Cole Werhle

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Cole Werhle is a board game designer, known for titles such as Root, Pax Pamir, John Company, Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile and Arcs.

Early life and education[edit]

Born in 1986 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Werhle gained a degree in Journalism and English at the University of Indiana. He has since gained an MA from the University of Texas in 2012, and a PhD from the same institution in 2017. His dissertation concerned how the experience of empire altered the way British writers imagined distances of time and space in 19th century.[1][2] Wehrle earned a doctorate in the literature of British colonialism.[3]

Career[edit]

Wehrle designed the 2015 game Pax Pamir, part of the "Pax" series of historical board games.[4] Wehrle designed the 2016 game An Infamous Traffic about the opium wars of China, in which he "believes he achieves the payoff by juxtaposing sobriety with absurdity."[3] Shortly after earning his PhD, Werhle joined Leder Games, as a designer.[when?][citation needed] Root, his first game with Leder, was crowdfunded in 2017 and published the following year, to much acclaim.[5] Wehrle designed Root as a "simulation of political and economic warfare of a struggle for the hearts and minds of the people" which is "radically asymmetric" in which "Each side plays by different rules and aims at different goals; they virtually play different games. Root is based on the COIN series of war games-a series of extremely complex simulations of counterinsurgency warfare."[6] A reviewer for the New York Times said that "I'm going to make this sound really weirdly intellectual, but let me just say that Cole Wehrle has a designer diary where he explains how the idea of this game came from his graduate studies into Foucauldian biopower."[7]

In 2018 he founded Werhlegig Games with his brother, Drew, which manages the publication of his historical games. He continues to work at Leder Games as Creative Director.[8][9] A new version of Pax Pamir was released in 2019, as a reboot of his first game design, as the first release from Wehrlegig Games.[4][10] The company next published a second edition of John Company.[4] Wehrle designed the 2021 game Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile.[11] Matt Jarvis in a review of Oath on Dicebreaker said that "Unlike designer Cole Wehrle’s breakout hit Root, all of the players have the same set of options and actions - for the most part - at their disposal. ... Cole Wehrle has added another masterpiece to his already gleaming collection of games that are as interesting around the table as they are on it."[12] Dan Jolin in a review of Oath said that "Those drawn in by Kyle Ferrin's awesomely evocative and characterful artwork – think The Dark Crystal by way of Richard Scarry – might be put off by designer Cole Wehrle's almost highbrow yet generic terminology (that wordy subtitle is a big tip-off)."[13]

Wehrle with artist Kyle Ferrin launched a Kickstarter in 2022 to publish the swashbuckling space opera strategy board game Arcs through Leder Games.[14][15][16]

Wehrle explains his feels that board game aesthetics, "like the rules that structure their play, are essentially political in that they organize the relationship between the players. [...] For, if games structure play, so too do they structure feeling."[17]

Selected ludography[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Cole Wehrle | Board Game Designer | BoardGameGeek". boardgamegeek.com. Retrieved 2024-05-14.
  2. ^ Winkie, Luke (2024-01-28). "Board but Not Boring. Cole Wehrle's board games don't just teach you history—they make you live it". Slate. Archived from the original on 2024-05-24. Retrieved 2024-05-24.
  3. ^ a b Draper, Kevin (2019-08-01). "Should Board Gamers Play the Roles of Racists, Slavers and Nazis?". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2024-05-24. Retrieved 2024-05-24.
  4. ^ a b c Jarvis, Matt (2019-12-27). "Game of the Year 2019: Matt Jarvis' Top 5". Dicebreaker. Archived from the original on 2024-05-24. Retrieved 2024-05-24.
  5. ^ "Root". BoardGameGeek. Retrieved 2024-05-14.
  6. ^ Nguyen, C. Thi (2020). Games: Agency As Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 181. ISBN 978-0-19-005209-6. Retrieved 2024-05-24 – via Google Books.
  7. ^ Klein, Ezra; Nguyen, C. Thi (2022-02-25). "Transcript: Ezra Klein Interviews C. Thi Nguyen". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2024-05-24. Retrieved 2024-05-24.
  8. ^ "Cole Wehrle | Board Game Designer | BoardGameGeek". boardgamegeek.com. Retrieved 2024-05-14.
  9. ^ Interview with Cole Wehrle - Above Board. Retrieved 2024-05-14 – via www.youtube.com.
  10. ^ Jarvis, Matt (2020-07-22). ""We're not trying to make fun games. We're trying to make good games": Root, Pax Pamir and Oath designer Cole Wehrle argues on (and off) the tabletop". Dicebreaker. Archived from the original on 2024-05-24. Retrieved 2024-05-24.
  11. ^ Eggett, Christopher John (2021-05-13). "Oath: An Interview with Cole Wehrle". Tabletop Gaming Magazine. No. 47. Archived from the original on 2024-05-24. Retrieved 2024-05-24.
  12. ^ Jarvis, Matt (2021-06-02). "Oath board game review - Root creator's ambitious 'game with a memory' is unforgettable". Dicebreaker. Archived from the original on 2024-05-24. Retrieved 2024-05-24.
  13. ^ Jolin, Dan (2021-06-22). "Oath: Chronicles of Empire & Exile Review". Tabletop Gaming Magazine. No. 56. Archived from the original on 2024-05-24. Retrieved 2024-05-24.
  14. ^ Eggett, Christopher John (2022-03-04). "From Woodlands, to history, and on to Sci-Fi, Oath Designer Cole Wehrle talks his Cinematic Follow Up ARCs". Tabletop Gaming Magazine. No. 62. Archived from the original on 2024-05-24. Retrieved 2024-05-24.
  15. ^ Percovich, Gianluca (2022-05-24). "Arcs is a 4X board game from the team behind critically acclaimed Root and Oath. An interview with designer Cole Wehrle ahead of Leder Games' next Kickstarter launch". Polygon. Archived from the original on 2023-09-29. Retrieved 2024-05-24.
  16. ^ Meehan, Alex; Carter, Chase; Jarvis, Matt (2022-06-28). "Could Arcs be the first misfire from Cole Wehrle? Our impressions of Root creators' latest board game". Dicebreaker. Archived from the original on 2024-05-24. Retrieved 2024-05-24.
  17. ^ Murray, Jack (2023-03-26). "Groping in the Dark: Intimacy in Nyctophobia". Analog Game Studies. Archived from the original on 2024-05-24. Retrieved 2024-05-24.
  18. ^ "Pax Pamir". BoardGameGeek. Retrieved 2024-05-14.
  19. ^ "An Infamous Traffic". BoardGameGeek. Retrieved 2024-05-14.
  20. ^ "John Company". BoardGameGeek. Retrieved 2024-05-14.
  21. ^ "Root". BoardGameGeek. Retrieved 2024-05-14.
  22. ^ "Pax Pamir: Second Edition". BoardGameGeek. Retrieved 2024-05-14.
  23. ^ "Oath: Chronicles of Empire & Exile". BoardGameGeek. Retrieved 2024-05-14.
  24. ^ "John Company: Second Edition". BoardGameGeek. Retrieved 2024-05-14.
  25. ^ "Arcs". BoardGameGeek. Retrieved 2024-05-14.
  26. ^ "Molly House". BoardGameGeek. Retrieved 2024-05-14.
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