Improved Charts for Rommel in the Desert
Note: This page refers to the 1st Edition of the game.] Columbia Games' Rommel in the Desert is such a great game it's tought to improve on. I did, however, find a way.
Improved Player Aid
The player's aid on the back cover of the rulebook has all the information that you need to play the game -- everything, that is, except the Build Costs and Movement Allowances of the various units, which are on the third page of the rulebook. This version of the chart recreates the original, plus adds that crucial information. I recommend printing it out and photocopying it onto thin cardstock.NOTE: There is a minor error on the chart, which I will fix in the next iteration. On the Terrain Chart, a Pass should have the Movement and Suply effect of "As other terrain," rather than "Along roads only."
Download the improved Player Aid [MS Excel 4.0 for Mac (30k) | PDF (94k)]
Note: I have at least one data point indicating that when the file is opening on a Wintel box using Excel 5.0, the cell borders disappear.
Improved Game Record Sheet
I've also made some improvements to the Game Record Sheet on the last page of the rulebook. The new version has more rows for more turns, adds "BPs Remaining" and "Total BPs" columns to make the math a little easier, and includes the BP cost of all the options right on the page.Download the improved Game Record Sheet [MS Excel 4.0 for Mac (30k) | PDF (94k)]
Note: I have at least one data point indicating that when the file is opening on a Wintel box using Excel 5.0, the cell borders disappear.
Improved Supply Cards
One of the things that I noticed is that the supply cards that come with the game are printed on relatively cheap card stock. I decided to look for replacements.There are 28 "real" supply cards, and 14 "dummy" cards, which is a 2:1 ratio of real to dummies. It just so happens that two identical decks of playing cards (I prefer the bridge size) contain 54 red and 54 black cards (including the jokers). These two decks can be split into two decks, each with 36 cards of one color and 18 of the other. This keeps the ratio the same, and gives you two sets of supply cards that are much easier to shuffle and more durable than the supply cards provided in the game. I gave my extra set to a friend; the other alternative is to keep them as a backup set.
A warning, though: while the ratio of the cards stays the same, the number of cards does not, and this may have unintended effects on play. I suspect, however, that a large determinant of the final number of cards included in the game was simply the number of cards that fit on a sheet of cardstock. I would be surprised if increasing the number of cards adversely affected play, as long as the original ratio of real to dummy cards was maintained.
Other errata and variants
Web Grognards has an extensive list of play aids, errata, etc., for Rommel in the Desert.Disclaimer Rommel in the Desert is a Trademark and/or copyright of Columbia Games. All Rights Reserved. Used without permission. Any use of copyrighted material or trademarks in this file should not be viewed as a challenge to those copyrights or trademarks, and is done for the purpose in increasing the attention (and hopefully sales) of those products.