Axis and Allies: 1941

I took delivery yesterday of two copies of the Axis and Allies: 1941 WW2 strategic level board game as part of my WW2 project. These two are in addition to the original 2004 edition and the revised 1942 version. As usual I was only interested in the miniatures as I have planned many uses for these.

The 1941 edition of the Axis and Allies game is a hugely popular, almost introductory version of the game. It has been designed to an inexpensive version of the ‘fuller’ editions and so a number of cost cutting measures are in place. To begin with cardboard counters are used for the strength chips and the miniatures count is down at 160 rather than the 370 for the 1942 version. The choice of miniatures is also quite limited although they are all new sculpts (except for the infantry figures) not seen in other versions.

For the Allies (which are for the purposes of the game are the UK, USSR and the USA) their heavy bomber is the Lancaster, the fighter is the P40, the battleship is HMS Hood, the carrier is the Soviet unfinished ship with an unpronounceable name, the destroyer is the USS Sumner and the merchantman is a UK Fort class. For the armour they have a JS 2. For the Axis (being the German and Japanese) the heavy bomber is a Heinkel 111 and the fighter is the FW190. The battleship is a Kongo class and the carrier is the Akagi. The destroyer is an Akitzuki class and the merchantman is a generic ‘Maru’ type. Finally, the tank is a Tiger 1.

The selection of models. I have used the UK and Japanese colours as they tend to show up better in the photographs. Of course I forgot the carriers....The infantry figures are the same as for the other games in the series.

I have now acquired copies of the original 2004 edition, the 1942 set and the two 1941 copies. The extra bits I need I can get from Historical Boardgaming - this will be the Italians and the other ships and aircraft (from the two 1940 sets) and the all important transport models for the land forces. The models are OK and will for in nicely with the existing collection and the forces are coming together nicely.

The P40 is very useful as I can use it for the RAF in the desert and also for the Russians. The FW190 could, bu dint of some careful filing and painting could be used for some radial engined fighters from Russia and Japan. Some of the other fighters could also be converted in a similar way. The merchantmen are particularly useful and so AMCs and commerce raiders will feature in due course. Some of the other ships also lend themselves to conversions with the advantage that as they are fairly basic detail-wise any chopping about will not be so problematic.

So all in all then the project is taking shape nicely and I have a good selection of ships to be going along with. It would not be a problem adding some missing types from some commercial ranges - Navwar for one or perhaps C in C for 1/4800th scale models.

Best I get busy then....