War With a Mate<\/a>. \u201cWe knew there was no reason to keep playing unless we\u2019re held accountable,\u201d said Purcell. \u201cOtherwise we knew we\u2019d buy the game, we\u2019d give up inside two weeks and we\u2019d have a thousand-pound board game that we can do nothing with.<\/p>\n\u201cWith a podcast, people can follow along and if we back out we\u2019ve got the shame of everyone calling us out on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pair have spent 99 podcast episodes chronicling their prep and practice for the game before starting it at 7.30pm on Friday for episode 100. It could take 20 years, but \u201coriginally it was looking like 50,\u201d said Purcell, not wanting to contemplate the idea of still playing as they approached 80.<\/p>\n
\u2018We haven\u2019t punched the German pieces out yet because we won\u2019t need them for about five years.\u2019 Photograph: Mark Pinder\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
On Friday afternoon, they were setting up in a friend\u2019s house because they will livestream day one. It will normally be played at Taeger\u2019s flat.<\/p>\n
The game comes with a 10ft map, which they have divided up into five picture frames and 1,600 pieces, which they will magnetise. \u201cWe haven\u2019t punched the German pieces out yet because we won\u2019t need them for about five years,\u201d said Purcell.<\/p>\n
They will have to keep track of aircraft, truck convoys, land units, supply dumps, water use, fuel evaporation and so, so much more, including not to do anything that could be deemed a war crime.<\/p>\n
It comes with a history book as well as seven rule books with a dizzying list. One of the best known is the \u201cpasta rule\u201d about Italian forces needing more water in order to boil their pasta rations. It\u2019s assumed to be a joke \u2013 but who knows?<\/p>\n
Berg does seem to be \u201cpoking fun\u201d at the players, said Purcell. At the same time, he clearly also has a thorough knowledge of the campaign. \u201cThe amount of research behind this must have been insane,\u201d said Taeger.<\/p>\n
Purcell is playing as the Axis forces and Taeger as the Commonwealth. It remains to be seen if the game will be so historically accurate that Purcell is destined to lose. He doesn\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019ve seen already, through the practice run, you can very much change the fate of the campaign through better decision-making,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Both think the game could very well end up a draw, which would be gutting. \u201cI think, honestly, a loss might even be better than a draw because at least it\u2019s a definitive result,\u201d said Taeger. There is also the chance they\u2019ll find that the game is simply not finishable, but thanks to the podcast, they will have plenty of people cheering them on.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reaction has been surprisingly positive,\u201d said Purcell, with many boardgamers thankful that someone is doing it so they don\u2019t have to. \u201cWe\u2019ve not really had many people decry it as the stupid thing that it is, which would be the natural reaction.\u201d<\/p>\n
The players are determined, but they also intend to take it seriously \u2013 and tread very carefully.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t want to make a mistake because you were in a bit of a rush,\u201d said Taeger, definitely laughing now. \u201cYou might have to be dealing with it for the next 10 years.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe have had a six-turn practice run. It took about 18 months,\u201d said Andy Taeger, with what seemed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":819664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-819663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=819663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/819664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}