Avalon Hill, the old board game maker best known for military war games, created a zombie version of its perennial favorite, Axis & Allies. It’s called Axis & Allies & Zombies and has an MSRP of $40. Amazon has it for $33.
Although I bought and sometimes even played war games back in the late 80s and early 90s, I never got into Axis & Allies. I was a fan of Squad Leader. I played it a lot when I was stationed in Upstate New York at Griffiss Air Force Base. Looking back, I was a war game snob. I looked down on Axis & Allies because it had plastic tokens and was made by Milton Bradley.
In retrospect, that doesn’t really make a lot of sense. Just because it used plastic tokens and not cardboard counters doesn’t mean it wasn’t a quality war game. Just because Milton Bradley made Axis & Allies didn’t mean it lacked quality. As history shows, Avalon Hill only lives on now because Hasbro acquired the brand and uses it to publish the Axis & Allies series of board games. Do they still produce the Squad Leader series of games?
Nope.
Axis & Allies & Zombies is streamlined for “quick” play
The thing I remember about Axis & Allies was a game could take six hours to play. That seemed like a long time for a board game. This zombie version of the game doesn’t seem to have that issue. It claims to have been “streamlined for quick play.” What’s that mean in minutes? They claim a game takes only 90 to 180 minutes.
I’m going to put this on my list for Santa this Christmas. Even if I never play it, I will enjoy reading the rules and putting it on the shelf next to the other games in my collection I haven’t gotten around to playing yet. I buy games and then never play them. It’s what I do.