For children of the '80s, few rivalries are as nostalgic as the one between G.I. Joe and Cobra, with their high-tech vehicles, creative codenames, and the red and blue lasers their weapons shot. For longtime board game players, the Axis & Allies series of war board games may hold a similar nostalgia with its large amounts of miniatures, its emphasis on strategy, and tense dice rolls, all set among the height of World War II. Now under the care of Renegade Game Studios, Axis & Allies are letting players experience the confrontations between the Joes and Cobra in the new G.I. Joe: Battle for the Arctic (minus the colorful lasers, unfortunately).
Battle for the Arctic Circle puts up to four players in the boots of either G.I. Joe (playing as Keelhaul and Snow Job) or Cobra (as Destro and Cobra Commander) in a battle to control the North Pole, as both sides vie for control of points around the map and establish their hold on the Arctic Circle. From the moment you open the box, it’s clear that the goal of this game is to give the younger and more inexperienced audience a fun and interesting on-ramp to the wider world of Axis & Allies offerings, and I think the team at Renegade Game Studios succeeds.
Popping off the box lid, I was greeted with the familiar small plastic miniatures and the other usual accouterments of an A&A title, just with a G.I. Joe flair. For fans who have played previous versions of Axis & Allies, you will feel right at home here. Turns are still broken up the same way – you buy new units at the beginning of your turn, have your separate combat move and non-combat move phases, and battles with their attacker vs. defender rolls are all still here – but everything is just a bit more condensed.
The number of miniatures is rather small, meaning players won’t need to contend with managing massive armies around the map or rolling for giant battles. With a smaller map, you won’t be earning large amounts of Reinforcement Points (Arctic Circle’s equivalent of IPCs in other A&A games) to buy more units, and along with other subtle tweaks, Battle for the Arctic Circle is a far less imposing beast for new players to tackle. That said, this game does have some entirely unique mechanics and tweaks that also set it apart, some of which I enjoyed more than others.
In a first for the A&A series, Battle for the Arctic Circle abandons the real-world geographical boundaries separating areas and uses hexes, a decision that works out really well. I appreciate the real-world borders in the previous games from an immersion sense, but they are also one of the biggest issues I have with the other editions, where everything can just start feeling cramped – an issue I was happy to say I didn't encounter here. While this is also due in part to having fewer units to contend with overall, there is no denying that the larger, uniform hex spaces played a role too. I wouldn't complain if Renegade adopts this method in future games as well (something more likely to happen in future spin-off games like Battle for the Arctic Circle than mainline games, to be fair).
Another new addition unique to this G.I. Joe variant of A&A comes in the form of the diabolic “Weather Dominator” device that the Cobra forces have access to on their turns. This dastardly piece of machinery, for the cost of a single RP, can turn a single non-land-only hex into an ice-covered tile that can be traversed by land units. This is a neat feature, and it proves to be incredibly important to use as Cobra to try to quickly capture nearby victory point tiles. Cobra starts with a significantly lower amount of RP to spend each turn, so using the Dominator to score some early points is a must. I really like the concept of it as well; a weather-controlling device being used by the bad guys is a quintessential ’80s cartoon story trope, and I’m here for it. To keep things fair, the Joes can use their cruiser ships to try and break up the ice, which can lead to some rather unfortunate situations where Cobra units are stranded in enemy territory without backup.
Perhaps the biggest change are the unique commander powers that each player gets. While there are fewer armies to take command of in this game (only four as opposed to the more common five or six armies in the mainline A&A games), each commander has a special ability that can be triggered if the correct conditions are met. Once a turn after damage is assigned, for example, Cobra Commander can sacrifice his own units to deal additional hits to the enemy (yes, Cobra Commander has kamikaze units). Snow Job's commander power grants their land units an additional space of movement during their non-combat movement phase.
In principle, I enjoy these unique powers, but I also found them not to all be created equally, with the Joes' powers being far more usable than Cobra’s – especially Destro’s. In Destro’s case, he gains a bonus whenever he attacks a Joe-controlled tile that contains six or more units, a scenario I perhaps encountered only once or twice during all my plays of the game. Had the ability applied when he was defending as well, it would be far more reliable or impactful. However, considering Destro has to attack to gain the bonus, it made the ability rarely used, which made playing as Destro less exciting than the others.
I like the idea of the commanders having special abilities, adding a slight asymmetrical component, but the balancing of the skills currently on offer felt lacking. I wish that each side had additional commanders to choose from, with teams being able to pick only two to use. Regardlessy, the whole thing is a neat idea and a fun mix-up within the A&A system that I would like to see carried over into future spin-off titles.
