WAR ROOM - New Larry Harris Game

@Narvik:

Its the plastic miniatures that makes the game fun to play. With counters you may rather play a pc game. Would chess be fun with out figurines ?

Chess… being played with tiny thumbnail-sized cardboard chits since the Middle Ages…

For all of you wondering about Larry’s relationship with the Wiz, I asked him about it (albeit obliquely) on his forum, which elicited a vigorous response from Larry, to wit:

Response to Kjrunft:
Hate Mail? Krieghund and I Worked with Wizards over this past winter upgrading and preparing for this Anniversary re-launch. We are very excited about this. Over the years I have had games published by companies other than Wizards of the Coast. Larry Harris and Wiz are tight! War Room is not Axis & Allies. I�m not even sure they compete with each other. They are two of my children from two different mothers, and I love them both. Where do some of these assumptions come from?

So, according to Larry, War Room is not necessarily a rebuke of or departure from A&A or Avalon Hill.

So the first demo was yesterday. Does anyone have news from that?

@Narvik:

Its the plastic miniatures that makes the game fun to play. With counters you may rather play a pc game. Would chess be fun with out figurines ?

Wargames have been played, and found entertaining, for decades with cardboard chits.
PC Games are not interactive (playing against the computer or a player that you can’t sit across the table from) defeating the biggest draw to board games.

A game should never rely on it’s components to be fun. It’s the game play and the opponent(s) that make a game fun. Plastic minis is an aesthetic bonus.

Nope. I likes my little plastic army men. You can have your chits.

Actually a demo was done last may at some army museum / base if not mistaken.

https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/CentralPAGameClub/events/231096495/

I don’t quite understand how this game could be considered to NOT compete with A&A. Whether or not it ever will on a distribution scale is something else entirely, but in terms of content and plot, A&A and War Room appear extremely similar. The terms, language and framework are basically identical. I am sure the mechanics are different enough for experienced people to make a distinction. The shape of the board is probably indicative of the difference in style. If A&A and War Room were sitting next to each other on a store shelf and someone (uninitiated to either game) was trying to decide which one to buy, they probably wouldn’t be able to tell much of a difference between the two beyond the shape of the board and pieces used. Anyone think the decision then would come down to visual appeal? A&A would probably trump WR simply because it has plastic figures rather than chits.

Since there are “10 different unit types”, you could probably represent each with a sculpt from A&A or HBG. Far easier to visually identify sculpts with chips than stacks of colored tiles. However, based on the size of the board, specifically the landmass, using multiple sculpt types in a territory, like in A&A, would probably take up way too much space. Hence the need for tile stacking. It looks like WR was designed with that in mind, so it looks like we won’t see options for sculpts.

For a board that looks close to half the size of G40, with less space and fewer outright visual cues, the rules for this game appear very complex in that there are many of them and they get quite granular. High level stuff like Civilian Morale and Resource Capture contrasted with individual naval unit repairs and whether fighters are dogfighting or strafing. War Room might be more interesting if it deals primarily with the higher level strategic aspects of the war and less with the individual unit characteristics and tactical battles.

I have the feeling War Room has the need for stacking and chits/tokens instead of plastic sculpts because there is going to be an element of hidden information, not because of any production or space issue.

In a case where there is hidden information regarding the units you have deployed, plastic minis simply don’t work.

@GeneralHandGrenade:

Nope. I likes my little plastic army men. You can have your chits.

Don’t get me wrong, I like my little plastic army men too. My point was that if that’s the reason a game is fun, it clearly is not a fun game. There are far too many games (old and coming out recently) that rely entirely on their bling (re: miniatures, mostly) to sell rather than actual game play value.

I intend to buy War Room and then enjoy the fact that it is a different experience. The more different the better!

@LHoffman:

I don’t quite understand how this game could be considered to NOT compete with A&A. Whether or not it ever will on a distribution scale is something else entirely, but in terms of content and plot, A&A and War Room appear extremely similar. The terms, language and framework are basically identical.

The concept of competition between games of this type should perhaps be seen differently as competition between, let’s say, competition between Apples and PCs, in which the choice of one translates into the rejection of the other.  Gamers aren’t likely to feel that they have to buy either The War Room or A&A rather than both.  A&A, in fact, already faces plenty of competition from itself, given that Europe 1940, Pacific 1940, A&A 1941, A&A 1942 and A&A 1914 are all on the market simultaneously, and will soon be joined by the Anniversary reprint.

@CWO:

@LHoffman:

I don’t quite understand how this game could be considered to NOT compete with A&A. Whether or not it ever will on a distribution scale is something else entirely, but in terms of content and plot, A&A and War Room appear extremely similar. The terms, language and framework are basically identical.

The concept of competition between games of this type should perhaps be seen differently as competition between, let’s say, competition between Apples and PCs, in which the choice of one translates into the rejection of the other.  Gamers aren’t likely to feel that they have to buy either The War Room or A&A rather than both.  A&A, in fact, already faces plenty of competition from itself, given that Europe 1940, Pacific 1940, A&A 1941, A&A 1942 and A&A 1914 are all on the market simultaneously, and will soon be joined by the Anniversary reprint.

That is true; people are not prohibited from purchasing and playing both. However, I was speaking from both a brand perspective and as it relates to competition in the genre. Nightingale Games is obviously not affiliated with Avalon Hill or Wizards of the Coast. So financially they would compete for market share, to some degree, if War Room ever became as established and widespread as A&A.

More than that, both games are in the same genre and have a radically similar model. The level of similarity makes them tantamount to the same game in the grand scheme, albeit with slightly different mechanics. So you have a group of friends over to play games: which do you choose A&A or War Room?

There isn’t a right answer to that question, but the differences between the two games appear to be limited. I am talking big picture.

Wow this is big news! Looking forward to get more info about this new game.

So far I like the new styl map and the fact that it’s all about simultanious movements and hidden information. Might be a very intense game!

BTW did anyone notice the distinct differences between the two images on nightingale’s website? The top image shows square and oval shaped counters were as the second image shows mainly round tokens and a hexagon one (apart from the square country trackers in the middle) Definitely two different prototypes.

@Tjoek:

BTW did anyone notice the distinct differences between the two images on nightingale’s website? The top image shows square and oval shaped counters were as the second image shows mainly round tokens and a hexagon one (apart from the square country trackers in the middle) Definitely two different prototypes.

Good catch. I didn’t recognize that.

Today they announced:

A PDF draft of the rules for WAR ROOM (currently aiming for July 20)

That will be interesting…

Counters instead of minis?  LH has lost his GD mind!

Chits are for grognard NERDS!  Come on, man… Real war games have minis! This is like, going back in time?

This game is going to be a total bomb.  There can be no question about it.

Hi all, I lurk a lot but haven’t posted much outside of the Revised Boards and in the comments sections on a few Youtube Channels.

I’m hyped for War Room, and I was even more hyped when I looked at my email this morning and learned that I would potentially get to see a demo of the game at a con I’m going to later this month (WBC in Seven Springs, PA).

I was super hyped to get to meet the legend himself…  Until I look at my calendar…
I’m going on 7/21-7/23 for the A&A tournament but the Nightingale Crew isn’t going to be there until the 27th.  Kind of weird that the creator of A&A has to miss a tournament for his own game, but he probably had scheduling issues.

Anyway, back to lurking/riding the hype train.  Just thought I’d share this bit of almost-news with you all.