How I got started with Axis and Allies

As my good friend, comic book artist Stuart Sayger once said, Risk is to Axis & Allies as Checkers is to Chess. What he meant was that Axis was not only the superior and more complex game, but that it was a graduation, an advancement made when a gamer was ready to handle it. Risk would be left behind for something with a little more strategy and definitely a lot more intensity. Axis required more skills, in-depth thinking, mathematics, and reasoning out lengthy campaigns and multiple-round strategies. Axis was the superior, tougher, more adult game. Axis was for men and Risk simply paled in comparison. I couldn't agree more.

Stuart first introduced me to Axis & Allies when we were in high school. We both worked at a local comic book store Comic Carnival. One of his older coworkers had introduced him to the game and when the time was right, he introduced me to it. After a brief learning curve, I was hooked.

I originally played the game with a small group of gamers -- all friends from school or work. Eventually there were enough of us that four different people owned their own copy of the game and at one point we actually had too many of us to play, and people had to share countries. The was the exception though. Generally we stuck with the smaller group of more dedicated player. Back then I played as Germany A LOT. Maybe I was being greedy, but I always found that to be the most interesting country to play. Maybe that was because you had so many choices of people to attack, AND because I wasn't all that interested in the navy battles back then. I've certainly learned more about that element of the game as well as the other countries, but I will always remember making most of my strategies from the German player perspective.

I played throughout high school and college. I introduced the game to any friend that would listen. I took the game on trips and even played one night during an overnight class field trip. There were many summers where games would last for weeks on end, as territories were traded back and forth, while no one was able to capture enough capitals for an all-out victory and no one was willing to concede. I must thank my father for permitting such nonsense and allowing us to leave the board set up in the dining room during these marathon sessions! I'm sure he had better things to do with his table.

Today most of my games are against Odie Bracy and John Cain. We switch around between a lot of other games, but Axis is still one of my all time favorites.

Currently I'm playing Axis & Allies: Global 1940, and using a first edition board, but the Alpha 2 rules. John and I invent new rules and modifications all the time. Some of those changes will eventually be listed here with explanations and other options for people to try.