Axis & Allies War at Sea Review (Wizards of the Coast)
Axis & Allies War at Sea (A&AWAS) is a collectable miniatures game put out by Wizards of the Coast and follows up to their successful Axis & Allies Miniatures game. I picked up the starter set because it claimed it was a “Two-player Starter Set” so, me being me, I figured there would be enough pieces in there to at least get a good feel for the game. Well that wasn’t the case. The recommended game size is 100 pts and for both the Axis and the Allies I had about 50 pts per side. With that said, know that if you are getting into the game you’ll need to go in for at least $100 just to have enough to field 100 pts per side with a few units to swap in and out.
The gameplay itself is very structured and well organized. The attack order makes logical sense and the game flows well once you learn the structured order. There is what could be considered a problem for some people in terms of the initiative. At the beginning of your turn players roll two dice and add a bonus from their flagship and the winner gets to move and act second in all the phases. Overall it isn’t a huge impact in the games steps save movement. I am typically not one to complain about initiative and moving first but in this game with the contained play field as well as the limited ships per side this can actually be a big advantage during a turn. It also impacts the assigning of planes to fly missions. During the Air Mission phase player’s alternate aircraft placement and moving second allows you to see where your opponent assigns the majority of their planes and you’ll have a chance to react to them. It should also be noted that Wizards decided to make the assignment of air units in an alternating system which makes me wonder why they stuck with the IGOUGO system for ship movement.
The simplistic gameplay, though it really doesn’t give the all encompassing feeling of a full naval game, still has an interesting relation between the air/sea/sub mixture. Balance is key in this game because if you concede one of those three fronts you’ll quickly see your fleet going to Davie Jones’ Locker. As I mentioned in my first paragraph the starter set did not provide enough models to get a feel for the relationship between these three fronts so if you do get into this game figure on at least two starters and two or three boosters and you should have a good selection of ships.
Let me also take a moment to discuss the models. Hmm…What to say. Some are amazing…some are ehh…Overall the sculpting is passable. There are other companies that put ships that are smaller and have more detail but for the most part the models in A&AWAS work. Since the fine detail is lacking the ships have a slightly rounded and cartoony look and of course the rare and uncommon ships look better than their more common counterparts. The paint job as well is hit or miss. Some look great (Aircraft carriers) and others are just undercoated with a wash (destroyers). Once again the rarer the card the better the model looks so not only do the uncommon and rare cards perform better on the seas but aesthetically they look a lot better as well.
Overall this game is good. It isn’t great, it isn’t a must play…its just good fun filler. The rules don’t offer much in the way of innovation and they are pretty vanilla if you ask me. It fills a nice spot where it doesn’t dominate a game night where it is the only game you’ll play (like other miniature games tend to do) but provides a nice 60 minute diversion where you can pick a fleet out and try your hand against your opponent’s fleet and see what happens…And at times it does feel like you’re playing a miniature game.
Rating: 3 out of 5
‘Til Next Time - Happy Gaming
LvT
