To me the appeal of any historical strategy game is the stuff you learn by being in decision-maker’s shoes. If the game is any good, you get to look at what it takes to prevail on a given battlefield. The lessons can be profound, or simple and brutal, or just totally unexpected… they’re always real though and maybe I’m just a person who likes their gaming to be about things that are real.

For example, in Unity of Command we try to make sure that you execute pretty much textbook Blitzkrieg (where appropriate, obviously) otherwise you lose, plain and simple. We do get some complaints from people who think this makes the game too hard, but I feel it’s worth it. Each time I read someone post “ahh, so you’re supposed to punch a hole and then push your panzers through like a madman”, I count that as a design win.

Do you know anything about what kind of people the main audience consists of, or are they just «normal» gamers?

To the best of my knowledge our audience is mostly guys, and they’re fairly well spread across all age groups. Anecdotally, they’re perhaps a touch better educated than your average gamer. I must say that the wargaming community is very civil and a joy to participate in. I mean, there is no shortage of wargaming drama if you go looking for it, but it’s downright tame in comparison to most other places in gaming I could think if.

Another potentially very broad one, but what are the most important principles for you when you design a wargame?

My most important rule is: if a game mechanic does not represent well in the UI, then it doesn’t get included in the game.

With that in mind, I try to take some simple mechanics and get as much out of them as possible. For example, the supply mechanic is central in Unity of Command, which is historically fair. However, I decided not to include other things, like morale, or an explicit flanking mechanic (credit frederick). Instead, we “fake” those by combining supply and suppression effects, and then tweak the game so that it still produces broadly realistic battles.

A small number of mechanics serves to effectively underline the most important elements of warfare (supply, maneuver, etc.) for our chosen period. The game is easier to learn and, going back to that first principle, it’s much easier to put together a user interface that doesn’t suck.