Avsnitt
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[If you aren’t particularly interested in the Wars of Scotland, you may be interested in the wargame open house/convention event known as GMT’s Weekend at the Warehouse. I went last month and spend the first part of the podcast talking about that time & games played. THEN it’s on to my specific historical topic.]
Ok, now I’m really finished with Scotland. Like everything I explore for my wargame podcast, these deep dives take over my gaming for a while. That’s enjoyable, but since I don’t notch wargame opportunities and completions frequently, it means these subjects take me a while. Since I’m eager to explore other topics, too, eventually I have to move along. However, just as with Vietnam, Waterloo, or Market-Garden, I will have learned so much that it will be easier to dabble with similar wargames (or even return to some favorites) in the future.
For this topic, I used my vacation to Scotland last September to prompt a lot of learning about that country’s military history. Though I should say it wasn’t limited to when Scotland was a country—-there’s a lot of history when it was a kingdom, and also earlier when it was tribal territory. Part of the joy was beginning to understand this history in more of its rich complexity than I understood from watching Braveheart alone. ;-)
Since I’d already dabbled in the War for Scottish Independence, with William Wallace, Robert the Bruce, and a couple King Edwards . . . plus the early history of Roman expansion against the Caledonians, the major chapter in his history that still remained were the Jacobite rebellions.
There are movies and wargames about this period, but not as many as might be expected. I’d seen the interesting faux documentary Culloden earlier, and this time I watched Rob Roy. There are a few films and other stories about this legendary+historic figure. The more recent (1990s) film with Liam Neeson, Jessica Lange, and Tim Roth does not make for accurate history, but it’s a decent film that can get someone like me reading about the real history of this person. As much as we can untangle, anyway.
What’s next for this podcast? Well, I’m going to take a delicate dive into the challenging topic of anthropological “first contact” in history games. As much as possible, I want to explore what happened when Europeans & the indigenous people of the New World first encountered each other. I don’t really mean the Indian Wars of the plains. Instead, I’m after what happened when the first ships arrived and people “discovered” each other. This is an area where history games and wargames have not made much progress, but that’s also why the subject is interesting.
-Mark -
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As always happens, a subject that attracts me for wargaming and this podcast proves to be deeper and richer than expected. Once I knew I would get a chance to visit Scotland on vacation last summer/fall, it was my opportunity to dive into "wars of Scotland" in a general sense. What did I think that was? From Braveheart and Hammer the Scots I knew about the first War of Scottish Independence, at least a bit. I'd heard of the Jacobite Rebellion and The '45. And I figured there was some Roman history somehow, what with Hadrian's Wall up there.
Of course, there's much more. Not only did I confirm the Roman-Caledonian history and learn more about Robert the Bruce or Bonnie Prince Charlie, I naturally uncovered a lot more detail in those conflicts...plus many others that fill the centuries between the parts I knew. Not all of them are depicted extensively in wargaming, but often at least a scenario in Ancient Battles Deluxe, as well as informative YouTube animations.
In this episode I give some general impressions & observations about some of the game systems I played, notably Men of Iron, Ancients/Ancient Battles Deluxe, Commands & Colors, plus a standalone game about Bannockburn/Stirling/Falkirk. There are movies worth mentioning, and a few more games or scenarios to try.
This is all expected to wrap up fairly quickly. Later this week I'm going to GMT's Weekend at the Warehouse, and there I'll get in a game or two to be discussed on the next podcast...along with a general report on the GMT event.
-Mark -
Saknas det avsnitt?
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One week ago I was at my first SDHistCon. I had a good time, would like to share that experience via this audio convention report...and still there manages to be a slender but worthwhile connection to my Wars of Scotland subject.
For anyone who only found me for the convention report, I start with a brief overview of me & my podcast(s). Then I get into the convention itself, some of the great people I chatted with, and the remainder of the episode is a rundown of all the games I played. I'm covering them in roughly descending order of their wargame bona fides. So the first ones are the most traditionally wargame-y, followed by more & more titles that go from consims to general history games, ultimately finishing with a few light euro-style boardgames.
The first game discussed happens to the one that connects to my current exploration on this podcast, the Wars of Scotland. Border Reivers is a game I could only experience at a convention, so I seized the opportunity. The next Wargames To Go podcast should have a lot more Scotland in it, some of those films I mentioned, and is expected to wrap up this topic. Then it will be time to look ahead to the next one. I've got some ideas.
