Axis & Allies 1942 Second Edition

Unwrapped this beauty for Christmas. I had played A&A way back in 1981/82 as a young teen. My brother-in-law and I had talked about rekindling our love of table top war gaming for years. Well my wife bought this (as well as 1941) for me. We started our first game and between set-up (1hr), a thorough rules review and a slow first 2 rounds to familiarize ourselves with all the game mechanics we were off. We ended up playing for 5 straight hours with one pizza break. We are still not done. We plan on finishing up New Years Eve. The game is everything I remembered but even better. We are loving the great detail of the game pieces, the detailed map and more importantly the strategy involved in every decision you make. The game is made of high quality. We are going to play this version for a while and once we get our fill I will purchase the 1940 Europe and Pacific games for the total world at war experience. I am playing the 1941 game with my soon to be 11 year old and he is really enjoying it. I highly suggest 1941 for those new to the series and also wanting to teach a younger pre-teen the game without too much complication. By the time they hit 12,13 they will be ready for the far more advanced 1942 and 1940 versions. Needless to say I am very happy with this version of the game. We (my Brother in-law and I) plan on playing one match a month. We are very pumped and are reliving our childhood once again! If you take the time to read the rule book slowly and carefully the game is not difficult at all to learn. It looks complicated when you see the board all set up....but it is quite easy to learn and play. And if you love war strategy gaming, this is the gold standard (as well as the 1940 versions which look incredible). Truly an epic game and a lot of thought, love and detail went into creating it. Highly recommended.

This is a fantastic game, but it requies a commitment in terms of time and learning complex rules. The game is like Risk on steroids, and should be thoroughly enjoyable to anyone who loves military strategy and World War II history. There are 30+ pages of rules, but many of them are common sense (e.g. a bomber can't capture territory, or you can't pass through the Panama Canal if the enemy controls Central America, etc.) and not difficult to learn. Nevertheless, plan to spent an hour familiarizing yourself with them, and you will likely be looking up rules regularly the first few times you play, and occassionally after that. I have no idea who plays this game in 90 minutes. It takes about 30 minutes just to set up, which mostly involves careful placement of all the military units to roughly match the state of the world in 1942. After that, each turn consists of each of the five powers mobilizing new units, engaging in combat and troop movements. If each power spends roughy 5 minute doing so, each turn will take 20-30 minutes. Unless everyone is experienced and knows the rules very well, expect each game to take multiple hours, perhaps a full afternoon. One annoying part of the game is the difficulty in telling the ships apart. Making some sort of mark on them would be helpful.

I have played Axis & Allies since it first came out in the 80's - the original Milton Bradley version. I always wondered what playing on a map that looked like the actual earth would look like, and even went so far as to design my own. After many years, a friend bought me the game again, and we started playing. There's no need to comment on the game itself: it's simply one of the most engaging, educational, and fun ways to spend a few hours imaginable. This edition is a dream come true with very small exceptions. The map is big and beautiful, everything I wanted. The figures - with each country's units individualized and highly detailed - are excellent quality, and the color contrasts are much easier to see (US/Germany and UK/Japan were troublesome in low light). The country markers are textured and vivid, and the smaller set-up boards are also high quality and make set up simpler than the original. The very few exceptions are: few dice, no money, no storage trays, and (and this is entirely a matter of personal preference) cardboard markers for Industrial Complexes instead of the little factory pieces. All these are solved by simply using the parts from the original game, or by using Monopoly money (any game-type money will do) and regular poker chips and getting a few plastic fishing-type trays for the miniatures.

