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Desert Steel

#6641BGG ↗

1989 · 2-2 players · 240min · weight 3.05 · 126 ratings

v2 v3 v4 wide v4 deep

BGG raw

ID
6641
Name
Desert Steel
Year
1989
Rank
11187
Min players
2
Max players
2
Playing time
240
Min playtime
240
Max playtime
240
Avg weight
3.05
Num weights
20
Bayes avg
5.57111
Average
7.06429
Users rated
126
Num owned
421
Wanting
20
Wishing
36
Num comments
73
Fetched at
Wed Apr 29 2026 05:34:56 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
Mechanisms (7)
Campaign / Battle Card DrivenDice RollingEventsGrid MovementHexagon GridModular BoardSimulation
Categories (2)
WargameWorld War II
Description (776 chars)

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.

LLM v2 (wide)

Not yet enriched at v2 (wide pass).

LLM v3 (deep)

Not yet enriched at v3 (deep pass).

LLM v4 wide (controlled-vocab primitives)

Not yet enriched at v4 (wide pass).

LLM v4 deep (archetype fit)

Not in the v4 deep-pass top-20% slice.