Video Game / Axis & Allies

Axis & Allies is a 2004 video game published by Atari, based on the board game of the same name.

The game consists of two game modes. The first is similar to the board game, featuring a turn-based campaign. When invading a territory, the game can then switch to an RTS mode in which the player fights with infantry, half-tracks, and tanks to defeat the enemy.

The second mode is a campaign, one for the Allies and one for the Axis. As the Allies, the campaign follows the historical course of the war, alternating between the British, the Americans, and the Soviets during a number of crucial battles from El Alamein to Okinawa. The Axis campaign is an alternate history that can end in Germany and Japan winning the war.

The game contains examples of:

• Adapted Out: Naval combat is removed from the game. Battleships and carriers are relegated to supporting amphibious landings. Placing hostile naval units alongside each other will generally result in the AI ignoring them even if under fire; enemy ships will not maneuver and the only real danger is the automatically-spawning Combat Air Patrol carriers will deploy when threatened.
  • While various versions of the board game feature them, the RTS does not feature Italy or China as playable factions at all (Italian forces appear in "The Road to Rome" campaign mission but are just unattached German units); France only appears in a single cutscene at the start of the Axis Campaign.
• Alternate-History Nazi Victory: The Axis campaign ends with the Nazis conquering Britain and invading Russia with Japan. At the same time, the Japanese seize Australia, India, and Hawaii. This leaves the United States as the only country left to oppose the Axis.
  • In a somewhat odd subversion, General Kuribayashi's forces are treated as hostile during the Moscow campaign mission, suggesting the Axis itself has fractured with the defeat of Britain; Germany does not appear after this mission, with Japan having the rest of the campaign missions to itself, so we never see this upcoming third World War play out.
• Anachronism Stew: Like the board game, WW2 mode begins in December 1941. However, many of the regiments are equipped with weapons and vehicles that wouldn't be available until later in the war.
  • For some bizarre reason in World War II Mode, the Attack icon is a Beretta 92FS, a very iconic late Cold War weapon which would not even be considered until thirty years after the end of the conflict.
• Anti-Frustration Feature:The "Corps Reorganization" Special Operation allows the player to spawn a Corps HQ truck anywhere on the map, provided they don't already have one built and have the morale points for it; this means that while destroying an enemy HQ is still a wise idea, it isn't going to automatically win the battle, nor does losing your own automatically spell defeat. You can also reorganize and keeping going.
• Artificial Stupidity: The game's AI isn't terribly intelligent, especially in World War II Mode. It does not understand tactics more complicated than the Zerg Rush, will not reposition ships once they've been spotted by aircraft, and will generally not build fortifications of any kind. It makes up for this by its sheer aggression: once it knows where you are, it will do everything in its power to make your life hell, including throwing its entire army at you repeatedly.
• Artistic License – History: Due to how simplified the game is this should be expected, but there are still a few egregious examples, such as US Marines being depicted among the forces at Omaha Beach (the Marines quite famously did not participate in the largest amphibious landing in human history, due to not participating in the European Theater at all). Even more bafflingly, the Marines are likewise not depicted at Guadalcanal, despite this being one of their most famous engagements.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Many of the more powerful unique weapons, like the Japanese Commando Infantry or King Tiger Tanks, are either extremely expensive, not actually effective in battle, or both.
  • German Goliath Infantry could be the poster child for this. While the Goliath Remote Bombs are extremely cool and have the ability to immediately destroy a vehicle in one hit, they cannot be used more than once, so any unit with them attached must retreat back to their own supply lines in order to replace them. Regular Anti Tank Infantry do the same job without sacrificing units to do it.
• Bilingual Bonus: When selected, all units will say something like "Ready for orders!" or "Forward march!" Russian, German, and Japanese units speak in their native languages.
• Boring, but Practical: Any units with the Anti Tank suffix (i.e., AT Infantry and AT Halftracks) are extremely useful given how vehicle-focused the game is; while the various infantry units each have their own use case, AT Halftracks are arguably the only Mechanized unit you should build, possibly excluding Mechanized Artillery.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Brown for the Soviets, red for the Germans, blue for the British, yellow for the Japanese, and green for the Americans. Like most RTS games these can be changed in skirmish mode or online play.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Averted in RTS mode, as the player and AI are both limited to 20 units. In WW2 mode, you can build as many units as you want and then auto-resolve a battle with a 100% success probability. Fighting the RTS battle will still limit you to 20 units, but you *will* be given a Corps HQ for every army approaching by land, and a battleship for every one invading by sea, with an aircraft carrier thrown in for armies with the Air Support perk.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: In WW2 mode, the enemy can attack a territory with overwhelming numbers, but the player can then choose to fight an RTS battle where they might have a better chance at winning.