I have the original Axis & Allies Spring 1942 that I bought a couple years ago so I figured why no go for this revised second edition. The map is a good bit bigger, it actually comes in two pieces, but it is very sturdy and of good quality. The IPC counter is now in the tundra at the top of the map where nothing is anyway which I think was a great idea. It being at the bottom was strange. The figures look great and are a step up as well as the feel of them. The chips are an upgrade as well. One thing is the factories. The original addition came with factory pieces while this one comes with cardboard cutouts for factories. It doesn't make much sense, this edition is clearly of better quality, from the pieces to the chips and board. It is also bigger, so why not include factory pieces? The original edition got very cluttered easily, I could see if the cardboard cutouts were in that edition. Either way, this is a great buy and don't let that deter you. I just switched my factory pieces from edition 1 into this box. Also this box only comes with 6 die, not 10 like the first edition. But these die are rounded at the corners which I imagine makes for better rolling and considering this is a game where the roll of the dice is everything, that could be a big improvement. I only wish it came with more die as bigger battles can get tedious.

If you're a fan of excruciatingly long turn-based strategy games, this should be right up your alley. The game feels remarkably balanced. We play at least once a week, and so far we're not finding that the games leans to the either side's favor (your experience may vary). The map is huge, especially when compared to the 1942 first edition or classic 1980s map. Things can still get tight, especially around germany, but there is no need to use the zoomed in areas featured on the original map to place all your units. To make everything fit, you'll still need to use chips liberally -- not just to save space, but also because very few units are actually included for each nation. The unit sculpts are amazingly detailed. Each nation has it's own sculpts, so it can be a bit confusing at times differentiating between the various navy units. After a few play throughs, this won't be a problem though. As great as the game itself is, there are a few minor gripes. Unlike the classic A&A from the 1980s, there is no money included with this game. The instructions recommend that the banker keeps tabs of everybody's income on a separate sheet of paper. If your group needs the visual aid, any fake money (Monopoly, etc.) will suffice. Poker chips work incredibly well. Also 'missing' are the love them or hate them tech upgrades from previous A&A games. The packaging for the game is very bare bones. Unlike previous versions, there are no trays to store your units. No resealable bags. No packaging for dice and other accessories. Unless you supply your own bags or boxes, the game will become a jumbled mess inside the box. The battleboard has been replaced with a thin 'battle strip'. It still works fine for those who rely on it. The game also only comes with 6 dice. For large battles, you'll either have to a lot of rerolling or puchase a set of six-sided dice to compensate. Though it doesn't affect the core gameplay at all, the poor packaging and omissions do take down the overall experience a few notches.

Love this version of the classic WW II strategy game. A little more involved requiring a higher level of planning. This version does tend to favor the Axis powers so it is a little more of a challenge for those playing the Allies. The game pieces are great with lots of detail for minis of this size. The game comes with six dice, so you may want to grab some extras as some of the battles can require more dice than the game comes with. If I had a complaint, it would be that there aren't enough pieces. There needs to be more factory pieces as well as tanks for Japan (depending on your strategy for Japan). Otherwise, fantastic game rules, board, and pieces. Love it.

This game is very long, Our group usually only gets 2 or 3 turns in and there is alot of downtime inbetween turns. Each full turn is about an hour. the quality of the plastic is great, the board is very large and that is a big plus. Each nation has very unique pieces matching the technology of the time. There is no paper money so I took some from monopoly. It is hard to get a group of five willing to play the game, and it is slanted towards the axis, I played the game twice, once on each team and axis easily won. I paid 42$ and for that price I would strongly recommend the game for people that love history and are not scared to play for 4 hours. I would not pay more than 50$ for it.

Definitely a long game. As a new boardgamer, I really enjoyed playing it. So I bought it, and introduced a couple friends to it. A warning to new players: This game takes a long time to learn, but once you do, it's a lot of fun. If you're new to the game, play with someone who has a lot of experience with it. The directions are not all encompassing and don't explain some aspects of the game in the best way. If you're all new, watch a youtube video on gameplay (there's lots). Especially if you're drinking while playing (lol). *** Strengths: Gameplay, complexity, board size, included reference card *** Weaknesses: Complexity for first playthrough, directions, ship pieces difficult to tell apart *** Recommendations: Line up your ships in alphabetical order (like in the directions) and leave at least one of each kind in that order in front of you. Or all of you do that, so you can all easily reference it. We ended up printing out a reference card for them and laminating it with purchase costs for all units and some rules on the back.

