How (Not) to Win at North Africa ’41 – Part 1

Zachary Grant, 5 January 2025

Greetings and welcome to a new After Action Report (AAR) series called, “How (Not) to Win at North Africa ’41” which I hope to be a humorous look at what you shouldn’t do while playing North Africa ’41. Before I begin, let me make it clear what this is and what it isn’t. If you are looking for an article about North Africa ’41’s rules or a winning strategy, please stop now and move on to the next great article here at the Armchair Dragoons. I’d recommend something by RockyMountainNavy. Instead, this will be an AAR highlighting my tactical and strategic mistakes. If you are looking to learn something, maybe you can learn to avoid my mistakes. This was my first game of North Africa ’41 (NA41) and I intentionally didn’t read forums or articles about best ways to play either side. It was a fun, (mostly) learning experience and hopefully, a wee bit entertaining for you too.

I wish I were clever enough to have thought of the idea of “How (Not) to Win…” title on my own; however, if you search for that phrase using your favorite search engine, you’ll find many others have done the same before me. Hopefully, I’ll do the idea justice.

Background

This will be an AAR of the introductory scenario for Simonitch’s North Africa ’41, which consists of the first seven turns of the 19 turn campaign game. NA41’s turns are subdivided into three impulses during the first seven turns, with each side having an opportunity to move, conduct combat and do various other tasks during each impulse. This will be a general AAR that discusses the main points of action and mistakes, not the nitty gritty details of how the game works. At least not very often. I’m playing as the Axis commander, so my focus will be on my mistakes and blunders, not the Allied player. Frustratingly, the Allied player makes very few mistakes, so if they were to write an AAR, it wouldn’t be anywhere near as entertaining.

most images can click to enlarge

I’m guessing most readers will be familiar with the historical background of this game. The scenario starts at the end of March, 1941. The Allied forces have pushed the Italians back to El Agheila and are spread thin defensively. A large chunk of the German 5th Light Division starts on the map along with two regiments of the Italian Brescia Division. The game starts with the Axis player’s 3 impulse of turn 1. This means the Axis player starts the game. The Axis’s player’s goal is to get 7 out of 10 victory point (VP) locations by the end of the game. The VP locations are small blue stars on different locations on the map, such as Tmimi, El Adem and Tobruk. For this AAR, they are not important and I’m sure I’ll discuss them from time to time.

And we’re off!

For this initial article, I’ll describe the events of the final impulse of the first turn along with some info about the rules of the game.

This is the latest 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

Units in Tripoli can enter the map under their own power if they are a mechanized unit. If they are a non-mechanized unit, which includes almost all Italian infantry regiments, they need to be brought onto the map via trucks. The Axis player only has four trucks. Yes, only four. I know, it’s annoying. Rumor has it there is some big operation being planned against the Russians later this year, so there are not enough trucks to spare for the Axis forces in north Africa. This means the Axis player needs to balance how they bring their combat forces and their supply points onto the map during the game.

Ha, supply! I haven’t even mentioned supply yet. Supply is very important in this game. Not only do both players need to trace a line of supply back to their respective bases, Tripoli for the Axis and the Nile Delta for the Allies, players also need supply points (SP) when attacking with more than 9 strength points and in order to take advantage of tanks providing beneficial combat shifts on the combat results table. You don’t need to worry about the details, just remember: the Axis player never has enough trucks or supplies to meet their needs.

Now, let’s read and learn from my mistakes!

 

As mentioned above, the Axis initial starting positions on the map have 5 battalions of the German 5th Light Division at El Aghelia, with two regiments from the Italian Brescia division not far behind. There are various other troops in Tripoli, which for game purposes is an off map box. The game is divided into different phases, starting with the Initial Phase. During the Initial Phase of each impulse each player rolls two dice to randomly determine an event from the Events Table. These events are generally positive for the player; however, they may not always be useful. For example, players have a good chance of obtaining a Resource Point (RP) from the random event. RPs are used for different tasks, such as bombing raids or building fortifications. During the initial phase of the first turn, I roll a ten and receive the Comando Supremo marker. This means German and Italian troops can combine their attacks on an Allied target. Normally, German forces and Italian forces can’t combine their attacks. At the time, I thought this was super cool and wondered how I could take advantage of this. Spoiler alert: It really didn’t matter.

The Allies have a thin defensive screen in front of the Axis forces. The lone British battalion at Mersa Brega, the 1st Tower Hamlet Rifles, is defending the Via Balbia in a fortified hex; however, their defense strength is low and there are 5 elite German battalions barreling down the road looking very determined and very unpleasant. I advance all the German units adjacent to the fortified British Tower Hamlet Rifles to attack them and advance my other troops. I want to see how combining the Italians with the Germans in the attack goes, so I add the Ariete’s 7th tank battalion to the battle.

 

If you’ve played a hex and counter wargame with a combat results table, (CRT) in the past, there is nothing new here. You add up the attacker and defender strengths, compare the strengths to generate an attacker:defenders odds ratio, adjust the combat odds based on combat modifiers such as Combined Elite Arms, air and artillery support, and tank bonuses in order to determine the final odds. Then roll a d6 to find the result on the CRT. If the attacker is going to use more than 9 strength points in the attack, or wishes to use the tank shift modifier to improve the odds, that will cost one supply point. Luckily, one SP can enable multiple attacks, as long as they are all within range of the supply source. The SP can come from an HQ unit, from a Mobile Supply Unit, or a SP on the map, as long as they are not too far away from the action.

The Germans and the Italians launch their attack into the fortified hex at Mersa Brega. The fortifications means I can’t apply the tanks shift and the attacker strength is halved; however, even with all these negative modifiers the attacking force musters a 4:1 attack odds. Fortune smiles on me, (to lull me into a false sense of security), and I roll a 5, which results in the 1st Tower Hamlet Rifles being eliminated and I can advance three hexes. The Axis forces are now glaring menacingly at the British 3rd Hussars and the 5th Royal Tank Regiment.

 

I finish the remaining phases. The recovery phase deals with recovering units that need to recover from something bad, which this early in the game has not happened to the Axis forces. Next is the supply phase. This is the phase to make sure everyone gets their vitamins and minerals and again, so far so good. Finally the delay phase for placing delay markers that are meant to slow your opponents units during their movement phase. After I place the delay markers I roll to see if they are randomly removed. I roll low enough that both markers go away. Drat!

At the end of each turn, there is a check for supply attrition and again, the dice roll is not in my favor and I lose 1 SP due to attrition. Double drat!

Conclusion & Discussion

Here ends my first installment of “How (Not) to Win North Africa ’41”. This is where I’ll recap my blunders. This is also my first attempt at creating an article series like this, so expect some experimentation in the style and format of the articles. I apologize to the editor in advance for potentially not having a consistent style throughout this series of articles.

What’s that you say? You haven’t seen any silly mistakes or strategic blunders yet? Tune in next week and you will. Oh, you most definitely will!

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NORTH AFRICA ’41 AAR
PART 1 ~ PART 2 ~ PART 3 ~ PART 4 ~ PART 5 ~ PART 6 ~ PART 7

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