Harold & I are getting a demo of Night Witches from designers Liz Davidson and David Thompson
Thanks to the entire SDHist board that makes this event happen. Harold Buchanon may be the visible face of the organization, but I know he'd want to point out over a dozen board members, plus other advisors, that make it all work.
My new favorite Canadian, podcaster Grant Linneberg from Pushing Cardboard
Another demo, this of Molly House. I'm there with Dan Thurot, Drew Wehrle, Alex Knight, Dan Bulloch, and Meeple Lady
-Mark
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Episode geeklist
Come join the new Wargames To Go (and Boardgames To Go) discord server https://discord.gg/vxEG9bMPdx
Guess what? This little podcast is now ten years old. I'd been doing my other one about euro boardgames even longer, and in 2013 I decided to branch off this other show about wargaming. I'd started in this hobby as a kid wargamer in 1979. I never completely left it, but my hobby in the 1980s, 90s, and early 2000s shifted more to roleplaying, Magic: the Gathering, and then euro boardgaming. It wasn't until around 2010 or so that I finally realized what countless wargamers before me did--that I could enjoy wargaming as a (mostly) solitaire hobby, getting more games to the table. I started acquiring more titles, especially magazine games, and became interested in specific topics to explore via multiple game treatments. Then I added my love of travel and movies to make my own contribution to wargame podcasts, Wargames To Go. Thanks for listening!
I had plans to go see Scotland back in 2016, but those had to be cancelled. Then it was put off for a few years, a worldwide pandemic happened, yadda-yadda-yadda...and finally I got to visit this country in 2023. My wife & I enjoyed two weeks there--the first in the cities of Ediburgh & Glasgow, followed by a second week in the countryside (Strathspey and up to Orkneys). There was much to see & enjoy, from stone age settlements to whisky distilleries.
And there were sites of military history. I really enjoy visiting battlefields to get a feel for the location. Sometimes the accompanying museums are good--other times not. Best of all is when there is a good guide available. Even if not, though, these days it's easy to read so much information online, to watch battlefield animation videos, and more to get a fuller sense of the historic event. On this trip we visited the sites of Bannockburn, Culloden, and from Stirling Castle I could look out over the Stirling Bridge area. I don't think anyone really knows where the Roman battle of Mons Graupius took place, but I probably drove near it.
As you can tell, the topics here are not limited to one battle, one war, or even one era. I decided to dabble in all areas of Scottish military history that I could, at least as far as wars actually in Scotland. The big three eras are Roman contact, the Wars of Scottish Independence (Wallace/Bruce/Longshanks), and the Jacobite Uprising. Other periods such as the Battle of Flodden Field or the Border Reiver period are mentioned, but we'll see if I get to any of those games.
This episode is a intentionally shorter than some previous ones. I'd rather post a couple smaller episodes that wait longer for a gargantuan one. I figure it's easier for listeners to follow along this way, too. As a result, I haven't yet seen all of the films nor played all of the games that I intend to. It's an introduction to the topic, and I'll return later with a conclusion.
Films
• Braveheart
• Culloden
• Rob Roy
• Outlaw King
Books
• A Great and Terrible King: Edward I and the Forging of Britain, by Marc Morris
-Mark
P.S. I'll be at SDHistCon in just a few days. Look me up and say hi if you enjoy the podcast, thanks! -
Episode geeklist
Come join the new Wargames To Go (and Boardgames To Go) discord server https://discord.gg/vxEG9bMPdx
Michael Tiller (mtiller) Patron Badge for 2010, 2013 through 2016, 2018 through 2022 Nils Johansson (zweigefuhle) Patron Badge for 2010 through 2018, 2020 through 2022 David Thompson (Skirmish_Tactics) Patron Badge for 2012 through 2013, 2015 through 2022
Times are approximate
Introduction (0:30)
Operation Market Garden overview (12:00)
Nils Johansson transcribed/read interview (16:30)
David Thompson & Michael Tiller interview (37:00)
Mark's travels, movies, books, games about Market Garden (1:29:00)
I'd been saving the famous battles of Operation Market Garden for when I expected to live nearby in the Netherlands. When those plans fell through, I was disappointed for some time, but eventually put that behind me and looked at the stack of Market Garden games I'd been saving. Then I lucked into a business trip into that corner of the world, and I determined to visit Hell's Highway and cover this topic. That was last December. I played a few games back then, and a few more over the subsequent months. Plus, of course, the usual books & movies. All to be discussed in this episode.
