""North Africa" or "Afrika"?" Topic

Flames of War discussion alert! Don your asbestos lonh johns!!!
I now have both. I also have "Desert Rats"…
I spent no money on NA, by the way. I got it in trade for painting, so…

Anyway, here is my mini review.
NA is more restrictive in terms of what is permitted where. Take my Sikhs. In Afrika, they are Fearless Trained, and get all kinds of stuff. You are on your honor to make your list "historically", That did not prevent me from fielding PIATS, Blacker Bombards and Churchills in one past game. I was called on it, but gave the Orwellian reply "Whatever is not forbidden is cumolsory." Sue me.
NA breaks things down by theatre: Africa, Tunisia and Italy/sicily. These "options" are not as free.
On the other hand, with the new format, a lowly company commander has access to a real treasure trove of goodies. A Motor Company has only one required Motor Company choice, and that is only 20% of his "army". Katy bar the door.

NA has gone over to the Dark Side of catering to the mathematically challenged. 'Nuff said about that. The restriction on number of Support choices are now gone. It is now the newer Chinese Menu choice. (One from each box in Column C)

The extensive (two or 3 pages) on the mysteries of tank markings are gone. Oddly enough, I found this best treated in "Desert Rats", slightly less so in Afrika.
The Fallschirmjaeger and Parachute and glider rules are also missing.

I find the Infantry Tank Company interesting. It is different, and gives me an excuse to buy more Valentines, possibly my favorite 8th Army tank.

I have not thoroughly read the American section yet, but it looks like they have not been upgraded to Veterans in Italy yet. I could be wrong. The Yanks do have the thinnest page selection.

My feelings on the book (North Africa) are that if I got a look at it before I bought it, I would probably not have bought it. Since it was essentiallly free, I am glad I have it, if only for the new restrictions, AND more options. This means essentially that I can play the list game with a ourer conscience. Compoany commanders STILL get the freedom of choice that would make a regiment commander jealous.
In other words, if you do mostly historical gaming, your armies will be slightly more realistic and historically valid with NA. f you do primarioy tournament gaming, your choices are both more restrictive and looser. You haveto have a familiarity wth the game to know what I mean.
However, I think the parts missing from Afrika negate that.

Overall, I find Afrika a better guide. If you are going to charge 50 bucks for North Africa, why leave out so much good stuff from Afrika?

I'm not planning on buying it, owning the other two and the infantry one from before they were consolidated as well. Thanks for the review though, it certainly puts the poke in the party pig where there might have been slight doubt before.

I hope a Rosetta Stone is not required to decipher my typing in the latter half of my review. Pretend I am texting…

There are also some points differences between nationalities in the British section.
For instance, the Indian army is now costed differently for being Fearless Trained in Africa. (They are Fearless Veteran in Tuisia, but go back to trained in Italy.) The "use 1200 points instead of 1000 points" armies now have their own separate points costs.
This will make things interesting for the white-knuckled tournament player. He can still pick his army from the "still perfectly valid" Afrika if he finds the points less restrictive. Alternately, he can go with NA points if he finds it gives him one more carrier. His screaming opponent can have proper fits over such chicanery.

You seem to have a jaundiced view of tournament players, John.

Allen

We've found the new North Africa book to be a bit more clear on what you could and could not take in an army and some of the point costs were clarified very well. Some units cost less, some formations are a bit cheaper, but on the whole the point costs remained the same. The organization is much easier for most people to follow, but then some of the rules and units are missing. Of course – this was North Africa – not Crete – and Italy – not Greece.

I anticipate that Crete, Greece, the Balkans, and others will be dealt with in the Early War books and the units, formations, and rules will re-appear there when the new books and new organizational scheme is done for the Early War in 2010.

Overall I found it to be a good supplement. It is great for those of my friends who could not get the old Afrika book as it is now out of print and destined for some scanner to put up for free in a PDF file.

"a jaundiced view of tournament players"

There are several reasons for that. John is only hinting at one of them.

What really startled me was the inclusion of Ju87G tankbusters in North Africa…

That's a real howler.

You seem to have a jaundiced view of tournament players, John.

I used to be one.
In my defense, I might add that I was never a very good one.
I would be the type who would mount a Gatling Gun in an elephant's tower if the lists allowed it. Not because I thought it would give me a killer army, but because it would look cool.

John's my kind of player – I brought it because it looked cool! Yes! That is the way to game!

Mmmm. A gatling gun on a elephant. That WOULD be cool.

Did you actually do that? and if so, for what game/period?

I count 4 "would"s up there. Take it from there.

Many golfers carry that many woods.

I am so poor at golf that having a variety of clubs on hand would only confuse me.
"But, you just told me to stand like THIS! And hold the club THIS way!"
"Yes, but this is a putter…"

Assuming I ever got close enough to the hole to actually need to putt.