Ever played Axis and Allies or one of its variants?

[The Mikado]

When I was a kid I used to play Axis and Allies Pacific with two friends of mine.  I was always Japan and I always lost.  It was a frustrating but valuable experience.

Only ever got to play the full Axis and Allies once.  Didn't go so well.

I bring it up because I saw this:

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3324658&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=1

They're playing Axis and Allies Anniversary Edition (The six-player one with Italy), and it's fairly evenly matched (Britain is getting its ass kicked far worse than usual, but the Soviets are holding up and that's far more important).

Anyone have some stories about this game?

[phk]

Played it last night as the Soviet Union.

[Smid]

Never played it but always wanted to.

[minionofmidas]

Played quite a few times. Been a while, though.

[cannonia]

Once you play World in Flames, you can never go back...

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I've played the classic version, but none of the new fangled ones.

[bgwah]

Played quite a few times. Been a while, though.

Were you able to accomplish what your grandparents couldn't?

[Gustaf]

Yes - I've played it several times.

My best story is probably when I played Germany the last time. The Soviets made a full on-slaught and were quite lucky in several of the early battles. The war was going so badly that I offered that our team would surrender at one point. I don't think I had any naval forces left at all and the Americans had built an industrial complex in China which was pumping troops into that theater.

Eventually, however, we managed to smash the Soviets from both sides and take Moscow, bringing all its IPCs with them. Simultaneously, however, the Allies took France as a warm-up to the massive invasion fleet gathered together by the US and UK for a joint strike on Germany.
 
Suddenly, reality dawned upon us all - it was going to come down to an allied invasion of Germany. If they took it, all of Germany's IPCs PLUS all of Soviet's would be in US hands and they would have won. But, if they did not I would be able to build so much troops with all the IPCs I would then have that they would never be able to come back. My buddy playing Japan had his turn before the epic battle and he just raced everything he could into Berlin.

Then the battle ensued. We clearly had the odds on our side going into it, but the dice were against us. In the last round, there was one tank on our side and one infantry unit on their side. They rolled first, being attackers, and killed the tank.

So, after hours upon hours of playing it actually came down to one single 50-50 roll. On 1,2 or 3 the tank would kill the infantry unit, meaning that all units were dead and the territory remained in our hands. On 4,5 or 6 it would fail to kill it and, being already dead, the territory would be theirs.

The roll was a 3 and the other side gave up, as there was no point in playing on at that stage.

It was a good show, anyway. Another time when I was even more sure that we were going to lose as the Axis we managed a last-minute sneak attack to take Moscow and even the playing field sufficiently to force a mutually agreed draw.

[minionofmidas]

Played quite a few times. Been a while, though.

Were you able to accomplish what your grandparents couldn't?

I usually played as America or Japan.

[ilikeverin]

Played quite a few times. Been a while, though.

Were you able to accomplish what your grandparents couldn't?

I usually played as America or Japan.

So, yes!

[Bacon King]

Yes! I love the game. Played online a few times, own the old computer program, but I've never had the chance to play it in person.

[Bacon King]

Would anyone be up for a game played here on the forum?

[Gustaf]

Yes!

[The Mikado]

Would anyone be up for a game played here on the forum?

Indeed I would.  It's been years since Gustaf kicked my ass in a board game.  Vanilla or one of the variants?

[Gustaf]

Would anyone be up for a game played here on the forum?

Indeed I would.  It's been years since Gustaf kicked my ass in a board game.  Vanilla or one of the variants?

I vote for vanilla or at least only minor modifications. The "narrower-in-scope" games seem like less fun to me and it would take time to re-learn lots of stuff.

I guess we could let the number of interested players play a part though.

[Bacon King]

If we have six players interested, we could do Anniversary edition, otherwise, let's stick with the ole' Revised rules, yeah.