Afrika Korps: Board Wargame Playthrough AAR - Episode 2 (Turns 5-8) - Avalon Hill

[@jameslipski]

New subscriber here. This replay brings back so many memories. One of my first wargames that I played against my best friend in the late 1970s through the 1980s. Unfortunately real life got in the way and I have not played this in 30 years. I had this game along with 50 other games stored at my parents house. Due to a tragic fire all my games were lost. Recently got a used copy and want to play this again. Your event cards are a cool idea. I love your commentary.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks! Sorry to hear about your fire loss, that's rough. I was away as well for 20+ years, so I can relate to the gap. The good thing is that there are a lots of really good wargames now. The hobby has gotten so much better in the past 30 years. You have so much fantastic stuff to play now, it's amazing. :)

[@dr.anthonytrabue7426]

happy times in the 60's and 70's. Many memories. Nice video

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks! It's definitely a trip in the time machine. :)

[@GotoHere]

Great explanations of the game play and strategies. One of my favorite AH games.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks, rolback! This was my first shot at something like this and it was fun to make. :)

[@robertdelaney4332]

Bumped into your channel today by accident and have already subscribed. Loving this along with your top 7 solitaire games video

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks Robert, and thanks for subscribing! This was the first tabletop wargaming video series I made, was great fun to do. :)

[@blitzen66]

Nice replay....Exciting around Tobruk. ..even with a couple of rules mistakes but you did point out....anyway also I did notice you advanced after combat into a clear terrain i believe. Only advance after combat would be to a doubled defense terrain . Thanks for sharing . This game is new to me. I am on only second game play and lost one of my "7" units and it is november 41 with a bunch of allied reinforcements on the way.....oh well. The game continues

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks, Mike! Yeah, I thought with a simpler game like this I could avoid mistakes, but not to be. :) ~ Oh, you can only advance after combat if the terrain is a 2x defense terrain? I didn't realize that, thanks for pointing it out! (Just confirmed, and you're totally right (rule 16.1). I think that is an easy fix for our next turn. I'm inclined to correct that before we move on.) ~ And yeah, losing one of those 7--7-10 armor units as the Axis is brutal. I feel like the Axis forces are on such an edge, and any one of several possible mistakes can derail their effort. Good luck with your game!

[@nicevid117]

Really enjoying this zilla!

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks, nicevid! It's been fun to try something new. :)

[@mathewkelly9968]

1:41 Australian gets infuriated as you point to an Australian unit and call it a British unit

[@ZillaBlitz]

Ha! Gosh, I'm glad this game doesn't model force cohesion: -1 attack strength each time you incorrectly call something a British unit. Thanks for pointing this out!

[@ParkeraNZ]

Ruddy hell the Axis fell apart fast! The old Desert fox is looking like a puppy

[@ZillaBlitz]

Yeah, Rommel totally butchered that. I have a plan to give him a second life in the next video, but it'll come down to a die roll. :)

[@dfdabbs]

Enjoying, altho also noticing the rules issues. In general, I think you are underestimating The advantage needed for successful attacks. In this game, I usually think I need 3-1 surrounded or 5-1 otherwise, to make attrition work for you and not against you. Recommend The Legend Begins (I have 3rd edition) for a more detailed game on the same campaign.

[@ZillaBlitz]

(Whoops! I originally thought this comment was for a different video.) Yes, in retrospect I totally agree on the odds. 2-1 seems like a rough attack for the attacker. I’ll check out The Legend Begins, looks like an early Simonitch game!

[@GotoHere]

I thought if a piece has to move back 2 after an attack and forced/runs into a mountain, it is eliminated. Because it cannot fully retreat. And retreat through zones of control is also not allowed, also resulting in eliminating that piece.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Happy to help! Retreats can go through escarpment hexes and through friendly units, but not through enemy zones of control. Is there are a particular spot in the video where I retreated through an enemy ZOC?

