Friday, August 16, 2019

The African Campaign - 1973 Style

Yesterday Richard and I decided on playing a game that would be less taxing on the brain.

I had never played this game in its heyday, being always a bit of an SPI devote or more likely captive.  This might have been the second time I've played it (I would have to check), but it felt warmly familiar.  It gave a great and tense game having a very cruel CRT.  By April 1942 however the Axis had reached their high water mark and it would have been all downhill after the failure of their last desperate attacks.  My Commonwealth forces had been worn thin, but there was more on the way. 

Great game!

7 comments:

  1. A classic game! The unit stepped loss system was an interesting innovation. Unfortunately it doesn't have the denseness of the other great Jedko game, The Russian Campaign. Once you get the hang of it, IMO the Alamein position is pretty much unbreakable unless the Axis player has some outrageous luck. Cheers, Dave.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, it is hard work attacking. Richard was good in pressing the attack and had some useful contact results, but it becomes a battle of attrition and without a good lucky sequence the Axis will eventually bleed out.

      Delete
  2. I have never seen this one, in person. I wonder if it is at the same scale as The Gamers/MMP's excellent Afrika? Afrika, to me, is a classic.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's 46 years old. The unit scale is division/brigade. With two turns per month. There was a similar game from SPI I played a bit around the same time called Panzer Armee Afrika.

      Delete
    2. If you want to play a more up to date version there are links on Consimworld to the complete rules and official errata for The African Campaign, Designer Signature Edition (2017). This updates Jedko 2nd ed 1973. Let me know if you need any help finding them ... Cheers, Dave

      Delete
    3. Thanks.

      Errata: https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/154605/official-errata-v12-african-campaign

      Game Description: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/233016/african-campaign-designer-signature-edition

      But I have to say the old 1973 game was playing well.

      Delete
    4. Yes, I saw BoardGameGeek had the errata but I didn't see the full (free!!!) rules download there, which you can get from CSW. It has some extra optional rules that I intend to get round to trying...one day! Cheers, Dave

      Delete