Les régles sont un peu longue a comprendre et à expliquer mais le jeux est très bien réalisé et promet des centaines d'heures de jeux. Prévoir un bonne journée pour apprendre a jouer et espérer finir une première partie. les suivante sont plus simple a mettre place et son plus rapide (environ 3 à 5 h à 5 joueurs). Petit moins le jeux n'est pas disponible en français, mais la traduction des règle en français est très facile en trouver en pdf. Autres petit moins il n'y a pas les réglés spéciale pour chaque nations comme dans les anciennes versions ni les améliorations technologique. Si vous voulez pimenter un peu les parties vous devez donc piocher dans les règles des anciennes versions.

Auf der Suche nach einem neuen Strategiespiel mit militärischem Hintergrund bin ich auf die Axis & Allies Reihe gestoßen. Die Reihe bietet verschiedene Versionen/Boxen an und es ist am Anfang vielleicht etwas schwierig die "richtige" Version für einen zu finden. Ich habe mich nach (kurzer) Recherche für die 1942 2nd Edition entschieden und wurde nicht enttäuscht! Das Spiel ist sehr umfrangreich und komplexer als z.B. Risiko, wir haben ca. 3 Stunden die Regeln studiert und diskutiert ehe wir loslegen konnten. Das Spiel bzw. die Regeln sind lediglich auf Englisch, jedoch verständlich formuliert und alternativ gibt es im Internet auch gute Übersetzungen zu finden. Vielleicht lohnt es sich hier das Regelwerk vor einem Kauf kurz zu überfliegen, um zu sehen ob einem das Spielprinzip und die taktische Tiefe gefällt. Axis & Allies 1942 kann man mit 2 - 5 Spielern spielen. Auch wenn man "nur" zu zweit ist macht das Spiel sehr viel Spaß, eine Partei spielt dann alle Alliierten Nationen und die andere alle Achsenmächte. Eine Partie kann zwischen 3 - 7 Stunden dauern, je nach Spielverlauf und Erfahrung der Spieler. Für die erste Partie sollte man definitiv 5+ Stunden einplanen. Besonders hervorzuheben ist zuletzt die Qualität und die Verarbeitung des Inhalts. Die Minifiguren sind für diesen Maßstab sehr detailliert und verhältnismäßig hochwertig. Hier hat jede Nation eine passendes Design für seine verschiedenen Einheiten spendiert bekommen (z.B. bei den Panzern: Panther (GER) vs. T34 (RUS)), anstelle von generischen/allgemeinen Figuren. Außerdem sind die Figuren in ausreichender Anzahl vorhanden. Bezüglich der verschienen Versionen denke ich ist dies eine gute Version für Einsteiger, da sich diese größentechnisch und vom Regelumfang im Mittelfeld bewegt. Wer die größte Spielerfahrung sucht, sollte zu den beiden 1940er Edition greifen, dort kann man Europa und Pazifik zu einer Globalen Version kombinieren.

Used to play older version in late 80's. Found this to be a good upgrade, including extra units and rules. At around $60 AUS, the price looks like it's from the 80's too.

Amazing

(Doesn't come with the storage boxes you see in picture - I made these) Got this as a Christmas present to myself. I enjoy strategy games and my son is old enough to enjoy them with me. After looking at reviews I decided that this 1942 Second Edition was the best fit for me. It can seem complicated but if you play strategy games then you will get the idea soon enough. Even then you can go to a few online forums to answer any specific questions. Also, don't forget Uncle Youtube, there are some great short videos explaining the main rules etc. One thing to note is that this is not a game to put up and take down again in an hour. It can take somewhere between 3-5 hours to play a half-decent game. The game comes with all the pieces you need to play and unlike older versions, they represent their parent country. So America has Sherman whilst Germany has Tigers etc. If I had one complaint it would be that the pieces only come in plastic bags. So as I have a 3D Printer, I decided to design and make my own :-) These are what you see in the picture. All in all we have some really enjoyable games and as we had the spare time during lockdown it was great.