Axis & Allies is a series of World War II strategy board games. The first version was published in 1981 and a second edition known colloquially as Axis & Allies: Classic was published in 1984. Played on a board depicting a Spring 1942 political map of Earth divided by territories, players take the role of one or more of the five major belligerents of World War II: the Axis powers of Germany and Japan, and the Allied powers of the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Turns rotate among these belligerents, who control armies of playing pieces with which they attempt to capture enemy territories, with results determined by dice rolls. The object of the game is to win the war by capturing enough critical territories to gain the advantage over the enemy.
More than ten spinoff games have since been produced. Some of these editions are revised versions of the classic game, while others depict a specific theater, campaign or battle of World War II.
Game development Axis & Allies was designed by Larry Harris under the prototype name 1942 in the late 1970s. In 1981, Harris partnered with a local Connecticut hobby shop, Citadel Game Store, to publish Axis & Allies under the company name of Nova Game Designs, with the name originating from Pat Flory, the owner of the shop. In 1984, the game was republished by the Milton Bradley Company as part of the Gamemaster Series of board games. This edition has been retroactively named Axis & Allies: Classic to differentiate it from later revisions.
In 1996, Axis & Allies: Classic was inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame. Games magazine has inducted Axis & Allies into their buyers' guide Hall of Fame, an honor the magazine extends to "games that have met or exceeded the highest standards of quality and play value and have been continuously in production for at least 10 years; i.e., classics."GAMES Magazine Hall of Fame . Retrieved 2010-07-26 Axis & Allies: Classic was the most successful of the five Gamemaster Series of board games.
After acquiring Milton Bradley (1984) and Avalon Hill (1998), Hasbro transferred the Axis & Allies: Classic (1984) board game from the Milton Bradley division to the Avalon Hill division in 1999. In 1999, Hasbro acquired Wizards of the Coast. In 2004, Hasbro made Avalon Hill a subsidiary of Wizards of the Coast (WotC). In January 2021, after corporate restructuring, Avalon Hill became a subsidiary of Hasbro Gaming instead.
In 2022, Renegade Games Studios entered a partnership with Hasbro, to publishing future versions of Axis & Allies, among other games, and organize an Axis & Allies world championship, and run an Axis & Allies website, starting in 2023. In 2023 the company released reprints of Axis & Allies: 1914, Axis & Allies 1941, Axis & Allies 1942, Axis & Allies 1940 Europe, Axis & Allies 1940 Pacific, and announced a reprint of Axis & Allies: Guadalcanal, as well as two new, upcoming games: Axis & Allies: North Africa and G.I. Joe: Battle for the Arctic Circle, a board game centered on the G. I. Joe line of action figures, that will use the Axis & Allies game engine.
The mainline Axis & Allies game has gone through several revisions, most recently in 2018, and the game has several spinoffs. The series is currently published by Renegade Game Studios through a licensing agreement with Hasbro. There are 15 board games in the Axis & Allies series, not counting second editions, 5 of which are currently supported by Renegade Game Studios. These are Axis & Allies: 1914, Axis & Allies: 1941, Axis & Allies: Europe 1940 2nd Edition, Axis & Allies: Pacific 1940 2nd Edition, and Axis & Allies: Spring 1942 2nd Edition. Many out-of-print A&A board games can be found on auction websites.
Gameplay
In almost every edition of Axis & Allies, players play as the major belligerents of World War II: Germany, Japan, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The A&A: 50th Anniversary Edition includes Italy as the third Axis power and China as the fourth Allied power. The A&A: Pacific 1940 edition includes China and ANZAC (Australia and New Zealand armed forces). The A&A: Europe 1940 edition includes Italy and France.
The players playing the Axis powers team up against those of the Allied powers, usually in an attempt to conquer key territories, represented by regions on the map board. In earlier editions, this was done by capturing and holding until the end of a round of play, certain territories where the opposing alliance's capital cities are located. In later editions, this included other territories on the map, where "victory cities" are located.
Certain versions of Axis & Allies have their own custom victory conditions. In the original Milton Bradley edition, A&A: Classic, the Axis powers could also win by capturing and holding until the end of a round of play enough territories to gain an economic advantage. This "economic victory" was dropped in later editions of A&A.
In Axis & Allies: Pacific, Japan gains a point for every 10 IPCs they collect and can win the game if they collect 22 points. In Axis & Allies: D-Day, the Allies need to control the three cities of Cherbourg, Caen, and Saint-Lo at the end of the 10th round. In Axis & Allies: Guadalcanal, victory is achieved by controlling airfields. In Axis & Allies: Battle of the Bulge, the Germans need to control territories totaling up to 24 points before round 8.
