Desert War: Tactical Warfare in North Africa, 1940-43

Desert War was published by Simulations Publications Inc. in 1972, part of the ongoing early development of tactical wargames and a companion to Kampfpanzer. The game was a platoon-level treatment of tactical warfare in the North African desert with an emphasis on armour  (KampfPanzer covered armoured warfare in the period 1937-1940 in Europe and China). By 1972, only a handful of boardgames had yet been published on tactical-level subjects, and almost all of them (of those designed by the major publishers) focused on the platoon level, the major exception being a Vietnam War game set at the squad-level.

James Dunnigan, the driving force behind the tactical titles by SPI, was not happy with the direction of the games to date despite the popularity of PanzerBlitz, Red Star/White Star and Combat Command. He felt an imperative to include some kind of simultaneous movement system, and the so-called "Si-Move" system which included pre-plotted movement orders (done by physically writing orders on a paper pad and then simultaneously executing the orders during play) was introduced in KampfPanzer and Desert War.¹

Si-Move was not completely new:

The concept of Simultaneous Movement was originated in the optional PanzerBlitz modular movement system, which was really only half-turns. The concept held that all combat is really simultaneous - one force doesn't sit back while the other force moves past it or fires at it. The integration of movement/fire was the goal of this system. In part it was successful, but the cost in bookkeeping and recording each units actions began to take its toll...Dunnigan's fear of sacrificing playability for realism was coming true. Tactical wargames were in danger of losing the "fun factor."²

There were other differences between the systems, also; the following table was published in Moves to illustrate how the game system had evolved:

The game system was described in The Comprehensive Guide to Board Wargaming as:

Simultaneous movement, modifications for different weapon types, entrenchments, overruns, and the controversial panic rule which randomly makes some units disobey orders. Comparable to Panzer Leader, with more nations but fewer different types of unit; infantry in particular play a smaller role. The map is mostly clear terrain. Generally simpler but less challenging than Panzer Leader, except for the simultaneity of movement. Panzer '44 is a more advanced version, based on later on in the war.³

Another new game mechanic was utilizing a "new" odds table; rather than a simple ratio of attack-vs.-defence, the KPz/DW system introduced a new calculation method where the difference between the attacker's and defender's respect strengths was used instead.

Packaging

The game was only released in the black box format discussed here.

Not Included

In Moves Charles C. Sharp noted several elements of warfare not included in either Desert War or KampfPanzer; while horse cavalry was not a factor in the desert fighting, armored cars certainly was and are conspicuous by absence. Tactical Air Support is also mentioned in Sharp's article.⁴

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