Two enthusiasts from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, are embarking on an unprecedented attempt to complete one of the most complex and notoriously unfinished board war games ever created. James Purcell and Andrew Taeger plan to tackle the Campaign for North Africa, a 1979 game that recreates the entire North African theater of World War II. Despite the game’s age, no one is known to have fully played through it since its release, including its designer.
The Campaign for North Africa simulates the conflict between Axis and Allied forces from 1940 to 1943. It is famed for its extreme level of detail and complexity, requiring players to manage not only battles but also complicated logistics such as ammunition, food, and water supplies for nearly every unit on the board. The game’s rules go so far as to factor in temperature-related water loss and specify that Italian units consume extra water to “make pasta.” Players must resolve every aerial combat individually and even determine the survival of pilots who bail out.
Originally designed for up to 10 players, with five on each side, Purcell and Taeger are taking on the challenge alone—Purcell controlling the Allies and Taeger the Axis. Both men admit they had little prior experience with war games; their background includes playing role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons, but they had never completed a game as involved as this. The campaign spans 111 turns, and based on the couple’s current pace of four to five hours of play weekly, they estimate it could take around 20 years to complete.
The sheer scale of the game presents significant challenges, including the need to manage over 1,600 game pieces and five large boards. To prevent disruption, the players have affixed magnets to the components to keep them secure. The pair spent nearly two years mastering the rules and working through a six-turn practice match, which ended in a draw after 70 podcast episodes dedicated to documenting this preparatory phase.
Purcell and Taeger are chronicling their progress through a podcast, “War With a Mate,” which has released over 90 episodes so far. Their motivation to document the process partly arises from a desire to maintain accountability and share the rare journey with others, given the game’s reputation for complexity and its publisher, SPI, having dissolved decades ago. Copies of the game are rare and valuable, often selling for around $1,000 online.
Despite the level of detail, some aspects of the game’s design remain puzzling. For example, aircraft are permitted to transport dead camels but not living ones, and the rules include seemingly irrelevant details such as the fictional bandwidth of Erwin Rommel’s radio truck. The game has been criticized as more an exercise in bookkeeping than an engaging gaming experience, an observation Purcell echoes.
Neither the players nor the broader community know whether the game will hold together under such extended play or if undiscovered flaws will emerge deep into the campaign. Purcell and Taeger acknowledge the possibility of the game stalling well before completion. Should they reach the final turn and declare a victor, they have even discussed swapping sides to test the game’s balance—although Purcell is less enthusiastic about another potentially decades-long commitment.
Their attempt to conquer the Campaign for North Africa highlights both the enduring appeal and the formidable challenges of historic war gaming’s most elaborate simulations.