Anyone been following War with a Mate? It's a pair of guys playing War for North Africa in its entirety. They say it should take them 20-30 years. They've done a trial run which took 18 months, spanning 6 turns. There's 111 in the full game, and they're starting as of next week. The latest episode of the podcast detailing the campaign, episode 99, is a recap episode. They've been covered on the mainstream media: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/oct/31/uk-complete-worlds-most-complex-board-game-the-campaign-for-north-africaTheir site: https://warwithamate.co.uk/
>>98904076So which one of the guys are you to be advertising so hard ?Still a cool idea, but it feels a bit premature. Poke us again in 10 years.
>>98904076I get that the podcast format is easy to produce, but I don't have the time to listen to 100 episodes. Are there transcripts at least, or posted summaries? It sounds like a cool thing, but I am literally working myself to death to support my family and don't have the spare time.
>>98904111I'm actually just a /b/tard who found the Guardian article, thought it was interesting, and decided to post it here cos I figured you guys might find it relevant to your interests
surely 20 years is an exaggeration. I know it's a big ass game but there are plenty of other big ass wargames like ASL and World in Flames.
Neat shit, thanks OP. I listen to a couple of board game podcasts so this is an auto add to the pile.
>>98904076I feel like they could cut the time down massively by having rotating teams of players.
>>98904251basicallyfirst 14 episodes are reading rules, finding stupid shit in them, and talking about lifeepisode 15 and to like 30~40 is the first 6 turn attempt at playing, and how horrible it is to play a 5v5 game in a 1v1 settingthen from there to episode 100 they have a hiatus where they try to figure out non-painful ways to play, such as which room to dedicate to the map, fuckin magnets how do they work, etc.also in most episodes one of the two dudes does a History Corner talking about various parts of WW2 and what happened before it.
>>98904335>>98904357the game is designed for 5v5 or larger teams, they're doing it with 2 players total. each "turn" takes them 4 game days if not more, which with 1 game day per week is a month+ per turn, times 111 turns in the campaign is like 9 years minimum and maybe more. imagine five or six games of ASL at once, now slap on logistics and hidden information mechanics, and also air and naval battles for some fuckin reason. that's Campaign for North Africa.1940-1943 is actually the time it takes to play, for a full 10 player table, in hours.
>>98904076Also known as the average game of Battletech with all optional rules in play at battalion scale.
>>98904076There was another group that started it in university over a decade ago that was doing something similar. I think they were still going but I didn't follow it too closely. They ended up wit maps in each other's houses and played by mail more or less.
>>98904372>first 14 episodes are reading rules, finding stupid shit in them, and talking about lifeAt how many minutes per episode?
