Shifting Sands

Excellent condition, cards bagged, counters unpunched.

North Africa may well have been the theater in which the war was waged in its most modern guise...It was only in the desert that the principles of armored warfare as they were taught in theory before the war could be fully applied and thoroughly developed. It was only in the desert that real tank battles were fought by large-scale formations - Erwin Rommel

Shifting Sands uses the point-to-point movement, card-driven system made popular by games such as We The People (AH) and Paths of Glory (GMT) to simulate the very mobile campaigns in North Africa. Unlike other North Africa games, Shifting Sands forces players to take into account the side theaters of Ethiopia and the Mid-East.

Instant victory conditions force players to constantly be aware of the situation on the map. Sure, O'Connor may be driving the Italian armies back from the border, but an unexpected Iraqi Revolt coupled with subduing Malta may just give the Axis enough victory points for a quick win - before the Americans and Free French open up a second front in Tunisia.

The heart of Shifting Sands are the two decks of 55 cards. Each card dictates how many operations a player may have on a given phase, how many replacement points they may add to rebuild damaged units, or events of the day which may cause all sorts of historical situations to occur. The problem is, on any give round a player may utilize just one card to do one of these actions! Do you play the "ULTRA" card to see your opponents hand? Or do you get some divisions out of trouble by using the card as operations to activate their stack and move them out of (or in to!) harms way?

These are the tough decisions which a player will have to face.

Contents:

One half-inch countersheet
One five-eighths-inch countersheet
Two 55-card decks of cards (one Axis; one Allied)
One mapsheet
Illustrated Rules
Two 8" x 11" Setup Cards
Two dice

Time Scale: Three months/turn
Unit Scale: Divisions with "Battlegroups"
Players: Two
Playing Time: Up to 5 hours with "Automatic Victory" conditions.
Complexity: medium
Solitaire Suitability: high

Credits:
Design: Michael Rinella
Development: Jeff Evich
Map Art: Dean Essig
Counter Art: Dean Essig