Take a look at the graphic wargame designs of Nils Johansson
However, something surprising happened when I was just starting this effort. Designers Nils Johansson and David Thompson publicly released a postcard game about Market Garden. Now, I say I'm interested in smaller wargames (it's in my podcast intro), but postcard games are REALLY small. I was interested in this new entry as a game, but I was especially interested in it for what it says about Minimalist Wargame Design. Not only in component count and number of rules, but with Nils' as a co-designer it would have a fascinating graphic design behind it. That absolutely interested me. Then add in the fact that the two of them utilized Michael Tiller as a volunteer helper to do some mathematical modeling (coding) of the simulation...it all added up to a fascinating glimpse into wargame design in the fullest sense, even though it was about a minimalist wargame. Oh, and it just happened to be about Market Garden!
Even better on his Instagram page
In the episode after my general intro, I launch into interviews of these creators. Nils contributed a written response, which I decided to simply read aloud on the podcast. Then I get David & Michael on the microphone to talk through their points of view about the design & development.
Films
• A Bridge too Far
• Band of Brothers (episode 4, "Replacements")
• Theirs Is The Glory
• The Forgotten Battle
Books
• Arnhem: The Battle for the Bridges, 1944, by Antony Beevor
• Brotherhood of the Flying Coffin: The Glider Pilots of World War II, by Scott McGaugh
• Strategy & Tactics no. 77, "Paratroop"
-Mark
P.S. I haven't been very reliable or accurate in my plans for upcoming episodes, but this time I think I'm pretty certain. I've got my first ever vacation to Scotland coming up, so I'd like to explore a few games featuring that famous country. Think Hammer of the Scots, Bannockburn, Culloden...
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For a couple reasons, this episode has been my white whale, almost taking me down. I would certainly understand if any of my listeners gave up on me along the way, thinking the podcast had faded away entirely, or that I wasn't interested in wargaming any more. Not true! Listeners of my other podcast--the longstanding BoardgamesToGo about family strategy boardgames--know that I've still been active. I've even kept the flame of wargaming alive, playing a title here & there, reading history, watching films, and dabbling in online communities like Twitter and Discord. I even spent a weekend with wargame designer David Thompson where he beat me in a hex & counter wargame (not normally his thing, but mine!), showed me the brand-new Resist! game, and I also visited the nearby National Museum of the USAF.
So what was it? What has kept me from closing out this wargame topic for so many months? The first is the topic itself. What started out as a little exploration of a lesser-known, short war with Teddy Roosevelt and his charge up San Juan Hill ballooned into a wider study of America's pivot to overseas colonialism and empire. It involves US national policy, ethical debates over the nature of democracy, a technological leap in naval power, islands in multiple oceans, and millions of other peoples who were fighting for their own American-style independence from foreign empires. That's a BIG topic, and it was the inspiration for my featured interview contained in this episode.
The second reason was simply personal. I've spent most of the last year thinking I was going to be making a big change in my life, relocating overseas to Europe. I put a lot of things "on hold" while I worked on that, but it has ultimately not panned out. Ok, time to pick myself up, dust myself off, and start all over again. Except that it's not really "starting all over," because I've still got my good family, home, job...and wargame podcast.
Jason Perez (Popesixtus)
To a large extent, I simply need to get this episode behind me, which will close out this topic and let me move on to the next. The nature and history of American imperialism is such an enormous topic that I'll never do it justice. It has been fascinating and important for me to learn more about this subject--one of the great joys of my wargaming hobby is how it repeatedly opens up new understandings of history. I'm just going to do the best I can to wrap this up and then get energized all over again by the next topic.
Books
• The War Lovers, by Evan Thomas
• The Crowded Hour: Theodore Roosevelt, the Rough Riders, and the Dawn of the American Century, by Clay Risen
• Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq, by Stephen Kinzer
• How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States, by Daniel Immerwahr
Films
• Rough Riders
• Heneral Luna
• Crucible of Empire: The Spanish American War
In addition to my closing comments about the games, books, and films I encountered for this episode, I was motivated to reach out to Jason "Shelf Stories" Perez for a featured interview. Over the summer, as I was thinking about the breadth of this topic, Jason popped onto my radar screen for his work with the thoughtful retheming of the classic eurogame Puerto Rico for its 20th anniversary into Puerto Rico 1897, which keeps the award-winning gameplay but fixes the cultural ignorance of the original. Though obviously not a wargame, it IS more aware of this history into which it is set, something eurogames have not usually done well. Picking the year 1897 reveals a significance to the Sp-Am War that was just around the corner, too. Then I noticed Jason had posted some other interesting videos about the cultural awareness (or not) of wargames. I knew I wanted to interview him for this episode.
