by Zachary Grant, 23 February 2025
Welcome to the last installment of the How (Not) to Win North Africa ‘41. This final essay will be a wee bit different, mainly because, spoiler alert, I concede the game before the final impulse. At the end of the AAR, we’ll go back and review my mistakes and hopefully give you examples to avoid when playing this game.
First, like last turn, there are a few events that occur for the Allies we can discuss before getting to the first impulse. At the start of turn 7, the Allies get South African brigades as reinforcements. Two recon battalions and a motorized infantry brigade are available for immediate deployment and two infantry battalions are put into reserves. The reserves arrive on a specific turn later in the game, or if the Axis forces reach specific locations on the map. The Allied player also needs to withdraw a British brigade this turn. The Allied player selects the 16th brigade in Tobruk. I’d like to think after their stellar accomplishment of halting the German attack into Tobruk, they are sent back to Alexandria for a well deserved rest.
Finally, the Axis lose their air superiority. Why? Because on June 22, 1941 the Axis forces began Operation Barbarossa and invaded the Soviet Union. This is reflected in the game by the Germans no longer enjoying air superiority. The skies above North Africa are now contested. This frees up the Allies considerably. Until now, they were prevented from purchasing Air Support with Resource Points (RP), and the Allies couldn’t use air power to provide defensive Air Support in combat nor as a positive modifier to Determined Defense rolls.
Events of the first impulse
The Allies know they need to reopen their supply lines. The attacking Italian force is weak, so brushing them aside shouldn’t be a problem. The Allied commander also knows there are only three impulses left in the scenario. Even if the Axis forces take Bardia, Tobruk is in Allied control, so the situation looks good for them.
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The Allied commander gets a RP for his event roll and repairs the Tobruk port, returning it to full capacity. Next he begins the task of pulling his defensive line back to defend Bardia and attack the Italians. The 3rd Hussars advance from the south to sandwich the Ariete’s 7th Tank battalion between the Allied forces led by the 7th Royal Tank Regiment (RTR).
The 3rd Indian brigade, along with support from the 1st King’s Royal Rifle Corps and armor from the 1st and 5th RTRs, overwhelm the Ariete 32nd Tankette regiment and cause a Defender Shattered event, which promptly eliminates the poor tankettes. The Defender Shattered event also gives this stack of Allied units the ability to advance four hexes, which will occur in the combat phase, so they aren’t quite done yet.
Next the Brits set their sights on Ariete’s 7th Tank battalion and attack it from the north and south. This battle is lopsided in favor of the Brits because of those blasted Matildas.
Their tank rating is far better than the Italian M14/41 tanks. However, fortune smiles on the Italians and the Allied commander gets the worst result possible and both sides take a step loss. The Italians retreat to the safety of the Brescia 19th regiment.
Finally, the 3rd Indian brigade along with the supporting armor can advance as a result of the Defender Shattered maneuver. They move to conduct a Breakthrough attack on the Brescia 19th infantry regiment and the disrupted Ariete 7th Tank battalion.
The British bad luck continues and they again get the worst possible combat outcome, which results in the Ariete 7th Tank battalion being eliminated and the 5th RTR taking a step loss.
As the Allied turn concludes, the 3rd Hussars advance to join the 7th RTR and the South African brigade, to bolster the defensive position near Capuzzo.
With the Italian attempt to cut off the Allied supply lines crushed, a strong new Allied defensive line formed blocking the way east, and only three impulses left for the Axis to accomplish the impossible, I conceded the game to my opponent and we end the game.
Conclusion & Discussion
This is the final episode in a running playthrough of North Africa ’41 from GMT Games; you can find the links to all published episodes at the end of article, with new ones each Sunday
I’ll conclude by reflecting back on some of my mistakes and consider ways to avoid them so you don’t have to experience the same problems. In some cases, it was just a matter of poor luck. For example, the two failed bombing raids in a row of the Tobruk port due to bad dice rolls; however, the majority of the situations were due to poor decisions on my part. Let’s reminisce…
The first blunder was leaving the DAK HQ and a supply truck unguarded with an enemy unit, in this case the 1st King’s Dragoon Guard Recon battalion, within range to attack. Not paying attention to the enemy movement value and not appreciating how stacking limits worked, cost me valuable time and RPs bringing back both the DAK HQ and the truck from the eliminated box. To avoid this problem, simply pay attention and know the rules!
Second, not dealing with Tobruk’s port capacity sooner was a huge mistake. One of the opportunity costs of using RPs to bring back the DAK HQ and truck was I couldn’t use those RPs to attempt bombing raids. Bombing raids have a 66% chance of success, so I should have been trying to reduce Tobruk’s port capacity as soon as possible, especially since the Allied player didn’t try to defend Benghazi. This would have made my plan of cutting off the supply lines to Tobruk much more effective. Tobruk would still be a very difficult fortification to take; however, if the Allied commander can’t support the units in Tobruk with supply, that would make capturing Tobruk easier.
Conducting bombing raids isn’t something that is 100% guaranteed. The event roll may not provide the necessary RP, or Bombing Raid event, to conduct the bombing mission. You might get something else that is equally useful, like an Air Support marker, or if you are unfortunate, something that isn’t useful at all. Even if you can conduct the bombing raid, it may not be successful, so bombing Tobruck as early and often as possible is something the Axis player needs to consider. Bombing Tobruk also forces the Allied commander to either use their precious RPs to repair Tobruk, or to do something else. Those opportunity costs add up for both players.
Third, not having sufficient supplies and forces to cut off Tobruk was also a mistake. Yes, the Italians move slowly and the Axis forces are under a time constraint; however, my first attempt to encircle Tobruk was too weak. If Tobruk’s port capacity had been reduced earlier, the number of Allied units available for the counter attack would have been lower and my encirclement might have worked. As it was, I barely was able to escape from being encircled by the Allied forces.
I could have avoided this by better planning. This is not as easy as it sounds, especially when it is your first game and your opponent is doing their best to thwart your plans.
The fourth mistake was being tempted to take Tobruk instead of continuing towards Bardia. By deviating from my plan of attacking at Bardia and cutting off the supply lines there, I wasted both time and resources.
Yes, this was a more successful encirclement of Tobruk; however, as Gen Lavarack’s letter to his mother attests, Tobruk’s port was at full capacity, which meant this was not a hardship for the Allied player.
And this concludes my AAR. If you made it this far, thank you for reading! I know there are many other points we could discuss about what to avoid while playing North Africa ‘41. I think these four points highlight the major mistakes I made. Have you played this game? Do you have cautionary tales with which you want to regale us? Maybe you have a grand winning strategy to share? Navigate over to the Armchair Dragoon forums for North Africa ‘41 and tell us about them!
NORTH AFRICA ’41 AAR
PART 1 ~ PART 2 ~ PART 3 ~ PART 4 ~ PART 5 ~ PART 6 ~ PART 7 ~ PART 8
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