Der Kuenstler

He comes around a bit. Last I heard he was looking at getting maybe a bigger map and making some slight changes. So maybe he’s doing that for now.

That’s good to know, I stumbled upon his channel and probably wouldn’t be apart of this awesome community without him

@tincanofthesea he’s got a nice game. Don’t like it when they start charging for it. Larry get a percentage % ?

@tincanofthesea Exactly! It was around a year ago, I saw one of his videos about his war room and immediately I was like: “Time to do some research on this game it looks so fun!” (and later got E40, P40)

Very fun world-- :( I didnt know he deleted his youtube channel…

Hey all - I feel like I owe those who liked my channel and supported it the reasons why I stopped it - here they are and I apologize for abruptly leaving without communication.

There’s no one reason, so here goes:

1. My contractors that I hired to make the new War room did a sloppy job. They did many things that I didn’t notice until after I paid them. For example - none of the walls they put in are even square - my bathroom East wall is over an inch wider than the West wall. The doors they put in had no latches and when I put the latches in none of them would latch because the doors weren’t hung square. My windows still leak. Within two months the new toilet froze and busted, even though I drained most of it beforehand. This made me feel like a big fool and demotivated me to finish it.

I realized that I actually had an ideal setup in my old house, having the War Room in the basement. It had a poured foundation so no water leaks and stayed temperature controlled year round for free, because it was part of the house. This new room I have is in a outside metal building with no heat or air, and the expense of paying for all of that, plus paying to keep the room relatively warm/cool for only a once a month event seemed excessive. A consistent low humidity also is a factor when you have paper products associated with the game and wall posters that can take damage, which requires consistent heating/cooling.

2. My overly ambitious new map/rules project eventually swamped me. Making land and water in Photoshop is pretty easy. Filling in and naming hundreds of territories that each have their own terrain and weather, plus adding all the other improvements I wanted - without even knowing if they would be fun and balanced until tested and retested - is hard. Especially doing it without overcomplicating it. They say a genius is someone who can take something complicated and make it simple. I think I realized I’m no genius.

None of the guys in my play group even wanted a new map anyway - they just responded with blank looks when I told them I was making one. Remember, I hosted a monthly game night for 6 1/2 years. That’s almost 80 game sessions. Been there, done that. So if I wasn’t going to come up with something bigger/better, I had no interest in taking on all the work/expense of making a whole other room to do the exact same thing on the same old map I was bored with.

3. I respond poorly to criticism. I’m a perfectionist and very hard on myself already. I was getting youtube comments to watch my vids on fast speed because I talked too slow. I also had criticism that I couldn’t even pronounce Axis and Allies correctly, so how could my ideas be taken seriously? Despite my getting 20 good comments to one bad one, I still let the bad ones rankle me. So I started thinking, why am I doing all this just to get myself upset? Because I’m actually an introvert, I can’t talk fast and on the fly like other successful youtubers can, so I felt I should just back off and leave it to them.

4. This year I turned 60 years old. I realized I’m now in the fourth quarter of my life. This is a time when a man starts thinking of his legacy. What do I want to be remembered for? Do I want to be remembered as just as a guy obsessed with a game? Not just a game, but a game with the theme of the most destructive war in history. A war that killed over 60 million people and allowed Communism to spread halfway around the world, spawning later killing in wars like Korea and Vietnam.

Do I really want to spend my last days rolling dice, eating chips and chuckling over that? They say “war is sweet to them that know it not”. I was never in the military, but I have a friend who was an artillery man in Vietnam, and I can’t get him to play. Probably because he’s seen how horrible war really is. How foolish it seems to me now for me to try to shrink all of that death and misery down to my kitchen table and make a game of it with pretty cards and dice. Much less investing thousands into a dedicated room for it. I’ve read enough memoirs of WWII soldiers to know that they didn’t dream of fighting and glory. All they wanted was for it to stop, and to go home and live normal lives.

So that’s where I am now on the journey. I appreciate all of your support and use of my ideas. Although I (somewhat impulsively) deleted all my videos, the bulk of those ideas are still in the house rules you can download elsewhere here.

I still read the forums here occasionally, and get email notifications of chat messages from those who want to reach me, so I’m around - not dead or anything!

@der-kuenstler Thanks for the response, totally understandable

@der-kuenstler said in Der Kuenstler:
“This year I turned 60 years old. I realized I’m now in the fourth quarter of my life. This is a time when a man starts thinking of his legacy. What do I want to be remembered for? Do I want to be remembered as just as a guy obsessed with a game?”

You should be remembered as a person who pursued your passion. Any less is failing to be true to your genuine self.

“Not just a game, but a game with the theme of the most destructive war in history. A war that killed over 60 million people and allowed Communism to spread halfway around the world, spawning later killing in wars like Korea and Vietnam.”

Did you ever consider that games and simulations direct a biologically determined aspect of male human nature into a peaceful and constructive pasttime? Watch the interviews of the Russian soliders captive in ukraine to find out what happens when you emasculate and debase men by exposing them to wanton violence.

@Der-Kuenstler

I wish you well my friend. That’s what it felt to me watching your videos a friend.
You helped me get into historical gaming. I didn’t do to well as school if I’m honest.
The game gave me a second chance to learn about some of the horrors, struggles of history and learn from it.
Yes I’m learning through a game, but the understanding and thoughts are learned through it.

Your map and rules were fantastic my friend and I had a great couple of years playing before I moved on to different board games still with similar themes. Mostly solo as is the way with most war gamers find themselves. I like to think of it as learning through a game the history, and what sacrifices have gone before us and remember those that thought and laid down there lives.

Thank you
Der-Kuenstler

I do miss your videos though! : )

@dazzaman77 Thanks for your kind words! I’m glad you got something out of the videos, and they were an inspiration for you! I admit that if something - even a wargame - can help someone through a difficult stage in life, then there is merit to it. I’m encouraged my videos and game adaptations have helped some people - thank you for reminding me, friend!

@Der-Kuenstler hey D-K I understand entirely, I’m pretty young compared to most in the community and honestly I just wanted to say thanks. I loved your editions of the game and I found the original game too structured for me to enjoy it. I didn’t grow up with it either and being surrounded by complex strategy video games mapping things down to individual gun level, it’s hard to enjoy the original because I’m spoilt with so much choice not available in the past.

A board game to me has to build on its strengths, it has to social and truly balanced to allow further social play, which helps these games rival any video game, these for me are the true strengths of a board game over any video game.

Your game gave me a little variance to the formula which is something I liked, I enjoyed your videos and love to see that the rules are still here. Greatly balanced as well and something that I have enjoyed
with mates.

I’m sorry about the poor comments, sadly the internet brings out some of the best of people and alot of the worst. I understand you sentimentality around perfectionism, I too have started to make my own board games and being a perfectionist I have started over and over again. So I understand entirely, it is a masterpiece as It stands.

Thanks for your time and I wish all the best in your endeavours.

@Hopper1999 Thank you, Hopper - I enjoyed reading your post, and feel more fulfilled knowing you got some good out of my past efforts!