As you'll hear, Jason does consider himself a wargamer, but he does call himself a fan of "history games." He's passionate about history, especially the history of peoples, and proudly identifies himself with historian/political scientist Howard Zinn and his People's History of the United States. I suspect that point-of-view isn't for everybody, but it's exactly what I wanted to hear about for this podcast. Think about it and make up your own mind.
-Mark
P.S. I'm not 100% certain what my next topic will be, but I think it has to be a revisit of Gettysburg...since I literally revisited the battlefield this summer with a friend and listener of this podcast! Tom took me to Gettysburg which we'd both seen before, and later I started listening to Stephen Sears' book about the campaign. I'm thinking an interesting angle is to focus on the cavalry actions of Gettysburg campaign, from Brandy Station to the screened army marches to the cav-vs-cav skirmish east of the town itself. Hmmm... -
Episode geeklist
Joe Schmidt (corsairjoe)Now I've gone back to my usual format where I explore a single topic in games, books, films, and whatever else I can find. The Spanish-American War is similar to a lot of topics I've dived into--it's something I felt like I knew something about, but not too much. Also matching the pattern, it's been a subject I thought would be rather small and self-contained...only to find out it has larger implications and resonances to today's world. I swear, that just keeps on happening.
Probably like a lot of people, when I think of the SAW I think of Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders, "Remember the Maine," San Juan Hill, and Cuba. Other topics might come to me if I concentrated on it, but not as readily: the Philippines, American imperialism, Yellow Journalism, Puerto Rico, and the US Navy. I think Cuba's much longer internal struggle for independence was largely unknown to me.
In this Part 1 episode, I close by giving a quick rundown of the games in my geeklist on the subject, many of which I have played or will play by the time I record Part 2 to conclude the topic. However, the beginning of this podcast features a full interview with designer Joe Schmidt. Joe caught my attention when his little game Kettle Hill was about the Rough Riders' and Buffalo Soldiers' famous assault that was part of the Santiago campaign in the SAW. What's more, Joe won the Charles S Roberts award for the Amateur/Print-and-Play category. As you'll hear, Joe designed Kettle Hill as a PNP title during the coronavirus pandemic as a way of doing something for the hobby. I'm glad the hobby recognized him in return.
Joe has a few games with a distinct aesthetic, both in small footprint and graphic design. He's also got several other projects in various stages of completion, such as his collaboration with other designers for the French Resistance game In The Shadows, which has already made the cut with GMT's P500 system. There's another title that will be of special interest to fans of the Levy & Campaign series that started with Nevsky. I didn't even realize it until after I switched off the recorder, but Joe was giving me a scoop for his new game in that series! Just like when Volko gave me a scoop for Nevsky back in episode 14.2! Wow, I'm a journalist!
-Mark -
Episode geeklist
Isn't it tiresome when a podcaster starts by apologizing it's been so long since their last episode? So I won't do that. Here's the next one.
My plans to spend the summer (now months past!) playing contemporary magazine wargames sort of worked, just more slowly and less completely than I'd originally planned. Whatever--I'm doing this for fun! The truth is, after vaccinations we were able to see some family and do some traveling that had been unavailable during the first year of the pandemic. Wargaming took a bit of a back seat, though I still got some done. Including ON a traveling vacation. (I played two of the three Panzerschreck titles on evenings while visiting Yellowstone National Park!)
This episode features me talking about multiple games in recent issues of C3i and Panzerschreck magazines. The latter is a typically obscure, niche product and series of games that most listeners probably won't know. The former, however, is almost new territory for my podcast: a contemporary release that other people are already excited about, many of them own, and a bunch will have already played. Relevance! What a concept...
I'm not really too concerned about how niche-within-a-niche my hobby is. By now you should realize that about me. Just the same, it was a nice change of pace to be playing and talking about a game, designers, and publisher that others are, too.
