Africa Orientale is a 1989 board wargame published by 3W that simulates the World War II military campaign between Italian and British forces for control of Italian East Africa, offering players a finely balanced simulation of the 1940 conflict according to Wikipedia.
The game was designed by Jeff Brown as a free pull-out insert in Issue 128 of 3W’s house magazine Strategy & Tactics, utilizing the standard rules of the Europa wargame series. That overarching series began in 1973 when Game Designers’ Workshop launched Drang Nach Osten! with the ambitious goal of covering the entirety of World War II in Europe through interlocking maps.
Following the 1936 annexation of Ethiopia by Italy, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini proclaimed the formation of Italian East Africa, which brought together Ethiopia alongside the existing colonies of Italian Eritrea and Italian Somaliland. When World War II erupted, Italian troops pushed into British Somaliland in 1940 and forced a British withdrawal, though that initial success came with steep costs in fuel, ammunition, and vehicle wear that could not easily be replaced.
From that critical juncture onward, Italian forces remained on the defensive while British and allied units slowly pushed them back across the region. To adequately capture the theater’s vast expanses, designer Jeff Brown modified the standard Europa map scale from 16 miles or 51 kilometers per hex down to 32 miles or 102 kilometers per hex while maintaining the series’ standard half-month per turn structure.
The game features 200 counters, a 22-inch by 34-inch hex grid map, and a 24-page rulebook that introduces specialized rules for the African theater. In a review published in Queensland Wargamer, Jack Ford praised the simulation as “the only Europa game where the Italians have a fighting chance against the Allies.”
Ford nonetheless noted a notable geographical omission in the design. “The map does not include the important Horn of Africa,” Ford wrote in the April 1989 issue, adding that “This is not the kind of omission that would normally be left out of a Europa game.”
| Game Element | Specification |
|---|---|
| Publisher | 3W (Strategy & Tactics Issue 128) |
| Designer | Jeff Brown |
| Publication Year | 1989 |
| Map Scale | 32 miles / 102 km per hex |
| Components | 200 counters, 22″ x 34″ map, 24-page rulebook |
Despite the missing Horn of Africa region, Ford concluded that the simulation remained enjoyable and finely balanced. Archives maintained by The General Staff said that in any well-planned match, Italian defeat ultimately remains inevitable given the historical isolation of the forces.
“The Italians have an impressive array of forces at their disposal – at least on paper,” the archives recorded, pointing out that given the lack of support or spare parts from the Italian mainland, “it was always a question of when and not if the Italian defeat would finally materialize.”
