The landscape of board games offers a diverse range of experiences, from quick and casual to deeply strategic and immersive. Among the latter, certain games stand out for their complexity and dedication to simulating historical events. One such game is "Campaign for North Africa" (CNA), a wargame that meticulously recreates the North African campaign of World War II.
Map of the North Africa Campaign
A Colossal Undertaking: The Campaign for North Africa
Published by Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) in 1978, "Campaign for North Africa" simulates the entire North African campaign of World War II. It is considered one of the most complex wargames ever published, with ten recommended players and an estimated total playtime of 1,500 hours.
The Wargamer Academy rates the complexity of CNA, on a scale of 1-10, as 10+.
The complete campaign game takes 100 turns, each turn representing one week of game time. A number of shorter scenarios are included that are still long in comparison to other wargames.
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To give an idea of the game's complexity, reviewer Nicholas Palmer outlined the actions for one side's single turn. As a first step, before playing, the player or team must make unit organization charts for every one of the hundreds of counters on their side.
In the mid-1970s, SPI's house magazine Strategy & Tactics gathered feedback from players that indicated the desire for a massive game. Responding to this feedback, SPI envisioned several huge wargames that would be called the "Heuristic Intensive Manual Simulation Series".
In 1976, a team of developers started to create CNA, with Richard Berg responsible for the gigantic map. After six months, all of the other developers had left the project, and Berg was asked to complete the game on his own, which he took two years to complete. Redmond A. Simonsen provided cartography and graphic design.
Most Complicated Board Game Ever
Critic John Kula, writing twenty years after the game's publication, noted that development of a game this size was solely driven by player feedback. "So why produce a game which is unplayable? Well apparently the feedback responses that governed Jim Dunnigan and SPI indicated that gamers wanted such monster games. And true to the old curse, gamers got what they asked for.
Following the demise of SPI, Decision Games acquired the rights to CNA, and in 2016-2017, started the process of streamlining and simplifying the rules, with an advertised publication date of 2020 for the retitled "North African Campaign." After Richard Berg's death in 2019, the prospects of this project was uncertain.
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Critical Reception and Lasting Impact
The initial reception of "Campaign for North Africa" was mixed, with many acknowledging its ambition while questioning its playability.
In Issue 21 of Fire & Movement, Gary Charbonneau wrote, "You may have heard rumors that this game would be unplayable." In Issue 49 of Moves, Thomas G. Pratuch called the game so big that "it defies immediate analysis of the tactical and strategic planning necessary to win the game." However, he called the game's scenarios the most complex designed to date.
In Issue 24 of Phoenix, Bob Campbell called CNA "certainly the best simulation of the desert war yet", despite its length. He found a mismatch between the "simple but laborious" logistics system and the very complex combat system. He especially found the air game to be overly complex, pointing out that designer Richard Berg admitted this in the Designer's Notes. Campbell concluded that the game was "a success, if only a partial success.
In the 1980 book The Complete Book of Wargames, game designer Jon Freeman noted the complete game would take at least 1500 hours to complete, and responded, "Balance? Who cares? To survive is to win." He further commented that this "was not a game, and to consider it as such is a big mistake. It's a history lesson-a pure simulation.
In a retrospective review almost 40 years after CNA's publication, Luke Winkie called the arcane complexity of the game "transparently absurd", pointing out the example that each turn, every unit loses 3% of its fuel due to evaporation, except for British units, which lose 7% because historically they used 50-gallon drums instead of jerry cans.
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In season 11 episode 16 of The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon Cooper suggests that his friends play the game while waiting for Bernadette to go into labor during her overdue pregnancy.
North Africa '41: A New Perspective
Another game, "North Africa '41," represents the campaign in North Africa from Rommel's first offensive in March 1941 to December 1941. Combat units represent regiments, brigades, and battalions.
This game includes Limited and Active ZOCs, Tank shifts, Coastal Shipping between ports, Malta convoy rules, port destruction/repair, and Resource Points. The basic game system borrows heavily from other games in the WWII 19XX series, but there are no ZOC Bonds in this game. Only the ZOCs of motorized units stop enemy movement.
Key Aspects of "North Africa '41"
- Strategic Focus: Concentrates on the critical period of 1941 in North Africa.
- Unit Scale: Units represent regiments, brigades, and battalions.
- Game Mechanics: Features Limited and Active ZOCs, Tank shifts, Coastal Shipping, and Resource Points.
- Simplified ZOCs: Only motorized units exert Zone of Control, streamlining movement rules.
Here’s a simplified comparison table of the main differences between the two games:
| Feature | Campaign for North Africa | North Africa '41 |
|---|---|---|
| Complexity | Extremely High (10+) | High |
| Playtime | 1,500 hours | Varies by scenario |
| Unit Scale | Various | Regiments, Brigades, Battalions |
| Zone of Control | Complex ZOC Bonds | Simplified, Motorized Units Only |
| Scenarios | Full Campaign, Shorter Scenarios | Specific Scenarios |
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