Two Britons start the world’s most complex board game, 30 years long

Two friends from Newcastle, England, have begun a game of one of the most complex board games in the world, The Campaign for North Africa. By their own estimate, it will take them 20 to 30 years, and six trial moves took about 18 months, British media report.

James Purcell, 29, who works in mental health, and his 30-year-old friend Andy Teiger, a software developer, have known each other for about ten years. They bonded over a shared love of board and card games: together they played Dungeons & Dragons, Yu-Gi-Oh! and Carcassonne. When another friend told them about this game, they decided to find out more.

A war simulation spanning decades

The game was released in 1979 and designed by Richard Berg. It simulates the North African campaign of the Second World War from 1940 to 1943. Its scale is clear from the numbers: a map about three metres long, 1,600 counters and seven thick rulebooks.

Players must track not only the movement of troops, aircraft and supply convoys, but also water consumption, fuel stocks and even fuel evaporation. Among the quirkier rules is one stating that Italian units need more water, because they boil pasta for their rations.

The two Britons spent several years preparing for the challenge. They bought the game for £970, roughly 29,000 crowns, and decided to document their effort in a podcast, War With a Mate. Before the real game began, they released 99 episodes covering preparation and practice games. They started the actual game on a Friday at 7:30 a.m., timing it with the release of the podcast’s 100th episode, and streamed the first day live.

Purcell will play the Axis powers and Teiger the Allies. If they play to the end, they will be the first known people to do so. Both admit the game could end in a draw, or in the discovery that it cannot be finished, but they intend to keep going.

“You don’t want to make a mistake just because you rushed a little. A mistake like that could take ten years to fix,” Teiger remarked.

Around Prague, based on reporting by seznamzpravy.cz