Desert Shield Fact Book

Book

reviewed by Bill Rutherford

By Frank Chadwick and GDW Staff; Game Designers' Workshop, P.O. Box 1646, Bloomington, IL 61702; 64 pgs. + color map; $10.00.

This book,written in the fall of 1990, and updated with an errata sheet in December 1990, provides an almost overwhelming array of data about the equipment, weapons, armies, and nations involved in the late desert war. It's all grouped under chapters on the political situation (an intro ... ), modern warfare concepts, the Allies, and the Iraqis, and is very modular, most information being broken into easily digestible two page chunks.

One module discusses modern AFV armor. Another describes tank gunnery basics. Yet another diagrams Iraqi ground forces organizations. No special effort is made to tie the parts into a neatly coherent whole. This is a fact book, and as such is awinner. There are doubtless inaccuracies. All of the contents are gleaned from public sources and (in the author's words) "presents what the average person would find..." if they did enough homework. In short, this work is a good basis from which a layperson (like me) can gain an understanding of the military situation over there at war's start. Well recommended.

The Reviewing Stand

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