Sand Wars: Maghreb, War for Northwest Africa

Introduction

SAND WARS is a strategic-operational level wargame of potential conflict between Algeria and Morocco. These two countries are part of the Maghreb, the Islamic northwest Africa. SAND WARS has two players: Algeria and Morocco. Each country can be played by a single individual, or a team of individuals.

The game is played in Scenarios. Each player has a Strategic Objective, the condition which they must accomplish to win the game. These are represented by Objective cards. Players select these at the start of a Scenario, in secret.

A Scenario begins with Strategic Turns. During these turns, players position forces and capabilities and maneuver politically in order to put themselves into a superior position in the event of the outbreak of Open Hostilities. During Strategic Turns, players can conduct only limited military operations. After Open Hostilities commence, play shifts to Operational Turns representing short periods of intense combat operations. During Operational Turns, players can conduct unlimited military operations.

SAND WARS depicts operations from the standpoint of the armies involved. Often, there is a political tradeoff in conducting military operations, but the game only addresses these indirectly—aside from a few events and player options. Furthermore, these armies have limited capabilities when it comes to command control and logistics. Player can use the game to explore these limitations, as well as how the countries may seek to overcome them.

Players have two basic components with which they can attain their objectives:

• Operations Cards (Ops cards), which allow them to conduct military operations, such as combat, movement, unconventional warfare, and sustainment.
• Units, which represent military organizations, installations, and capabilities, and which players deploy and move on the mapboard depicting the regional geography.

Additionally, Events (depicted on the Ops cards) will generate a wide range of diplomatic, informational, military and economic activities that lie outside the control of players but which may affect their operations.

SAND WARS is intended to show the full range of options in modern warfare. Certain game functions have been abstracted or simplified to keep players from being overwhelmed by details.

*Originally published in November 2010, this paper was reprinted in December 2024.