From: Nich Hills Subject: A la recherche du temps perdu Fighting the temptation to post something off-topic (I've been playing with the titles "Nixon: Worse than Stalin?" and "South Carolina: The Croatia of the 1860s" :-( ) I thought I'd add to a recent thread on WWII North African games. The game I'd like to review is Jedko's The African Campaign (TAC) from 1973. This was the first published title by John Edwards. Three of his latter Jedko games, The Russian Campaign, War at Sea and Fortress Europa may be known to Consim-L-ers in their TAHGC versions. I have a soft spot for TAC. It was one of the first three Consims I owned, and one that I played extensively during the seventies. The game has two hard, coloured (yellow, green, blue and black) maps that make an 11" x 38" (28cm x 97cm) playing surface. The map stretches from Misurata (Misurata?!) to Alexandria. Terrain is basic. 1/5 of a movement point for roads. Ridges work a bit like rivers in TAHGC's Anzio - you can freely move along them but it costs all your movement points to cross. Units on a ridge are doubled in defence, unless an attacking unit is on a plateau hex. Tobruk and Bengasi are forts. Units in forts are doubled on defence, do not have to retreat, but lose their ZOCs. There are two turns per month, just like Europa :-) The game goes from December 1940 to December 1942; 50 turns in all. The turns move quickly as each player typically has 10 or less divisions on the board at any time. The Axis win by exiting 12 in-supply strength points of the east- edge of the map at any time. The rules say that have to be kept in supply for a full month; but if you can get 'em off, you can usually keep 'em in supply. The Commonwealth win by denying an Axis win. In practice, if the Allies capture Misurata, it's game over Rommel, thanks for coming. Just as TRC was an attempt to 'do Stalingrad right', TAC is an attempt to 'do Afrika Korps right'. The main mechanism for this is step reduction. At 1:1 or 2:1 results, the worst that can happen is the attacker looses two steps and retreats. The game does not hinge on a single die-roll to capture Tobruk :-) Units are mostly divisions. There are some brigades, regiments and battalions, as well as a Rommel and an 8th Army HQ units. Stacking is two divisions per hex; with brigades, regiments, battalions and replacement counters counting as half a division. An HQ stacks for free. Divisions vary in strength from the two step 2-2 Italian at start divisions, to the mighty five step 9-8 German Panzer division. German and British armoured divisions can also break down into sub- divisional components but these breakdown units are only single- steppers. Some of the Italian units are quite good. The three step 5-6 Arete and Littorio divisions are the equal of almost anything on the Commonwealth side. Even the little infantry divisions have good staying power when stacked in defensive terrain, and are always useful for taking step losses. Commonwealth infantry divisions range from three step 3-6 units (2nd SA, 10th Ind, 51st, 5th Ind) to the impressive four step 6-6 9th Australian. OK, it's an Australian designed game :-) British armoured divisions range from the three step 4-6 2nd Armoured, to the four step 7-6 7th and 1st Armoured. There are replacement counters for Germans, Italians and the Commonwealth. These come as normal and armoured replacements. A replacement restores a lost step to a unit. Three replacements rebuilds a destroyed division at its lowest strength. Only an armoured replacement can be used to restore the final step to bring an armoured unit to tip-top shape. So, how does it play? As mentioned above, the game starts in December 1940. Four Commonwealth divisions are facing eleven Italian infantry divisions and four mechanised brigades. What is the Commonwealth to do? First, insist on using the December 1940 optional rule, that adds two to your die-rolls for the first two turns. Secondly, read the terrain and movement rules *carefully*. You should be able to manoeuvre to attack to 63rd XX and isolate the five units at Sidi Barrani. ZOCs are active, so any Italian survivors adjacent to you will be forced to attack, likely at unfavourable odds. Third, try to defeat the remaining Italians in detail. Any Axis player worth her or his salt will try to place two divisions in each of Tobruk and Bengasi, with other survivors holding the pass near Salum. There is really no way for the Commonwealth player to get to Bengasi before the December '40 rule wears off. Take what you can, but be ready to fall back in Feb/Mar '41 as the Axis reinforce- ments arrive, and your units are withdrawn to be thrown away in Greece. The low-point for the Commonwealth comes in Jan '42, when there are further withdrawals. If the Axis player has not won by mid '42, she or he will typically resign. Overall a simple, tense, exiting and balanced game. As a simulation it is weak compared to more recent games. The supply/reinforcement system gives a *feeling* of verisimilitude, without being realistic. Note 1: This is a review of the 1973 flat box version. There has been a more recent bookcase version that has, among other changes, double sided units. I have not played, nor do I own, this second edition. Note 2: For a more lukewarm review of TAC, see Richard Berg's article in Moves nr 13. Cheers, Nich +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ For the benefit of non-francophones, "A la recherche du temps perdu" means 'in search of lost time'. The Shakespearian phrase 'remembrance of things past' is often used as a non-literal translation. +---------------------------------------------------------------------+