From: "Thomas Barnes" Subject: Re: A Line in the Sand - Looking for Info "andy lorince" wrote in message news:f1422ce8.0212041755.1fadaa82@posting.google.com... > thrasher@dds.nl (thrasher) wrote in message news:<65f04254.0212041201.65d05189@posting.google.com>... > > I am looking for info about the game 'A Line in the Sand' by TSR. > > So if you got this game (or know it) please post your knowledge here :) > > > > thrasher, > > http://thrashersBoardGamesPage.TK > > ( = http://www.wargamer.com/axisandallies/OtherBoardGames ) > i have copies of game factory sealed. > andy lorince > alorince@yahoo.com As has been posted, A Line in the Sand is based on TSR's "Red Storm Rising" with standup counters providing some fog-of-war. The area-movement map has Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, Kuwait and border regions of surrounding states represented, plus distored-scale movement tracks that allow Libya, Yemen, Oman, the U.A.E. and Diego Garcia to appear on the board. The basic game is a simple 2-sided military game. The really interesting version is the diplomatic game. To play a full version of that, you need six players representing the six factions -- US & Allies, Iraq & Yemen, Moderate Arabs & Turkey (Egypt, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, U.A.E. and Turkey), Volatile Arabs (Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Syria), Israel and Iran. Each faction is randomly assigned a war aim, and so the course of events may not follow history. One innovative feature is that diplomacy is conducted by written notes between players. After being read, the notes are placed in an "Espionage Pouch" and there is a chance that other players might be able to read them via spying. The diplomatic game revolves around 2 tracks -- the "War Fever" track gauges US commitment to a military solution and willingness to fight, while the "Jihad" track measures Islamic radicalization and hostility to the West. Most game actions will affect War Fever & Jihad, and they figure in the war aims. I have some quibbles about some of the air units' ratings and I think that the game neglects some of the logistical problems in deploying forces to the Middle East, but overall I thought the full game is worth playing if you can get six players together. The basic game is not very interesting and probably only worthwhile to learn the combat game mechanics. Tom Barnes