New player needing advice on what extra pieces to purchase.


  • Welcome to the axis and allies world. If your girlfriend won’t let you open the games till X-mas, maybe she will allow you to pull the rules out of each set (and the maps would also be helpful if you can pull it off). I also suggest you checkout Young Grasshopper’s Beginners Guide (see link below). Even if you can’t open your games Young Grasshopper has links to the Avalon Hills site so you can download the rules. It also has links to the set-ups, and FAQ (changes or clarifications to the rules). This won’t be a quick easy read if you have never played axis and allies before. I would also suggest that you watch as many of Young Grasshopper’s U-tube videos as you can to get up to speed. He has done a terrific job introducing new players to Axis & Allies (not knowing if you speak English, but his video’s are awesome).

    This is a pretty big map when combined for the global game, about 82 cm X 178 cm (32 inches X 70 inches). You will also need a little extra room around the map for unit trays etc…. so you may want to prepare something/somewhere ahead of time to play it. You may even consider setting up the whole global game to get the feel for it, but only play the Euro side the first time to get familiar with the rules and movement etc…The Pac side has more political rules to deal with (unless Japan attacks on the first turn) and much more navy and sea zones which can get overwhelming.

    Young Grasshopper’s Beginners Guide link:
    http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=34418.0

    Avalon Hill website link for rules (can also get here through YG’s Beginners Guide above)
    http://avalonhill.wizards.com/rules

    Units and chips (may need more chips):

    US and UK units come in both games, so being you have Europe40 and Pacific40 you can combine the units for these powers. This should give you enough units for the most part to play the individual games, or the global version. Chips are used when you have more then just a couple of the same type of unit in one territory (gray-1 unit, green-3 units, red-5 units). You will use chips when setting up the game, or when you merge stacks into a single territory to save space. You may need to swap some units on the map for chips when you want to buy a unit and don’t have that type in your supply box too.

    Example, when setting-up the territory Germany it starts with 11 infantry. You wouldn’t use 11 inf because it takes up to much room, and you will run out of inf very fast. You use chips, could use 1 red chip (5), 5 gray chips (5), and one inf (1) on the top of the chips to represent 11 inf (could also just use 2 red chips and 1 inf on top for the same thing). The green chips are relativity new to me because they didn’t come in the original version (or earlier AA games). Being that I have plenty of chips from other versions I don’t feel the need to use them, but you will most likely have to at some point, unless you buy more chips from HBG. You can also use coins as some have posted if you run out of chips. Most people don’t like to use chips for planes, ships/transports, but you do what you have to.

    Edit unit and chip trays:
    I believe that the game still comes with trays for each power to hold the units, but I don’t think it is compartmentalized (the original version wasn’t). If I was to purchase or make something this is the one thing I would concentrate on. Keeping all the individual units separate is a big plus when playing. You can make cardboard inserts for the cardboard trays the game comes with, or buy plastic containers with dividers. I found plastic containers (with a hinged lid) in the sporting goods section of a local department store (Walmart I think). They are about 10 cm X 20 cm (4 inches X 8 inches), and have up to 12 compartments, but you can pull some of the dividers to form larger compartment’s (for inf and capital ships).

    Dice:
    Dice are awesome, they can kinda take on their own personalities. I have many AA games, and have also purchased a couple sets of combat dice from FMG that are power specific (you can see the German set in the advertisement in the side bar if you scroll to the top of this page). Most of us probably have a favorite set of dice, or use different dice for different situations. It’s part of the whole trash talking AA experience (“don’t touch my dice…”). I would suggest having more dice because it will make the bigger battles go faster (even borrowing dice from other games you may have).   Having a dice tray, or somewhere to roll the dice (box top) is important so that your dice don’t go crashing through the board, and mess things up.

    Roundels, air/naval bases (AB/NB), and industrial complexes (IC’s):
    I always seem to need more Japanese markers, but I would play the game a few times before looking to buy more units or roundels (you can always draw something up, or substitute if you need to). The cardboard AB/NB and ICs are ok, but you may choose to upgrade them later. I have the plastic IC’s from other AA games and use those for major ICs, but still use the cardboard minor IC, and AB/NB. You can buy this stuff from HBG, or FMG, but it might be quicker and more cost effective to just go out and buy the 1942 2nd edition. It has 5 of the major powers (no Italy, Anzac, or China), nearly all the units for each power, and it has more dice, chips, and cardboard ICs. Plus it is a good stand alone game as well that has similar rules (helpful to break it out and play when introducing new players to the game).