[@manuelkong10]

this would radically change Everything

[@davidc5191]

Strange: I played this game in the 70s and don't recall any event cards. - maybe a later addition.

[@ZillaBlitz]

You're memory serves you well. I explain about the cards in Episode 0. I made them for the game. ;)

[@samhavoc1066]

Event cards? Not part of the game; where did they come from?

[@ZillaBlitz]

Hi Scott - Happy to help. They are explained some in Episode 0 and Episode 1. Full details and a link to the cards file is here, on Board Game Geek: boardgamegeek.com/filepage/223180/afrika-korps-event-cards Enjoy!

[@sonoftherabbitpeople4737]

I have an older copy of the game, but I didn't think Benghazi could be used as a port.

[@ZillaBlitz]

You're correct, it can't be used as a port. :)

[@DIREWOLFx75]

You said that units were eliminated from being out of supply TWO turns, yet twice you say you make a mistake by not removing them after being out of supply ONE turn??? Or potentially, even less than one turn, because at least i would count a "turn" here as going through a full turn for both sides...

[@ZillaBlitz]

This was the first series I made for a tabletop game. Mistakes were made. :) I mean, I still make mistakes, but this one has more than normal. I don't remember the circumstances about the case you're mentioning, but it's also possible I misspoke. Not sure. Thanks for stopping in. :)

[@DaglaRumad]

@@ZillaBlitz If I remember correctly, it takes 2 consecutive turns of being continuously out of supply before the isolated unit(s) perish. If you create a supply route to an isolated unit before the end of that 2nd turn, it regains supply. Anyway, that's as I remember it.

[@Phredd03]

"24.2 Any unit that is isolated for two consecutive friendly player turns, both at the beginning, and at the end of the player turn is automatically eliminated." The units in the attack should not have been eliminated as the "correction" notes in the video indicated. On the other hand, the Allied defense of Benghazi was briefer then it should have been as the units there weren't isolated for even a single full turn, let alone two.

[@charleslatora5750]

And again where do the event cards come from

[@ZillaBlitz]

Sure thing. I've added a link to the video description here that goes to the file page on Board Game Geek. I am thinking to change them a bit after this playthrough, so you might want to wait until a revised version goes up. ~ EDIT: By the way, KZbin has been acting weird recently and auto-deleting comments. I saw notifications of two other comments you posted, but they appear to have vanished. Just wanted to let you know it wasn't me. :)

[@gowensbach2998]

If I had that die that the Gods favored so much, I would do one of three things with it. 1. Bury it in a hole for 2 days to ground it. 2. Soak it in garlic water. 3, save it for Allied use only., and switch die for Rommel.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Haha! Yeah, those rolls might not have been the luckiest. Funny comment. :)

[@gowensbach2998]

@@ZillaBlitz By the way, I wanted to commend you on making your own cards! That is cool! Because I have to play all my wargames solo, I sometimes have to change the rules or modify the game so it's manageable for my meager mentality to handle. But the use of cards to add variable and chaos wasnt used much back in the day. I think the first one I saw that even had cards in it was Hannibal, Rome vs Carthage. And that was just for battle resolution. It wasnt until I got back into board games the last few years that I noticed so many new mechanics and blending of Cards, maps and dice etc. I digress. Later!

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks Gowensbach! Much appreciated. The cards were fun to make, for sure. I'd like to dabble in design at some point, and I think doing something like this helped me realize how hard it is to design something that works well. And yes, cards have definitely become a thing in wargames now. I do think on the whole they've helped increase depth and replayability of games. Thanks for stopping in!

