into a turn which represents a month or a couple of months. In this month we can load a Transport in the Eastern USA and transport it over the Atlantic (typically a week or so in real life) and drop them off in Western Europe and invade that entire area (after DDay it took 5 weeks to take Caen, over 2 months to take Paris and about four months to get positions on the German frontier). So we have a undetermined amount of time that a turn represents.

Aircraft: This is a super-simplification of strategic and tactical moves. In real life a Fighter (or squadron, flight, or wing of Fighters) flies a sortie and then returns to base. Over the course of a month we would have many sorties with some planes flying multiple sorties in one day. In A&A we have a Fighter that flies into combat and then lands back at a friendly airfield. This combat represents a month of campaigning and therefor many sorties.

We also have the concept of turns where the USSR does a move then Germany then the UK, and so on. In reality every commander would move and act simultaneously. As both Hitler and Stalin did in spring 1942 when they both had plans in the Ukraine and Stalin started his offensive just weeks before the German offensive would start.

Simplification of Production [Top]

Production of weapons and training personel take time. Battleships usually took years to complete. Training Infantry took weeks and months. Building 100 Fighters took months. In A&A all units only take one turn to produce as long as the required IPCs are available. IPCs represent millions of man-hours of production. This currency is useful in the game but does not show the logisitics required to get the resources to the factories and to the units that need them. This lack of Oil, Metals, and such is a major omission in this game.

I try to remedy this with the TMI SupplyToken Expansion.

To the Next Chapter:  Links & Expansions