    No paper currency:
    Yep, this is regrettable in my opinion. I have Industrial Production Certificates (IPC’s) from other games I own, and some War Bucks from HBG too. I haven’t used poker chips, but I hear that is a good way to go as well.  I’m old school and like to gather my income in IPC’s and place it with that power. When I purchase units I will put the IPCs with those units as I go keeping track of what I’ve spent along the way. Like if Russia is buying 5 inf (3 IPCs each costing 15 IPCs), I will place those 5 inf on top of 15 IPCs etc…We don’t like to use the income tracker w/roundels because it is easy to forget to adjust it, or roundels get moved around (by accident of coarse  :wink: ).

    With that said, we also print off a computer generated spreadsheet with all powers on it to track incomes after each turn (it is two sided and has 5 complete rounds of play on each side). This may seem redundant, but the spreadsheet is very helpful to keep things straight. It has the starting income for each power and allows for increases or decreases to income, records if that power saved any income from last turn, or was convoyed etc…We also refer to it at the beginning of each players turn just to make sure he has the correct starting income (IPCs in hand). We have found that sometimes just using paper IPC’s and/or the games income tracker that you can easily forget to add or subtract income etc… Using a spreadsheet may add a bit of time, but seems to help keep arguments to a minimum because you can see that he saved 5 IPCs the last turn and that’s why he can afford to buy what he did. It also helps you to remember about convoy’s, because convoy damage is on the sheet (I realize you probably don’t know what convoy damage is, but once you do, you will probably forget to do it  :-D ).


  • Thank you all for the thorough explanations. This was all I wanted to know (for the moment).  :-D
    I’m sure I’ll come back with a lot more questions after I start playing next winter.

    @WILD:

    Even if you can’t open your games Young Grasshopper has links to the Avalon Hills site so you can download the rules. It also has links to the set-ups, and FAQ (changes or clarifications to the rules). This won’t be a quick easy read if you have never played axis and allies before. I would also suggest that you watch as many of Young Grasshopper’s U-tube videos as you can to get up to speed. He has done a terrific job introducing new players to Axis & Allies (not knowing if you speak English, but his video’s are awesome).

    Yes, I’ve downloaded both manuals and hi-res maps for the two games and read everything. The next step would have been to search for tutorial videos on youtube, but you just gave me the perfect link, thank you sir. I’ll spend the next days watching Young Grasshopper’s videos.  :-D


  • I would definitely buy more chips. Once you get into this game, you will make monster stack. To have those stacks, you need a chip representing 10. In case of emergency, you can use a country roundel to represent 10, but getting a color chip that fits with the other chips is definitely better.

    Oldy players like me have just pooled all of the plastic chips and all of the roundels from all of our axis games in one big box.  In the game, you have white chips (1) and red chips (5), I would recommend getting ones in a different color like blue or green, to represent 10.

    Some people have 4 kinds, worth 1,3,5, and 10, but this can be messy with that many colors.


  • oops, might be wrong :/

    Could have swore it only came with two types when I got the game.


  • @Kreuzfeld:

    I would definitely buy more chips. Once you get into this game, you will make monster stack. To have those stacks, you need a chip representing 10.

    Thanks for the adviceve, I’ll buy a lot of yellows to use as 10.  :-D

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    @Tokkoutai81:

    @Kreuzfeld:

    I would definitely buy more chips. Once you get into this game, you will make monster stack. To have those stacks, you need a chip representing 10.

    Thanks for the adviceve, I’ll buy a lot of yellows to use as 10. :-D

    Something my friend and I do… Yellow for Axis 1s, and black for Axis 5s / gray for Allied 1s, and red for Allied 5s.

    You would be amazed how much easier it is to identify enemy units on the board.


  • @ChromiumAgeCollector:

    I have to STRONGLY disagree with this.  Using paper money/poker chips is part of the Axis and Allies experience!

    I very much agree with your disagreement (if that makes sense).  Maybe I never progressed from the time when I played Monopoly as a kid, but to me there’s just something about having a big stack of physical play money in my hands that makes me feel rich, even if those simulated bills aren’t even worth the paper they’re printed on. A few years ago, someone published a special edition of Monopoly (one of the countless ones that have been produced over the decades) which, along with property values being adjusted for inflation into the million-dollar range, includes debit cards and a card reader rather than paper cash.  My reaction was: that’s just wrong!

