One mounted 20"x27" game-map; 250 markers of various shapes and sizes; 22 plastic colony pieces; Orders sheets; Rules (in English). Boxed. In US, order from Clash of Arms, Phoenixville PA. c$40? One of the first historical boardgames I ever played was a very early version of Diplomacy, back in the mid 50's (or maybe late 50's). At the time, I thought it was the greatest thing since sliced prosciuto di Parma. That was some 40 years ago, and I, along with the times, have changed. My respect for Diplomacy, as a pioneering game design, is still immense. However, I find it to be a stultifying bore with little insight into anything other than who has a better poker face than the rest. Obviously not a majority viewpoint, although you see far fewer Dipsters these days. You also see far fewer wargamers, so maybe we're all fading into the woodwork. Aside from giving birth to a wildly bad host of Diprags and similar "magazines", most with a circulation of about 11, Diplomacy fostered quite a few variants, some privately done, others, such as Machiavelli and Colonial Diplomacy, receiving a somewhat more elaborate treatment. I don't know much about the latter - have it; never opened the box - but I do remember that Machiavelli, while maintaining the basic Dip-mechanics, did manage to inject a small dose of era-evocative color into the Renaissance Italy political situation. (One did look in vain for rules allowing you to force the Pope into declaring your very pregnant sister a virgin … but that would be too much to ask, I fear.) Into this virtually separate niche of gaming comes a rather clever French design variation on The Theme, covering a topic fraught with possibilities: the European land grab in Africa in the years between wars (Franco-Prussian and Great). If you admire the talent of being able to adapt with style - and, more importantly, if you like Diplomacy-style games - M. Pacherie's Africa 1880 will be like a brisk raft trip down the 2nd cataract of the Nile. Like most Euro-productions, A80 is a beautiful game, with the really neato "colony" pieces - carved pseudo-ivory depictions of a rambling Afro-European house - leading the parade. The rest of the pieces - cardboard - are also colorful (although the "development" markers are a bit small, resembling computer chips more than playing units), as is the striking map, which is divided into roughly historical areas such as Khartoum, Kenya, Kuruman (new to me), and the strategically interesting Bangui (say wha?), which divides Central Africa quite in half. All in a handsome, and large, box. Somehow, the Europeans seem to do this a lot better than we do; government subsidizing, I've been told. Where do I sign up. What should make A80 a lot easier to consider as a purchase is that, while it uses the Diplomacy system as a base of operations, it makes one major addition and one major subtraction, both of which prove to be two-edged swords. The game also can carry a maximum of six players - Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, and Belgium … a fair representation, although I did wonder why Portugal got the short end of the stick here - while the feeling is that it plays better with 4, or maybe 5. Gets a tad crowded far too soon with 6. The basics are still there: everyone starts with a couple of pieces, writing orders each turn to effect expansion. However, built in, as a sub-system, is that you have to decide whether you want to build up your presence in a given colony (meaning you stay put) or Explore by placing a new unit in a neighboring colony. Can't do both, obviously, and, while in the first few turns, expansion is rather easy, by mid-game this becomes a rather interesting decision. Add to that two other changes to Diplomacy: players can co-exist in a colony, and you must declare your intentions vis à vis each of the other players each turn. You can be a pacifist towards the Belgians and a hawk where the Germans are concerned, etc. This, of course, is where much of the negotiation comes in, but the Negotiation part of the game, which is the major focus of Diplomacy, is much undercut by a major mechanic subtraction: the support rule, which enables you to gang up on a unit, is nowhere in sight. Doesn't make any difference how many of what you have in a colony. What matters is your War/Peace stance in terms of all the others there. This, of course, leads to some rather interesting possibilities, made even more interesting by a rule for same that is a bit opaque. "Solving Conflicts" includes several examples, which help, but we kept coming up with situations that the rules only seemed to hint at. Nothing game-stopping, mind you - one of us (at least) seemed to have a good handle on interpretation, and we used him in Delphic fashion when questions arose. (Hmmm, now that I think of it, he won; wonder if there is anything in that.) Plus The major plus for A80, as far as all (5) of us were concerned, was that we played to conclusion in under 3 hours. And that included discussing the game mechanics. My feeling is that you could play a full game in 2 hours, especially if you are familiar with how it works. So, given the visual impact, the game's accessibility - the rules run five pages of very big type - the popularity of the base system, the intrigue of an unusual topic, and the speed of play, what's to cavil at? Two things, items which I - and the other 4 players - found more annoying than play-stopping. However, they were "defects" which would keep me from playing the game again. For one, we all felt that, as the game swung around the clubhouse turn into the home stretch, it became somewhat stagnant and rigid. When to declare "war" against everyone is a most important tactic - you can blow away half the players if you do this at the right time - so the game becomes less a game of negotiation than one of "chicken". Even more important, however, is that, despite the graphic color and the setting, there is simply no Africa in the game. And I say this not just in that the game could use a little local color. Aside from the other players, there is nothing to stop a given player from achieving his aims. Now, I fully understand that that sort of mechanic will upset few of the Control Buffs. However, that is not what happened in Africa. Colonial plans were disturbed less - far, far less - by presence of other jolly imperialists than by Africa, itself: disease, weather, distance, lack of communication, disease … and more disease. And you can look for the presence of any locals in vain; it's as if they didn't exist (which, to be sure, in the eyes of the Euros they didn't). I discuss the above fully aware that I am edging into The Game I Would Have Liked to See territory, a position which I usually try to avoid. And there are those to whom such will not matter. However, it would have been so easy to throw in some sort of Events Phase … and it would have added so much, not only to the game's feel, but towards stopping the virtually inexorable progress of the players. As it is, Africa 1880 is still a most interesting game. It has lots going for it; what it doesn't have is a sense of adventure. Africa is sultry, dangerous, even while it is inviting. Here, it is simply resembles an old piece of beef jerky: cut and dried. A Note: While the game is published by Tilsit (in France), it is being distributed by Clash of Arms in the USA, with whom Tilsit has had an extensive working agreement. (They have published French versions of many Clash games.) CAPSULE COMMENTS Graphic Presentation: Excellent, very visual and visceral. Playability: Major plus; very accessible with only some minor areas of query. Replayability: Depends much on how you like Diplomacy systems. Wristage: None Historicity: Same as Wristage. Well, maybe a bit more. Creativity: A rather clever Diplomacy variant that doesn't go quite far enough. Comparisons: See Creativity. I'm not sure whether the Diplomacy system is better than the Britannia system. Could be a case of The Lesser of Two Weevils. Overall: I think this will be rather popular, - mostly with the Dipcrowd - as it is quite playable. However, I feel it really could have been a great game had it gone one (or two) step(s) farther. Back to Berg's Review of Games Vol. 2 #26 Table of Contents Back to Berg's Review of Games List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1998 by Richard Berg This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com