Thinking back, I don't know how much I talked about the games themselves. Definitely I don't do a full review. Instead, I talk about my experience and reaction to the game. Especially when I move on to the other titles in this episode, it got me thinking about the nature of these games, what makes some work for me, others not. The final game, most of all, prompts some deep thoughts about what is being simulated in a game, what the role of the player in it, and is it ok? I'm inclined to think almost anything is viable in a simulation game since we are learning more about important history through this medium, but The Fall of Röhm tested the limits of my conviction about that.
Ok.
Although I'm tying this series off before getting to a couple remaining games mentioned earlier, I still plan to work in Battles Magazine and its Storm over Madrid title sometime in my future. Whenever that happens (no promises about schedule), I'll shove it into whatever my next podcast episode is about, regardless of topic. Because Battles Magazine is really incredible and all wargamers should take notice of it.
You know, there's a good hook between that game and my expected next wargame topic. The "contemporary magazines" topic was fun, but I found that I missed the chance to dig into a single historic topic over multiple games & media, as I've done before. I'm going back to that traditional WGTG format for the next episode, at least. The subject is going to the Spanish-American War, and I've already started a geeklist for it.
Reference Material
• Eastern Front of WWII animated: 1943/44 Fantastic animations of the OOB, deployments, and annotated movements of the WW2 eastern front, covering the period and scale very closely matched to the C3i game
• Episode 31 of the Our Fake History podcast Great milhist summary of the Charge of the Light Brigade
• Charge of the Light Brigade (1968 film) Recommended!
• Tombstone (1993), Wyatt Earp (1994), Gunfight at the OK Corral (1956) Three different Hollywood depictions of the famous gunfight
-Mark
A couple mistakes/omissions when I talked about the Charge of the Light Brigade topic. Embarrassingly, I think I mentioned the Turkey on the opposing side to the Anglo-French allies. That's exactly WRONG and I should've known it. The Anglo-French were there to help Turkey oppose the Russian Empire. Second, I should've pointed out that the 1968 film I enjoyed on this topic featured some inter-scene animations in the style (drawn from?) Punch magazine. So clever! -
Episode geeklist
As mentioned in my last episode, I've decided to do something different this summer. Breaking from my usual pattern of tackling a single subject with multiple games, movies, books, etc., now I'm giving myself a break. I'm just going to have fun playing some of the recent backlog of magazine wargames. I'm sure I'll read Wikipedia articles and such to give myself some historic education about the subjects, but I'm not going to get so deep. Where there are easy info sources such as podcasts and youtube videos, I'll probably take those in, too. As long as it's all fun and doesn't take too long.
One thing I'm keeping going is a geeklist for this episode. It's got all of the magazine games pictured above, listed in the order I think I'll get to them. As I play them, I tend to post a few photos, as well as a link to short (~1 minute) twitter videos of them on the table.
As of this writing, I've actually recorded some thoughts about the first two games played, both on the WW1 Eastern Front in 1914. I may save those for everything to be rolled up into a single, large podcast episode...or else I may space them out as little "mini-episodes" over the summer.
Reference Material
• The Seminal Catastrophe podcast episodes 17-20 are about WW1 Eastern Front, plus the excellent Supplemental episodes -
Episode geeklist
Turns out Vietnam is just too big of a subject for a pair of podcast episodes. I decided to limit part 2 to just the Battle of Huế, saving more games & history for a future exploration. There are several reasons this battle is so well-represented in wargaming. In some ways it's the Bulge/Waterloo/Gettysburg of Vietnam. By reading Bowden's book on the subject and rewatching Full Metal Jacket, I felt I had a decent understanding of the history as-examined by four smaller games. Then I came across a wonderful "then & now" YouTube doc that also helped bring everything to life. I've never had the opportunity to visit Vietnam myself, but this looks like an amazing city.
As usual, no sooner did I finish recording that I realized a few mistakes and omissions. First of all, I glossed over the fighting that happened within the city of Paris. How could I do that? One of my favorite places in the world? Well, it certainly wasn't leveled or suffered too many horrors of house-to-house fighting, not like other cities in other wars. But there definitely were tanks and soldiers exchanging fire, as described in the book & film, Is Paris Burning?
Next, I neglected to mention a couple more films about Vietnam that I watched. Sort of. I mean, I definitely watched them...they're just 'sort of' about Vietnam. I couldn't bring myself to watch Apocalypse Now again, so I watched the highly respected documentary about its creation, Hearts of Darkness. Honestly, it drove me kind of crazy. I'm a cinephile and enjoy so many challenging & creative films, but the self-importance behind this film & filmmaker gets in my way. Perhaps if it didn't relate to a vital bit of military and national history (of at least two nations), I could forgive its excesses. But I can't.
