The Campaign for North Africa (generally referred to as CNA by wargamers

Wargaming

A wargame is a strategy game that deals with military operations of various types, real or fictional. Wargaming is the hobby dedicated to the play of such games, which can also be called conflict simulations, or consims for short. When used professionally to study warfare, it is generally known as...

), was an unprecedentedly detailed military simulation game of the North African Campaign

North African campaign

During the Second World War, the North African Campaign took place in North Africa from 10 June 1940 to 13 May 1943. It included campaigns fought in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts and in Morocco and Algeria and Tunisia .The campaign was fought between the Allies and Axis powers, many of whom had...

 of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. It was designed by Richard Berg

Richard Berg

For the television producer see Dick Berg.Richard Berg, trained as a lawyer, is a prolific wargame designer, and recipient of the Charles S. Roberts Hall of Fame Award in 1987...

 and published by Simulations Publications

Simulations Publications

Simulations Publications, Inc. was an influential American publisher of board wargames and related magazines, particularly its flagship Strategy & Tactics, in the 1970s and early 1980s...

, Inc. in 1978.

Depth

Though some fans of war simulation games appreciate detail, The Campaign for North Africa offered more detail than any board wargame before or since, leading to the ambivalent reaction with which the game is regarded. Even gamers who were initially fascinated with the idea of an extremely detailed war game might have been chagrined when they opened the box to discover 1,800 counters, maps large enough to cover several tables, and a three-volume rulebook of considerable weight and density. The rules cover logistics in extreme detail, far more so than the combat simulation. It is recommended that each side be played by a five-person team, including a Commander-In-Chief and four subordinate commanders, making a total of ten players needed for a game, although it can be played with the usual two. According to SPI, a complete game can run over 1,500 hours. However, the logistics of keeping a ten-person group together for fifteen hundred hours of gaming was a feat beyond even most hardcore wargamers, and completed full games of The Campaign for North Africa are rare.

Legacy

Although The Campaign for North Africa is playable only with great difficulty in terms of time, the game is prized by collectors and has even been praised by some gamers, who consider it something of the ultimate paper war game. A commonly-cited example of its level of detail (and one noted in SPI's advertising) is the fact that the game's Italian troops required additional water supplies so that they could prepare pasta

Pasta

Pasta is a staple food of traditional Italian cuisine, now of worldwide renown. It takes the form of unleavened dough, made in Italy, mostly of durum wheat , water and sometimes eggs. Pasta comes in a variety of different shapes that serve for both decoration and to act as a carrier for the...

. [Designer's Note: This was included as a humor item which seemed to be taken somewhat seriously by the hobbyists.] The game represents a brief evolutionary step between the relative simplicity of most paper wargames of its time, and the dawn of the era of computer wargames, where complexity and depth need not come at the expense of playability because they are handled by the computer program.

Re-release

Due to the game's collectability and legendary status, it has long been considered a candidate for possible reissue. Recently, Decision Games

Decision Games

Decision Games is a wargaming company, founded by Christopher Cummins, that publishes Strategy & Tactics magazine. The company has bought the rights to many Simulations Publications, Inc...

expressed a desire to do so, promising "the unplayable monster made playable", which suggests that the game would be considerably revamped instead of simply reprinted. The December 2007 flyer allows a prospective purchaser to commit to buying the game if and when it is published.