Play all of WWII in one sitting?  That’s what the GG guys gave you with Quartermaster General ~

Corinne Mahaffey, 23 June 2016

A quick stop at the Griggling Games booth yielded an interesting – and different – conversation about Quartermaster General and its genesis.  Expansions are already rolling out the door for QMG, so look for more to come from them.  Designer Ian Brody explains

I wanted to make a simulation, then abstract it until I had a playable game.  I also wanted a game that people could play together in an evening, rather than one played in turns for days.  I have given the game rules to a new player, then not see them for a week while they read the rules, or learn, as in Axis and Allies, base 6 statistics.  I also didn’t want to be able to gain in-game intelligence because I had to explain rule that my opponent wanted to use.  Finally, I wanted a game that war gamers and historians would agree touched on the salient points of World War 2, and had a sense of the narrative of the war.

I was introduced to Magic [the Gathering] by a friend, and realized how much game mechanic could be put on a card.  Then I looked at old war games, including World of War, Third Reich, Rising Sun, World in Flames and Europa.  I looked at the headings, and realized I needed a card for each one.  All the game chrome and fiddly rules could be put on the cards.

I also found that, by front-loading the luck on the card draw instead of backloading the luck on the dice, choosing the one card to play that turn becomes a move of skill.  You don’t get to micromanage; you must play the hand you are dealt.

As a reminder, we reviewed Quartermaster General a while ago, and will have some coverage coming soon of the Air Marshal expansion.

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