Sorry if this isn’t the correct place to put this, I wasn’t sure where else it belonged. I suppose this could be customization, but my thought process was on the potential of an official A&A game being made, and so realizing their existing units and style of play would be adapted.
Just wanting to start discussion here for fun. If Axis and Allies were to come out with a new game soon/next, would any of you be interested in it being a North Africa campaign game?
My initial envision of this would be more in line to the D-Day, Battle of the Bulge, Guadalcanal games. All the other games have a very obvious sense of finality to them, something you couldn’t do with a limited theater like North Africa, as there would be a whole world at war still around that you don’t see, and the victor of this game wouldn’t decide alone.
I will have to admit that I have not had the pleasure of playing Battle of the Bulge or Guadalcanal, so I can’t speak for certain what the mechanics are there, or if at all similar to D-Day.
But while I say “in line to” those three games, I don’t necessarily mean the mechanics need to be uniquely different than the standard A&A games.
So I’m curious on three parts here:
In terms of #1, I think that may depend a bit on #2 and #3. I could see using a standard A&A format if using the whole Mediterranean theater. Factories at Rome, maybe Tunis(?), Cairo, Marseilles maybe (for Germans). Depending on the time period, like a general “factory” coming from the Atlantic to represent USA. From there you would buy and place units like normal. Initial gut reaction says game ends when either the Allies capture Tunis, or the Axis capture Cairo.
Though I could see this getting a unique rule set like the other three mentioned above too. If doing early war, you could have a similar type of reinforcement chart for getting new units on the board. Maybe you’d have to wait until a certain turn before German Afrika Korps units would join the game. You could have special rules in place to show the dessert affecting combat and movement.
If localized to just North Africa, you could do some kind of roll against Axis reinforcements to simulate Allied raids out of Malta. Malta’s defenses really pounded Axis convoy lines to Tunis in the war, to the point where it was a major blunder that the Axis didn’t take the island when it may have been easy to do so early on.
For #2, I’d be a little torn. While I find the early war campaigns in North Africa to be a bit more compelling than mid-war, this would mean no American forces would be used in the game. It would be UK units only, really. I’d find it hard to believe the makers would consider South African and/or Australian troops (as awesome as that would be), so you’d have your UK pieces on the board against Italian and German. Map would probably reach from, say, Tunis to Cairo/The Suez I suppose?
The mid-war scenario would of course include the USA, and maybe even the French. You’d probably expand the map to include Morocco and Algeria for this one. Would be fun to add some kind of Vichy mechanic to this game. Perhaps Vichy units have to roll a dice each time Allied units enter one of their zones. On a certain roll they would flip and join the Allies, while the other roll would keep them Vichy and force combat in the territory.
For #3, I’d almost call this a toss up for me. I think having this localized to land warfare in the dessert would be compelling. Though it would also add a lot to the game to have the Mediterranean naval war play a factor, and force the Axis to have to consider different points of when and how to defend certain areas.
Anyways, that’s what I have for now. Would love to get feed back on this if anyone is interested in it!
Chris
Sounds interesting. I do love your Vichy roll going either way though. That would work in other games.
Gonna depend on how far out of Africa you gonna go. To much and it be a long game.
Just have maybe Germans, Italy and UK fighting with a few Anzac guys throwing in.
You gonna use hexes ? I’d rather see a bunch of smaller territories representing like 6-8 territories on a global map broken down. You gonna just have 1 round of combat each per turn ? Weather ? Terrain? Ha list goes and on and on. Lol
@SS-GEN Thanks for the reply!
Yeah, I’ve adopted that Vichy idea in other games in the past, essentially for the 1940 games. It’s simple, but adds some unknowns, and stays true to history. When the Allies landed in Torch, they had no idea what to expect from the French forces. While not much blood was shed against them, there were varying degrees of French resistance to the landings, from surrendering immediately, to straight up changing sides, to fighting back with all they had. So I’ve done a simple rule: once the Allies attack a Vichy territory, you roll a dice for each unit. 1-3 they become Allied, 4-6 they become Axis (were neutral before) and fight back. You do this for each territory as it’s attacked, helping with the uncertainty of what different garrisons might do. If the Axis move into Vichy territories at all, the French forces fight against them immediately.
Anyways, I’m getting off track :)
So yes, the Vichy aspect would be part of this, on top of the rest.
I agree with you, you couldn’t go too far out of Africa. I wouldn’t envision this game going any further North than Rome. Maybe even just to Reggio di Calabria at the tip of the boot even. That was only a thought if the Mediterranean wanted to be used at all. This would still encompass Sicily and Malta, so that would still be interesting. If not, I say just a map of North Africa, stretching from Morocco to Cairo, or Tunisia to Cairo, depending on the time line preferred.
So sounds like, by your omission of mentioning the USA, you’re in favor of an early war scenario?
Given that my thought process here is an A&A official game, I don’t think hexes is envisioned here. I think Battle of the Bulge does that, but again, have not played. I suppose you could, but I’d be in favor of what you say, chopping up territories into multiple smaller ones.
I think a one round of combat situation would work for this game. A lot of North African fights weren’t as drawn out as in other theaters (save some of the more famous ones). To that end, I’d even say one round of combat, then everyone disengages until the next round. The dessert made communications hard, I think this would well simulate that small tactical battles that had to happen.
Again, given the scope of an A&A game, I don’t know well how weather or terrain may fit into the mold. I think you maybe have something done to simulate the dessert. Whether that be no blitzing for combat, affecting free moving, etc., but not sure. But that’s part of why I’ve posted here! To see what others may think! I agree, lost to consider here, though the guys on this forum are usually up for that :)