And then there's The Deer Hunter. Oof, more of that self-importance, combined with even less respect for the historical setting. I know it isn't ABOUT the Vietnam War, but neither is it inconsequential to the story. It's a deliberate falsification to tell an excruciating myth. I really hated this one. This year (2021) I love the films Nomadland and The Sound of Metal, both nominated for Oscar's Best Picture. So I've got no issue with tough stories of human existentialism. But spare me The Deer Hunter, ugh.
One experience that was better was reading The Sympathizer. This is a completely fictional book about the Vietnam War, one that won the Pulitzer just a few years ago. It tells the story of three Vietnamese friends who grew up in that country, one who became an ardent fighter for the South, another who became a devout agent of the Communists, and one in the middle, a mole for the communists operating within the ARVN. The unnamed protagonist and source of the book's title is the third person. The story has a lot to say about America's confusion with this country and period, too. Not military story, but an amazing human lens through which to examine our shared history. Guess it won that literary award for a reason, huh?
Finally, when I talked about the magazine games I was looking forward to tackling next, I thought the Vae Victis game was about Algeria. Nope, it's Angola. Very different setting and conflict. I've got it now. Remember, these French wargame magazines have English translations of the rules, and all of their recent issues have a standardized small format of 108 diecut counters and an A3 (about 11x17") map size. Perfect for me! Lately I've been using Google Translate to read the accompanying historical article for the issue game. That's not necessary, of course--you can do just as well to read a Wikipedia article--but I like the opportunity to learn/struggle-through some French language.
-Mark
P.S. Here are a couple twitter videos I did for some of the Hue games I played.
https://twitter.com/WargamesToGo/status/1363608161488236544
https://twitter.com/WargamesToGo/status/1355247281696477184
Books
• Hue 1968
• The Sympathizer
Movies
• Full Metal Jacket
• Battle of Huế Then & Now youtube series (there are 6 parts)
-Mark -
Episode geeklist
My next exploration through smaller wargames is about the Vietnam War. This is something that was almost contemporary when I first started wargaming (1979), so that was too close. I stayed away for years, just as I'm not ready to play simulations about our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan now. I need some historical distance in order to process & understand what's going on.
Unlike some other topics I've tackled, there are a LOT of books, games, and movies about this subject. Just knowing I'd eventually want to get into it, I acquired a game here, a game there over the years...and it turned into a large list (see link, above).
Books
• A Bright Shining Lie
• Pleiku
• Chickenhawk
• Tet Offensive (S&T Quarterly
• Hue 1968
• Nam Moi
Movies
• The Vietnam War (Burns/Novick doc)
• A Face of War
• Sir! No Sir!
• Last Days in Vietnam
• Hearts and Minds
• We Were Soldiers
• Hamburger Hill
• The Green Berets
• Platoon
• Apocalypse Now
• The Deer Hunter
• Full Metal Jacket
• Da 5 Bloods
This was Part 1, and there will definitely be another part. I need to get to all(?) of those other battle-scale games, especially the ones about the Battle of Hue. Is there someone I should seek out to join me on the podcast? I'm open to suggestions.
-Mark -
Episode geeklist
It's been a long pandemic, hasn't it? We've got a ways to go, too. During this strange time I've been working from home, wearing a mask outside, and playing some solo wargames. My regular euro-style boardgaming has dried up almost completely, albeit temporarily. Sure, I play some online versions at BoardgameArena, Yucata, special apps, and others, but it's only enough to keep connections going with my friends. I've enjoyed play-by-web and other computerized versions of boardgames for years, but that's when they were a way to get in extra games during the week. Now that they're the only boardgaming I can do, they just remind me of how much I miss sitting across from my friends on a regular game night.
Wargames are different for me. Though once in a while I'll play a 2-player game across a (real) tabletop, normally I enjoy my wargames solo. Purpose-designed solitaire games generally take a backseat to traditional 2-player games where I just play both sides. Which means that there shouldn't be anything slowing me down now for my wargaming during the pandemic.
