PanzerArmee Afrika, subtitled "Rommel in the Desert, April 1941 - November 1942", is a board wargame published by Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) in 1973 that simulates the World War II North African Campaign that pitted the Axis forces commanded by Erwin Rommel against Allied forces. The game was revised and republished in 1984 by Avalon Hill.
In February 1941, Erwin Rommel was ordered to stabilize the situation in North Africa after British troops routed the Italian army. This game simulates Rommel's campaign from April 1941 until his defeat at the Battle of El Alamein in November 1942.
The magazine pull-out edition had the following components: [1]
SPI also published the game in a "flat-pack" box with integral counter tray and clear plastic lid.
In the Avalon Hill boxed set, the map was mounted, and a 6-sided die was included. [1]
Each turn, which represents a month of game time, is divided into 4 phases for the Allied player, and then the same phases for the Axis player:
This game used several unusual rules:
PanzerArmee Afrika was designed by Jim Dunnigan, with the system design and graphics by Redmond A. Simonsen and game development by Irad Hardy and Hank Zucker. It was first published by SPI in Strategy & Tactics #40, and also in a "flat-pack" box. [1]
After SPI was taken over by TSR in 1982, TSR sold off some of SPI's games to Avalon Hill, including Panzergruppe Guderian and PanzerArmee Afrika. Avalon Hill printed a revised edition of PanzerArmee Afrika in 1984 in a "bookcase" box.
In a post-publication discussion in Moves #17, SPI R&D staff agreed that if both players were aggressive, gameplay would favour the Allied player; but if the Axis player was content to simply occupy Tobruk and defend it, the result was almost guaranteed to be an Axis marginal victory. [3]
In The General , Bob Medrow felt that the revised Avalon Hill edition took away the "reasonably careful and conservative" play option that had guaranteed a German victory in the older SPI edition. He concluded that the new rules made a good game even better, saying, "For years, [the SPI edition of] PanzerArmee Afrika was a favorite among garners looking for a fast-moving, exciting challenge. [...] The Avalon Hill Game Company is to be congratulated on keeping this game on the market — and even improving it." [4]
In Volume 25, Issue 6 of The General, Martin Shaw made an in-depth analysis of the strategies and tactics of this game and warned players the game was never over until the final skirmish, pointing out, "In this game of desert warfare you should never give up, as it is very easy for you to leave a seeming gap in your lines so your opponent can fatally overextend himself as he rushes through that gap." Shaw concluded, "Victory in PanzerArmee Afrika will usually go to the bold, but rarely to the reckless. And that, in conclusion, sums up this intriguing, challenging game best of all." [2]
Avalon Hill Games Inc. is a game company that publishes wargames and strategic board games. It has also published miniature wargaming rules, role-playing games and sports simulations. It is currently a subsidiary of the game company Wizards of the Coast, itself a subsidiary of Hasbro.
The Afrika Korps or German Africa Corps was the German expeditionary force in Africa during the North African Campaign of World War II. First sent as a holding force to shore up the Italian defense of its African colonies, the formation fought on in Africa, under various appellations, from February 1941 until its surrender in May 1943. The unit's best known commander was Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.
The Battle of Gazala was fought during the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War, west of the port of Tobruk in Libya, from 26 May to 21 June 1942. Axis troops of the Panzerarmee Afrika consisting of German and Italian units fought the British Eighth Army composed mainly of British Commonwealth, Indian and Free French troops.
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As the number of German troops committed to the North African Campaign of World War II grew from the initial commitment of a small corps, the Germans developed a more elaborate command structure and placed the enlarged Afrika Korps, with Italian units under this new German command and a succession of commands were created to manage Axis forces in Africa:
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Afrika Korps is a two-player wargame published by the Avalon Hill Game Company in 1963-1964 and re-released in 1965 and 1977. Played on a mapboard depicting the northern coastline of eastern Libya and western Egypt, the game follows Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps and their Italian allies as they fought back-and-forth campaigns against British forces in World War II.
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A board wargame is a wargame with a set playing surface or board, as opposed to being played on a computer or in a more free-form playing area as in miniatures games. The modern, commercial wargaming hobby developed in 1954 following the publication and commercial success of Tactics. The board wargaming hobby continues to enjoy a sizeable following, with a number of game publishers and gaming conventions dedicated to the hobby both in the English-speaking world and further afield.
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