Attack at Dawn: North Africa by Panzer Division Games

Attack at Dawn: North Africa

Panzer Division Games

So, as you can see, we are off to North Africa to refight that World War II Campaign. At one time, the history of this campaign really had no draw for me. I think it is because I had no particular interest in Rommel. I was always interested in the Italian forces that fought in the Mediterranean, but not his battles. This has changed in the last several years. I have been exposed to some very good board wargames and books on the subject in those years. Let us see what is under this engine and if I am just looking at a Panzer General clone or not.

"Attack at Dawn: North Africa is a strategy game set in WW2 North African theatre. It is an operational level wargame which features 3 campaigns and 15 scenarios. It can be played as a real-time, or turn-based (WeGo) game. The game begins with the German troops probing into the Libyan region of Cyrenaica, and finishes either with the total defeat of German-Italian Panzer Armee, or with the British loss of Egypt and their retreat across the Suez Canal.

Development History

Tomislav Čipčić: "Ever since I was 6, I have been fascinated with the North African campaign. The name Tobruk has stuck in my mind ever since. A couple of decades later, I've started a game project with a group of friends.

That project didn't end with the finished game, since we were all young and inexperienced. We've reached for the secret too soon ..

However, after several years and after publishing one successful tabletop wargame - I decided to have another try. The development started in 2018 with a prototype of operation Battleaxe. After that, I decided to go all in with the original idea for the game, that's how the "Attack at Dawn: North Africa" came to be. After several years of development, we have designed a solid, polished and fun game."

Features

Fast and Intensive Gameplay - the game can be played in a real-time, or turn-based (WeGo) mode. That reflects the speed and chaos of the desert mobile warfare. Combine this with the fog of war, and the experience of being in command vehicle of a Panzer Corps comes to life. The game will immerse you in one of the most intensive and nerve-wrecking experiences of the Second World War.

Polished Interface - game map and the units have been designed to be informative and easy to understand. With the ability to zoom out and see the entire battlefield with a glance, the player will have the best possible situational awareness.

Historical - the scenarios have been created after studying the historical orders of battle, and battle histories. Attention was given to the composition of the armies, combat values of individual units and overall authenticity of each scenario.

Large Map - the game features a large map, covering a distance of almost 2000 kilometres – from the bay of Sirte in Libya, to Suez Canal in Egypt. The terrain varies between sea, desert and mountains; wadis and sebkhas; villages, birs and ports. There is one long metallic road – Via Balbia, spanning the whole length of the map. And a handful of well-known desert tracks leading from the road towards the deep Sahara in the south."

As you can see, you are given all of the battle scenarios from the appearance of the Afrika Korps until the Second Battle of El Alamein. You are also given three campaign choices. These are:

The Full Campaign

The 1941 Campaign

The 1942 Campaign

There are also fifteen scenarios to choose from. Seeing that you can play them from either side, that gives you thirty different scenarios to play. Because the game has a real campaign built in, some of the scenarios are actually hypothetical. Plus, you also have the scenario editor.

Panzer Division Games looks to have been working on this game for a long time. The game has many great parts to it that you usually do not see in a Steam wargame, let alone a first game from a developer. It is like PDGs worked like Dr. Frankenstein and added the really good bits from other computer wargames and then stitched them all together.

The first thing you will notice about the game is the sheer size of the maps. There are actually three of them of the area of the North African Campaign from 1941- 1942. This gives us electronic generals lots of room to move and fight in. It also is a Godsend to the gamers who will use the scenario editor, but more on that later.

Usually, when you talk about a wargame you start talking about movement or combat of your cyber units. The old adage 'Amateurs talk strategy. Professionals talk Logistics!' is right at home here. The supply and logistic part of the game is one of the best I have seen on a computer wargame. It goes far beyond: is your unit in supply or not and it will be okay on the next turn, as it then will get magically supplied. You can see the actual amount of time until your next supply and the time that your supply trucks have to make to complete a full circle from your supply source back to the unit. That is one excellent addition to a wargame and a great achievement for the programmers. It also adds to the immersion factor. It makes you feel more like a general rather than a cyber pusher.

The next thing we will talk about is the myriad of options that you can use with the game as far as aesthetics etc. If you must, you can have your little tanks and infantry, although I do not know why you would want them. I think they distract from the immersion in games. However, that is my own personal opinion.

Scenario Editor

So, the Scenario Editor makes the game almost a blank canvas to work with. Panzer Division Games really understood the gamer who wants to tinker with scenarios or just completely start from scratch. It is a much easier Scenario Editor Tool than I am used to working with.

The blank slate that you can work your magic on in the Scenario Editor

The game is very nice looking (which is an accomplishment for the North African Desert). How exactly does it play? Well, it seems that you also have multiple choices in how you play the game. These are:

Difficulty

Easier

Normal

Harder

Unit View

Counters

Models

Hex Darkness

Hidden

25% - 100% dark hex lines

Model View

Counter View

I was very pleasantly surprised by Attack at Dawn: North Africa. Almost invariably wargames that appear on Steam, not ones that are released by wargaming companies and then go to Steam, are beer and pretzel Panzer General wannabees. This game is a deep and well thought out deep wargame. For those of us who play both board and computer wargames, this is really a must buy. Even if you are not really interested in the North African Campaign, this game needs to be in your Steam library. There are so many innovative features in the game that it really needs to be played to see how the sum is so much greater than its parts. I can write until the cows come home, but unless you experience the game play yourself it will not really hit home. Thank you, very much Panzer Division Games, for allowing me to review this coded silicon beauty.