War Room: How Axis & Allies creator Larry Harris designed his ambitious WWII tabletop game

Tabletop games have become more popular and sophisticated over the years, and one of the people responsible for that is Larry Harris, the creator of Axis & Allies. The casual simulation of World War II has sold millions of copies over the years, and it is just one of 200 tabletop games that Harris has designed.

But he’s not done yet. For the past five years, Harris has been working on War Room, a more ambitious but not necessarily more complicated tabletop board game about World War II. Harris, 69, sees it as the culmination of all of those decades of learning as a game designer and a World War II buff. It is a game on a circular map, with features such as morale and stress that affect a company’s ability to wage war, as well as secret and simultaneous movement that introduces more surprise into gameplay. Harris wants this game to be perfect. It’s not a rush job, and at this point, Harris says he doesn’t know how to make it better.