Axis & Allies: Europe

A Boardgame About World War II

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How to Play the Axis & Allies: Europe Board Game

Axis & Allies: Europe is a war game based on World War II at the turn of the years 1941 and 1942. The United States has just come into the war, while the German invasion of the Soviet Union means huge land armies are pitted against one another in Eastern Europe.

Axis & Allies: Europe Rules

One thing a lot of people ask about the Axis & Allies line is whether these are same games, but with different scenarios. In most cases, the games have a lot of similarities, but have special rules and winning conditions. Each game tends to have its own challenges, fans, and critics. So no, playing Axis & Allies: Europe is not the same as playing the European theater of Axis & Allies.

Like many Axis & Allies board games, a couple of new units are introduced. These are the destroyer and the artillery piece. The destroyer adds depth and strategy to the war at sea and is there to highlight the Battle of the Atlantic. The artillery game piece adds one more choice for the commander on land. Other rules stand out to add importance to certain areas of the game board.

You'll find ocean zones that, if the Axis controls them, take ICPs away from the Allies' income. This makes winning the Battle of the Atlantic a key to holding back the U.S. and U.K. war effort, and worth sending subs to control the central Atlantic.

A similar innovation is found in the Middle East. If the Axis can control certain Middle Eastern zones, then you get paid the usual IPC (Industrial Production Certificates) come out of your opponent's IPC stack--not the bank's. This is mean to indicate what a strategic nature the Middle East oil supplies represent to the war effort of the United Kingdom. Had the British Empire lost the oilfields of Iran and Iraq, their ability to continue in the war would have been severely damaged. Losing key Middle Eastern zones becomes a double loss for the British capacity to make war.

Axis & Allies: Europe Strategy

The strategic balance of Axis & Allies: Europe is a controversial part of this game. Many veteran players claim that a smart German player wins this game every time. The "Infantry Push" is to buy nothing but infantry units the first 2 or 3 turns as the German, then nothing but tank/armor units for the next 2-3 turns. The infantry doesn't march as fast, so if you set the units you build to marching as soon as possible, you'll end up coordinating them with the armor units you buy in later turns. If you allot all your building resources to a military build-up of your land forces, you'll simply overwhelm Russia and seize Moscow, ending the game around the 6th turn. (Seizing Moscow and keeping Germany satisfies victory conditions.)

Others disagree with this assessment, claiming they have beaten the "Infantry Push". The counter-strategy is to buy as many Russian infantry as possible, then build up your United States and United Kingdom forces for the assault on Germany. If you can bring the western allies forces to bear on Nazi Germany early in the game, then you stave off Russian defeat until your greater resources (ICPs) make victory inevitable. With every turn the Allies stay in the game, their chances of winning increases.

You might wonder which direction Germany should strike in the first round of play. One common tactic is to use every submarine and airplane to destroy British and American shipping assets. A successful attack means you forestall either side coming to the aid of the Russians as soon as they otherwise could, giving you additional rounds to flatten the commies. Therefore, German strategy should revolve around (1) crushing Russia with everything at your disposal, while (2) holding just enough in reserve to spoil the western allies from joining the fraying too early. Also, the inclusion of new ICP rules for certain Atlantic sea zones and the Middle East should be used to great effect by the Axis.

The Allied strategy should be just the opposite. The Russians have to hold on for dear life, straining every resource to hold back the Germans by building up as big of a defensive army as possible. The United States should concentrate on building up overwhelming forces, along with the transports to get them over the sea and the fleet to protect both while that's happening. The United Kingdom must maintain control of the Middle East, despite their spread-out forces, while holding off the Germans and preparing for hammer blows to North Africa and the European continent.

Ending Axis & Allies: Europe

One possible criticism of this game is that German victory becomes inevitable if they succeed in an early blitzkrieg offensive which does all that was described above, while Allied victory becomes inevitable if this doesn't happen. The onus is on the Axis to reel off victories early and often, because time is not on their side. In many ways, this recreates the desperate situation both sides faced in the war years. Germany must take huge gambles, because they literally are taking on the world. But their military machine is so fearsome that they do have the punchers chance of delivering an early knockout.