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| Holdfast Tunisia 1942-43 from Worthington Games (2018) |
It’s November 1942 and the Axis Powers have suffered several strategic setbacks starting with the Soviet encirclement at Stalingrad. This is followed by the long retreat west of Rommel’s vaunted Afrika Corps through Libya and into Tunisia. Coinciding with all of these events a new Allied Army lands along the western coast of North Africa, seeking to capture the vital Axis supply port at Tunis, a key to any future invasion of Sicily.
This is Holdfast Tunisia by Worthington Games. As described by the publisher:
Fearing Rommel’s Panzer Army Africa would be cut off and trapped, the Axis reaction was swift and decisive. The German’s ferried and air deployed a staggering number of troops from Italy and France to Tunisia. General Von Arnim, an East Front veteran, was flown in to take command. The arriving units set up strong defenses around Bizerte and Tunis. It wasn’t long before the Axis could go on the offensive...
With Holdfast Tunisia, veteran war-gamer Matt Looby has teamed up with Worthington Games to produce the latest entry in this highly enjoyable series of block games. At the same time, Holdfast Tunisia introduces many wargamers to this under appreciated WW2 campaign from the legendary North African theatre of war. As I was informed recently during a conversation with Mr. Looby, more Axis forces surrendered in the Tunisia campaign (275,000 total) than did at Stalingrad in ‘42.
20th Century Fox movie mogul Daryl F. Zanuck, who along with legendary film director John Ford, shot hours of footage in Tunisia, once said, “The funny thing about a modern battle- is there actually are no front lines.” This reality is very much captured in the game by both block deployments and the layout of the board itself.
Regarding the board for Tunisia, once again Worthington has outdone themselves. The beautifully mounted mapboard effectively captures the logistical difficulties and challenging terrain inherent to North Africa. In fact, both of these are as much a part of the game as the block combat itself. But that doesn’t bog the game down at all. Much like another outstanding entry in the series (HoldFast Eastfront), Tunisia simulates both of these realities with minimal difficulty to players. In fact, Worthington only rates the game a 3 of 10 for complexity.
As with other HoldFast games, charts for Terrain effects, Resource Points (the engine of the system which drives movement, combat, and supply capability), and Turn tracks are all displayed on the board. This prevents frequent trips back to the rules book, helping to keep the game moving along.
And let’s talk about the rules book for a moment. While just 8 pages total, actual rules only make up half of that, the remainder dedicated to charts, scenario set-up, designer notes, and front & back covers. For even the newest war gamer, these brief rules mean that the game is on the table and being played in less than 20 minutes.
The Sequence of Play for Tunisia is simple and intuitive enough to provide for a fast playing game. As with other games of this type, the blocks themselves provide data such as Dice Rolled in Combat (DRC), Target Hit Number (TH), Current SP, Movement (MPs), and Unit Name.
For the game, the Axis player must holdfast at Bizerte and Tunis and establish a supply link to the Panzer Army Africa units which enter from the southeast corner of the board on turns 5-7. But this is not solely a defensive struggle; the Axis must stay aggressive. As Worthington notes, the Axis players other objective is to “attack Allied Supply Bases and win the war before the 8th Army, 1st Army, the French and U.S. forces unite.” In fact, in my first solo game of Holdfast Tunisia, this was exactly how the Axis won a sudden death victory, when they captured the Allied supply city of Tebessa on turn 10. For the Allied player, victory requires you to capture both Bizerte and Tunis before the end of turn 16.
It is this back and forth play of Tunisia, with both players switching from defense to offense and back to defense, that designer Matt Looby found so compelling:
As I read more on the campaign, I felt “whoa”, this is more interesting than the Battle of the Bulge- the battle for Sicily and Italy; because both players must attack and defend to make it to the end game. It's not a game where one player defends and the other has all the fun.
Played with less than 60 blocks total, 5 dice, and on a beautifully mounted map board, a full 16 turn game of Holdfast Tunisia can be completed in less than 2.5 hours. A veteran of the system could in theory get a full game completed in 90 minutes or less.
It is the lower block count and shorter playing time which will help to get this game on the table regularly. The elegance of the design means that the game plays quickly without foregoing strategic depth. The overall balance of play and strong theme, captured brilliantly by the very nature of its design, makes this a great addition to a war gamers collection.
Photo credit: Brian Williams
