Skip to main content

Veteran game designer creates ‘War Room,’ the ultimate WWII tabletop game

War Room Kickstarter Intro
Axis & Allies is a classic tabletop strategy wargame that’s sold millions of copies. For many, it was their first introduction to wargaming. Now the creator of Axis & Allies (as well as 200 other games) is about to unveil his most ambitious project yet.

War Room is a sprawling tabletop board game for 2-6 players that’s been more than four years in the making. It takes place on a massive circular map with players teaming up to compete against each other in a variety of different scenarios. It incorporates secret movement, supply routes, unit morale, and many other factors to determine the outcome.

The 69-year-old Larry Harris, an avid WWII buff, teamed up with game designer Thomas Gale of Zoo Tycoon fame to form Nightingale Games. Their Kickstarter campaign has already doubled their initial funding goal, with several days left to go. They also have plans for a computer version of the game, just like Axis & Allies.

War Room
Nightingale Games
Nightingale Games

In an interview with Venture Beat, Harris explained that he wanted to make the complex nature of strategy and tactical wargames available to a wide audience. “I found that the games that were available to me as a young man were much too complicated and not very pleasing,” he said. “It’s not complicated. It’s a culmination of a lot of simple game mechanics, combined together.”

The game includes more than a thousand pieces, many representing the command structure from the soldiers on the battlefield to the generals in the war room. Factors such as morale, stress, and production can influence the conflict in many ways. “In all wars you have this interesting chess game going on. World War II, one of the chess pieces, if you will, was production,” Harris said. “Here we deal with oil, iron, and other strategic resources. It takes combinations of these resources to produce things like tanks or infantry or aircraft or ships.”

Tabletop games are currently in the middle of a comeback, with many classic wargames entering the digital age and new board games based on video games adding to the mix. Harris admits that the immersive visuals of today’s games are tough to compete against. “It’s so exquisite,” he said, referring to games like Call of Duty: WWII. “I play a lot of World of Tanks. I’m just so impressed with — when you shoot it looks like you’re really shooting. Someone’s taken the time to figure out the velocity of my particular weapon. It’s just wonderful.”

For WWII fans and historians, as well as those who grew up playing the strategy war games of the 70’s, being in command of a country’s entire war machine is a dream come true. War Room is planned for release in 2018.

Mark Austin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Mark’s first encounter with high-tech was a TRS-80. He spent 20 years working for Nintendo and Xbox as a writer and…
Logitech’s A50 X is a gaming headset and HDMI switcher in one
Tech of the Week Logitech A50 X

Logitech has announced its latest gaming headset, the Astro A50 X. It costs a whopping $380, but for good reason: It's a headset that's compatible with the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X that doubles as an HDMI switcher.

The new device is an evolution of Logitech's popular Astro A50 headset, which features a distinct base stand. The A50 X builds on that idea in a few ways. One key example is that it's able to connect to both the PS5 and Xbox Series X. That might sound simple, but the consoles feature different connection methods that make it difficult to find a one-headset-fits-all audio solution.

Read more
Fortnite’s Rocket Racing is so fun, it could have been its own game
rocket racing hands on impressions jumping through air

Yesterday, Fortnite began its biggest expansion yet by dropping Lego Fortnite, a full survival crafting game that's playable for free within Fortnite. It was a pleasant surprise, but it isn’t the best piece of new content coming to the live-service juggernaut this week. That honor goes to Rocket Racing, an arcade racing game from the developers of Rocket League that’s available in Fortnite today.

This isn’t a simple kart racer that anyone could have put together in Fortnite’s creative mode. It’s a full-throated, free-to-play game that features 26 tracks at launch and some surprisingly deep driving systems. While Lego Fortnite may have had trouble standing on its own two feet outside of the Fortnite client, Rocket Racing could very well have launched as its own game -- and it still would be the best racing game of its type this year.

Read more
How to get planks in Lego Fortnite
lego fortnite hands on impressions village

 

Collecting resources and building isn't a foreign concept to Fortnite players. A major part of the game, unless you're in zero build, is smacking trees, walls, rocks, and basically everything with your pickaxe to get materials to build basic walls and structures to give you an edge in battle. Lego Fortnite has its own crafting and building system, but doesn't work in quite the same way. Planks in particular are the most essential building material in the game, but you can't get them by simply whacking a tree. Here's a quick rundown on how to collect planks to build your dream world in Lego Fortnite.
How to get planks in Lego Fortnite

Read more