• Due to the Dead: "Taps" is played when a regiment is wiped out.
• Easy Logistics: Averted. In RTS mode, the player has to extend their supply area as they push deeper into enemy territory. When in a supply area, damaged regiments will regain health and morale in addition to replacements. It is also important to keep ammunition and oil depots well-stocked, otherwise it cuts into the player's monetary income. In WW2 mode, if an army is defeated and has nowhere to retreat to, it will be completely destroyed.
  • Played straight by Supply Depots. The cheapest building in the game, there's no obvious reason to construct them at first, as they don't seem to do anything but increase the player's zone of supply. However, their resource contribution is deceptive, as they actually add an additional +5 to both fuel and ammo (regular depots give +25 but only to their respective resource) once unpacked (what's shown on the recruitment screen is only what the truck provides, just like every other building), and best of all, they don't count against the player's building cap. More advanced players will often eschew regular depots in favor of the Supply Depot, unless they need a sudden influx of resources in a hurry, such as during naval landings.
• Four-Star Badass: Each country has four historical generals who come with a number of special abilities, including resource bonuses, decoys, and devastating weapons. The generals are:
  • Russia: Vasily Chuikov, Ivan Konev, Konstantin Rokossovsky, Georgy Zhukov
  • Germany: Albert Kesselring, Erich von Manstein, Erwin Rommel, Gerd von Rundstedt
  • Britain: Bernard Montgomery, Louis Mountbatten, Archibald Wavell, Orde Wingate
  • Japan: Tadamichi Kuribayashi, Gunichi Mikawa, Chuichi Nagumo, Isoroku Yamamoto
  • United States: Henry Arnold, Dwight Eisenhower, Chester Nimitz, George Patton
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: A somewhat meta example, but unlike similar games, such as Total War, units do not retain experience or ranks between battles in World War II Mode. Every unit is treated as a fresh recruit.
• It's Raining Men: Airborne infantry is one of the units. They can either be deployed at the headquarters, or, for twice the price, dropped anywhere on the map. The Spy and Saboteur special units also count as this, though they are only available to certain specific COs.
• No Swastikas: Zig-Zagged. The flag for Germany is the Reichskriegflagge with an iron cross in the center instead of a swastika. That said, the game does include a number of Waffen-SS insignias for the German division HQs.
• Nuke 'em: One of Admiral Nimitz's special abilities is the atomic bomb.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted. The game uses a fairly generic naming scheme for units and Divisions: they will always be "Nth X Regiment," based on how many of that type of unit have been deployed (i.e, 1st Infantry Division, 3rd Anti-Tank Infantry Regiment, etc.). In World War II Mode, this means, for instance, the 1st Infantry Regiment can fight at both Normandy and Iwo Jima within a month, or even at the same time.
  • In battles where ships are present, it's possible to create two units with the exact same name, as the game considers regiments created from battleships or carriers to be distinct from those created on the ground; it's thus possible to have two different 1st Infantry Regiments assigned to the same Divisional HQ.
• Shown Their Work: While the models are fairly low quality, it's obvious some iconic WWII weapons, like the Thompson or DP-27, are being used by individual soldiers. Even better, the player can click on individual soldiers/vehicles within a regiment, in order to see their various offensive capabilities. Mousing over the damage values, the game will correctly identify the weapon the value is for, even when that weapon would otherwise not be visible, such as British MG bunkers being Vickers Gun emplacements.
• Storming the Beaches: Moving armies across bodies of water prompt this, with battleships providing landing forces and Corps HQs and carriers providing air support and paratroopers. The game's campaign features several of these:
  • At El Alamein, after completing an early objective, reinforcements stage an uncontested landing West of the player's HQ to help.
  • Historically, Guadalcanal was a naval landing, though the game skips that part of the battle.
  • Predictably, the campaign features the Normandy landings; unusually, it depicts the battle from both the American and German perspective.
  • Due to the real nature of the war, the latter missions of both campaigns feature these: Americans landing on Iwo Jima and Okinawa, Germans surging across the English Channel for Operation SEA LION, and Japanese forces conquering Australia and Hawaii.
• Tactical Withdrawal: In WW2 mode, if an army is defeated, the weakest unit is destroyed and the surviving troops will retreat. If they're surrounded and there's nowhere to escape to, the army is completely destroyed.
• That One Level: It would not be a stretch to describe "The Battle of the Bulge" as the hardest mission in the campaign. The player is unable to recruit a Corps HQ and only has command of a handful of Airborne and Engineer Regiments, who have to contend with increasingly strong German counterattacks including heavy armor and air raids, which, owing to the above recruitment inability, means the player cannot replace lost buildings. Even worse, the AI immediately knows where the player is, so you'll have the Luftwaffe knocking on your door within minutes of the mission starting.
• Washington D.C. Invasion: All capitals for the five powers have unique city models; DC specifically appears in custom matches, but can also be occupied in World War II Mode.