40. History and Wargame Design with Alessio Cavatore

On this episode, Mark welcomes Alessio Cavatore previously of Games Workshop where he designed supplement games for the brand and more recently with his own company River Horse games. As the co-designer for Warlord Games' World War Two game Bolt Action, Mark was very keen on interviewing Alessio for the pod particularly on how history influences wargame design. Replicating history in wargaming is a difficult task, which sometimes requires simplification, but also a guard against rule creep to ensure that the game remains accessible and playable. This is Alessio's drive to achieve a sophistication through simplicity, "designing a complex game is easy" and the conversation leads onto simplicity is the most difficult thing to achieve. A superb conversation related to designing history into wargaming that moved into one of Mark's favourite subjects, Waterloo, for which Alessio designed Quelle' Affaire. Alessio reveals that his influence from history actually comes from the idealistic vision of the medieval knight, so the Middle Ages are his favourite period of history. Simple wonderful.From the macro to the micro topics of history, The History Syndicate Podcast is the forum for all with a common interest in all things history.The views expressed are those of the author and guest. They do not necessarily represent any views of any other organisation or institution.Hosted and edited by Mark Martin.With Alessio Cavatore.Edited and produced by Mark Martin.Music: Throughout History available via Podcastle.Audio: Mixed using Podcastle.Cover Art and images created using Canva and Canva DreamLab AI. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.