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Hearts of Iron, the classic World War II strategy game from Paradox Interactive, will be adapted into a new board game by Steamforged Games. Hears of Iron: The Board Game, announced Friday, proposes a three- to four-hour experience for two to five players with “multi-layered gameplay, historical depth, and the freedom to [...] play out alternative timelines.” While jaded gamers may see what amounts to the reinvention of the wheel, I see something else — progress, and the potential to reimagine historical grand strategy on the tabletop.
Back in 2016, I interviewed Johan Andersson, at that time Paradox’s executive vice president of game development, about Hearts of Iron 4. He explained how his last job interview with the company back in 1998 ended with a board game — Axis & Allies, now published by Renegade Games.
“The producer at the time said, ‘Okay, well the interview is finished. We’re going to play some Axis & Allies here in the office. You want to stay?’” [Andersson] was half-way through the game, planning for Britain’s air assault and amphibious landings at Normandy, when that same producer turned to him and told him he’d gotten the job.
Of course, when Hearts of Iron 4 emerged just six months later (on June 6, appropriately), it looked and felt almost nothing like Axis & Allies. Andersson and his team at Paradox had taken Larry Harris Jr.’s classic as their inspiration, but the franchise they created and iterated on for the better part of two decades was so much more than Harris’ design ever was. Yes, you could still smash American, British, and German tanks together in clamorous little battles throughout Europe, and set packs of fighter planes spooling around the cardboard Pacific. But where Hearts of Iron 4 excelled was in creating alternate histories, something that the rules of most other war games, including Axis & Allies, simply aren’t capable of doing — even to this day.
“I’ve seen a Berlin/Moscow Axis where everyone else fights against those two,” Andersson said. “I’ve seen the United States join the Axis. I’ve seen Britain and Japan ally. There’s all of this weird stuff that happens. And that makes the game — I’m not going to say unpredictable, but when a human starts doing it it’s extremely challenging and extremely fun.”
Friday’s news release tells me that Steamforged clearly understands what makes Hearts of Iron different. “The boardgame features multiple playable nations,” Steamforged said, “that players can customise through their ideology, either faithfully recreating or changing the course of history, all while engaging in political maneuvering and large-scale combat to re-draw the map. The potential nation and ideology combinations give the game a significant amount of replayability.” It’s an ambitious mission statement, and I’m excited to see how the company achieves those goals using just paper and plastic.
1/4Image: Steamforged Games and Paradox Interactive
Trouble is, Steamforged isn’t really known for its consistency. Dark Souls: The Board Game came out strong with an excellent demo, but the totality of the game’s campaign was a brutal, boring slog. While Monster Hunter: World - The Board Game was all-around excellent, the end result of Horizon Zero Dawn - The Board Game was cluttered, buggy, and uneven. Most famously, the publisher’s first print run of Dark Souls: The Roleplaying Game was so riddled with errors that the British company was compelled to issue both a formal apology and a corrected second edition.
So, while I remain curious to see how the final game turns out, I would recommend watching lots of playthrough videos and other details before plunking down money on the crowdfunding campaign. Hearts of Iron: The Board Game arrives on Gamefound early next year, and you can sign up to be notified at launch.
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