inconsequential ruminations

Last night I went up to deepest darkest Tottenham to see Peter Haslehurst and play Rommel in the Desert. I met his lovely new wife Sue and he treated me to a good meal. So far, so excellent.

Unfortunately the evening came unstuck for me when we started playing. My memory seems to be totally porous when it comes to wargame rules. I finished reading the rules a week ago, but when it came to playing the game my mind went blank. I was able to remember individual rules, but putting them together was impossible. Luckily Peter had soloed the game and had a strong grip on what was involved, so he led me through it. It just goes to show how game rules are greater than the sum of the parts. In my defence, Rommel in the Desert has quite a few unintuitive concepts – especially the supply chain and supply card rules – but the rules work smoothly together and it plays quickly.

We played the Gazala scenario, one of the short tournament scenarios. I was the Germans and Peter the British. Rommel in the Desert has cascading victory conditions: (1) Instant victory – exit units off the opponent’s map edge, (2) Major victory – end the game with twice the units of your opponent, (3) Positional victory – control Tobruk if not besieged, (4) Attritional victory – end the game with more units than your opponents. The positional victory makes Tobruk, in the centre of the map and with good supply, the key. Tobruk is a fortress, doubling the combat value of defenders, and can resupply itself by sea, so it is a tough nut to crack.

Supply is the heart of this game. The effects of losing supply are dramatic and it is easy to cut the lines – as I learnt to my cost.

The British control Tobruk at the start of this scenario and I recklessly invaded it. The problem was that I left my supply lines weak and Peter cut them easily, leaving my advance units in an unsupplied pocket. I could not break his grip and he crushed the remnants. Realising Peter had a positional victory, I had to fall back to avoid a major or instant victory. Luckily for me, Peter did not have the supply to pursue, so the game ended quickly and I avoided major embarrassment.

It is easy to see why Rommel in the Desert has been a classic for 20 years. It plays quickly and it is full of excruciatingly tough decisions. Apparently the EastFront series, by the same designer, use the same system, so I would love to try that although Rommel in the Desert obviously has lots of replay value.
9/10

It was an excellent evening, and I even got home before midnight. I hope for a rematch soon.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 8th, 2007 at 07:31 and is filed under boardgames.