Desert Fox Deluxe Hype

oh.. Now I’ve gone and done it.

I’ve been playing DAKII in a campaign.

I’ve been playing Tunisia II solo and opposed.

I just finished An Army at Dawn by Rick Atkinson.

What choice did I really have?

Of course I went and bought DFD [Desert Fox Deluxe] from the rogues of game revisionism and ruin – Decision Games. All done on the most specious of facebook recommendations and a quick read of the rulebook.

When the hype train crashed after the magazine title sold out quickly, but was quickly rattled by extensive ‘issues’… To which you can read yourself on #BoardGameGeek. I suspended interest, but was curious why the price seemed to spike heavily, as it went OOP in a heartbeat. Maybe there is a gem in there I wondered. Well I had DAKII so whatever. But the voice in my head said ‘But Kevin…it runs from Algeria to Alexandria….10 miles a hex baby.’ I shook off my rising interest and focused on other things.

Then I saw that the ‘new’ ‘deluxe’ version was 60-70 dollars. BOXED? What madness is this?


That was when the little voice in my head won. It started telling my about all the cool rules I had read. Mobile battles, determined attacks, neato supply rules. Event cards. Just 2 sheets of counters. hardly an info counter to manage. Naval action, Air Action ‘ ENOUGH”

I succumb.

Now with expectations through the roof, lets see what Herr Fox will deliver. Will it be a thoughtful classic for the ages, or another blasphemy against a SPI classic title?

 

Copy of 2020-07-31 16.03.57

 

7 thoughts on “Desert Fox Deluxe Hype”

  1. The SPI version was a classic in its time. I would approach this one as if I was scouting a minefield. But I’d be super happy if it was a treasure!

  2. May God have mercy on your soul, Kevin. I will be microwaving popcorn and waiting to see if you can make headway with this one. The version that came out with S&T #300 was an unplayable mess (interesting that this is the same designer as with DG’s Wellington’s Victory *cough* *cough*), because the all-important Events were just not worked out beyond a “sketch”, and were full of contradictions so egregious that you couldn’t even set up most of the scenarios (which featured different mixes of Events which were either already in play or *could be played*. I had worked on a comprehensive Vassal module for this, and couldn’t set up more than 1 or 2 of 10 scenarios because of these issues). And then there were other rules that just weren’t up to snuff, either.

    This seems like there might actually be a VERY GOOD GAME under the silt layer of poor rules writing, lack of playtesting and slipshod development. This boxed Deluxe version (which DG requires owners of S&T #300 to purchase, rather than providing them the necessary errata to upgrade their S&T #300 version) is “supposed to” have put all these issues to bed … but I’ll be damned if I’m going to double my ante to find out if it indeed playable now.

    I’m hoping you can determine the answer.

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