I have very fond memories of (original) Axis and Allies. I sold my copy before moving to Australia and it’s one of the few things that I regret not having shipped over - mind you, if the comments on http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/363445 are anything to go by then trying to ship a Gamemaster game would probably have resulted in me having to write this review from Guantanamo Bay. Recently I thought about reinvesting in a copy, but searching on the Geek revealed that not only had they revised the original game but there were a plethora of spin-offs focusing on specific theatres of war. I remained unconvinced. Why would you revise Axis and Allies? Isn’t that like revising <PERSON>? And losing the epic global focus to concentrate purely on who controlled a small cowshed just outside Nantes didn’t sound too attractive either. But I was reliably informed that some of the other A&A games were quite good, with Guadacanal being the pick of the bunch. After reading a session report that made the game sound pretty exciting (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/354240) I thought it might be worth taking a risk and making the purchase. So I did. And this is my review of the game.
Components
Ho-hum. I don’t normally think about making comments on the components when I write a review. My feeling is that the general quality of game components these days is very good, and that a game must have either really excellent or really broken components to warrant their mention in a review. But it’s National "Mention Components in a Game Review" day today so I feel compelled.
Well, the components in A&A: Guadalcanal are very good. You would expect this, seeing as the game comes from major publisher Wizards of the Coast/Avalon Hill/Hasbro/Whatever Company We’ve Swallowed Up Today. As a result, production standards are pretty high across the board and that can only be a good thing. 304
Chalk one up for faceless mega-global corporations!
The game board is excellent quality and the plastic game pieces (let’s face it, they’re the real reason anyone buys A&A games) are splendid for both adults and children alike - though they’ll jam painfully in the throat of a two-year old girl. Or so I've heard. The only probably I had with them was that it took me a few hours to become totally comfortable with what all the pieces are. It’s an endless succession of tiny warships with jagged skylines, and it led to a few "Is that a Cruiser or a Destroyer?" moments for the first couple of turns. Once you realise that Destroyers have a flat aft (or ‘backside’ to use the non-nautical term) you’ll be fine.
You know what? I even liked the player reference cards. Normally I despise these things, but I guess that comes from the fact that most of the games I play are Euros and as such they have player reference postage stamps with a type-font chosen by ants. A&A: Guadalcanal’s cards contain everything that you need to know and are a nice big size. I’m talking ‘You-Must-Be-Compensating-For-Something’ big here. And I like them.
The only thing I don’t like is the Battlebox. I don’t have a problem with the system (I’ll talk a bit more about combat under the ‘Mechanics’ section), but rather I have a problem with the Battlebox itself. It’s clearly designed to try and make the combat flow easier, but it’s clumsy and awkward. The purist in me is suspicious about how you can give twelve dice a really good shake in a box so small, while the consumer in me searches it for damage after every combat phase. I remain sceptical about its randomising qualities, and suspect that it won’t survive for as long as the rest of the game components. I've seen some interesting workarounds on the BGG site, so clearly I'm not the only one dissatisfied with it.
The rules are fine and quite well written, but there is a misprint concerning the number of reinforcement points each player gets and some other ambiguities. These things are mostly cleared up by the FAQ and Errata (though I’m still not sure if multiple Submarines in a sea zone all have to declare targets before they roll or if you can do it one at a time).
It’s also worth mentioning that the Allied Cruisers comes in Japanese colours, and the Axis Cruisers in American colours. 386