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The Campaign for North Africa

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18 Sep 2017 22:16 #254446 by Shellhead
Just read a nice article about The Campaign for North Africa:

kotaku.com/the-notorious-board-game-that...-to-compl-1818510912

Anybody here ever give it a try? My childhood best friend bought this game in 1979, but never finished figuring out the rules before he moved away in 1981. So I have at least seen the box and looked through the components. The 1,500 hour estimate is daunting, given that I spent probably 650 hours either prepping or playing my 4-year D&D 3.5 campaign.
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18 Sep 2017 22:34 #254449 by Michael Barnes
That is a far better piece of games journalism than that stupid 40 minute TI4 commercial.

Very well done, professional games writing. Would that we had more work like that and less Kickstarter preview videos.
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19 Sep 2017 09:42 #254461 by ThirstyMan
Funny you should mention it but I'm just about to buy it as a 'grail' game.

I'm a sucker for monster wargames. As long as we have VASSAL, I'm all in.

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19 Sep 2017 10:20 - 19 Sep 2017 10:21 #254466 by SebastianBludd
So much good stuff in that article, though I'm disappointed to find out that the "pasta rule" isn't even historically accurate. I guess I'll have to switch to the fuel reserves rule as an example of this game's rules granularity.

I never considered the notion that this game's design was, partially, an exercise in extreme simulation for simulation's sake and that it was never intended to be completed. I also appreciated some of the nods to historical context and it made me want a retrospective on the late 70's wargaming scene (without resorting to talking to the grumpy graybeards on Consimworld, that is).

Having read some of the comments, one wonders if it would be possible to modernize the design in a way that satirizes modern streamlined/hybrid designs, much in the same way that the original reads as a satire - intentional or not - of 70's wargames. For instance, you could handle some of the bookkeeping with apps or spreadsheet macros and frame it as an alternate history exploration, "What if Rommel had access to a laptop?" It reminds me of a History Channel show on Gettysburg I saw where one of the historians said that someone once asked him how Gettysburg would have been changed by more modern firearms and his response was something like, "Forget the guns, I'd rather have access to walkie talkies."
Last edit: 19 Sep 2017 10:21 by SebastianBludd.
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19 Sep 2017 10:40 #254469 by Gary Sax
Someone on my fb posted about War in the Pacific in response to this article. I wish this article was about that game instead---that one is an absurd exercise in simulation, just about as ridiculous, but it was actually tested and played. I feel like it deserves the honor more than Berg's troll effort.
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19 Sep 2017 11:07 #254473 by RobertB
www.amazon.com/comprehensive-guide-board...B8JJTHM5Q8XPX32E5QMN

I think this author's opinion was that back in the day, AH was more into playability than SPI, and that SPI actually stood for 'Simulation Priesthood Incarnate'.

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19 Sep 2017 16:26 #254499 by Mr. White
I agree. This was great!
I don't read board game reviews or previews (sorry, gents!) but these sort of documentary articles do have my interest. Even for games I have no interest in playing.

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19 Sep 2017 17:41 #254505 by Cranberries
Berg's attitude is really irritating and makes me want to steer clear of anything he's designed.
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19 Sep 2017 17:46 - 19 Sep 2017 17:48 #254507 by Gary Sax
Same. Luckily there are very few games he has made which look interesting to me. Probably only like Pax Romana. And his games are almost always badly tested due to his (described) attitude about designing vs. developing responsibilities. Which... like he's not wrong about? But the real full staffed company making games era in wargaming he comes from is long dead.

I see him trolling Dr. Mabuse on facebook and I don't know why Doc puts up with it.
Last edit: 19 Sep 2017 17:48 by Gary Sax.
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