Desert Fox 1973

"Desert Fox" is a Division/Regiment/Battalion level simulation of the war for Egypt and Libya from Sept 1940 to January 1943. There are three mini-wargames and one long campaign wargame which the rules state "It is very lengthy and is recommended for fanatics only, or those with time to spare"!

The game includes a bright desert yellow 44" x 15" five colour map. There are about 300 playing pieces, 123 of which are actual combat units and the rest are markers. The markers are used to show a units combat changing strength as the the units only have a movement rate printed on them. (Per Fire & Movement #10, this was the first game to use this type of step-reduction system.) The rules are only 8 pages.

There is a very interesting sequence of play:

Impulse 1 - The Allied player moves all units as desired then conducts attacks against any adjacent Axis unit.

Impulse 2 - The Axis player may move all of his units as desired but may NOT attack.

Impulse 3 - The Allied player moves all units as desired. Once moved he may then conduct attacks with any unit that did not attack in impulse 1 against any adjacent Axis unit.

Impulse 4 - The Axis player moves all units as desired then conducts attacks against any adjacent Allied unit.

Impulse 5 - The Allied player may move all of his units as desired but may NOT attack.

Impulse 6 - The Axis player moves all units as desired. Once moved he may then conduct attacks with any unit that did not attack in impulse 1 against any adjacent Allied unit.

You repeat process this three times to complete each month of time. In the campaign game taking 28 months that's 504 impulses over 84 turns!

Supply as ever is important in the desert with the Axis having to keep track of "Stores" to supply attacks and "Issues" to supply movement of motorized units.