Once again I am faced with a game I wanted to dislike. I've been suckered in to collectible miniatures games before and I always feel kind of shafted because the games just aren't usually all that great, being sacrificed for the marketing strategy that is the collectible component game.
Obviously, as this is a game borne of the success of that genre and as it's produced by a company that knows the genre well (in terms of making a buck from it) I was skeptical. But I love World War 2 games and especially naval games and I've never found one that was at once crunchy enough to reward synergistic tactics and at the same time simple enough to play in an hour or two.
Axis & Allies Naval Miniatures appears to have solved this problem in a very satisfactory fashion.
First, the physical goods. A starter kit (around $30 CAD) gets you some simple maps, some terrain counters (islands and shoals), 8 fairly nice six sided dice, and some miniatures. Not enough miniatures, it should be noted, to actually play the game. In fact not enough to even play one side. A booster pack (around $17 CAD) gets you five more units and still probably not enough to play the game. Because each pack endeavours to deliver a balance of Axis and Allied forces and also a balance of unit types, you actually need quite a lot of purchases to play. I initially bought a starer pack and three boosters and was able to field both an Axis and an Allied force of 100 points (the recommended basic game) but the force composition was ahistorical and not very well developed as a synergistic force.
The miniatures themselves are soft plastic 1:1800 scale waterline models with vessels too narrow to stand or too small to be manipulable mounted on a clear plastic base. Aircraft are 1:900 scale which makes them visible and mounted on a clear soft plastic swept stand that's attractive enough for me. The detail on all the models is a little, well, soft but that's mostly because they are soft plastic to avoid damage during shipping and play and as a compromise it's okay by me. Sticklers will be disappointed if they are expecting even the detail of the land variants of Axis & Allies collectible miniatures games though.
The game book is very well written and presented though obviously a little highly decorated to no extra value and printed on the worst available grade of glossy paper. The rules are simple but surprisingly effective -- complexity arises from interesting interconnection between simple design decisions. Each unit also has an information card that gives its vital statistics, a historical note, and a special ability or two.
Play is happily quite rich. The basic game revolves around the capture of three objective markers in the center of the map worth 50 points each. 150 points wins the game and you get the point value of each unit destroyed as well as points for objectives. This is a nicely balanced point system and makes for some great tension between fast capture and concentrated assault tactics. The map itself is marked off in an offset grid (effectively hexagons, but square) and each grid location is a "sector". Ships start in the row closest to the player, submarines start anywhere but the center row, and aircraft start at a special "land base" area or at a carrier able to host them.
Play runs is initiative determined and phased. Initiative is rolled on two six sided dice and the value of any "flagship" vessels added. High roll becomes the "second player" in order to take advantage of the opponent moving first. Ships are moved on one side then the other to the extent of their speed rating, usually 1 or 2 sectors. Aircraft are then placed alternately anywhere on the map (this is a movement abstraction I happen to love -- I don't care to simulate all the vagaries of aircraft movement in a naval simulation, but you may be disappointed).
Next all air defense is resolved. Now every unit has three defensive values: armour, vital armour, and hull. Anyone who has anti-air capability and is in range can take a shot at an aircraft formation. They roll their anti-air value in dice (so an AA value of 5 rolls 5 dice) and count 4s as 1 success, 5s as 1 success, and 6s as 2 successes. If the total successes exceeds the hull value, the targeted air mission is aborted. It goes home. If it exceeds the vital armour, the targeted air unit is destroyed. Hull points are irrelevant to aircraft but for consistency they exist: aircraft have 1 hull point.
Any aircraft that remain and have not aborted now proceed to attack their targets. These might be one of strafing attacks (against ships only), anti-submarine (ASW) attacks, or torpedo attacks (again against ships only, though some units might have special abilities that allow torpedo attacks on submarines). Attacks are resolved much as anti-air -- for ASW and strafing (gunnery), roll the attack dice and add up successes. If the value is higher than the ship's armour it takes one hull point damage. If it is higher than the ship's vital armour, the ship is immediately destroyed. If a ship has only one hull point remaining, it is crippled and gets some new hindrances. If a ship has no hull points remaining, it is destroyed. Torpedo attacks proceed quite differently: roll all your torpedo dice and each 6 does 2 hull points damage to reflect the sub-waterline attack of torpedoes which tends to avoid armour. Remove all destroyed vessels at the end of this phase.
Next all ships attack with gunnery and ASW, pretty much exactly as above. Remove all destroyed vessels at the end of the phase (so even destroyed vessels get a chance to shoot back as they only leave play when the phase is over).
Finally all ships resolve torpedo attacks, again removing destroyed vessels at the end of the phase.
Aircraft now return to base. All aircraft already at a land base with a "rearming" counter remove the counter. If aircraft return to an aircraft carrier, they may fly again immediately in the next turn. If they return to a land base, they acquire a "rearming" counter and cannot fly until the rearming counter is removed.
The synergistic tactics come from building fleets that can mutually assist in anti-submarine, anti-air, and anti-shipping roles. Most vessels are capable of two of the three so a balanced force (and deployment) is absolutely essential -- edge case builds can only defeat other edge case builds that happen to be on the wrong edge (a rock-paper-scissors extreme scenario). Special capabilities tend to enhance the synergies -- some fighters have "escort" abilities that reduce the roll of enemy fighters attacking any bombers in the same sector. Some ships gain a bonus firing on enemy ships that other friendlies have fired upon to simulated spotting fire. Some aircraft have a "combat air patrol" ability that lets them move to a sector occupied by enemy aircraft if it's within 2 sectors of their carrier base.
The play is fast and, as I've said, surprisingly rich. It's not a hardcore simulation for warfare historians, but it also plays out in an hour without special material and requires no knowledge of trigonometry -- this isn't "Harpoon" but nor is it Risk. Or even Axis & Allies for that matter. This is a tight and effective game whose primary drawbacks derive more from its marketing model than any other aspect. It's too expensive by half, but if you have the money to pump into it (I think I hit the sweet spot for unit distribution at around 8 boosters), it's a ton of fun. Make friends with collectors and play with them, perhaps.
Review Summary