Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
(from the game box:) 88 is an intense tactical-level game of ground combat in Africa's Western Desert in World War II, the famous struggle between the British "Desert Rats" and the German and Italian Afrika Korps.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Grid Movement
Move pieces between adjacent spaces on a regular grid.
Dice Rolling
Roll dice to introduce uncertainty into actions, production, movement, or resolution.
Events
Triggered events alter the shared state, rules, or available choices.
Line of Sight
Visibility between pieces determines valid targets, movement, or effects.
Hexagon Grid
Use a hexagonal map where each space connects evenly in six directions.
Read the full game description
(from the game box:) 88 is an intense tactical-level game of ground combat in Africa's Western Desert in World War II, the famous struggle between the British "Desert Rats" and the German and Italian Afrika Korps. 88 duplicates the strengths and weaknesses of the German, British and Italian units involved with 50 data cards that display all the information needed to move and fight. The game system, shared with our earlier popular Panzer game (which covers battles on the Eastern Front), easily incorporates myriad details such as armor thicknesses at various points, shots from various angles, heights, and altitudes, and the effects of terrain. The rules cover the important aspects of small unit tactics - armor piercing shots, small arms fire, high explosives, artillery barrages, air support, communications, turret rotation, gun depression, mines, roadblocks, barbed wire, smoke, and much more. The flexible scenarios cover a variety of combat situations that are resolved on the six-piece geomorphic mapboard, which also features movable terrain pieces. The types of units include infantry, anti-tanks guns (including the deadly 88mm), Matildas, Crusaders, Bren Carriers, Long Range Desert Group Trucks, Honeys, Grants, Shermans, M13/40s SEM 41s, a large variety of Pz IIIs and IVs, halftracks, and much, much more.