Each round of a game involves each of the powers moving in turn, according to a specified order. The game ends when either the Axis powers or the Allied powers complete their objectives. When each power takes its turn, they must first declare how they are to spend the IPCs (Industrial Production Certificates, an abstract currency representing one million man-hours of labor) in their possession. This may go into buying new units, improving units through research, or repairing damaged structures in later editions. Players then declare any movements made that would result in combat, moving their pieces as appropriate, and after resolving combat, declaring any non-combat movements. At the end of the turn, players place any units that were purchased at the beginning of the turn and collect IPCs based on all territories that they control at the end of their turn.
Combat is typically divided into several types. In all types, combat is divided into rounds. In each round, attackers and defenders roll dice to determine which of their units deal hits on the opposing side. If the number rolled is less than or equal to the unit's attack or defense rating, where appropriate, the unit scores a hit on an opposing unit of the opponent's choosing. During the round if an attacker defeats an enemy, the enemy can do a final retaliation before death, then be taken off the board.
Some types of combat, such as strategic bombing raids, naval bombardment, and anti-aircraft defense, last only one round. In others, the attacker has the option of continuing with another round of battle or retreating. Combat is fully resolved when either side loses all their units, or the attackers choose to retreat. Though combat in different territories may be resolved in any order of the attackers choosing, combat in one territory may affect the number of combatants in another territory for later battles, as in the case of an amphibious assault or when attacking units withdraw.
Spinoffs Due to the success of Axis & Allies: Classic, as of 2026, there are nineteen spin-off games in the A&A franchise. Most use more or less the same mechanics. Four are updated or expanded versions of the original global A&A: Classic game. An additional five games are theater games depicting combat in Europe, Africa, or the Pacific. Four games are local games of specific battles. One game takes place at the beginning of World War One. One features a global theater with the addition of a zombie apocalypse.
Additional games have been published by other game designers with similar mechanics, with some requiring components from an Axis & Allies or similar game.
In 1999, Axis & Allies: Europe was released, with slightly updated rules and a focus on the European theater of World War II. In 2001, Axis & Allies: Pacific was released, with similar rules and a focus shifted to the Pacific theater. In 2004, Axis & Allies: D-Day focused on the Allied liberation of France. In 2004, the first major revision to the core game, Axis & Allies: Revised was released, with elements taken from A&A: Europe and A&A: Pacific, celebrating the 20th anniversary of Axis & Allies.
In 2006, Axis & Allies: Battle of the Bulge focused on the Battle of the Bulge in Europe. In 2007, Axis & Allies: Guadalcanal focused on the Solomon Islands Campaign in the Pacific. In 2008, Axis & Allies: 50th Anniversary Edition was released as one of the three games celebrating the 50th anniversary of its publisher, Avalon Hill. The other two games were Acquire and Diplomacy. In 2009, Axis & Allies: 1942 was the second major revision to the core game, with mechanics taken from the anniversary edition, celebrating the 25th anniversary of Axis & Allies.
In December 2009, Axis & Allies: Pacific 1940 was released. In August 2010, Axis & Allies: Europe 1940 was released. These games can be combined to form a Global game of World War II on a 175×80 cm (70" × 32") map. All nine major powers of World War II, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States and the ANZAC forces, are represented in the combined global game, with unique units and colors. To streamline the game and correct balance issues, Global 1940 was revised and a new rule set was released on the Axis & Allies forums in January 2011, later released as a second edition.
In 2012, Axis & Allies: 1941 was released, containing a simplified map and rules to make it easier for beginners. In 2013, Axis & Allies: 1914 was released, being the only non WWII centered Axis & Allies game. In October 2018, Axis & Allies & Zombies, was released, an ahistorical version.
In August 2024, Axis and Allies: North Africa was released. Axis and Allies: Stalingrad was released one year later in August 2025.
Axis & Allies is not a strictly historical wargame, even without the zombies, due to its streamlining for ease of play and balancing so that both sides have a chance to win. For instance, the economic model is simplistic, with each territory producing a number of Industrial Production Credits (IPCs) for the purchase of new units. For example, in the original Classic version, the game is supposed to start in the spring of 1942, but Japan is immediately in position to attack Hawaii again, while Germany is pressed well into the Soviet Union with an initially superior force. If the game were truer to history, the Axis empires would be at their climax in 1942, about to be pushed back by the Allies.
In June 2026, Operation Market Garden was revealed to be the next spin-off for Axis & Allies.
Versions