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Mark Johnson's occasional & opinionated podcast about family strategy boardgames

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

BGTG 38B - Oct 4, 2005 - Euro/Wargame Hybrids (with Mike Siggins)



Mike suggested his own topic for this podcast: the elusive hybrid game that combines elements of Euro games (short play, elegant mechanics, nice bits) and wargames (real history, maybe nice maps). To a large degree, the games we want to talk about don't yet exist. But several attempts have been made to varying degrees of success, and that's what we discuss. Mike also speculates about the growth of our hobby in this area.

-Mark

Links
Wallenstein
Friedrich
War of the Ring
Struggle of Empires
Liberte
Hellas
Battle Cry / Memoir '44
Lightning Midway / Lightning D-Day

9 Comments:

Blogger Game Over said...

Hi Mark,

Just listened to this episode (my first BGTG podcast) and was very impressed with the interview.

Mike is a very interesting guy to listen to, and you did a good job with your questions.

I thought the topic was superb. The euro/wargame hybrid is something I've been looking for for a while now.

Keep up the good work.

6:57 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great listening. The improvement of the sound quality was phenomenal.

BoardgamesToGo is certainly shaping up as the 'boardgaming podcast to beat'.

It would be great to have Mike, Greg Aleknevicus (?) and Dave Arnott back on the show - they have all been great guests.

Matthew (from Sydney, Australia)

1:32 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Mark,

Great work, as always. I have one concern though... I get your show through iTunes, and this time around I recieved two part A's. One was labeled as A while the other was labeled as B. I've downloaded the real B from your website, but in case you hadn't found the problem yet I thought I would let you know.

12:04 PM  
Blogger Mark Johnson said...

Yeah, that was my fault. I tried to fix it right away, but some early downloaders might have ended up with duplicate part A's like you did.

1:02 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Mark and Mike -

Another excellent show.

I actually grew up on wargames and though I love German games, I do pine for games that give me the deep gaming experience that wargmames did without the ridiculously long playing times. A hybrid would be great but for me the game doesn't actually have to be historically based - I'd be fine with a game with any theme that gives me the deeper gameplay with the shorter playing time (Die Macher is one that comes to mind).

I think the reason for Wallenstein's success is because it very nicely combines both German games and wargames. Many of my gaming pals grew up on wargames and still want to play them, but can't due to their complexity and long playing time. Wallenstein fits the bill perfectly (and is a good game to boot - the cube tower is genius).

- Rick

3:23 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Mark, again you put together an excellent podcast. The sound quality was outstanding, and you handled the interview very well.

I was only a little familiar with Mike Siggins, but I enjoyed hearing you and him exchange thoughts on a dear topic to me, hybrid wargames.

I have a question for Mike and you, I love the idea of a hybrid wargame, and am a history fan but not a scholar. I actually play and enjoy Memoir '44, but am not opposed to something meatier. What game would you recommend I try next? Wallenstein?

Again, great show, and I certainly hope to hear more from you and Mike in the future.

--Shana

6:20 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great show again. I hope there is a future for the hybrid, of the games I've Played Vortex and Game of Thrones are the 2 games that seem to be the closest to hybrids. I and love them both. It does seem to be a natural evolution that will take board gaming to the next level.

6:09 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Gah! In my question/comment above I should have clarified, if I like Memoir '44 and the hybrid style wargames, what Napoleonic game should I try next?

6:44 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Mark,

Great show! This show, I think, puts BGTG over the top. I have been listening to the shows chronologically, and, after this show, I realized that this is the podcast to beat on boardgames. Better than GeekSpeak and Dice Tower.

Thanks,

Jason White

11:18 AM  

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