Radio War Nerd #347 — War Board Games, feat. Brian Train

Hey - I'm still wanting to send this to the game designers I know. Any progress on making it public? As I wrote before, it could gain you some subscribers...

Mark and John, would you two consider streaming/recording yourselfs playing a game of one of Brian's games? Maybe the Guerilla Checkers one? Might sound gimmicky but I think the fans would eat it up

I've never played any of the COIN (Counterinsurgency) games, but I've heard good things. I know the war game-adjacent Root is influenced by that series.

I'm gonna correct your guest, *Stubbs the Zombie in: A Rebel Without a Pulse* came out in, as I recall, 2005

"everyone knows how you win at risk, you just grab Australia..." Me: "damn, they know my secret?!"

This was excellent. I will definitely look for Train’s games. Like other commenters, I too am a D&D nerd and love Gary’s tragic story of the 1970s D&Der’s dead elf. The history of D&D and RPGs is interesting in that it rose out of wargames but generally it’s a rejection of wargames — the focus on story or individual roleplaying/power-fantasy over simulation, beyond the level of “how much damage would a bastard sword do relative to a longsword”. Generally RPGs, like boardgames, have gotten more and more streamlined and abstract and Heroic Story-focused and farther from Oldschool D&D, which had the “now you get to raise armies” high level endgame. Every 10 years or so D&D tries to bring back some kind of wargame variant but they usually don’t make much impact.

Oh, and as well as everyone recommending Playing at the World, see if you can see the documentary Secrets of Blackmoor. While technically it's a documentary on D&D co-author Dave Arneson and the origins of roleplaying games, the segments with Dave Wesely talking about Strategos by Charles A. L. Totten and the open-ended results are germane to this.

So...I loved this podcast and I want to send it to some serious game designers I know (Mark Herman and some of his friends) but I want to get your permission first. One or more of them may subscribe FWIW...

As alluded by someone wanting to grab Delta (aka Daniel Collins), this episode could have traction in the gaming community. If you want an episode to make available for free, this is it. I could see it being discussed on Tenkar's Tavern or Grognardia.

Hmm. Do I smell a War Role-Playing Games episode coming up . . . ?

Italy might become a rather dicey place with fascists in power again. Take care, John.

I've only played A Distant Plain a couple of times, but I would say that A Distant Plain portrays the Afghan government as one that loots the country in a way that subverts its own power (Patronage as a mechanic gets the Government victory points without offering any other gameplay benefit), and as being almost incapable of defeating the Taliban without the support of the Coalition, so I don't think Brian or Volko should feel too badly about it.

The old Star Wars Customizable Card Game from the 90's has gained a second life on the internet. The cards have been digitalized by a dedicated group of players and the meta has actually continued to evolve as they release new 'virtual' cards. A steep learning curve, but completely free to play and fun to watch. https://gemp.starwarsccg.org/gemp-swccg/

Toot toot all aboard the Brian train (thanks for this)

Journal of the Plague Year by Defoe is pretty damn boring. But still a good read

Great interview! The COIN games make regular appearances on my gaming group's table. Volko Ruhnke, the CIA guy who oversees the COIN series, is interesting in his own right and regularly does board game-related interviews. If you ever did a follow up to this (great) episode...

Colonial twilight is an excellent game!

Great interview! Colonial Twilight is a wonderful game like the rest of the COIN series (at least the ones I've actually played). Looking forward to Brian's upcoming China '37 - '41 title as well. Newcomers and veterans alike should keep an eye on upcoming multi-pack "The British Way" which features Palestine, Malaya, Cyprus, and Kenya. https://www.gmtgames.com/p-945-the-british-way-counterinsurgency-at-the-end-of-empire.aspx

Great episode!

Enjoyed the talk! Gotta find some folks who will play that Hezbollah Israeli conflict game with me :D

I literally started yelling when I saw this episode come up. Speaking of tabletop war games, I would highly recommend the book Playing at the World. It’s a very in-depth look at how dungeons and dragons was designed, and how a lot of its weird assumptions about gameplay came from old naval war games. Also, tons of stuff about how fantasy writers contributed to its setting. I think John and Mark would love it.

Genuinely read "Brain Train" until I heard you say Brian

I'm surprised they haven't done a live test deep in Russia. Just checking they still work, you understand...

The designer of some of my favourite wargames(!) Looking forward to this.

Tactically & strategically, the nuclear option is a bad option for Putin. Strategically, it's a two-sided risk: * Ukrainians could become even more hardlined against Russia (existential threat) * The West will become more solid against Russia. That the West alliance would collapse is wishful thinking, in the same category as "the Ukrainians will throw us flowers as we liberate them from their evils". Moreover, China will back away. So strategically it has tons of risk. But tactically is also unviable. Tactically, nukes can be done 3 ways: * High in the atmosphere, as a warning. No tactical advantages there, just for show. * Nuke a city. Not happening at this point, obviously. * Small-weight nuke in the army. There's no big concentration of armies for that to be effective, the battalions are stretched. It will definitely blast a hole in the lines, but then so what? It will get covered back behind the lines (because small nukes have a small area effect) and the Russian troops will have to cross the contaminated area. In these circumstances, nukes are a desperation option. Maybe there will be something for show. But then the bluff will be called and Putin's out of options, short of actually starting WW3.

Lets goo