The Hearts of Iron board game feels like the strategy genre is eating its own tail, but take a closer look

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 gameannounced Friday, offers a three- to four-hour experience for two to five players with “layered gameplay, historical depth, and the freedom to play (…) alternate timelines.” While jaded gamers may see what amounts to reinventing the wheel, I see something different: progress and the potential to reinvent historic grand strategy on the tabletop.

In 2016 I interviewed Johan Andersson, then Executive Vice President of Game Development at Paradox, about it Hearts of iron 4. He explained how his last job interview at the company in 1998 ended with a board game: Axis and alliesnow published by Renegade Games.

“The producer at the time said, ‘Okay, the interview is over. We’re going to play some Axis and allies here in the office. Do you want to stay?’” (Andersson) was halfway through the game, planning the British air raid and amphibious landings on Normandy, when that same producer turned to him and told him he had gotten the job.

Of course, when Hearts of iron 4 surfaced just six months later (appropriately on June 6), it looked and felt almost nothing Axis and allies. Andersson and his team at Paradox had brought Larry Harris Jr.’s classic to life. taken as inspiration, but the franchise they created and built upon 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 against each other in noisy little battles across Europe, and fly groups of fighter planes around the cardboard Pacific. But true Hearts of iron 4 excelled at was creating alternate histories, something that the rules of most other war games included Axis and alliesare simply unable to do so – even to this day.

“I’ve seen a Berlin-Moscow axis where everyone else is fighting those two,” Andersson said. “I saw the United States join the Axis powers. I have seen Britain and Japan become an ally. All kinds of strange things happen. And that makes the game – I’m not going to say unpredictable, but when a person starts doing it, it’s extremely challenging and a lot of fun.”

Friday’s press release tells me that Steamforged clearly understands what makes Hearts of Iron different. “The board game features multiple playable nations,” Steamforged said, “which players can customize via their ideology, faithfully recreating or altering the course of history as they engage in political maneuvering and large-scale battles to redraw the map. The potential nation and ideology combinations give the game a significant degree of replayability.” It’s an ambitious mission and I’m excited to see how the company achieves these goals using only paper and plastic.

So while I remain curious about how the final game will turn out, I recommend watching plenty of playthrough videos and other details before committing any money to the crowdfunding campaign. Hearts of Iron: the board game will appear on Gamefound early next year, and that is also possible Sign up to be notified when it launches.