"Shouldn't be." And yet, it's still been a bit sluggish. Because everything is kind of a drag now, at least for me. To be sure--lots of people have it a whole lot worse that me, so I cannot complain. My job is still going fine via remote work from home, my family is doing ok now, no one is sick... So you'd better believe I'm not seriously whining about my wargaming hobby. I'm not. It's just a little slow, that's all I can muster right now, and I expect that to continue until there's a good vaccine deployment. It'll happen eventually.
One thing I have managed to do during all of this is get my collection a little more organized. That meant going through all of my wargames, sorting the magazines by type, and setting aside a few mini-collections on topics I want to get into. For this episode it was the Strategic Air Command (next time will be Vietnam). As I've mentioned before on my podcast, my dad served in the USAF from 1953-57, during the heady days of the Strategic Air Command. My dad passed in 2018, and though we talked often, now that he's gone I find things I wish we'd talked more about. Like his military service, and that part of his life. I know he was a J47 engine technician for the B-47 Stratojet. He served primarily at March AFB in Riverside, California (not too far from me now--we visited it together), but once deployed to Upper Heyford AFB in the UK.
The most important part for me was that plane, his beloved B-47. Sandwiched between the behemoth B-36 Peacemaker and the famous B-52 Stratofortress/BUFF, I wondered if any wargames would include the B-47. Yes, there are some! I think I've now played most of them. This is an interesting period for wargaming, because it's all alt-hist for a nuclear WW3 that thankfully never happened. I don't normally explore alt-hist, either, but for SAC, the B-47, and Dad I'd happily make an exception.
There are several good movies about this period, too. Probably everyone knows Dr. Strangelove, which I've seen before and was happy to see again. But I found several other good ones, and the aptly named Strategic Air Command movie with Jimmy Stewart even featured the B-47! All in all it's been an enjoyable exploration, for the games, the military history, and a way to reconnect with my dad.
Movies & Video
• Strategic Air Command
• Dr. Strangelove
• Fail Safe
• The Arrow
• Cold War aviation films (per Wikipedia)
Books
• Bomber: The Formation and Early Years of Strategic Air Command , by Phillip Meilinger
If you're not a Twitter user, but still want to see my photos and short videos about some wargames, just go to http://www.twitter.com/WargamesToGo. Feedback here or there is always welcome.
-Mark
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Episode geeklist
Carl Paradis
Designer Carl Paradis is featured in this episode. Of course I asked him onto the podcast to discuss his landmark Eastern Front game, No Retreat: The Russian Front. Beyond that, Carl has explored this topic in his development of Gary Graber's The Barbarossa Campaign and his own forthcoming Absolute War. That would make him an interesting designer for most wargamers--what makes him special for me is his penchant for small wargames. Even if boxed, with a large map, the counter densities he uses are low, the hexes large, the rules short. Just the sort of gaming I find most interesting, because those designs have to make bold choices & cuts in their simulation modeling.
Now Carl is furthering this design style in his No Retreat Battles series. The first in this new series focuses on five battles from 1942: Velikiye Luki, Stalingrad, Gazala, Guadalcanal, and Dieppe (two of those are solitaire). Small maps, not too many counters...sign me up! (Literally--this game is nearing the cutoff for GMT's P500 preordering system, and one of those preorders is mine.)
Siberian trooper Carl
Think that a big topic like Barbarossa cannot be simulated sufficiently by a low counter density? They might not be for everybody, but take a look at Carl's interesting designs. Within the context of familiar hexmaps, cardboard counters with combat-move factors, and Combat Results Tables, he takes the epic scope of the Russian Front and does clever things with ZOCs and a counterattack system, not to mention multi-use cardplay. YouTube is full of gamers showcasing this title.
Lex Saxonum La Ders de Ders
If you're not a Twitter user, but still want to see my photos and short videos about some wargames, just go to http://www.twitter.com/WargamesToGo. Feedback here or there is always welcome.
-Mark
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At long last I'm posting my podcast about the Eastern Front in WW2. Except that it's not exactly that, it's Operation Barbarossa. When I started this as a subject, I really didn't know how to parse it, or what my focus would be. Over the past six months I learned to separate Stalingrad, Typhoon, the Soviet counter-invasion, and everything else that is part of so vast a topic. I learned to focus just on Barbarossa. That's a deep enough subject on its own, and I have time in my wargaming future to explore the other aspects.
The centerpiece of this episode is an interview with Bruce Geryk. You know him from his Wild Weasel podcast, and you may also know him from the wargame analyses at his own website, from his Dien Bien Phu video series, or from his other podcast appearances on Three Moves Ahead and Quarter to Three. Bruce is a wargamer from way back, and he thinks deeply about the history and our hobby.
