From: Francois Charton Subject: Re: SPI Compendium con't, CNA D. Holte wrote: > > Campaign for North Africa > Richard Berg > WWII 1978 > Talking about big games! Napoleon used to say "l'intendance doit suivre" (supply shall follow), CNA demonstrates how tough this can be in practice. It covers the whole desert campaign from September 1940 to January 1943. 8 km per hex, 5 maps covering the whole theater from Marble Arch to Cairo, plus off map areas for tripoli/tunis, and Malta. Weekly game turns, divided into 2-3 days operation stages, battalion level units, individual planes and trucks. CNA was intended as a "definitive simulation": a game in which about nothing is abstracted. With teams of three players on each side, a game turn would last some 10 hours on average, the whole campaign being estimated at around 1200 hours, and shorter scenarios (Graziani's offensive, Crusader, Alamein...) ranging from 30-50 hours to 250+ hours. The game system is fairly simple and easy to learn. Complexity arises from the number of things the players have to do, and the volume of information to process. It begins with managing your units. In CNA, units are made of points (100 men, a few guns or tanks) which players may organise and reorganise as they see fit: a counter on the map will represent "some unit", but its real composition, how many men, guns, tanks, truck, with how much supply, which strength, morale... is kept on numerous offmap charts. The movement/combat system is simple and elegant: units can move and fight as much as they want, but they accumulate fatigue, and need supply. In CNA, every action a unit performs (including defense, involuntary movement...) cost capability points. A unit may exceed its capability point allowance, but get disorganised in the process, and then fight and move less effectively, and need rest to recover. Also, most game functions imply using supplies (essentially fuel and ammunition), and this will always limit what units can do. The air system uses individual planes, which are assigned individual missions. Again, the system is not hard to learn, but means handling 500 to 1000 individual planes (and individual pilots for fighters)... Logistics is the heart of CNA. There are four types of supplies: water (needed by men and vehicles), stores (food and the like), fuel and ammunition. Suplies are available in unlimited quantity in Cairo for the Commonwealth player, and are shipped in limited number through naval convoys for the Axis. Then, everything has to be brought up front by truck. This is probably the most complex and detailed part of the game. Water and fuel will evaporate, trucks will breakdown and need to be towed and repaired, supply availability will depend on bombing the axis convoys, which in turn depends on axis bombing Malta. Organising the supply line, and taking it into account when planning your campaign is what CNA is all about. Which leads us to the big question about CNA: can it be played? Well, it has actually been played (not by me tho'); and seems to have been an enjoyable experience (you don't keep 6 players harnessed to a 200+ hour game if it is not enjoyable). However, this means finding at least 5 other people willing to spend a lot of time on one game, and not everyone will be interested by such a long, detailed and logistic oriented game. As much of its complexity stems from the volume of bookkeeping and planning, CNA would certainly benefit from a good computer assist program. Developping one is not easy (as there are many rules in the game), but should be rewarding: playing time would be reduced several folds. However, computers will not turn CNA into a small game, but its playing time will be comparable to other (maybe less detailed) large scale games. For those interested in wargames from the historical research/simulation point of view, CNA is an excellent source. It provides much insight on the complexity of mobile warfare. It can probably be a valuable source of ideas for designers, as it has rules covering about every aspect of WWII warfare at this scale. Francois PS (just a detail, as for the year, the rule copyright says 1979).