Kriegspiel

A colleague made me aware of the existence of a neat little game called 'Kriegspiel'. It is a 2d/3d war game simulation based on a board game created in 1977.

The style is actually quite nice: It's meant to look like paper cut-outs on an ink-pen hand drawn map. (One of the promotional items you can download from the front page are actual paper cut-outs to cut out and glue together)

It also has two play modes: a top-down 2d view and a quasi-3d view (which uses the cut-out graphics). It doesn't however have a single-player mode, so I haven't really played it yet.

The rules look good though: there are only a handful of units and they have really simple rules. There are also rules about lines of communication, radiating from arsenals and relays. Any unit not in contact with a line of communication has to be in contact with a unit that is, otherwise it's disabled. Combat seems straightforward too, but I haven't really read up on that yet.

However, these details aren't actually the niftiest feature of the game. The fact that it is based on a board game designed by a French poet/filmmaker and revolutionary is. The guy in person is Guy Debord (no pun intended) and if you want to know more about him, read his Wikipedia Page. He sounds like a proper old-school revolutionary though.

He got fascinated by the art of war by reading Carl von Clausewitz and about the European campaigns of Napoleon. The game has therefore a distinct Napoleonic feel about it. It also reminds me a lot (stylewise) of the old Risk and Stratego games.

It's written in Java and has versions on the site for Windows and Mac OS. (No idea if a Linux version is forthcoming)