4 March 2022 ~
The danger of trying to record a podcast referencing current events is that it’ll no longer be “current” by the time it’s released. Nevertheless, we took the plunge and tried it anyway. Guest Brian Train, and host Brant had both designed wargames covering contemporary wars in Ukraine some number of years ago, and both take a look back at what they generally got right or wrong, and whether or not the current events were plausible, possible, or even represented in their games. As Brian readily admits “I’m not a freaking wizard.”
By the way, the games we focus on are Brian’s Ukrainian Crisis (original here, Hollandspiele version here) and Brant’s Orange Crush (BGG entry here, Foreign Policy article here)
Don’t forget, you can always catch up with past episodes on the “podcast” tab of our site.
Mike asks a bunch of questions along the way, but also asked a good one last week on Twitter, which sprawled into an extended discussion about both rules & scenario design revolving around the early performance of both sides in Ukraine so far. Also, proof of Brian’s “goat mortars“…
How would someone go about designing a game/scenario for what we're seeing in Ukraine? If it was released 3 weeks ago, would anyone call it realistic. Who would think Russian army this bad @ADragoons @GUWargaming @TheGascon @moesgametable @Ardwulf @SebastianBae @thecommandtent
— OJsDad (@OJsdas) February 28, 2022
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The real issue is that Russian conscripts are having a narrative disconnect.
Not the first time troops have struggled with the problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMMwoxGWjJI
That’s definitely true in the current conflict, and not something that any designers seem to have dealt with in previous game designs.
If folks are interested in discussing the current conflict, we have a dedicated opt-in-only channel on our Discord server that you can join for those discussions. Beyond that channel, we kindly ask that any discussions of the ongoing invasion be limited to wargame-related issues, and even then, please tread lightly.