Axis & Allies
This page is dedicated to the best board game ever made; Axis & Allies. Here you will find a description of the game, strategies, and pictures.
About...
Axis & Allies is a World War II board game. You have to use good strategy to stay alive and defeat the other countries. It is for two to five players, you can play as the axis (Germany and Japan) or the allies (Russia, Uk, and USA) or you can play as the seperate countries. The countries are Russia, Germany, United Kingdom, Japan, and the United States (in that order of play). You have an income (IPC's) that you get each turn that you can use to build up your army. Every time you take over an enemy country you get a certian amount of money (IPC's) more each turn. The pieces are infantry, armor (tanks), bombers, fighters, battleships, aircraft carriers, transports, submarines, and anti-aircraft (AA) guns.
Strategies
There are more countries on the ally side than the axis, but the axis starts out with a bigger army. Russia has the smallest army, UK and Japan have medium sized armies, and Germany and USA have the biggest armies. Germany and USA get the most IPC's; Germany=32, USA=36.
Russia
To stay alive with Russia I've found that you always have to attack Germany first. First buy reinforcements; tanks or infantry, tanks would be better if you wanted to attack again, infantry would be better if you wanted to defend. To attack take the forces you have in Karelia (3 infantry, 1 tank, and 1 fighter), Caucasus (5 infantry), and whatever can reach from Russia (2 tanks, 1 fighter) and attack the Ukraine (3 infantry, 2 tanks, 1 fighter). When you defeat the forces there you can move to Eastern Europe (3 infantry, 1 tank, 1 fighter) and attack them. If you win you'll be right beside Germany itself so put all your forces in Eastern Europe. After you are done attacking Germany you will leave Karelia, and Caucasus open, and Russia partly open. Caucasus is only touched by Allied countries and Russia is pretty far behind your lines now so you don't have to worry about them attacking those countries for a couple of turns. Ukraine will have at most 8 infantry. What you have to worry about is Finland Norway taking over Karelia, so put all your forces that you bought there. Depending on the rules you're going by you might be able to make a non-combat movement with your troops in Ukraine and move them into Eastern Europe. Germany is now limited to four countries in Europe and two in Africa so they are running out of money and territory. Germany will try to attack Eastern Europe or Karelia, that's why you put all your forces there. On the next turn by Russia buy more tanks or infantry. Take your forces from Eastern Europe (if you have enough otherwise don't) into Southern Europe (2 infantry, 1 tank). If you take them over you will have an AA gun and industrial complex (if you're lucky enough to take them) right by Germany. That will put Russia in a perfect place to build up an army to take over Germany. Taking over these two countries will give you more IPC's and let UK help destroy Germany while their forces are weak.
If you lose (which there's a chance of) and end up in Eastern Europe or Ukraine you still have 8 infantry in Ukraine to defend your new territory. If this happens, on the second turn take the Karelia forces (the ones you recently place there) into Eastern Europe, then if you're suicidal then you can attack Germany but the best attack would be in Southern Europe (2 infantry, 1 tank). If you take Ukraine, Eastern Europe, and Southern Europe you will have taken 12 IPC's (and 8 infantry, 4 tanks, and 2 fighters) away from Germany. Remember, you don't have to do all these attacks in a few turns, just do it before Germany can build up too many forces. Also, you can choose not to go any farther than Eastern Europe because you can always rely on UK to help, but at least go as far as Eastern Europe. Remember that Finland Norway is always there to attack and get some IPC's.
Germany
What you do with Germany depends on what Russia does on the first round. If they take Ukraine and Eastern Europe on their first turn, then you should attack Eastern Europe from Germany and Southern Europe then attack Karelia from Germany and Finland Norway. You don't need to take back Ukraine right away, it's better to take Karelia. Taking Karelia will make Russia lose 3 IPC's and position you right by Russia. By doing this you'll leave Eastern Europe open (because you should move all your attacking forces to Karelia so you can keep it) for taking by Ukraine, but that won't matter too much. After you take Karelia you have a industrial complex right by Russia so you can use your large income to over-power their capital.
If Russia doesn't attack on the first move then you can just take Karelia then take Russia. After you take those two countries, Russia won't have any more industrial complexes left and they won't be getting anymore income, so they'll have to try to fight you off with what they have.
United Kingdom
The Uk really can't do too much at the beginning because they don't have a lot of land. If Russia takes Ukraine, Eastern Europe, (and maybe more) then in a couple of turns you could take Western Europe (2 infantry, 2 tanks, 1 fighter, and 6 IPC's) and Southern Europe (2 infantry, 1 tank, and 6 IPC's), which would surround Germany with Uk and USSR. If Russia doesn't attack Germany first you'll have to build up and hope Germany does something stupid. In Africa you should attack the German forces (Algeria-1 infantry, Libya-1 infantry, 1 tank) so you can hold all of Africa and attack Germany from the south. In India you will just have to fight with USA to take out the Japanese countries in Asia.
Japan
With Japan you should usually build up your airforce. It cost less to buy a fighter (12 IPC's) than a transport and a tank (13 IPC's) or a transport and two infantry (14 IPC's). In Asia you can either push up into Russia, take out the US in China, or take out the British in India, it depends on how the game is going. A good attack is to attack Hawaii (1 infantry, 1 submarine, 1 aircraft carrier, and 1 fighter), this will give you one more IPC and set you 1 space away from Western US.
United States of America
America doesn't start out with many forces but they're so far away from anything and have the most IPC's making it easy for them to build up an army. America should defend Hawaii and invade all the little countries of Japan. This would take IPC's away from Japan and surround them with Americans. A good way to stop them is attack all their transports, that would limit them to just planes. In the Eastern United States, if you can, help the British and Russians by attacking Germany. Japan will be the one fighting with you the most so don't forget about them.
As you can see most of the game revolves around what Russia does on the first couple turns. One way Germany is wiped out, the other Russia (and later others) are wiped out. USA is affected because if Russia attacks they can help beat Germany. The only country really not affected by what Russia does is Japan.
