Hi there, I realize that I perhaps I should have put this in alternative or house rules instead, but it’s so small a rule change I figured this section would be the best. My friends and I have recently gotten into Axis and Allies, we’ve played what I think amounts to four games and are about to play our fifth this weekend. We all like the idea of world domination, so we play for that. Unfortunately, the end of the games are always incredibly boring. Of the four games the Allies have won twice and the Axis have won twice and the end has always been the same, either the USA is left alive, practically intact, with a ton of infantry to clear out, or the only Axis territories left are Japan and Germany. The result being of course huge time costing buildups followed by one enormous battle. So we’re thinking about playing for victory cities in hopes that that problem will be avoided.
Here’s our dilemma: The rulebook says either play for 8, 10, or 12 victory cities. To me these seem like bad numbers though. (Please keep in mind I’m new, this might sound profoundly ignorant) It seems like the axis have to great an advantage playing for 8 cities, as Leningrad and Calcutta are just a stone throws away.
Playing for 10 cities seems like it wouldn’t be great either, given our goals of avoiding the situations where a side has clearly won, yet an enormous buildup and battle is needed to claim victory. With 10 there’s alto of avenues for the Allies to win without taking the two capitals, but I have a feeling Western Europe, Southern Europe, and Manila could be so insanely defended that attacks would be incredibly difficult and almost unreasonable. It also seems like the Axis would have to take over everything but the US to win, my only problem with that being that an invasion of the UK seems also, unreasonably difficult.
Obviously we don’t want to play for 12 cities anymore, so the question I’m posing is, am I wrong about 8 and 10 victory cities? Which one would be better for our needs? And would playing for 9 cities work? 9 Seems like a good number to me, because it means that the Axis could win by only crushing Russia, a point which seems like the clear ending point of Allied hope (sorry, again I’m new if I’m wrong about that), while the Allies would win by crushing either Japan or Germany, or decimating the two Axis players equally, perhaps by taking Paris, Shanghai and Manila/Rome, a point in the game which seems to me to be the ending point of Axis hope.
I’ve also read a thread on this board about moving victory cities, does anyone have any suggestions for that? I always thought there should be a Capetown and a Canberra, but that’s just me.
