Axis and Allies and Zombies First Impressions

There is basically no mid-2000's trend I have been as ready to die as zombies. So, when I opened one of my Christmas presents to see Axis and Allies and Zombies, I was a bit skeptical. On the one hand, Axis and Allies is one of my all-time favorite board games, and I'm generally willing to give any variant on it a try. On the other, this looked a little gimmicky.

I'm pleasantly surprised to say that having played it, its a pretty fun experience, and a lot less gimmicky than the premise would suggest. The game is essentially a streamlined copy of 1941, with additional zombie components. There was also an additional deck of cards to make this variant compatible with 1942 2nd Edition. Unfortunately, this copy of the board game was completely unplayable, because "Coastal China" was misprinted as "Costal China." TWICE, no less.

Joking aside, playing on the 1941 board was refreshing for me as I haven't spent a lot of time cracking it yet and was not coming in with knowledge of ideal openings and counter-play. As it stands though, zombies threw a lot of theory-crafting out of the window.

The zombies were perfectly flavored, as they were a force to be reckoned with and a constant source of annoyance, while never being compelling enough to make me stop what I was doing and focus purely on them. They introduced a new calculus into every attack, and generally seem to benefit the defender as they constituted a second stack of enemies to work your way through after your assault on a territory. They also invite a reconsideration of much of the A&A meta as far as army composition goes. Playing as Germany, I increasingly began to wonder if I should simply build artillery instead of infantry so as not to feed the armies of the undead. They definitely caused us to shift our casualty-taking practices as the game went on, opting to lose artillery instead of infantry so as not to create a bigger problem for ourselves. There were a couple frustrating but flavorful moments where a player was trying to eliminate a single zombie, who scored a hit which we reflexively took on an infantryman, only to have to fight it again on the next turn.

The "Desperate Measures" on each card felt fun, but I do think they may have helped us a little too much versus the zombies, taking significant numbers off the board by the end. Nonetheless, large areas of Africa alongside an emerging "Zombie Republic of China" were on the board by the end of the game. Japan in particular seems to have a rough time with Zombies, with a high percentage of island territories that are isolated and difficult to retake alongside the necessity of always bringing infantry along on transports that can in turn be converted.

The scenario techs to me actually seemed like the weakest and most gimmicky aspect, and on subsequent playthroughs I may remove them and the cards that grant you them for free.

I don't have enough experience on the 1941 board to intelligently discuss much of the balance between factions. However, my general sense is that zombies might significantly help the Allies over the Axis, because as always the Axis is focused on early territory acquisition and the zombies served as an impediment to that. At any rate, we ended at the bottom of round 5, with the Allies clearly in the lead after my early invasion of Moscow was pushed back by the zombie hordes of dead Russians while Dani had difficulty holding onto her mainland Asia territories as Japan.

One comment from Kader and Amanda (who in their generosity gave me AAZ for Christmas), was that this format was really good for new or learning players, which I completely agree with. Stripping down the complexity of 1942 into the simplified format of 1941, alongside the flavorful inclusion of Zombies struck me as a good way to get new players into the wonderful world of A&A. Indeed, it got Danielle and I thinking about other possible gimmick scenarios (alien invasion anyone?) that could help make A&A less daunting for people to get into.

At any rate, while nothing will ever replace my love of 1940 Global, AAZ is a fun and worthy addition to anyone's game shelf, and should delight both experienced and new A&A players alike.