Chuck J. asks: >What are folks opinions of "Rommel's War" (don't know the publisher)? It's a very good game designed by Vance "Mr. North Africa" von Borries published by Quarterdeck Games in 1986 (I think). Rommel's War represents the result of about 12 years of Vance's research and design efforts in the North African Theater. Physically, the game has 400 unit counters, is generallly brigade/reigment level (with misc battalions and some Italian Divisions), has three turns to the month, is at 16 km (10 miles) per hex scale, and is played on two mapsheets laid end to end extending from Tripoli in the west to Alexandria in the east. The maps are really well done graphicly and wonderous to behold. There is a separate Tobruk vicinity inset map at one-third scale (i.e. 3 mi/5km per hex) of the main map to play out the close-in fighting and deployments around that location. A really neat touch. Terrain includes clear, rough, sand, hills, mountain, ridge, escarpment, wadi, swamp, oasis, trail, coast road, railroad, town, airfield, port, fortification, and anti-tank ditch (only on Tobruk inset map). Sequence of play is IGO-YGO without any interactive or reactive phasing. There is no exploitation-type phase for armor/mech units although in the advanced game there an additional strategic movement option. All the goodies are included: leaders, air power, supply units, armor effects, trucks, numerous strategic options, upgrading of key units, etc. Charts and tables include CRT (single die, ranging from 1-4 to 7-1 odds), Supply Arrival, Ethopia Offensive Results, Syria Invasion Results, Allied Greece Withdrawal/Return, Armor Effectiveness, Malta Invasion, Unit Capture, and Weather. Game has five scenarios and the full campaign game: O'Connor's Offensive (20 turns), Rommel's First Offensive (11 turns), Siege of Tobruk (3 turns), Crusader (5 turns), Gazala (6 turns), and Campaign (83 turns). There are three layers of rules complexity - the Short Game, the Advanced Game, and the Campaign Game. Vance designed the game to facilitate play-by-mail, which is why he used the IGO-YGO (rather than an iteractive) sequence of play. Since turns are 10 days each, this is not as much of a disadvantage as it might seem at first cut. Vance notes that "...while Rommel's War recreates a long campaign with a sophisticated game system, it has been designed as a game meant to be PLAYED..." There is a two page errata for the game dated June 86 that cleans up some typos and clarifies some rules, and fixes a few things. Anyone who wants this can send me a SASE and a buck for a beer (my standing offer, which also extends to Desert Fox and Campaign to Stalingrad). I think there were some reviews published about the game - can anyone fill us in on when and where they were, or if any other errata/addenda exists? My recommendation, if you have this game, keep and play it. If you don't have one, GET one! It is very much out-of-print, but they are still floating around out there. I'm not sure what the print run was (does anyone know? - I'll ask Vance the next time I talk to him). Hank Meyer hcmeyer@uci.edu 2725 Temple Hills Drive Laguna Beach, CA 92651