Recently, Beamdog announced a July 31 release date for Axis & Allies 1942 Online, the official adaption of the classic board game Axis & Allies Second Edition.
Axis & Allies is a series of World War II strategy board games that are revered by both history buffs and strategy game enthusiasts around the globe. In the second edition of the board game, there are five major powers that struggle for world domination: Germany and Japan for the Axis powers, with the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union comprising the Allies powers. The game supports 2-5 players, with each player controlling one or more of the Axis or Allies powers. Players control the war-time economy and the military forces of their chosen nation(s), with victory going to the side that either destroys their opponents on the battlefield or liberates/occupies the greatest cities in the world. These cities include Washington, London, Leningrad, Moscow, Calcutta, San Francisco, Berlin, Paris, Rome, Shanghai, Manila, and Tokyo.
Axis & Allies Online allows players to play via a variety of methods. These include Online Multiplayer, Hot Seat, or a Single Player mode against a computer AI. To elaborate, the Online Multiplayer mode includes asynchronous gameplay. As defined by Giant Bomb, asynchronous gameplay is a term "... applied to online interactions in video games where players participate in shared activity, but not concurrently." Players will be able to make a move, log off, and then log back on when they can make a move. Given that the game averages out for over 4 hours, this is a very good decision.
There will also be some in-game tutorials to help new players get a handle on the game, as well as selectable victory conditions, over 20 minutes of new period-appropriate music, and hotsteat play, just in case you have some buddies over and want to play some Axis & Allies gameplay without having to drag out your battered physical copy.
What do you think of this announcement? Have you ever played Axis & Allies? Will this be your first time playing it? Let us know in the comments!
