The Mood is Set, Slow Jazz and Scented Candles and Axis and Allies

I am really curious to meet other Axis and Allies players. Just to see what they are like. When I close my eyes I picture balding dudes, living at home, eating Nutter Butters. Or dorky pimply kids, listening to the score of The Lord of the Rings and posting on forums (I also imagine the title of their forum to go along the lines of "how to use Brazil to prevent German naval advance and re-take Africa").

I am indeed a Axis and Allies devotee, as are many of my closest friends. My bachelor party in fact  featured a drunkenly epic match, in which all strategy and thought was thrown out the window. I'm not balding (yet, keeping fingers crossed. Man that would be terrible, my nose is not meant to go along with a naked skull.). I do enjoy Nutter Butters, but only on occasion. I don't seek them out at bodegas or anything.

Chuck Norris only plays the game with real bullets.

However, I do enjoy the game greatly. If anything, it provides an opportunity for me and my buddies to shoot the shit a little, drink some coffee, and catch up. We are all kind of interspersed between New York City, Long Island and Boston, and we were even more so when I was living in Philadelphia.

For those who don't know, the game is basically Risk but the game puts you in the middle of World War II. There's two sides, Axis and Allies. If you didn't know that those were the two sides of World War II, well just go ahead and either watch a movie, read a book, or slam your forehead into a brick wall repeatedly. Players assume the roles of Russia, USA, and Great Britain (Allies, eediot) or Germany, Japan, or Italy (if you play our nerdy mod of the game, yes there are modifications to this game. Stop laughing at us. Go watch some Honey Boo Boo or something).

Playing the game is always an event (an average game will easily take 3 to 4 hours), and always leads to a fair share of intimidation, smack talking ("You're taking Caucus already! P-U-S-S-Diamond.") and nervous sips of coffee. What can I say, me and my friends enjoy discussing the merits of invading Hawaii on the first turn.

The game is traditionally played via its physical board game set. This was how I learned to play, and is probably the best way to learn how to play. You just need to deal with about thousand little pieces that can be lost or choke a small dog or baby (if you're a real cunning mind you will realize that the little pieces are modeled after actual war units made by each country). We instead opt to play online, via TripleA, a desktop version of the game. Don't mean to boast, but I'm kind of a big deal. I can easily beat the computer within a few turns and on its hardest setting (the computer opponent is actually crazier than a bag of cats and will just randomly move pieces around without a thought as what is going on in the game).

As you can guess, my wife loves hates the thought of a lovely evening  turning to an Axis and Allies gank-fest. But I get it. However I would like to call out fellow "Joint Chiefs" to say let's play soon. I'd also like to thank Brittany for putting up with the occasional AAA game night, or accepting a dorky out of nowhere reference to the game. And for agreeing to marry me, as for many a women, this might have been a real game-changer.

Back to my original point, if someone out there reads this and enjoys this game, please do comment.