Desert Steel
BGG rank
BGG #11,596
BGG rating
7.1

Desert Steel

1989

Rules assistance for Desert Steel

Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with official source references and saved question history.

  • 2 players
  • 240 min
  • 12+
  • Complexity 3.1/5

For 2 players

Rules assistant for Desert Steel

What would you like to know?

Answers come from the official rulebook, with the page to check.

Desert Steel is a board game released in 1989 for 2 players, 240 minutes per game, and ages 12 and up. It was designed by Peter Corless and its main mechanics are Dice Rolling, Grid Movement, and Modular Board.

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About the game

Desert Steel is the third game in West End Game's Tank Leader series. A tactical (platoon/company level) game where formations are activated by playing command cards. Winner of the 1990 Charles Roberts Award for Best WWII Board Game. The emphasis is on command, control and communications with the use of Command cards that represent formations which are used to determine order of movement/combat, rallying and group cohesion. The pinnacle of Panzerblitz style platoon level games, delivered by the same designer who gave us Squad Leader covering command, unit experience, morale and doctrine in an elegant but deep package. The terrain on the two maps is variable for roads, contours, towns, and ground quality (sand, rocks, rubble) which are defined for each scenario.

Questions and answers

Desert Steel supports 2 players according to the catalogue. This is the publisher’s listed player count, so the game is designed for exactly that number of participants. Variants for other group sizes, if any, are described in the rulebook of your edition, so check it before setting up a different configuration.