Western Desert
Europa VI: The Campaign in North Africa, 1940-1942

• Year of Publication: 1982
  
• Publisher: Game Designers’ Workshop
  
• Design: John M. Astell and Frank Alan Chadwick

In September 1940, Marshal Graziani’s Italian 10th Army crossed the frontier from Libya into Egypt with the strategic Nile Delta and the Suez Canal as its objective. The offensive soon faltered. In December, General O’Connor led the outnumbered Allies in a counter-attack that crushed the 10th Army and threw the remnants out of Cyrenaica. So began two years of fluid, seesaw operations waged by Axis and Allies at the edge of the desert on the rim of Africa.

Western Desert, Europa VI, simulates the campaigns in Egypt and Libya from December 1940 until January 1943, as well as the peripheral operations on Malta and Cyprus, and in Syria and Lebanon.

Two 21″ x 27″ maps display the battlegrounds from Tripoli to the Levant, along with Cyprus, Crete, Malta, and part of Sicily. Over a dozen types of terrain are charted. More than 400 die cut cardboard counters represent the military units that took part in the campaign.

The Italian 10th Army and 5th Army, Rommel’s Afrika Korps, and the British 9th Army and 8th Army (containing troops of many nationalities) are deployed as individual battalions, regiments, brigades, and divisions—each with its historical strengths and capabilities. Aircraft units are groups of approximately 40-50 planes organized by type (such as fighter or dive-bomber) and model (from obsolete CR.42 biplanes to Me109’s and Spitfires). The rules utilize basic Europa game mechanics as a framework, with specialized rules covering the historical situation in more detail. Western Desert is designed to be played by itself as a separate game and also to mate readily with other Europa games.

• Two maps (18 and 19)
  
  
• Two counter sheets with 480 counters (33, 34)

Current Errata & Extras

Europa Games

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Drang Nach Osten!
Unentschieden
Narvik (1st ed)
Their Finest Hour (1st ed)
Case White
Marita-Merkur
Narvik (2nd ed)
The Fall of France
Their Finest Hour (2nd ed)
Western Desert
The Near East
Spain and Portugal
Fire in the East
Torch
Scorched Earth
The Urals
Balkan Front
First to Fight (1st ed)
A Winter War
Second Front
For Whom the Bell Tolls
War in the Desert
First to Fight (2nd ed)
Storm over Scandinavia
Wavell’s War
Barbarossa Unleashed

Errata & Extras
Index of Maps
Index of Counter Sheets
Index of Nations