Axis & Allies Naval Miniatures: War At Sea Review

Axis & Allies Naval Miniatures: War At Sea is a collectible miniature game involving navy ships, subs, and planes from WWII.  Despite the 'Axis & Allies' title it actually has nothing to do with the board game of the same name other than being owned by the same parent company, Wizards of the Coast (WotC).  WotC sells them in a starter pack and a booster pack.  You get pretty much everything you need to play a game in the starter pack.  It comes with dice, map, rulebook, and 9 random minis (with stat cards).  The booster pack comes with 5 random minis with stat cards.  The entire set consists of 64 units which fall into several categories: rare (battleships, carriers, & heavy cruisers), uncommon (light cruisers, bomber aircraft, & auxiliary ships), and common (destroyers, subs, & fighter aircraft).

The game rules are fairly simple.  There are a couple different ways you can play, but the most common is the standard game which consists of 100 point forces fighting over 3 objectives.  Each unit has a point value based on its fighting ability in the game.  A 100 point per side game will have around 4-8 units and should be similar battle effectiveness.  Each unit has a standard set of abilities such as speed, armor, gunnery values, etc. and some have special abilities.  The special abilities add historical 'flavor' to the game.  You use dice rolls to determine the outcome of attacks with various modifiers tagged on due to certain circumstances and special abilities.  The game ends when one side has earned enough points to win based on objectives taken and enemy units destroyed.  Forces are usually axis vs. allies, but optional rules exist to make the forces more historical if desired such as by country, year, and class limits (i.e. only one HMS Hood).

There are several reasons why this game has become popular with casual non-wargamers and grognards alike.  It's not the most accurate simulation of WWII naval warfare out there.  However, the rules are easy and fast paced for the casual player.  Battle outcomes seem realistic enough to keep the hardcore player happy as well.  It's not perfect, but they really have a nice balance between the two spectrums of gaming rules.  To illustrate, I'll present the 'wife test'.  For any wargamer who has a wife or girlfriend, you know that she will never be interested in your wargames or at least not nearly as much as you are!  However, my wife will play this game to the point of knowing all the rules fairly well.  Now my wife won't even try Axis & Allies board games.  This is not an isolated incident as other fellow players have had similar experiences.  I've also had some rpg players (i.e. non-wargamers) pick up the game quickly and easily.  Likewise, this has kept more experienced player's attention for several years now.  I think this shows what a great ruleset this is.

The biggest downside is that this game like all collectible type games can become 'plastic crack'.  The minis aren't cheap at about $15 for 5 minis in a booster pack.  Realistically if you want at least one of each (and you will!), you will probably spend around $200 total for a case plus any missing rare units.  The miniature quality varies.  Some look great with nice detail and paint job while others look terrible with some of the smaller ships being 'banana' shaped.  This was corrected in later sets, but was common in the earlier sets.

Each country has its own 'flavor'.  You wouldn't necessarily play a German or United States fleet the same.  The United States seems to be the strongest.  I believe this is due to the US getting more late war units than other forces and the points possibly being too low for some units.  Some people think this is much bigger advantage, but I haven't had any (more) problems playing against American fleets than any other country.  The two biggest factors tend to be lucky dice rolls and individual player strategy.  However, the US is definitely more forgiving of mistakes for a new player.

Overall, this is a favorite for myself and other fellow gamers.  It gets heavy rotation on gaming nights.  This game also seems to have a designer at WotC that truly cares about the game, so there has been a great dialog between him and the gaming community since the games introduction.  Also, WotC appears to be working on a set IV and V, so this game appears to have 'long legs' and a bright future.  I would highly recommend to anyone interested in trying it out.

1. HMAS Canberra (R)
2. HMAS Sydney (U)
   
3. Gloire (U)
4. Le Terrible (C)
5. Richelieu (R)
6. HMS Ajax (U)
7. HMS Truculent (C)
8. HMS Javelin (C)
9. HMS Rodney (R)
10. HMS Exeter (R)
11. Swordfish (C)
12. Sea Hurricane (C)
13. HMS Ark Royal (R)
14. HMS Hood (R)
15. F4F Wildcat (C)
16. PBY Catalina (U)
17. SBD Dauntless (C)
18. TBD Devastator (C)
    
19. USS Atlanta (R)
20. PT Boat (C)
21. USS Baltimore (R)
22. SS Jeremiah O'Brien (U)
23. USS Boise (U)
24. USS Barb (C)
25. USS Princeton (R)
26. USS Fletcher (C)
27. USS Salt Lake City (R)
28. USS Samuel B. Roberts (C)
29. USS Tennessee (R)
30. USS St Lo (U)
31. USS Washington (R)
32. USS Enterprise (R)
33. USS Iowa (R)
34. Admiral Graf Spee (R)
35. Koln (U)
36. Nordmark (U)
37. Z20 Karl Galster (C)
38. Ju 87B Stuka (C)
39. FW 200 Kondor (U)
40. U 510 (C)
41. Scharnhorst (R)
42. Bismarck (R)
43. Bolzano (R)
44. Emanuele Filiberto Duca d'Aosta (U)
45. Vittorio Veneto (R)
46. Motor Torpedo Boat (C)
47. Luca Tarigo (C)
48. Ambra (C)
49. A6M2 "Zeke" (C)
50. B5N2 "Kate" (C)
51. Myoko (R)
52. Shoho (U)
53. Tone (R)
54. Jintsu (U)
55. D3A"Val" (C)
56. G4M "Betty" (U)
57. I-19 (C)
58. Yukikaze (C)
59. Kinai Maru (U)
60. Type 13 Subchaser (C)
61. Kongo (R)
62. Shokaku (R)
63. Akagi (R)
64. Yamato (R)

This is just the setlist from the original War at Sea setlist.  As of Jan. 2010, there are two other sets (Task Force and Flank Speed) currently out with another called Condition Zebra expected this Spring or Summer.