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?
"The Dark Sands" takes the wargame system from Ted S. Raicer’s sold-out and critically acclaimed The Dark Valley: The East Front Campaign to the legendary battles of North Africa in World War II.
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.
Chit-Pull System
Draw tokens to determine which units, factions, or events activate next.
Simulation
Model a real or imagined system through detailed cause-and-effect rules.
Hexagon Grid
Use a hexagonal map where each space connects evenly in six directions.
Read the full game description
"The Dark Sands" takes the wargame system from Ted S. Raicer’s sold-out and critically acclaimed The Dark Valley: The East Front Campaign to the legendary battles of North Africa in World War II. From the most successful British armored operation of the war, Operation Compass, to the climactic battle two years later at El Alamein, The Dark Sands breaks new ground in portraying the campaigns of the British 8th Army and Rommel’s Afrika Korps.