Open thread for when we’re workin’ under the hood.

Also I’m surprised these two guys aren’t LGM readers:

And there is one particularly notorious war game from 1979, the Campaign for North Africa, a board game so detailed, complex and cumbersome to play that it is thought that no one has ever actually finished it (including its creator).

Now two guys from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, are trying. James Purcell and Andrew Taeger have spent nearly two years just mastering the rules and practicing, and they are ready to start playing the game for real. Finishing it could take decades, if it doesn’t drive them mad first…

Is the game detailed? Well, how much water evaporates depends on how hot the weather is for that turn. And Italian units need more water than other nations because, the rules say, they use it to make pasta.

Although the game covers the vastness of the North African campaign of World War II, the result of every aerial dogfight must be resolved individually, and players must even determine if the losing pilot successfully bails out and survives.

“I think occasionally the game does shine through as a game, but for the most part, it’s just an exercise in bookkeeping,” Mr. Purcell said.

There are also some rules that are simply puzzling. Aircraft are allowed to transport dead camels, but not living camels. “Yet nowhere in the rules does it explain where you might come across a living or dead camel,” Mr. Purcell lamented. The German general Erwin Rommel has his own game piece, and the rules mention that his truck has access to only AM radio. This seems to have no bearing on play.

This div height required for enabling the sticky sidebar