The Game Of War

Thanks to Phil Huggins for putting me onto this episode of Dan Carlin's Hardcore History.

Dan discusses his background in miniature wargaming and then talks to one of the architects of a popular Second World War themed video game about the genre, its development, growth and challenges.

Do listen if you:

• Just want to listen to someone with a great podcast/radio voice. I’ve not listened to Dan Carlin before, but within 30 seconds I knew he was a professional. ( I’m reminded of meeting Dave Lewis a few years ago at BSides London )
• If you want to learn more about the new WW2 video game Hell Let Loose that I mentioned a little while ago. It’s an interesting idea, especially that players are attacted to such a constrained environment compared to the popular Battle Royale format
• Right now I can’t justify the time the game appears to demand, and don’t have the computer power - if you can’t either this is a really good insight.

The highlights for me:

• Kriegsspiel being described as the Germans’ secret weapon in the 19th century; echos of Matt Caffrey's theories
• Carlin made a good point on modern gaming taking the arguing out of miniatures, it being much better to let the computer figure it out
• Maximillian Rea, the lead developer of Hell Let Loose, made a great point on modern computing finally being good enough to have massed players, and a more realistic size for the battlefield. As fun as that format this, this isn’t CoD's Nuketown
• It’s the briefest of mentions, but what you can discern from the naming schemes of militaries involved in WW2.
• Rea’s point that the infliction of pain isn’t the appeal for the majority of players, it’s more about strategy and tactics and out-playing an opponent. Unfortunately this interview ended just as they were getting into expanding this idea… imagine a game where your battle could be won through logistics