"The joys of playing inferior armies" Topic

Here is one of the classic instances of "the little dog that could"…

Campaign for North Africa AAR

This one shouldn't be on the list; it is one of the true cult wargames in the hobby. It would be like calling Rocky Horror Picture Show a bad movie; sort of misses the point of the experience.

Some of the play session reports, owners' comments and reviews are gutbusting. Just one of the comments:

"This is one of the games which will be played in my second lifetime; after my lottery ticket comes in. I will hire teams to play each side, fly us all to Tunisia for the added local color, and dictate my strategic decisions while sitting back in my beach chair and sipping an unnamed adult beverage with a little umbrella protruding from the top of it. Yes herr General! "

…and this CNA story from one of the great lists here on BGG (games where someone totally flipped out):

It was back in june 1981. I was 15 years old and with two firiends, a couple of years older than me, we formed the "Little Wars" wargame team in Rome and we went to a tournament. We played Sniper!, Starship Troopers, Wooden Ships & Iron Men and Anzio in the different turns of the tournament. We chatted with the umpires, older guys who soon would release some boardgames with a big Italian publisher: they boasted that they played real simulations, not that lousy gamettes they were forced to use for the tournament for timing reasons, and we answered that we also played tougher stuff. But in the long Avalon Hill Vs. S.P.I. fan confrontation we were all on the same side – pro SPI. After a while, a gauntlet was trown: We accepted and Gregory proposed "Campaign for North Africa". They said OK.

I don't know if you know it, but it's been quite daring by Greg. The game has quite a huge map, 1200 counters with an individual accounting of men and veichles on paperwork, 58 chapters of rules. It is supposed to last 1200 hours if you play in 10. Not the largest ever, not the richest of components, not the longest rules… But the most complex boardgame ever for sure, because of the mix.

We agreed on the "quick" El Alamein – The Last Chance Scenario (one phase, out of the 100 turns of 3 phases each), 3 against 3 people, at the flat of one of the umpires. We spent a day studying the rules, that we did not know at all. In that saturday afternoon, we reached this huge flat in a quiet middle class quarter at 3 pm. We were showed a monster game of Wellington's Victory – Battle of Waterloo going on in another room, full of other games on the shelves: a tour of the house set just to impress us.

We were the Axis, with the "quite unlikely" (as the rulebook said) goal to enter with at least one unit in Alexandria, so we started to attack. All the battle went on cruelly for hours. The Allied threw every reserve to the front to stop our advance. It was a breathtaking clash of armies.

We were used to play WRG Ancient rules for miniature wargaming, using cheap Atlantic plastic Egyptians against luxury lead armies of expert (and richer) guys. So we were used to send some light chariots on the flanks to try to overtake the enemy from the side or the back. We tried there too. No way to do it North of the Via Balbia because of the Mediterranean Sea. So, in a far corner of the south part of the front, just to see what it could happen, we sent some Italian light Fiat L3 tanks (a two-seats, very small, very underarmored and underarmed tank called "pilchard tin" or worse by the crews) into the dreaded El Qattara depression. The Allied team started to laugh, not even caring to send somebody to stop them, and most of our tanks had mechanical failure and fell apart – their rate of breakdown is normally high, but on such a rough terrain becomes very very high. We just abandoned the wrecks along the way. But some of them survived, finally getting close to the Nile. The enemy was still busy filling every gap in the front and taking every opportunity for bloody counterattacks… a bit more North and East of there.

"You can stop, it is pointless", some of us said. "We won". The roaring laughs of the opponents reached every flat in the building. "No, seriously", we insisted. "See these Italian tanks on the road to Alexandria? They will reach the city next turn. No way to stop them." The laughs freezed. The threat was not even German panzers, just a few lousy (but quick…) Italian tankettes. Then, all of a sudden, one of the almost adult, no more boasting opponents had a nervous breakdown. He became all read in his face. He shouted that it was not possible, that it was incredibe, that it was… Then curses and four letter words followed. His two friends took it one per side and tried to calm him, while we shyly saluted and went silently down the stairs of the building…

Sorry for him, but even after nearly 30 years it's still one of my best memories in my wargamer career

Donkeys lead by lions …

Give something time and it can become good. I used to use a Patrician Roman army in WRG 6th. Lots of D class regulars with barbarians. Phil Barker's comment was "Even I'm not that decadent". Yet come DBx, Patrician became one of the more popular and effective armies. The lesson is glory in your inferiority; as the proverb in the old Water Margin series went, "Do not despise the snake for having no horns. Who is to say he may not become a dragon?"

Also, most rules systems have discontinuities, where certain cheap troops fielded in large quantities have a quality all of their own and can clean up

(IMO this what killed DBM, eventually everyone twigged that massed brown blobs in armies no one had ever heard of could win anything, which was a total turnoff)

any army I command is inferior by default :)

I remember when "Campaign for North Africa" came out. It was expensive then but I don't remember exactly what the price was. One guy I knew bought it just to collect it.

The problem with games like that is once one side starts to lose they also lose interest in playing the game. They just don't show up. All that prep time is wasted. So I imagine only a few if any games went on to the bitter end.

I would only play it if someone else managed the logistics which is vital, but I find it (as some generals do) boring and just a bunch of paperwork.

Just reading the rules is a huge chore. That was when rules where technical manuals and these rules were the "King Kong" of technical manuals.

Can you imagine the play testing of this thing? This game maybe a microcosm of why SPI finally went under.

@ freecloud;

Ah, yess! the Wall of Crap armies! Can't get 'round them cause they're so big, and they absorb tremendous amounts of damage…

Campaign for north Africa…..
Was that game even playable?

Super story.

Is there a more inferior army than Late Achaemenid Persian? It only lost 3 battles against a superior army and general, yet it has the worst write up in history!

Yeah, I always feel Persian armies need dual ratings, those for fighting Greeks and Macedonians and then rated for everyonr else just to be fair.

I've played Carthage, Rep.Romans, Hoplites, Pyrric, Italian Condotta, Marian Romans, Camillan Romans, New Kingdom Egyptians and Hittites oh and Swiss Confed. Out of all I think the Marian Romans where the best/toughest I hardly if ever lost with them, the rest ehhhh it was a toss up, although the Swiss where very nice to play as well.

Russians in the Crimea 1854-55. I tried it last week, nightmare.

For the 40K buffs, yes the Imperial Guard is a paper tiger with no equal, but if you actually pull off a sound victory the look on your opponents face is nearly priceless. :) Trounced a Dark Angel Death Wing army with Steel Legion IG once by outfitting every squad with grenade launchers and vet SGTs armed with Combi-Grenade launchers and no Hvy weapons in the squads. Lots of Sentinels for them to shoot at and Hvy Bolters as platoon support. HQ squad? you guessed it…. combi- grenade for the officer and X4 GL troopers. I charged the entire army straight into their grill as they took the bait to shoot at the Sentinels, and then spayed their SMs with a barrage of Krak grenades and Hvy bolter fire. There was no turn three LOL :D With I had o picyure of their sad-sack faces as they watched their Terminators vanish. ;)
On the other hand, in all the years of playing 40k, that was one bright victory in a very long line of countless defeats.

Hmm, how did this string make it to the "Sci-Fi" boards? (hehe)

Because the original poster, John the OFM, decided to cross-post it to all the world.

Ancient Iberians have always struck me as a killer army. HTW, wedges, good swords, impetuous tribesmen, and pretty good support; not unbeatable, but never a pushover.