One of the lost games that I have fond memories of is SPI’s Oil War.  Don’t know where it went, but probably in a late 70’s purge along with the also lamented World War I.

Been looking for both on E-Bay but the high prices were off-putting.  Recently found a reasonably priced folio game and snapped it up.

Fairly quick to set up, moves along at a brisk pace, but there is one problem.  The Western nations have to really screw it up to lose.  Why?  Airpower.  Air attacks simply crush the combined Arab forces.  It will take time….but  victory conditions will be attained.

My approach was to establish airheads in southern Saudi Arabia, reducing logistical demands, snap up the Saudi oil fields, then gradually move north.  Yes, Kuwait has to be captured to assure a substantial victory, but that is an eventuality.

Arab forces need to defend airbases to deny the West their logistics benefits, and to give ground grudgingly, hoping that the game will end before losing the 25 oil fields signifying a substantial Western victory.

At the time, it was a challenging and fun game, dealing with a very current topic.  Now…..not so much, but I enjoyed playing it, and that’s the main thing.  Here’s a couple of photos.