Axis and Allies North Africa Tournament Final - Gen Con 2024

Thank you for watching the Board Game Nation coverage of the final match of the first Axis and Allies: North Africa tournament! Congrats to all the finalists!

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Chapter Guide

0:00 Intro
4:56 Into the Action
6:39 UK 7
18:09 Italy 7
22:30 US 7
26:43 Germany 8
31:41 UK 8
38:30 Italy 8
43:10 US 8
47:59 Germany 9
52:41 UK 9
1:00:02 Italy 9
1:02:23 US 9
1:07:00 Germany 10
1:09:30 UK 10
1:14:13 Italy 10
1:19:05 US 10
1:21:55 Germany 11
1:27:22 UK 11
1:31:52 Italy 11
1:33:34 Game Wrap Up

PRODUCTION TEAM:

Director
Gary Blevins

Hosts
Gary Blevins & Doug Thorpe

Lighting & Camera Operators
Gary Blevins

Video Editing
Gary Blevins

Gen Con 2024 Video Production Team
Emily Faulkner
Mitch Trantham
Jon Bosch
Scott Palmer

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Studio Equipment:
Video:
Samsung Galaxy S23+ Ultra
Logitech Brio PRO X 4K Webcam
(This webcam needs some work. Will not use it again.)

Audio:
Azden 250 Shotgun Mic
Zoom H6

Lighting:
2x 18" Moon Soft LED lights by Neewer
2x Neewer 660Pro RGB
Govee LED RGB Strip

Editing:
DaVinci Resolve 19.0 Studio on MacBook Pro 2021

Music:
Jazz in Paris - YouTube Creator Library - Fair Use
Epic War Music - YouTube Creator Library - Fair Use

Gen Con Event Recording Equipment:

Samsung Galaxy S 20 (lots of them)
Jusmo LS15 Desk Overhead Camera Mount Rig Top-Down Shots
ULANZI R099 Super Clamp Camera Mount Clamp with 360° Ballhead

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Disclaimers:
In short# Board Game Nation doesn't own the game or any of the art. The music and photos are creative commons or fair use. BGN received the game for free from Renegade Game Studios and was compensated for this production.

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Thanks for watching!

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[BoardGameNation]

Thank you for watching the Board Game Nation coverage of the final match of the first Axis and Allies: North Africa tournament! Congrats to all the finalists! What did you think about the game?

[esteakshapin]

So hyped to see the upcoming tournament videos 🎉. Last years series was A class

[menhirmike]

Pre-Release tournaments for any strategy game are always a blast to watch. There is no established Meta/Best Strategy yet, just a bunch of smart people that know the genre and other games in the series trying to figure stuff out on the fly, and it's probably the most variety one will ever see in high-level competitive play - we're in the scrappy phase before everything gets polished to perfection. True for both video and board games. Thank you for covering these tournaments! I'll never be a good enough player to play them myself (and frankly, lack the interest to spend the time), but it's incredibly fun to watch expert commentary on what's going on, what strategies might be an option, why players are doing certain things, and just walking through thought processes. It's genuinely fascinating to watch.

[susiedevine]

This is an exceptional presentation! I’m not a gamer and all the moving parts of this game made my head spin a bit. Even so, I found myself engrossed in the drama and even stress of the action! The funnest thing about this video was Doug’s expressions over the ‘couldn’t hits’ of the Axis and ‘couldn’t misses’ of the Allies! Truly captures the unpredictable nature of real war. Amazing!! Great job, AGAIN, Gary!!!

[jamiethompson]

Thank you for another fantastic video Gary. As always, you capture the essence of the game played, whilst generating interest in the new North Africa game and Axis and Allies line of games as a whole. I know these videos don’t make themselves, and hugely appreciate the time you take to produce what are always professional, informative and fun viewing experiences. Cheers!

[octavianaries]

Love to see more tournament play. The lack of experience with this game shows, I think any future tournaments of this edition will play out a lot differently. A lot of fun though.

[Kiromos]

Awesome video, thanks for taking so much time to put this together.

[mackermicker]

One of the things this video demonstrates well is the need for the Axis to keep the Allied navy in check. They will never control the seas but need to contest them so far as they can actually land reinforcements. I too had an game where I was playing the Axis and oh boy let me tell you, once the Allies have full control over your convoys the game becomes very unpleasant for you! You really need to in the first few turns try to contest the Allied navy. Granted the Axis players here tried and got horrendous dice luck but the principle is still the same. Protect your convoys!!!

[samrparker]

I was super hyped when I saw this come out (especially since I have not even looked at the rulebook for North Africa), but when I learned thar not only would we get videos for some of the other versions of A&A(especially global 1940!!!), and ESPECIALLY when I learned Doug would be joining you I was ecstatic! The 2023 1942 videos were phenomenal, and I'm so excited for the rest of the videos! Any chance Doug will be joining us for one or some of those?

