The Annual Axis & Allies Event

Axis & Allies Europe Board at the Game Start
Odenton, MD
November 29, 2024

 Black Friday is the day the guys gather to play Axis & Allies. This year we chose to play the Axis & Allies Europe version to fill the day. This version is suited to lower number of players and it provides a satisfying 3 vs 1 format with players playing USA, UK, and Soviet Union on the Allies side and one player playing the Axis. 

I wound up defending Moscow as the Soviet Union player. I was teamed with two grandsons who played USA and UK against their Dad, the Axis player. 

The game proceeded fairly close to history with Germany laying siege to Leningrad and Stalingrad and making it to the outskirts of Moscow before the UK and USA could amass enough forces to thankfully require a major German armored army to move out of Eastern Poland and head back to liberate Berlin. I write thankfully, because the Soviet armies were exhausted and out of reserves. 

And so with a nod to history, the Allies won the game. Winning this game required one of the four capitals to be captured and held for a complete round. Berlin was captured, but before it could be held an entire round it was liberated by the aforementioned German armored army. Subsequently, with successive assaults by the UK and then USA forces, Berlin fell and the game was ended because Germany had insufficient forces remaining to mount another capital liberating counterattack.

This year, I was on the winning side.

-- Bob Doan, Odenton, MD