Decision in the Desert

Summer 1985. While one friend was running around outside playing football, I was sitting at my monitor trying to figure out why my tank division had just vanished in the sand somewhere between Tobruk and oblivion. Decision in the Desert — a game that taught me that North Africa isn't just a romantic setting from war movies, but primarily a logistical nightmare.

It's a turn-based war strategy game set in the North African campaign of World War II. Firaxis didn't exist yet, but this MicroProse title belonged to a series of wargames that took history seriously. You pick a side — Allies or Axis — and try to control the desert battlefield by moving units across a hexagonal map. Nothing revolutionary on paper, but in 1985 it was serious business for serious players.

The controls are exactly what you'd expect from a DOS wargame of that era: menus, keyboard, patience. Every turn you manage supplies, movements, and attacks, with the game brutally punishing anyone who underestimates supply lines. Tank divisions without fuel are just expensive metal obstacles. That was a huge difference back then compared to simpler action games — Decision in the Desert wanted you to think, not click. Today the controls look like an archaeological dig, but the mechanics themselves hold up.

MicroProse was releasing similar titles with iron regularity back then — Crusade in Europe, Conflict in Vietnam — and Decision in the Desert was part of that trilogy. In the context of 1985, it was an above-average precisely designed game that respected the historical conditions of desert warfare: terrain, supplies, weather. What's aged poorly is the interface. It's not just archaic, it's actively hostile. A newcomer from 2024 will spend a quarter hour just figuring out how to enter your first command. No tutorial, no helpful arrows, just a manual — which of course you don't have.

Today the game is played mainly by two types of people: those with memories who want to verify if it was really that good (it was, but also that hard), and wargame enthusiasts who treat hexagonal maps and historical scenarios as a hobby, not a punishment. Fire it up in your browser via DOSBox emulation without much trouble. Just find the manual first — without it, your first turn will greet you like Rommel greeted unprepared British forces at Gazala.