I'm no Wavell -- but I won anyway

In honor of the 70th anniversary of Wavell's great victory over the Italians in 1941 I hauled out Rommel in the Desert today for a go at the local game shop against Game Store Tony.

I had the Brits, while Tony took the Italians. Things got off to a pretty conventional start as the Italians advanced as far as Sidi Barrani, delayed by British mobile units and stopped. On Turn 2 I counterattacked, continuing on through Turn 3. Things actually went rather swimmingly at first, as the British armor unit rolled well and the Italians badly and most of the Italian force was blown away. Sadly, the offensive came to a crashing halt on Turn 3 as a battle that saw, for once, good die rolling by Italian infantry, including one barrage that got 3 hits out of 4 dice against tanks forced me to suspend the offensive and rebuild and restock. It was unfortunate because had the battle gone as it should the Brits would have blown a hole clear through the enemy line and it would have all been over.

The last few turns were anticlimactic and the Italians fell back to Tobruk. The British followed., but I never felt strong enough to try to push on against the Italian army after it was reinforced with two armor units. A tentative Italian counteroffensive picked off the British recon unit and the rest of the British fell back to Bardia nad Sollum and settled for a 7-6 "attrition" victory for the Allies. Definately not Wavell-like, but a win nonetheless.

Rommel in the Desert: Making a difference

Every so often a game comes along that is not only a worthwhile past time but has an impact on the wider Hobby. Rommel in the Desert is one of those games because it helped a whole gaming subgenre (in this case block wargames) break out of the box public opinion had placed it.
Rommel in the Desert wasn't the first block game, or course. Quebec 1759 holds that honor. But Rommel in the Desert was the first block wargame to venture out of the black power era and move into the era of mechanized warfare. As any observer of wargames can see, to really hit the big time and Be Serious, a wargame has to have Panzers.
World War II is the single most popular era for wargames and nothing is more popular in World War II wargaming than tanks, particularly German ones.
Rommel in the Desert showed that a block wargame could handle mechanized warfare, combined armes battles, supply and logistics. Rommel in the Desert prepared the way for EastFront, Europe Engulfed and FAB: The Bulge, not to mention every other block game that explored different eras and scales of fighting such as Wizard Kings, Hammer of the Scots, Pacific Victory and Victory.
The game itself still holds up very well, despite the passage of nearly 25 years since the first edition. It was brought back most recently in a 2004 version. It's an intense game and very, very unforgiving of mistakes, making it a little hard for beginners to pick up, but between experienced players it's an excellent contest that also manages good fidelity to the history. That's all one can ask for in a good historical wargame.