My next top 10 game is Axis & Allies, #5 on the top 10 list on my BGG profile. I’m making it my next blog post because I played it around the same time I was playing Magic: The Gathering, which was the first top 10 game I posted about. My preference was to play either the United States or Japan, and focus on the Pacific theater. I much preferred the naval maneuvering to the slog of the two-front war in Europe.

At the time that I played this game extensively, in the 1980s and 1990s, we didn’t have all the new versions available which focus on specific theaters or phases of the war, with all the new units and new rules. There were fan-made expansions available, with pieces that didn’t match the base game, but they were hard to come by.

While we liked Axis & Allies, my friends and I found the game as designed too restrictive. So we invented our own variant, where we played on home made maps, and set up our positions randomly, like you would in a game of Risk. Eventually we mixed in other games, and created a whole slew of new units using pieces from Fortress America and Supremacy. We called our Frankenstein monster of a wargame simply “The Game” and played it obsessively, and partied pretty hard while we did. Games would last all weekend long. Those sure were some great times, in a more carefree phase of my life.

So it was really The Game that I played extensively, not actually Axis & Allies, but that is why I put Axis & Allies on my top 10 list. I created a GeekList which breaks it all down, as best as I can remember it: Games that made up ‘The Game’.

I like that so many reimplementations and expansions to the original game have come out since the days when I played it. I did get a chance to play Axis & Allies: Pacific once (as the United States) and thorougly enjoyed it (possibly because I won). But for the most part I haven’t done much wargaming since the 2000s began. I don’t hang out with my old wargamer buddies any more; we’ve all moved far apart. So it goes in the life of a gamer.