    A few months ago, incidentally, I gathered all the IPCs from all the copies of all the editions of A&A that I own and assembled them into three stacks (one stack per denomination), to see how high each pile would be.  From memory, I think the answer in each case was about three inches.  I put each pile into a separate plastic zip-lock sandwich bag for convenient storage.  At one point I piled all three bags on top of each other to form a single stack of bills, which was mildly thrilling from a kid-playing-Monopoly perspective.  (From an adult-playing-A&A perspective, however, it’s much more fun to use that cash to buy tanks and warships rather than houses and hotels.)

  • '21 '20 '18 '17

    the proper dice sizes are 12mm for the small and 16 mm for the large.  Boy, 25mm dice would be huge.

    I stand by what I said, messing around with the chips money and casino placards is a big time waster and it introduces ample opportunities for both cheating and mistakes.

    However, I agree with your sentiments I suppose;  I’m not that interested in playing TrippleA because playing live is part of the experience to me, poker chips or not.  I’m sure the better competition is online but PBEM style games are even more cumbersome and detached than PvP PC computer games.  I don’t really want to have the thrills of annotating/rulechecking dozens of turns or puzzling out how to move sprites on a screen, but im sure there have been some sweaty moments watching for the results of randomly generated numbers to come in by email and really figure out how he rolled 6,6,4,4,2,2,1,1,1,1…damn its exciting just talking about it…

    Reminds me of the documentary Man vs Snake;  getting a billion points in a video game isn’t so much about your gameplay as it is applying that gameplay in a marathon environment over 48 hours of boredom and stress, which makes Gencon as good as it is, because there were no endless days of time to think out a move or analyze strategy, everything had to be done in that moment with all the fatigue, excitement and planning coming together at once at 8am on a Sunday and after 6 full games in 10 days.


  • I like using white and gray plastic industrial complex pieces from other A&A games instead of the little cardboard pieces in the 1940 games.


  • @ShadowHAwk:

    OnTopic:
    I dont get the whole point of buying extra pieces for a game you have not yet played and you might not need those pieces at all. On the forum we are influencing eachother and that gravitates to a certain playstyle. Going completely blank might cause different strategies and different requirements on pieces.
    Why not just play the game as it is from the box ( maby scavenge stuff from other games with dice if you want to speed things up ) and go from there. Check what you run into yourself and fix those things.

    Yes, that makes a lot of sense. It’s just that I have read a lot of complaints in online reviews about insufficient pieces and I thought I’d try and ask veterans what pieces might run out and what additions could be nice. Of course I’ll decide what’s needed with experience and playing sessions.
    For now, I’m surely going to buy battle bucks (I have been a monopoly player in my childhhod :D), extra chips and dice and some infantry for neutral territories.


  • Battle bucks, Monopoly Money, or poker chips would all be good tools for the game IMO to track each powers income, and the extra chips will come in handy. As for buying infantry for the neutral territories, this you can do without IMO.

    There are pro-axis, pro-allied, and strict neutrals in the game. All these neutrals have their standing armies silhouetted on the map, so you don’t have to reference anything to see what is there.

    I would suggest you keep the strict neutrals off limits for the first couple games so you can focus on the normal game mechanics and rules. There is also a rule that says if you attack any strict neutral that all the other strict neutrals will join the other side (become pro your enemy), so things can get pretty strange. Mongolia has it’s own set of rules that makes them different, and can be activated w/o changing the stance of the other strict neutrals. It is generally the Japanese breaking the Non Aggression Pact (NAP) that activate Mongolia and you would use Russian inf for the Mongolians if that happens.

    Most of the pro axis/allied neutrals are activated in the first round of play starting with Germany’s turn who goes first. So Germany could be attacking pro-allied territories during the combat phase, or integrating pro-axis territories during the non combat move phase (NCM).

