Battle for the Deep review: "A new and unique take on the long-running, beloved Axis & Allies franchise"

Axis & Allies is one of the longest-running and well-known wargames in the board game space, having been around now for over 40 years. For most of that time, its strategic dice-based combat and troop deployment gameplay was relegated to strictly recreating real-world skirmishes and wars such as World War I and II, or the battles in North Africa or the Battle of the Bulge. Now under the care of Renegade Games, the studio is adapting that same classic gameplay fans have come to love and taking it outside of the grit and grime of real-world settings with the "Powered by Axis & Allies" line of titles, with its latest – and second – release, Battle for the Deep. Its undersea warfare has sparked my imagination as to what the future of this series could be, and while it won't necessarily rank amongst the best board games, I hope it acts as a blueprint for similar releases in this line going forward.

Battle for the Deep features & design

• Underwater fantasy wargame
• Uses Axis & Allies mechanics
• Board and tokens are Risk-esque

For those unfamiliar with Axis & Allies, gameplay takes place over a series of rounds, each divided into a series of Phases: Purchase Reinforcements, Combat Move (moving any units that will take part in combat that turn), Conduct Combat, Noncombat Move (moving units that did NOT take part in any combat), Check Stacking Limits (each region can only hold so many units), Deploy Reinforcements, and Set Victory Points. Once a player has taken their turn, it passes to the next, and this continues until either one team reaches 30 combined victory points, if a team controls an enemy's base zone, or after seven rounds of play, at which point whichever group has the most points wins. Much of the core gameplay loop and systems will be familiar to anyone who has played previous editions of the series, allowing you to quickly transition into this latest theater of war.

As the name implies, Battle for the Deep takes the fighting from the land, air, and sea, and puts it far under the waves where brand-new and fantastical factions are waging war. This time around, instead of forces like Italy, Germany, America, or the Soviet Union, players can pick from asymmetric factions such as the Undersea Kingdom, the Leviathans, the war turtles of The Protectors, or the Lovecraftian Denizens of the Deep – each army with unique troops with unique powers and abilities. This alone would greatly set BftD apart from its other A&A peers, but that is just one of a few. Neither the Axis nor the Allies exist under the sea, and alliances are chosen instead by the players, meaning that the team-ups can change from game to game – a feature that wouldn't quite be historically possible in the other titles but makes such a difference here.

On the component side of things, Battle for the Deep is your pretty standard A&A fare – paper rulebook, solid minis, a large game board, and cardboard tokens that leave a bit to be desired. Each of the factions' minis has a distinct look, and it's fun to see little dolphin riders swimming around the board in contrast to large whales and turtles. You certainly won't have any issue telling them apart, which is a plus with games like this that field a bunch of units, and you need to know what you are fighting against before sending your troops into the fray. The included reference cards, one for each player, help with denoting what unit is what and show the progression of turns on the back, but overall, I found them to be a letdown thanks to the lack of descriptions of what the various unit abilities do. Not having this information - information that would be helpful to new and returning A&A players alike - on the reference cards means players will have to keep consulting the rulebook instead. There is plenty of space on the back of the card where they could have put this information, and its omission is a bit of a head-scratcher.

Gameplay

• Unique units add welcome complexity
• Lack of units overall
• Feels more like a race than classic A&A

Each of the four factions has a unique roster of four units that they can take with them into fights. While the stats from one group to the next are nearly identical across the board, featuring a typical "grunt" and heavy units, the additional two units all feel largely unique to that army. This is on top of most units also having unique abilities they can utilize too. These can range from the Undersea Kingdom's Dolphin Rider units that let them move after attack, or, my personal favorite, the Denizens' Tentacles that grab enemy units instead of dealing damage to them. These grabbed units can be used in place of hits on their own forces, turning enemies into cannon fodder against their own army. Seeing how these all played out against one another was a blast, and their accompanying miniatures were a standout highlight of the game for me. More of this in the future, please!

Instead of set areas that each faction starts in, players get to instead choose from a handful of possible options, marking a first for Axis & Allies. The asymmetrical nature of the factions combined with this open-ended deployment direction gives Battle for the Deep an added degree of replayability that the other mainline games lack.

I like the dice-rolling-focused nature of Axis & Allies, and Battle for the Deep captures that feeling splendidly, but if I have one main complaint with this release, it's that I wish the team at Renegade had pushed the new aspects this game offers just a little bit further. I wish that we had more than just four factions, allowing for more flexibility in matchups. I would have been fine keeping it at 2v2 (though I would love 1 faction vs. 1 faction variant rules), requiring players to pick from a larger pool, meaning every faction wouldn't always be on the board. This could additionally be addressed if each faction didn't have only four units they could bring out and instead either had more options available to them (normal A&A games have far more unit options), or perhaps had an either-or situation where you would still only have four options, but two of those slots would have a choice between a couple of options to fill the spot with – decided at the start of the game. Still, as only the second of these "Powered by A&A" experiences, I think Battle for the Deep is a compelling and fun offering whose foundation lends itself well to the side series' future.

If you are coming at Battle for the Deep with previous experience from other Axis & Allies titles, some aspects may take a bit of time to get used to here. Perhaps the biggest adjustment will be that in this game, you won’t be able to carry over unspent resources from one round to the next. In the mainline games, while you may not be able to carry over all of your unspent money, you could bring over some, which isn’t the case here. This is an easy enough thing to homerule in if you and your game crew want to, so go for it. The other difference I felt was that this game came off a bit more aggressive than the mainline titles, with a heavier focus on attacking, thanks to that base capture win condition. Perhaps it’s more just on how my gaming group plays in general, but the whole experience felt more like a race than a traditional A&A game, which some players may prefer and others may be put off by. I enjoyed it and thought it made the game feel more exciting and quicker.

Should you buy Battle for the Deep?

The aesthetic and theme for Battle for the Deep may not be quite my cup of tea, but it has gotten my imagination running wild for what could be. The foundations set up here, I would love to see taken into the science fiction realm with spaceships and a galactic conflict or in a high fantasy realm where factions of orcs and elves and more do battle – slinging spells and shooting arrows. As someone who also spent time checking out Renegade's first "Powered by Axis & Allies" title, G.I. Joe: Battle for the Arctic, this second entry feels far more like a solid wargame and less a novelty focused on nostalgia. Battle for the Deep is a fun and engaging entry point into the Axis & Allies ecosystem, or as an option if you aren't particularly attracted to the real-world war setting of their flagship entries.

Ratings

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How we tested Battle for the Deep - Powered by Axis & Allies

Our reviewer played Battle for the Deep multiple times and with other gamers to get a better sense of how it performed under different circumstances. They also used their experience with the Axis & Allies franchise to compare and contrast.

To find out more about our process, don't miss this guide to how we test board games. You can also check out the complete GamesRadar+ reviews policy.

Looking for another recommendation? It's worth dropping in on our guide to the best 2-player board games, or the best adult board games.