I am considering pre-ordering this game, is it worth it?
@King_Of_Tanks well, as one of the play testers, I certainly think it is.
@AndrewAAGamer How would you rate it out of 10? and how would you rank it amongst other versions?
@King_Of_Tanks
North Africa is a Scenario game, like D-Day, Battle of the Bulge and Guadalcanal. It focuses on the North African Coastal area and the Med, including Malta. This is a twofer game. There are two scenarios, one where the Axis has the initiative and one where the Allies have the initiative, so basically you are buying two games for the price of one.
Short Review:
Time to play – Rommel’s Last Push (Axis Initiative 14 Turns) around 6 hours. Operation Torch (Allies Initiative 8 Turns) around 3 hours.
Number of Players – All of the Powers are playable enough to support 4 individual Players though in Rommel’s Last Push the US Player does not enter the game till just before the midway point.
Board – The game Board is absolutely beautiful and more importantly it is the heaviest card stock of any of the Axis and Allies games. It comes with two boards that you place together and the map spaces are HUGE! Very impressive.
Units – There are new units, like scout cars, trucks and anti-tank guns. There are some new sculpts too for all the Powers. Spare units are included to create your own scenarios; pretty cool. Sea mines and land mines are included on card stock.
Game Play – The game tries to represent the resource poor North African Campaign for both sides using three principles; Supply, Stacking Limits and Unit Limits. 1) The Supply System, while being a simple concept, really does work well as you have to be very careful with managing your supply to both attack and defend or you will have disastrous consequences; just like the real war. 2) There is an 8 unit stacking limit, just like D-Day, to keep battles small. Unlike D-day, if you have the supply, you may attack multiple rounds. 3) You may not chip air and sea units. You can only buy what comes in the game as sculpts keeping air and sea forces small. While the battle for the Med is really important, especially in trying to destroy convoys, this is a ground war and it feels like it.
Combat is more complicated than a normal Axis and Allies game to reward players who spend the time understanding the nuances but not too complicated to deter people from playing. As and Axis and Allies player you can’t just pick up the game and play; you have to understand the new rules and exceptions to the rules. As a serious player I love this concept.
Flanking is introduced with flanking units attacking at an advantage. Land mines and sea mines play an important part of the game. How you Buy and where you Place your reinforcements is huge as there are many choices.
Victory – There are 3 different Victory levels Total, Major and Minor. They are based on what territories a Power controls at the end of the game. As a Playtester it was our expectation that Totals would be rare and based on huge swings in dice or experience. Majors would be the more common result of hard-fought games. Minors would occur where two top players with fair dice would battle it out for the small victory.
To me, D-Day is the best Scenario game out there. The reason being it is a) very simple to play, b) either side can win and c) it is not uncommon for the game to come down to the last dice roll on the last turn. North Africa is a) more complicated than D-Day. Not complicated like the old Avalon Hill games – ugh, just more complicated than a normal Axis and Allies game. B) The sides are balanced, either side has an equal chance to win. C) Many of our test games came down to the last turn to determine the victor.
Rating – If you don’t mind a slightly more complicated scenario game 9.5. If you want a game as simple as a typical Axis and Allies game 8.5. Both ratings were dropped by 0.5 for the only detriment to the game; the British scout cars came out way too small unfortunately.
Personally I am thrilled to have a copy of this great game.
@King_Of_Tanks said in Is it worth it?:
how would you rank it amongst other versions?
Guess I forgot to do this part.
D-Day - 10
North Africa - 9.5
Guadalcanal - 8
Battle of the Bulge - 5.5
@AndrewAAGamer thank you very much for your time , putting together your answer.
I preordered a long time ago and live In England. I am desperately waiting for my copy to arrive. (As was my 8 year old.)
@AndrewAAGamer It sounds awesome! Thank you for writing a thorough review, I am definitely going to buy the game.
@AndrewAAGamer I just played my first game today, veteran’s day, 2024. My A&A group that plays mostly Blood Bath rules tried it out at our local friendly games store (The Portal, Manchester, CT) and by the end of the game I bought a copy from the store before heading home. Everything you said about this game was 100% accurate. I have to admit that I was hesitant to try it because of the lower game piece count vs G40 or Bloodbath. I was worried it would be like the 1942 edition and very shallow. I was wrong.
The scope and scale of the game makes the piece count justified because the real emphasis is logistics and supply which is fascinating from a gameplay perspective. It was my first game; I played the Operation Torch version in a 3-player game as the US/Free French. The other two players had 2-3 games under their belt and were introducing me to it.
The tug of war of logistics and supply were refreshing compared to base/advanced versions of other A&A games. The rules looked crunchy to me before sitting in front of the set up board, but when I was there in person with the game it came intuitively to me despite being very different from every other A&A game.
It felt very balanced and as the allies player I was constantly thinking of axis moves that I could do in the next play-through that would alter the game dynamic from what we did this game. The new units were unique and fun, the logistical aspect of the game added an element of forethought that adds to the strategic dynamic I wasn’t expecting.
After discovering the Bloodbath version of G40 I thought that I would not ever play a version of A&A that could compete for my attention, this one has hands down. It’s fun and easy with a depth that makes it’s replay value significant.
Bottom line, I’m looking forward to playing it many more times. 9.5/10 (yes, the jeeps are too small!).
@ZehKaiser87 Thank you for your review! I am definitely going to try getting a copy.
@ZehKaiser87 Welcome to the gaming world of North Africa. :)
Great news! I have purchased a copy of North Africa and am awaiting delivery! Thank you to all who gave a review of the game, it has made me very excited about playing the newest edition to the franchise.
Im thrilled to have 4 copies of this game. Its easily the best theater game
For context I am a long time AA player, I have played many versions starting with Classic. My brother got me the game for Christmas and we just finished two playthroughs, one with each set up. I thought the game was excellent, the rules are quite complicated to start but I though each new mechanic actually worked really well and made the game both challenging and on point from a historical flavor perspective 10/10 for me highly recommend for anyone who likes Axis and Allies and/or WW2 war games.
Hi Everyone
My son and I finished another game of North Africa. We have all of the other A&A games except Anniversary.
North Africa is an absolute blast and we are both liking it. It has different types of units for each country including stats and costs. So its very in depth.
The limited units and balancing supplies makes it feel like a limited theater of war, which it was. There can be back and forth towards the push of Egypt and the mines are just fun!
My son won just in time on turn 14!
