Airfix Battles - A Review

I had not intended to give this game a full review due to it having nothing whatsoever to do with the World of the Undead, but it garnered sufficient interest in my last Monthly Musings post that I felt it deserved more attention. Airfix Battles is a World War 2 squad level skirmish board-game produced by Modiphius. I bought my copy because of my fascination with Airfix as a young lad. My very first war-games used Airfix WW2 toy soldiers and models. I must have bought hundreds of Airfix figures and dozens of their models. Because I didn't know any better they got painted in a mix of Humbrol matt and gloss paints. As long as the colours looked right I didn't care.
As I grew older I wanted to play with them with a set of rules. I can't remember which was my first wargaming rulebook but I bought a few and I mixed and matched the rules I liked the most. I primarily concentrated on the Allied invasion of Europe in 1944 and my largest armies were those of the American, British and German forces. Once I seriously got into WW2 wargaming (mid 1970's) I collected figures and models from Japanese companies such as Fujimi and Hasegawa (who remembers them?) and Airfix's main rival, Matchbox. So, when Modiphius announced the launch of Airfix Battles (not as a Kickstarter, surprisingly enough) I took notice as nostalgic memories of my first forays into war-gaming resurfaced. The fact that the game only cost £24.99 made it even more attractive to me.That's not a bad price for a board-game these days.

Back cover of the Airfix Battles Introductory Set

I quote this intro from the Modiphius website. "Whether it’s British commandos, US Marines or Germany’s Afrika Korps, Airfix’s 1/72 scale soldiers have been fighting their wars across carpets, dining tables and gardens for decades.
Airfix is a fondly remembered part of everyone's childhood and the company are famous for their line of injection-moulded plastic aircraft, tanks and soldiers.  The Airfix brand has been synonymous with model kits for years and now it’s back with a vengeance, with Airfix Battles bringing those adventures to life and its campaigns to a tabletop near you.

Playable with all your existing Airfix figures and vehicles, Airfix Battles Introductory Set comes with everything you need to play exciting World War Two battles straight out of the box with the Introductory Set. This includes die cut cardboard counters for tanks, infantry and guns in case you don't have any figures to hand. Airfix Battles also lets you plan your army using the Force Deck. Draw the cards or select the ones you need to build an exciting army to challenge your friends.
Set up the battle using step-by-step instructions in the Mission book and you're ready to play. Each player has a hand of Command Cards to move and make their forces fight, bring in air-strikes or artillery support. You'll never know what your opponent is going to do next!
The game is designed to get you playing quickly, with fast and fun rules so you can play several times in an afternoon or evening with typical missions lasting from 30-60 minutes."

Contents include -

• 10 Six sided dice
• 2 Double-sided A2 (420mm by 594mm) Maps
• Over 100 cardboard counters of US & German tanks, infantry and terrain!
• 1 x 16 page Mission Book
• 1 x 32 page Rule Book including rules for solo play up to 4 players
• 1 x 54 Card Command Deck
• 1 x 54 Card Force Deck (tanks, infantry, guns, officers, specialists)

One of the game maps, measuring 5 by 7 big squares.

My verdict of this game is highly favourable. I like it because it takes so little time to complete a mission scenario. I like it because the rules are so easy to learn. The Mission Book takes you through a series of scenarios, adding new rules to each scenario so you're not overwhelmed by having to learn everything at once. I like it because it uses counters instead of figures, although the makers do encourage players to use their existing Airfix figures and models instead of the counters. I'll stick with the counters because I don't fancy painting up yet more figures, which I'd have to buy. No, thank you! I sold all of my old 1/72 scale figures and models many years ago. If only I had known back then what I know now!
My good friend and fellow blogger, Steve, bought a similar WW2 game called Memoir 44 and I might have started collecting it if Airfix Battles hadn't come along when it did. Both games share many similarities, not just in their setting but in their rules as well. I mean no disrespect to Steve or fans of Memoir 44, which is a very fine game, but I'm glad I opted for Airfix Battles. If I had succumbed to buying Memoir 44, I'd have ended up spending a fortune on collecting it and its many supplements and the sheer amount of miniature figures that come with the game would have just swamped me. I doubt if they would ever have got painted.
Much as I like Airfix Battles, I do have one minor criticism of it to make. I feel you do not get enough counters of the infantry and vehicles. For example, if you wanted to field an all infantry force you could choose four or five basic infantry squads but you only get counters to make up two squads. The same is true of the vehicles, where each counter usually has a tank on one side and a half track on the other. To make full use of the options for force generation you need more counters. I guess if you're using figures and models instead of the counters it won't be a problem but I thought it worth mentioning anyway.
Modiphius have plans for greatly expanding this game, probably in a similar manner to Memoir 44 to include other theatres of war in WW2 (North Africa, the Pacific and Russia for example). Next on their schedule is the launch of the Airfix Battles Collector’s Edition, which will introduce new rules to expand your game, as well as showing you how to move your battles from the board to war-games terrain with movement in inches or centimetres instead of squares. The book will contain fantastic photography of games in action to inspire you as well as a much bigger campaign to fight your way through. It is due out sometime this summer.
I know a lot of gamers will have cut their teeth on playing WW2 war-games, and may still do. If that is you, then I can highly recommend Airfix Battles to you. It is fast, easy to learn, easy to play, cheaply priced and a lot of fun. What more could you ask from a game?