Presentation

Welcome to this new weblog, inspired by the popular strategy board game "Axis & Allies" and its spin-offs and variants. I am not a English native speaker, so I apologize for any mistakes. Still I wanted to reach a wider audience.

The very first Nova Games edition of A&A (1981)

In my long adolescence, I had played and experimented various games, on board, paper and computer. However, I have to admit that Axis & Allies is the only one for which I developed a strong interest, at the point of investing a larger amount of time and money. I deem the reasons for that can be summarized as such:

• Historical background: as a PhD student and researcher in political history mostly dealing with fascism and far right authors and groups, I have quite a great interest in World War II, including its obscure details and uchronies.
• Complex gameplay: winning a game requires a mix of strategical planning and ability to adjust it according to the dice results. Unlike chess, it is difficult to plan ahead for more than 3-4 turns, and the relative casuality of combat forces to prepare for unexpected defeat. However, it remains more complex and strategical-oriented than e.g. Risk, so that on the long period the luck factor is relatively ininfluent.
• Collectible miniatures: other than the hundreds of colored plastic miniatures which come with the original games, it is possible to supplement one's armies and fleets with a huge number of historical soldiers, vehicles, ships and aircrafts, each with its special characteristics. Though being quite inexpensive, the aesthetic result of a huge gameboard filled with miniatures is always worthwhile.
• Opportunities for modding: since I always have looked for customizing and improving games with more wide and detailed options and rules, I cannot but appreciate the fact that it is quite simple to do so in A&A, both for adding a single new unit and for creating a whole new game based on the same concepts and basic rules.

Therefore, on this weblog I am going to write about all these aspects of Axis & Allies, from historical facts to collecting, from game strategies to alternative rules.

Furthermore, I am working to a more ambitious project, called "World War Home Edition" regarding the creation of a new wargame inspired by World War II with a larger chronological and geographical scope, as well as a more complete combat system and historically accurate rules, without losing of sight the KISS design principle. Therefore, most optional rules in this weblog are designed looking forward to this project.

I hope to gather the interest of all Axis & Allies fans and players. Any comments are welcome.