[dougthorpe]

Great video as always my friend. Looking forward to the upcoming ones. See you then!

[jasong.]

So many tournaments coming! Much hype🎉

[davidwhitfield]

Received my copy on the weekend and after encouraging my friends to watch your excellent how to play we fought last night. Well the Axis were not buying their equipment from Russia this time.

First off as the Axis my friend and I took command as Rommel (Panzerarmee Afrika) and von Arnim (5th Panzer Army) dividing our commands to each board and then sharing the German and Italian RPs as we collectively saw fit. Saved time on deciding whether to explode mines etc.

I (as Rommel) won the battle of El Alamein (Brits lost all their planes, infantry, 1 tank and artillery for just 2 Italian infantry) then hunkered down at Tobruk (with a covering force at Bir Hachiem) buying mines every turn until I had four facing Mersa Matruh. Bombed the crap out of Malta denying the Brits their 15 RPS for 3 turns. The Brits failed to take Bir Hachiem and then didn't have enough troops to both attack again and still hold Mersa Matruh comfortably. Poor Monty was starved of land forces as they were needed over in the West.

von Arnim however did even better with his Vichy French holding Oran and selling their lives so dearly that the Algiers force had only one supply left after finally taking it. The remainder were destroyed (surrendered) when their one attempt to take Oran failed and they had nowhere to retreat to when they were attacked (by just 2 Italian infantry).

Not surprisingly the Allies gave up on turn 11. Ah but revenge was sweet after watching this painful Axis defeat.

One thing I wish had been included in the standard game was the inclusion of the Tiger Tank (it's in the Advantages rules at the back). How can you have a game that includes the Kaserine Pass without the Tigers?! Bring them in at next Con I say! Thanks gain for the great support you provide. It helped so much to watch both your summary and this game. Heil Afrika.

[ReliableDragon]

So excited to see more of your commentary!! I've been waiting for more commentated games from you guys since last year's tournament! Very fun to get a look at a new game and to get to see how people are figuring it out. If this has a tournament next year that you commentate it'll be very interesting to compare it with this video!

[TomE]

I am absolutely pumped that tournament game recaps are back! And big thanks to YouTube for actually putting this video in my feed. I am subscribed but YouTube unfortunately doesn't necessarily put all videos from subscribed channels in the feed (very annoying to be honest). I just realized I hadn't "hit the bell" so I'll get notifications for everything going forward. Keep up the great work!

[Clusterflak]

Love your game commentaries and coverage of Axis & Allies Tournaments. Just recently got this game (already ordered 3rd party English scout cars - the originals are ridiculously small).

[majnuker]

Man, the axis lost double digit IPCs more than the allies every single turn, and still almost squeaked it out. Absolutely brutal rolls.

I can definitely see a strategy where Brits 'mine clear' ahead of americans, sending a few cheap subs through the mines. But being able to choose to detonate is huge too. Is there a limit to placements, per zone or turn?

Great casting as always and super excited for the future matches you'll share on the channel. Always happy to see you pop up in my feed Gary :)

[davidwhitfield]

As always a great presentation. Love your walk throughs and thoughtful commentaries. If the game had covered the entire campaign and not just from Gazala/Torch I would buy it as I am a big North African Campaign aficionado (Bought S&Ts Panzerarmee Afrika when I was 13 and played the shit out of it).

I imagine the Axis players wanting to walk away from the table a number of times to scream in frustration. Considering how badly the Axis rolling was (and the Allied rolls as well) it's amazing that the Axis almost had a chance - the US failing to properly supply their drive almost cost them the game. I do feel giving the Free French a tank at all is BS. The poor buggers had very few old French tanks (all light) and the Allies gave them very little and definitely no armour during this campaign.

Pulling back from El Alamein was exactly what Rommel had wanted to do even before the battle was launched and seems to be the right tactic here. Playing this without a timer I can't see how the Axis can win unless they are incredibly lucky with their die rolls. Getting 14 RPS just made the Allies too powerful imo and its only that failure of the US to buy just 5 supply each turn that made it even close.

[frankgulla]

Gary, thanks for all the work you put into the video on the 1st North Africa tournament final. It does cause me want to look into purchasing this game and playing with my group.

[CalebTosh]

Another great video! The complexity of the game is intimidating, but after watching your previous video and this gameplay, I hope I have an opportunity to play myself.

Honestly my takeaway is mainly that the bid assessment of the differential between sides is probably pretty accurate. On top of that insane bid, the Axis had some horrific luck and made some significant strategic and tactical blunders in hindsight, although those are probably impossible to avoid in a new game like this. Despite all of that, the Allies still barely scraped our a win in the time limit. The game is probably much more balanced with unlimited time, but it seems like for tournaments it will required some pretty big setup tweaks.

[shonky]

Another great game replay, love the way you present it Gary….and love Doug’s color commentary 😊 Thank you guys!