For those not familiar with Timegate Studios, they are the guys who developed the highly popular Kohan series. In wise move on there part, when Timegate implemented Axis and Allies, they kept the formula of the game very similar to the Kohan series. If you enjoy these other Timegate titles, you will more than likely love this game as well. The only major difference between the Kohans and Axis and Allies is the setting.

The game is of course set in World War II and has the user playing the roles of the main five forces employed in the second great war: United States, Great Britain, Russia, Germany and Japan. The game play is standard RTS style, build up your armies and use them to annihilate the opposition. In the fashion of the Kohan series, instead of controlling individual units you control company sized elements. This control scheme does a few things to improve your RTS experience. First, it greatly increases the actual number of units you control creating much more realistic depictions of the battles. Second, it eliminates the need for intense micromanagement. Those who are die-hard RTS fans may see this as a flaw, claiming that it makes the game too easy. They may be right, but I still enjoyed the game immensely.

Similar to Kohan, Axis and Allies incorporates the notion of supply lines. The basic premise being that when you are behind your supply lines, your companies will get healed if wounded, or refreshed with new infantry or vehicles if you have lost some in battle. This shifts the balance in favor of defense, because when you’re fighting on your own turf, you are continually being supplied while the attacker is not. The attacker is then required to develop an overwhelming force or figure out some way to supply his troops while engaged. A design with these qualities makes for a very realistic portrayal of war and a very balanced RTS game.

Another simplification that Axis and Allies makes is it eliminates the notion of farming. Instead of farming for raw materials like in Warcraft or Age of Empires, your buildings produce them. Each new building you erect adds to your supply capability. The normal Division Headquarters that allow you to deploy different types of units will give you additional cash. Ammo Depots and Oil Depots supply ammunition and oil that are part of the cost of running your army. This actually fits better with Axis and Allies than it does with the other games in the Kohan series since modern military installations engaged in battle would hardly be expected to run oil refineries or finance their own operations. Not having to farm adds realism and lets you concentrate on finding your enemy and crushing him into the ground.

The final similarity between Axis and Allies and the Kohan series is the existence of heroes. In Axis and Allies, they are represented as the famous commanders from World War II. There are twenty in all, four for each country, but here are a five you might recognize: Generals Patton and Eisenhower and Admiral Nimitz for the good guys and Field Marshal Rommel “Desert Fox” and Admiral Yamamoto for the bad guys. Each of these World War II heroes brings different Special Operations capabilities to the table.

The Japanese have a banzai charge that makes your units go temporarily berserk increasing their attacks and a kamikaze attack that crashes a plane into a target location causing massive damage. Americans get Atomic Bomb that does a significant amount of damage to a target area. Russians get Communist Zeal that increases speed, attack and defense for a period of time, and Germans have a Blitzkrieg that provides similar buffs. There are several more that lack the particular flavor of the countries they come with, but they are no less effective at providing a needed edge against your adversary. Each ability requires you to spend experience points that you earn by killing your opponents units and they have refresh timers so you can’t use them all the time. Timing is critical to ensure that these valuable abilities are not wasted and are used to their fullest advantage.

So that’s Axis and Allies. It’s basically a Kohan game set in World War II. Like the Kohan games, it’s company based eliminating the pain of micromanaging units, has the same notion of supplies, does not require farming at all and has a similar notion of heroes. It’s pretty simple, if you like the Kohan series you’ll probably enjoy this game. If you desire the hectic nature of more traditional real time strategy games, you may not appreciate the simplifications made here. In any case, Axis and Allies is a fun game that may not win any awards, but is definitely worth price of admission.