Lettow-Vorbeck: East Africa 1914-18

About this board game

Lettow-Vorbeck: East Africa 1914-18 is a two-player operational-level wargame, typically played in 120 minutes, covering the East African Campaign of 1914-1918.

One player commands the Allied forces and seeks to clear German East Africa. The other leads the German forces, aiming to prevent that outcome or, if driven from the colony, capture a source of supply in one of the surrounding Allied colonies.

The campaign reflects the historical situation in which the Germans secured a win by capturing a supply source in the British colony of Northern Rhodesia, despite being chased out of their home colony. This gives both sides a challenging strategic problem: the Allies must pursue their main objective, while the Germans look for a way to survive and seize an alternative route to victory.

Lettow-Vorbeck uses the Hand of Destiny series rules. Each player has a unique set of campaign cards that can generate movement, provide combat bonuses, trigger historical events, and bring in reinforcements. Timing is crucial, as the right card at the right moment can allow a player to concentrate the forces needed for a decisive victory—or leave them facing an inglorious defeat.

• Players: 2
• Play time: 120 minutes
• Unit scale: Battalion
• Map scale: 85 miles per inch
• Combat: A quasi-tactical procedure in which units take turns firing at one another

With asymmetric objectives, card-driven operations, and a combat system that gives individual units turns to fire, Lettow-Vorbeck creates a focused contest of maneuver, timing, and endurance across East Africa.