Axis & Allies Miniatures FAQ update

It’s kinda hard to answer your question because it depends on how much you are willing to spend, do you want to play historically, do you only want to collect one type of fleet?  I would say that it would be hard to win many games if you go German and then play against someone who is bringing an American fleet.  I say this because the Germans (and let’s add the Italians, French, Australian, and even to some extent the British) are so underpowered in the way of air power that I think you would lose every time.  If you play historically and avoid any kind of cheesy fleet combinations…well, you might have a chance.  In my opinion, and that’s all it is, you’d be hard pressed to beat an American fleet in a 150pt or higher game.  At that point level you can bring a battleship, two carriers and enough planes to destroy whatever your opponent is bringing…only a Japanese fleet with multiple Yamatos might stand a chance against an equal point American fleet.  Let’s say you collect only a German fleet…how would you stop my air power?  I’d have all your ships sunk before you made it within striking distance.  Maybe I’m full of crap, but, I’d say go American if you want the most balance and options.  Maybe the second set of WaS will have more air support for the Germans and the other Axis powers (Japan not included) but as it stands now…they’d get crushed.  I don’t think that would be much fun for you.

Wow! Tiger heaven and great strat resulted in my first loss–quite badly at that.

What has been allies experience in the past in dealing with this map? Because we had only 20 units at 300 points I had to field several (5) armor and normally would have tried to lay back at the objective, but had not place to hide more than 2, maybe three units and theyd be divided heavily. With 3 crocs I had to charge and it was not pretty.

In expectation of an open map with heavy armor a must, then I’d guess going M26/M36’s for flanking would be wise. Any thoughts?

@Shemar:

Just my luck as I just started getting into the game. I have not found anybody to play in my area with the physical minis yet.

What area?

Thank you very much, that certainly does help.

The scale is quite good but I can see myself adding a bit more detail/colour, or even just mud, to some of those vehicles.

A bit more effort could have been made there, if you compare them with Heroclix or Star Wars miniatures they are almost more like the little plastic soldiers we had as kids, the momotone plastic parts of some of the tanks like the Panzer IV turret are particualrly bad and the light grey MGs look like tacky add ons…

A real attraction to these games for me is not having to paint them, but here it looks like I’ll have to spruce them up a bit anyway. Thanks again.

Good call. I ended up buying my iPhone last year when it was mucho dollars. I used money from a huge eBay auction I sold. Then, a month later, iPhones dropped $200. DANGIT! Of course, back then, I wasn’t introduced to A&A.

A waste? Who says that? bloody heathens!  :mrgreen:

Axis and Allies Minis is a mix between a boardgame and a tabletop wargame. It’s more boardgame than Flames of War, but more wargame than the regular Axis and Allies (IMHO). The game is simple to learn, but complex to master as each unit often has its own special rules and abilities. The game can be tactical without being a headache, and simple without being boring. Personally, I’m very happy with the game. I play Flames of War, so I sometimes need a game that isn’t so detailed and complex- enter A&AM. The models are really cool too. Granted, it takes buying a handful of booster sets after the core set to get enough pieces to not field a multi=national army but the game is so much fun to play I didn’t mind shelling out the cash.

A&AM is also a great way to introduce non-wargamers and non-history buffs to the wargaming hobby. Kids can figure out how to play it, but adults can still enjoy it. The average game takes about an hour to an hour and a half when I play it, but we field bigger armies than the core rules tell you to use (I even bought a second core set to have the extra maps so we had the room to play these units and still maneuver). No, this game isn’t a waste at all. I think it’s a great way to spend an evening with friends and loved ones (my girlfriend is a vehement German fanatic- she’s wicked with that Brumber!).

And those who want a little more complexity: this game begs to be houseruled!! We’re already adding in observers, calling in off-board artillery, morale, etc. And the next set will have even more rules added to it (and a Flak 8.8mm I hope!).

-=Grim=-

Again, just make sure VASSAL is configuration-based enough.  if you have to code to make changes then I’d look at one of the more polished products.

Battlegrounds has stated on their website that they are working on a wargamer-specific tabletop version of their software.  Id be curious to know how that is comiong  along…

That being said VASSAL has been around for a while and lots of games have been ported to it so I know its pretty solid.

WAS and AAM have enough units that using shapeways other other models/cards like team poseidon that you can have whats fairly close to a complete game.