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From: westerm@ecn-aa.UUCP (Richard P Westerman)
Newsgroups: net.games.board
Subject: Re: New MB board games
Message-ID: <87@ecn-aa.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 7-Nov-85 11:12:44 EST
Article-I.D.: ecn-aa.87
Posted: Thu Nov  7 11:12:44 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 8-Nov-85 22:03:39 EST
References: <1178@rayssd.UUCP>
Reply-To: westerm@ecn-aa.UUCP (Richard P westerman)
Distribution: net
Organization: Electrical Engineering Department , Purdue University
Lines: 122

In article <1178@rayssd.UUCP> m1b@rayssd.UUCP (M. Joseph Barone) writes:
>
>	Milton Bradley has games ... 
>     entitled 'Axis and Allies', 'Boarding Party', and a Roman
>one whose name escapes me.  I've only read the backs of these games
>so I was wondering if there is anyone on the net who has played them
>and who is willing to review them.  Thanks.

I've played both Axis and Allies (A&A) and the "Roman" game -- Conquest
of the Empire (CofE). 

A&A is played a lot around here (Purdue Univ -- we have a gaming club on
campus). The best description is that it a sophisticated Risk. It is a
game for 5 players (England, Russia, US vs. Germany & Japan) that "recreates"
(and I use that term very loosely) the world-wide conflict of World War II.
The mapboard is the world divided up into land and sea areas. The playing
pieces consist of plastic models representing infantry, tanks, fighters,
bombers, subs, aircraft carriers, battleships, transports, anti-aircraft
guns (AA), and industrial complexes. Each player has his/her own models
in different colors (e.g., US is green, Japan is yellow, etc), except for
the AA guns and industrial complexes which can be captured and thus are
all one color (white). If you have more than one of a model type in an 
area, this is represented by putting disks under a model (thus, if
Germany has 5 infantry in an area, this would be represented by a German
infantry model on top of 4 small white poker-like disks).

Each model (or troop) type has different costs and capibilities, i.e.:

                Cost    Attack    Defense    Move
     Infantry     3        1         2         1
     Armor        5        3         2         2
     Fighters    12        3         4         4
     Bombers     15        4         1         6
     Subs        12        2         2         2    (can "sneak-attack")
     Transports  12        0         1         2    (can carry 2 inf or 1 arm)
  Air. carriers  15        3         1         2    (can carry 2 fighters)
  Battleships    24        ?         ?         2
  Industrial C.  15        0         0         0    (is where your new troops
                                                     are placed)

  [I think the above is correct -- anyway, you get the idea]

The "attack" & "defense" numbers are the number or less you must roll on
a 6-sided die in order to kill off an opposing piece during battle (the
owner gets to decided which of his pieces you kill, thus infantry is
usually the first to die). The "attack" number is used if you are attacking
during your turn, the defense number is used if you are being attacked
during somebody elses turn (and no, Allies cannot fight Allies -- no
"pre-cold war" is allowed). The "move" number is the areas you can
move during your turn (for aircraft they must use thier move to fly
out and then fly back -- so the effective radius of a fighter is "2").

Each land area is worth so much money (e.g, Germany is worth 10, Western
Europe is 3, Manchuria is 3). If you occupy a land area at the end of 
your turn you get the income from the area. With this money you can buy
troops. To win the game the Axis must get so much income producing territories
at the end of the US turn (I think it 75 income total), or occupy two
Allied capitals. The Allies must occupy both Axis capitals in order to
win, although the Axis will probably give up way before then.

The turn sequence is:
 -- Russia
 -- Germany
 -- England
 -- Japan
 -- US

With each player doing:
 -- Build & do research (for every $5, roll 1 die, if 6 then roll again to
                         see which "secret weapon" you've discovered)
 -- Move attacking units
 -- Attack
 -- Move non-attacking units
 -- Get money from occupied land areas
 -- Place builds at Industrial Complexes

In an attack both the attacker & defender roll dice to see how much of the
other they kill. Battle continues until the attacker decides to withdraw
or the defender is dead (are you beginning to see why it is known as
"super Risk"?)

Dispite having fixed starting forces & placements, each game turns out
different (although the Allies, compentently played, have a very good
chance of winning -- they are richer than the Axis). Some of my more
succesful games were playing Japan (from Persia to Hawaii my empire 
stretched, there was no other navy in the world except the Imperial
Navy), with playing Russia (just last week -- by overruning SouthEast
Asia and ignoring Germany (more-or-less), I ended up making more money
each turn than the US), and with the US (Dewey's raids were making
life miserable for the Japs).

Anyway, I could go on and on about Axis & Allies. In all, it is a good
game; however, I would only buy it if you have 4-5 buddies who like
playing Risk type games. It can be played with less people than 5, but
I don't think it would be as good. Games take about 2-4 hours to play,
so it is a good way to spend an afternoon or night.


Conquest of the Empire (the Roman game) I've played only twice, so
I'm not as familar with it. Like A&A it has a map divided into areas
(in this case Europe & the Med). You control part of the Empire (Spain,
North Africa, Greece, Italy, Near East) and try to take control of the
rest of the empire. There aren't as many playing peices (legions, 
calvery, catapults, ships, and generals) and the rules are different;
however, like A&A, it is a simple game that doesn't take too much time.
I haven't played it as much because I don't see the owner of the game
too often.

Both A&A and CofE are fairly expensive ($35-$40) and come in boxes that
are huge (6" x 15" x 24" [approximately]). The boxes are actually about
twice as big as they need to be, maybe Milton Bradley wants to make you
feel good about spending so much money on a game. The components are
high quality and, if you play the game a lot, the cost-per-game is
becomes low. I recommend both games.


    Whom: Rick Westerman                       Phone: +1-317-494-8344
    UUCP: {decvax, ihnp4, seismo, ucbvax}!pur-ee!westerm
    ARPA: westerm@purdue.ecn.ARPA
    USPS: Ag Data Network, Purdue University, West Lafayette IN 47907

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