Playing Axis & Allies at FMG Con

Key Designer: Larry Harris
Distributor: Wizards of the Coast

Axis & Allies is a World War II strategy board game. It has a long version history since its development in 1981 and a still-avid and active following. Axis & Allies is one of those games I heard lots about, saw copies of in hobby/game stores (and sometimes even in commercial stores), and yet was nervous to pick up due to the seemingly sprawling nature of the game and intense time requirement it’s rumored to require.

Ultimately, the game mechanics of Axis & Allies are simple. The game can have two to five players split up into two sides – one playing the Axis powers and one playing the Allies. Depending on the version you play, the board game is set up with the appropriate number of miniatures (ships, planes, artillery, naval bases, air bases and infantry) per country at the time that the game starts (for example, the 1940 game will have a slightly-different configuration at its start than the 1941 or 1942 game due to how Axis and Allied powers were positioned at this time). Turns consist of three parts:

1. Purchasing units
2. Making war/attack moves and playing out battle
3. Making non-attack moves and placing the purchased units on the board

As previously mentioned, Axis & Allies still has an avid fan base, and I didn’t have to look far to find a participation demo where we could learn the game and play it for the first time. Since I was a bit intimated, I didn’t want to purchase the game myself and learn/teach game mechanics as a beginner.

My cousin and I attended this year’s annual Field Marshall Gaming Convention (FMG Con) for one day in Oshawa, Ontario. We had no clue what to expect after our adventure to the Amber Diceless RPG convention earlier this year and were surprised to drive out to Oshawa and find ourselves in a military aircraft museum – a fitting environment to learn how to play Axis & Allies for the first time. The building hosting FMG Con itself was quite small, but the feeling of being among people who shared a similar passion for tabletop gaming/pen and paper gaming was more than enough to make the environment a great one.

My cousin and I initially signed up for a four-hour participation demo of Axis & Allies Miniatures but, while waiting for our game to start, were invited to join a couple of guys who were interested in playing Axis & Allies: Global 1940. They gamely took us on despite our complete lack of experience and patiently explained game mechanics to us. Again, mechanics are simple, but the scope of playing out World War II was enormous. My cousin and I found ourselves playing for a solid eight-hours – taking a total of four turns before having to call an experienced gamer to assess the game and call the winner since we had to leave.

I left feeling the satisfaction of having learned something new, met a few great people in a friendly environment, and finding yet another game that was worth investing in. Though the initial investment to start playing is the cost of the board game (you can find decent boards online for about $150), the major investment is in time and energy – the game is certainly large scale and strategic and is not something you can complete in a couple of hours.

I can picture picking up Axis & Allies for myself if I were to find a dedicated group to play with over a series of weeks. In the meantime, if you’re into some serious strategic gaming with historical relevance, I’d recommend Axis & Allies. And if you’re feeling for a friendly environment of table top gaming, I’d recommend visiting FMG Con next year.

After note: I found a YouTube video of my cousin and I in action at FMG Con! Starting to build some great memories with my cousin of our adventures through Hobby Games: The 100 Best

https://youtu.be/74YylLqvw7s

The cover of the Amber Diceless Role Playing Game book

Key Designer: Erick Wujcik

Distributor: Out of Print, but you can purchase the PDF on DriveThruRPG.com

Amber Diceless is a role playing game based on the fictional universe of Amber, found in the Amber novels written by Roger Zelazny written between 1970 to 1991. The game is conducted verbally, requiring no game pieces, dice or boards. Games are begun with an attribute auction, where characters use a set number of points to bid on four different attributes (psyche, strength, endurance and warfare) and items. When the attribute auction ends, players have a better understanding of their characters’ unique skills and how they compare to other characters in the game if they were to meet in, for example, hand-to-hand combat. Scenes are set by the game master and conflicts are resolved through joint narrative description of action by the players and game master.

Amber Diceless was my first role playing game so I’m fairly new (to say the very least) to the role playing scene in general. I purchased the Amber Diceless book years ago, but learning how to play and/or run the game felt daunting, having never seen a game in action before. That’s what led to my decision to pack my staff and take an impromptu road trip to Livonia, Michigan after work at the end of March. I stopped in Waterloo along the way to pick up my cousin so we could attend our very first AmberCon.

When my cousin and I arrived at the Embassy Suites where the convention was being held, we were told that the AmberCon group reserved a board room on the far side of the hotel. When we visited the board room, we were surprised to find a tiny meeting room with only a handful of people in it. We weren’t scheduled to play a game until the next day, but were disappointed to think that we had driven six hours to a convention with only five people in attendance.

Little did we know that games were being played all over the hotel in attendees rooms. The Embassy Suites is perfectly suited to the convention due to having designated seating areas in each guest room. The next morning, my cousin and I arrived early to our game master’s room and waited as fellow players filtered in. There were five of us in total (not including our game master). Since we were joining a campaign that had been running for years, our game master communicated with us via email before our arrival to hammer out character details, forgoing the regular attribute auction.

Once our game master walked out, he dove right into the game, which consisted quite literally of a verbal description of our setting. I was amazed at the level of detail our game master placed into the setting, from the way the room looked that we were supposed to be standing in, to the smells and distinct colours around us, to the tiniest details of our uniforms and gear (we were playing as special ops team members combating descendants of Amber).

Our game lasted seven and a half hours. There were no props, no die, no boards – just six people in a room talking out a scenario as it unfolded before us. It was joint story-telling in action and reminded me of the days when I would get so into a series (ahem, yes, I was a big Potter fan) and would fall into intricate worlds of fan fiction on Potter forums where users each took turns telling another part of the story.

For me, the endearing thing about Amber Diceless was the way it took you away from conversation props (whether that be a smart phone, computer, or even a board and die) and put you face to face with your peers, forcing you to engage in a collaborative manner. Furthermore, just like the books that Amber Diceless is based on, literally anything can go in an Amber game if it makes sense within the parameters of the character you created. The whole concept of the Amber series rests on the fact that there is one world – Amber – and multiple, infinite shadows that exist based on this one world. This means that literally anything you can imagine can be true.

As a person who loves games, I thoroughly enjoyed my time playing Amber Diceless. I left with a deeply-rooted respect for my game master and fellow players, many of who’ve been dedicated to Amber Diceless for decades. As someone who enjoys adventure, I had a kick planning a last minute trip to Michigan. But, more than anything, as someone who loves writing, Amber Diceless rekindled a sense of excitement and possibility, particularly in the realm of storytelling, that I often have to try hard to hang on to. And with so much good in one game, I don’t know what else I can do other than recommend it. The game can strike one as a bit odd upon first hearing about it (even as a game lover, I wasn’t too sure how to wrap my head around Amber Diceless until I actually played it), but you can’t knock it till you try it.

If you’re interested in trying out Amber but don’t know anyone in your area running a game, consider visiting one of the conventions. I was nervous to attend, not knowing anyone and feeling a bit like a party crasher of a continuing campaign, but the Amber bunch is extremely welcoming and everyone I met seemed genuinely to meet new visitors. There are conventions held in Michigan, Portland and Ireland, that I know of. Road trip, anyone?

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