Chaco: The boardgames

I have had an interest in the Chaco War (9th September 1932 to 12th June 1935) for many years, and back in 1973 I acquired a copy of GDW's CHACO: CLASSICAL INFANTRY WARFARE IN THE THIRTIES.

It was published in 1973 and designed by Franck Chadwick. It was sold in a ziplock bag and comprised:

• A 22" x 28" paper hex grid map of the Chaco Desert (scaled at 10 miles/16 km per hex)
• 380 die-cut counters
• A 14-page rulebook

When COMMAND MAGAZINE published THE CHACO WAR in its twelth issue in 1991, I bought this as well. Afterall, in my book you can never have too many wargames about the Chaco War!

The game was designed by Bruce Farcau and the magazine included an article entitled THE CHACO: WAR FOR THE HELL OF IT ... and on its own, this was worth the cost of the magazine.

Recently – and thanks to the generosity of my old friend David Crook – I acquired a copy of the latest boardgame about this war.

CHACO: BOLIVIA VS. PARAGUAY 1932-35 was published by Compass Games in 2025 and was designed by Frank Chadwick and Marc W Miller, and is a modified and improved version of GDW's 1973 game. The game comes in a heavy-duty cardboard box that contains:

• A 22" x 28" mounted hex grid map of the Chaco area (scaled at 10 miles/16 km per hex)
• 264 die-cut ⅝-inch square counters
• A set of Design Notes, Player Tips, and FAQs
• A Player's Aid Chart that includes a Combat Results Table, an Optional Unit Appearance chart, a Terrain Key, and a Terrain Effects Chart
• A Bolivian Player's Unit Composition Chart
• A Paraguayan Player's Unit Composition Chart
• A 16-page rulebook
• A D6 die

I hope to give this game a go soon ... once I've punched and trimmed the counters.

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After receiving the latest boardgame about the Chaco War, I decided to make a list of the books I own about the war.

• THE CONDUCT OF THE CHACO WAR by David Zook (1960)
• THE CHACO WAR: BOLIVIA AND PARAGUAY, 1932–1935 by Bruce Farcau (1996)
• AIRCRAFT OF THE CHACO WAR (1932-1935) by Dan Hargerdon and Antionio Luis Sapienza (1997)
• THE GREEN HELL: A CONCISE HISTORY OF THE CHACO WAR BETWEEN BOLIVIA AND PARAGUAY, 1932–1935 by Adrian English (2007)
• THE CHACO WAR 1932–1935: SOUTH AMERICA'S GREATEST MODERN CONFLICT by A M de Quesada (2011)
• THE CHACO AIR WAR 1932–35: THE FIRST MODERN AIR WAR IN LATIN AMERICA by Antionio Luis Sapienza (2018)
• THE CHACO WAR 1932–1935: FIGHTING IN THE GREEN HELL by Antionio Luis Sapienza and Jose Luis Martinez Pelaez (2020)

It's a longer list than I expected ... and doesn't included several magazine articles that are filed in my clippings file.