War is hell. And sometimes war games can be, too.

Hardcore war gamers and designers like their battles and campaigns to be simulated with scrupulous accuracy and in granular detail. Sometimes this comes at the expense of the gaming experience.

And there is one particularly notorious war game from 1979, the Campaign for North Africa, a board game so detailed, complex and cumbersome to play that it is thought that no one has ever actually finished it (including its creator).

Now two guys from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, are trying. James Purcell and Andrew Taeger have spent nearly two years just mastering the rules and practicing, and they are ready to start playing the game for real. Finishing it could take decades, if it doesn’t drive them mad first.

They are documenting the challenge in a podcast, “War With a Mate,” which has run for 93 episodes so far. Once again, to be clear, they haven’t actually started playing yet.

A friend told Mr. Purcell and Mr. Taeger about the game that no one is known to have finished. “And then me and Andy were at the pub a few weeks afterward, and we just sort of went, ‘Have you been thinking about that game a lot?’” Mr. Purcell said in an interview. “And we both came to the conclusion that playing the game would be a fun idea.”

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A view of the board game The Campaign for North AfricaWar With A Mate
“There’s something about the game that draws you in,” Mr. Taeger said. “Like, what is this crazy, huge thing? Like, why does it exist?
And also, why is anyone trying to play it?”

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Both men play Dungeons and Dragons but were not war gamers, aside from one game of Risk that they didn’t actually finish playing. That would seem to make them unlikely candidates to be the first to complete the daunting Campaign for North Africa.

In the game, players representing the Axis and Allied powers recreate the combat from 1940 to 1943 that eventually drove the Axis powers out of North Africa. But depending on the skill of the players, the rolls of the dice and which side winds up controlling, say, Tunis, Tripoli and Alexandria, either side could win.

The game, which covers the entire North African theater in World War II, is so mammoth that it is recommended for 10 players, five to a side. Mr. Purcell (playing the Allies) and Mr. Taeger (the Axis) are going it alone.

Much of the time “playing” Campaign for North Africa is spent not on battles, but on logistics. And the level of detail is mind-boggling: For every unit on the board, players have to keep track of its ammunition and its food and water.

Is the game detailed? Well, how much water evaporates depends on how hot the weather is for that turn. And Italian units need more water than other nations because, the rules say, they use it to make pasta.

Although the game covers the vastness of the North African campaign of World War II, the result of every aerial dogfight must be resolved individually, and players must even determine if the losing pilot successfully bails out and survives.

“I think occasionally the game does shine through as a game, but for the most part, it’s just an exercise in bookkeeping,” Mr. Purcell said.

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There are also some rules that are simply puzzling. Aircraft are allowed to transport dead camels, but not living camels. “Yet nowhere in the rules does it explain where you might come across a living or dead camel,” Mr. Purcell lamented. The German general Erwin Rommel has his own game piece, and the rules mention that his truck has access to only AM radio. This seems to have no bearing on play.

If players are confused by the intensely detailed instructions, there are few places they can go. The game is long out of print and its publisher, SPI, is out of business. (Used copies can be found online in the $1,000 range.) Richard Berg, the designer, who acknowledged never having finished playing the game himself, died in 2019.

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game pieces on a game board
Since a pet knocking over the game 10 years in would be catastrophic, Mr. Purcell and Mr. Taeger have affixed magnets to the five game boards and the more than 1,600 pieces to keep everything in place.Credit…War With A Mate
Mr. Taeger and Mr. Purcell had no experience with podcasts when they started their journey, but decided to document their effort because “if we have people following along, there’s too much shame if we back out,” Mr. Purcell said. They devoted 15 episodes just to learning the rules, then 70 more to playing a six-turn practice game. That all took 20 months.

The real game, which they plan to begin playing on Oct. 30, lasts 111 turns. They have been playing four to five hours a week; at that rate, they estimate it could take 20 years to complete.

(Before you ask, Mr. Taeger, a software developer, is 30. Mr. Purcell, who works in mental health services, is 29.)

Since a pet knocking over the game 10 years in would be catastrophic, they have affixed magnets to the five game boards and the more than 1,600 pieces to keep everything in place.

After 20 months of learning, playing and podcasting, the six-turn warm-up game ended in a draw. That might happen in the full game as well. Or the game might have a fatal flaw that doesn’t reveal itself until deep into play.

If it does, no one has found it yet. It is impossible to know for sure that someone, somewhere, hasn’t played the game to the end, following all the rules and cutting no corners. But if they have, no one has ever documented that feat, and board game enthusiasts are confident it has never been done.

“It might just grind to a halt because it doesn’t hold up,” Mr. Taeger said. “We might get to turn No. 90 and be like, ‘We can’t.’ That’s a very real possibility.”

But if they do indeed make it to Turn 111, one of them could win. And then the other one will have lost. Then what?

“I keep joking, the only way to tell if it’s really balanced is we finish and then swap sides and see if you get the same result,” Mr. Taeger said.
“James is less enthused by that idea.”

But Mr. Purcell allowed that, if he loses, he could be persuaded to play again. “I don’t know, maybe then I’m bitter enough to ask for a rematch.”