Episode #12 : Interview with Brian Train (Brief Border Wars) - History and Games Lab Podcast

Published: Fri 1st Oct

In this episode, award-winning game designer Brian Train joins host Eduard Gafton to talk about his game Brief Border Wars and using a card-driven system to model the chaotic, stop-and-start nature of impromptu wars.
๐“๐ข๐ฆ๐ž ๐’๐ญ๐š๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ฌ ย 
โ—‹ ย 00:00:00 - Start ย 
โ—‹ 00:08:01 - How did Brian get into games? ย 
โ—‹ 00:33:17 - How does asymmetry make for interesting match-ups? ย 
โ—‹ 00:43:40 - Should games be historically accurate?
๐Œ๐ž๐ง๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ž๐ ๐ข๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ฌ ๐„๐ฉ๐ข๐ฌ๐จ๐๐ž ย 
โ—‹ ย Brian gives a lecture on Game Design & Self-Publication at Georgetown University: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtky8WgsyyAย 
โ—‹ ย Brian's website: https://brtrain.wordpress.com/ย 
โ—‹ ย Cole Wehrle's essay: Affective Networks At Play: Catan, Coin, And The Quiet Year: https://analoggamestudies.org/2016/05/affective-networks-at-play-catan-coin-and-the-quiet-year/ย 
โ—‹ ย Zones of Control: https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/zones-controlย 
โ—‹ ย Brian's game, Colonial Twilight, on Tabletop Simulator: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2090550457ย 
โ—‹ Brian and Volko Ruhnke's game, A Distant Plain, on Tabletop Simulator: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=870116466
โ—‹ Brian's game, Kashmir Crisis, on Tabletop Simulator: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2421971111ย 
โ—‹ Andean Abyss (first GMT COIN system game): https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/91080/andean-abyssย 
โ—‹ Tactics II (first wargame) : https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1574/tactics-iiย 
โ—‹ The Little War (Slovakia vs. Hungary, March 1939): https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/223436/ukrainian-crisis-little-warย 
โ—‹ Simulations Publications: http://www.costik.com/spicom/ย 
โ—‹ BCT Command: Kandahar: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/126708/bct-command-kandaharย 
โ—‹ Nights of Fire: Battle for Budapest: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/236125/nights-fire-battle-budapestย 
โ—‹ Vassal game system: https://vassalengine.org/ย 
โ—‹ Zenobia Award finalists: https://zenobiaaward.org/finalists/ย 
โ—‹ Europe Divided: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/260147/europe-dividedย 
โ—‹ An Infamous Traffic: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/206490/infamous-trafficย 
๐…๐ข๐ง๐ ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐๐จ๐๐œ๐š๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฌ ๐„๐ฅ๐ฌ๐ž๐ฐ๐ก๐ž๐ซ๐ž ๐“๐จ๐จ ย 
โ—‹ Through Anchor, we are available on Spotify, Google Podcasts and most main podcast services: https://anchor.fm/handglab
๐„๐ฏ๐ž๐ง๐ญ๐ฌ ย 
โ—‹ The launch event to mark the release of our brand-new wargame, Lion Rampant: A Viking in the Sun, was a huge success! To buy, access this link: www.linktr.ee/HistoryandGamesLab. ย 
โ—‹ The History and Games Society is meeting on 11 October! This meeting is a great opportunity to speak with the committee, meet other HGS members and contribute ideas to future society events. ย The Zoom link will be sent to all members of the society. Register for the society here: https://www.eusa.ed.ac.uk/activities/view/historyandgames.
๐‚๐จ๐ง๐ญ๐š๐œ๐ญ ๐”๐ฌ ย 
If you have any feedback or would like to get in touch for a potential podcast appearance, our DMs are open on Twitter @HandGLab or you can email us at historyandgamesstudentgroup@mlist.is.ed.ac.uk. ย 
โ—‹ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/handglab/ย 
โ—‹ Facebook: History and Games Lab: https://www.facebook.com/historygamesedinburghย 
โ—‹ Linktree: https://linktr.ee/HistoryandGamesLabย 
๐‚๐จ๐ฉ๐ฒ๐ซ๐ข๐ ๐ก๐ญ ๐ƒ๐ข๐ฌ๐œ๐ฅ๐š๐ข๐ฆ๐ž๐ซ ย 
Intro/Outro Music: ย Call to Adventure by Kevin MacLeodย 
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3470-call-to-adventure
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-licensee