Before I decide on art or any of the other components, I need to tackle how I want the storm to work. In the original game, the sandstorm is represented by a small cardboard token that moves around the edge of the circular board. This is not very dramatic for how important a role it plays. It also fades into the background too much and is easy to overlook.

My idea is that the sandstorm should clearly overlay the entire segment of the board it is affecting. But how to do so without disrupting any pieces on that segment (in the safety of rock regions, for example)? I propose a layered board which is effectively one giant dial. The storm is printed on a transparent plastic disc sandwiched between another clear plastic layer (the actual board surface) and a base cardboard layer with the board art.

This way the sandstorm will move underneath the pieces on the board and clearly designate what area it affects.

Here is a mockup of the cross-section:

A fastener at the center would hold the three pieces in place but still allow the storm to rotate. There would also need to be some kind of adhesive at the four corners for stability, but also allow enough play for the storm to move easily.

The result would look like this:

As you can see, there would need to be sections cut out from each edge of the top frame to allow for access to the storm layer’s edge. My one concern is that it may be a bit clunky when moving the storm great distances.

I may further elaborate on this by printing the regions protected from the storm on the topmost plastic layer. This would provide a clear visual indication of which units are safe and which are destroyed.