[@gowensbach2998]

@@ZillaBlitz Absolutely. Cards help provide a story/narrative to the map. They add another dimension and flavor. Recently when I returned to war games, I thought fondly of Axis and Allies and Found Risk Europe which looked like a nice easy game to ease back into it. They added cards as well, but more of a resource management and strategic element. I liked it enough, but I got to thinking how cool it would be to have an ancient period game along those lines. Well, I started buying all sorts of ancient games thinking they would be the one. None were. So, I have been working on that. I tried different maps and rules, and learned the same as you...it is difficult! I finally have it after a lot of money and time, trial and error...but it came out pretty well. I also had to build my own Napoleon In Europe game because I wasnt going to buy it for 400 dollars off ebay, and Risk Napoleon was never released in the USA. I have to say that working on these projects has been more fun than playing any game on my shelf...if not more so!

[@ZillaBlitz]

Gosh, you're making me want to start designing a game. Sounds like a lot of fun and I bet your learned a ton. I have a couple of months that might be off from work this summer, so that might be fun project to try to do in that time span.

[@e-4airman124]

😀 do the Russian Campaign next

[@ZillaBlitz]

I think GMT Games has a new version of the Russian Campaign at the printer or going to the printer in a month or so, so I'm thinking to get that version when it comes out. Should be summer perhaps? So it's a bit of a ways away, but still plenty of things to play. :)

[@thecustardprophet8434]

Oh my, it's a capitulation!

[@ZillaBlitz]

Yeah, things are looking grim for Rommel. If it looks too hopeless after the next few turns, we might call it a day.

[@MisterG2323]

Yeah, things went way off the rails here. I'm of the opinion that the Event deck is a needless complication and far too potentially swingy to provide a good gaming experience. The Axis player has enough problems without being potentially beaten senseless by random handicaps. I would ditch it myself, or redesign it (or its implementation) to reduce its overall impact. The sandstorm card was particularly galling; did the historical campaign ever suffer a cessation of maneuvers due to weather like this card forces? I don't recall such a thing, but I could be wrong. This sort of mechanism makes sense in chaos management games like Dominant Species and Dominant Species: Marine, but not so much in simulation games like AK. Anyway, yeah, things got too bollixed up to really allow much comment on the proceedings here. At least you learned that tempting the devil with the advance of that 7-7-10 was a mistake. 😄 Still, I'll keep watching; the presentation is too good not to.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks for the feedback, Geoff! I have a lot of thoughts on many of the things you touch on, and I think I'll bring them up in a future episode. Touching on them briefly here... - I think the event cards are a conversation in itself. My rough thoughts are that they need improvements. I think even if they are working as I hope they do, I wouldn't recommend them for everyone, it would kind of depend on what sort of game experience you want to have. My overall goal with them was to get some experience with board game design and see if I could break up the predictability of the game in a fun way. - I'm feeling quite rusty as a wargamer, and I think it shows here, both in terms of general strategies and in terms of holding rules in my head/playing the game correctly. I'm hopeful both those things will improve the more I dig back into the hobby. I've been away for a long time. :) - I'm glad you like the presentational aspects of the videos. One of the things I'm hoping to do is to highlight the stories the games tell, and I hope to experiment with that theme more in future series. Thanks again, the feedback is super helpful!

[@MisterG2323]

@@ZillaBlitz If nothing else, it's an interesting process to watch unfold. 😀

[@ZillaBlitz]

I'm learning a lot making this first one, for sure, and I'm glad you've found it interesting. :)

[@MisterG2323]

@@ZillaBlitz Just noticed that the Allies advanced after a successful 3-1 against an undoubled position. That's a no-no. Not that it matters given the ignoring of isolation effects.

[@robveenenberg7053]

British cut off 2/3 armor unit must attack without supply (is in an EZOC) and is eliminated before combat, so the Germans were not obliged to attack 2:1 and risk the units in an exchange.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks for the clarification!

[@tom-er6yb]

sorry game is over !!

[@ZillaBlitz]

Yeah, this was not Rommel's shining moment. :)

[@mathewkelly9968]

5:10 Indian and Australian again not British

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks for pointing this out, much appreciated! I think most of my brain space was focused on getting the unit formations correct (brigade, regiment, division), and I still made some errors with those too. I think these things will get better the more series and videos I create, although I'm sure every series will have something off. :)