International Team (IT) was an Italian game company founded in the 1970s and active until the early 1980s. While the company started as a

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producer, it is mostly remembered as a

wargame A wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a realistic simulation of an armed conflict. Wargaming may be played for recreation, to train military officers in the art of strategic thinking, or to s ...

company, a business that IT approached in 1979 after game designer Marco Donadoni joined in. IT was the first Italian wargame company and its most successful games, such as '' Zargo's Lords'', were instrumental in introducing the wargame culture in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

.Zargo's Lords review
/ref>Review of Zargo's Lord
at Boardgamegeek IT games were translated in other languages (mostly

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and

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) and exported abroad.List of games by IT, with brief descriptions
/ref> At the peak of IT's popularity, foreign branches of the company were founded, such as International Team France (established in 1979). Besides wargames, IT also published a few roleplaying games (such as '' Legio VII'' and '' Magikon'') and ordinary

board game Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a comp ...

s. The company went bankrupt in 1988. Some of their assets were acquired by the French company

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, that later published a few games based on designs and materials by IT, such as ''Colonizer'' based on IT's '' Kroll & Prumni'' and ''Zargos'' based on ''Zargo's Lords''.International Team successors
/ref>

Published games

Historical importance

While some of International Team's games were quite "typical" of their era and generally not on par with U.S. and British offerings (which benefitted from a more developed hobby and gaming culture) they saturated the Italian market (where in early 1980s fluent English readers were by no means common) and also enjoyed commercial success in France and Germany. Some of their best games were highly innovative, such as the non-strategic Napoleonic ones (Austerlitz, Jena, Waterloo), presenting a unique ''Octagons and Squares'' board, better suited to the Napoleonic infantry formations (square, line, column...). Some other, like 'Norge' and 'Supermarina' tackled topics and campaigns which seldom enjoyed dedicated boardgames.

References

External links

* Board game publishing companies Game manufacturers {{board-game-stub