    Example, Germany attacking a pro allied neutral:
    Say the Germans want to attack Yugoslavia that has 5 inf silhouetted on the map. The Germans set-up the attack during their combat move phase, and attack during combat. You can just remember that Germany needs to kill 5 inf in the battle, or you can use 5 gray chips to represent the Yugo inf (the Yugo inf will get to return fire). If the Germans kill all the Yugo inf and take the territory then there is nothing else to worry about. If for some reason the Germans don’t finish the job and leave 2 Yugo inf alive (Germany retreats) you would just place 2 chips in Yugo so you know how many units they still have. Although these 2 units are still there they aren’t allowed to move so you would not use UK inf (use the chips). However if on UK’s turn they non combat move a ground unit into Yugo they would get the 2 Yugo inf (replace the chips with UK inf). See next example for more on bringing a pro to your side neutral into your camp.

    Example, Germany activating a pro axis neutral:
    On G1 you may want to activate the pro-axis territories of Finland and Bulgaria (both have 4 inf silhouetted on the map). You would non combat move (NCM) a German ground unit (not AA gun) into those territories, and place 4 German inf in each to represent the standing army that the Germans gain. You don’t need a neutral color because you will use German inf. You also would claim the income for the territories that you control.

    The same thing goes for all the powers. Italy may attack pro-allied Greece on their first turn. The UK may activate pro-allied Persia during the NCM to gain the 2 inf there (would need to transport a ground unit to Persia). So you really don’t need neutral inf to play the game, because you can use chips in the rare cases when a neutral is activated and not wiped out. Plus most of the pro axis/allied neutrals will be decided early in the game. Even the strict neutrals can easily be identified, and once they are attacked you can use the same as above.


  • We always run out of Japanese mechs, so I found a cheap way to make more: buy orange popsicle sticks from the dollar store, cut them up, and glue the pieces together. It looks like a mechanized infantry truck!

    How do you insert an image in these forums?


  • @madscientist:

    We always run out of Japanese mechs, so I found a cheap way to make more: buy orange popsicle sticks from the dollar store, cut them up, and glue the pieces together. It looks like a mechanized infantry truck!

    How do you insert an image in these forums?

    I upload to tinypic.com and put the link for direct layout into the following code (remove the spaces in the brackets): [ img ]<insert link=“” here=“”>[ /img ]</insert>


  • Alternately, expand the Additional Options (located below the text box when you reply to a post) and use the Attach function to attach a jpg image file.

  • '17 '16

    With as many units as you’ll end up having after combining 1940 Europe with 1940 Pacific for the Global game, one thing you’ll definitely have is a LOT of units and you’ll probably want a better way to store them than what is provided with the game… you might want to look into some compartmentalized nut/screw or fishing tackle trays from your local hardware store. I used one screw tray for each country… all depends on what size tray you wan’t/get, so that you can keep planes/ships/tanks/etc separate and easier to grab. I included a picture of some examples of what you can do with nation trays using compartmentalized trays.

    Also, I highly recommend either battle bucks or poker chips for money… depending on how much you want to spend, the battle bucks are cheap and a very good solution, though I found them a bit “action stiff” to hand out (which I would imagine would get better with wear)… you can either use generic poker chips, or you can try some custom A&A IPC chips that you can get from IWNGU’s site (which you can find easily enough) if you’re willing to spend a bit more on custom A&A chips. Anything is better than doing nothing in regards to in-game currency. I started off with Battle Bucks, but later upgraded to A&A IPC chips… there’s no wrong way to go here short of not doing anything for currency.

    You’ll probably want extra dice too… once again, anything more than nothing is better… you can go down about three paths here with dice… 1) just more dice period, anything is better than nothing… 2) order some generic dice of specific colors and hand them out to certain countries… 3) the Combat Dice you can find with specific A&A markings, though a brief word of warning, if you try and get them from FMG, that company has extremely questionable customer service… look around the forums before deciding to do business with them.

    Anything you order from HBG or IWNGU is a good deal though, both those companies have very good reputations.

    NationTrays1.jpg
    AndACustom1sm.jpg


  • Here is a picture of making more mechs out of popsicle sticks

    mech inf.jpg


  • You can take an egg carton for a dozen eggs, cut off the top, place it inside one of the plastic boxes the pieces come in (it fits perfectly) and you have a cheap and quick way to comparmentalize your pieces.  It took a few months to get all the ones we needed based on our egg eating rate. :)

    We use two for the U.S. (including the Chinese pieces) and two for England.  We use two more to hold the roundels, industrial complexes, ports, airbases, ect.

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