With a subject as monumental as the Russian Front, I particularly wanted Bruce to fill in the blanks of my experience with wargame titles that make up “the canon” for the topic, and especially some of the larger games. As well as being an avid tabletop wargamer, Bruce knows computer wargames as well, and fills us in on that part of the hobby, too.
Movies & Video
• ThirEastern Front of WWII animated: 1941
• The Great Patriotic War. Operation Barbarossa. Episode 1
Books
• Kiev 1941: Hitler's Battle for Supremacy in the East, by David Stahel
• The First Day on the Eastern Front: Germany Invades the Soviet Union, June 22, 1941, by Craig W.H. Luther
• Blitzkrieg: From the Ground Up, by Niklas Zetterling
• Barbarossa: Germany's Assault on the Soviet Union, 1941-1942, by John Burtt
If you're not a Twitter user (or don't follow me), but still want to see my photos and short videos about some wargames, just go to http://www.twitter.com/WargamesToGo. Feedback here or there is always welcome.
-Mark -
No episode geeklist this time, just the three games below
Armchair Dragoons Presents Wargaming Media: State of Play
I'll be attending Origins Game Fair this year (June 2019) in Columbus. I've been there before, but only in the 80s & 90s, so I'm sure it's substantially different now. I'll be there Thursday-Sunday, including participating on a panel of wargame podcasters/YouTubers/bloggers Sunday morning. That's listed in the program as shown below. I think it's free, and I hope any WGTG listeners still around that morning will stop by. I don't have anything else in particular planned for Origins. Just want to see the thing, play some boardgames, and enjoy some relaxation. Drop me a note on Twitter or
geekmail if you like.
This panel featuring wargaming media personalities will discuss the current “Golden Age” of board wargaming and what can be done to ensure its survival.
Location: GCCC - Apods - A210
Date: Sunday 6/16/2019 10am (2 hours)
Here's another one-off podcast. I thought last episodes exploration of solitaire games was an exception to my normal wargaming--and it is--but here I am again to discuss three different solo wargames. I swear I'll get to more WW2 East Front explorations sooner or later, but right now I wanted to drop this episode about some other games: Doolittle Raid, Pavlov's House, and Utmost Savagery. The games are all about WW2 topics, and all solitaire systems, but in other respects they're quite different. Their solo rules are completely different, as a matter of fact.
Of course, Pavlov's House, being about a location in the Battle of Stalingrad, relates to my Eastern Front exploration, albeit at a different scale. Last time I had designer David Thompson on the podcast to talk about the process of wargame design. Now I got to see how one of his games actually worked. The Doolittle Raid is different, something I heard my father & grandfather talk about growing up. They both served in the USAF/USAAF and I grew up with stories of America's famous air exploits. My buddy Brian suspected this game was right up my alley after he'd enjoyed it, so at a GMT Weekend at the Warehouse I bought a copy. As for Utmost Savagery, my interest was sparked by reading Eugene Sledge's outstanding WW2 memoir, which was adapted into the HBO series The Pacific. The Battle of Peleliu plays a central role in that narrative. A look through my collection revealed that I already owned a game on that topic, part of a dual-game within Against The Odds magazine.
It all makes for an unusual collection of titles to discuss together, as well as books & films to take in.
Movies & Video
• Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
• Destination Tokyo
• Pearl Harbor (just the end has Doolittle's Raid)
• Enemy at the Gates
• The Pacific (HBO) (episodes 5-7 are about Peleliu)
• Sands of War (WW2 military short film about the Desert Training Center)
Books
• Target Tokyo, by James M. Scott
• Enemy At The Gates, by William Craig
• With The Old Breed, by Eugene Sledge
My Twitter videos about the games
• Doolittle Raid
• Pavlov's House
• Utmost Savagery
Other
• Geeklist of Award-Winning Magazine Games
Next I'm really going to start playing more WW2 East Front games. Besides Pavlov, I've already played Battle for Moscow and No Retreat. I have many more titles to explore which are listed on a geeklist.
If you're not a Twitter user (or don't follow me), but still want to see my photos and short videos about some wargames, just go to http://www.twitter.com/WargamesToGo. Feedback here or there is always welcome.
-Mark -
Episode geeklist
Here's something I haven't done in a while: a one-off podcast. In other words, this isn't the start of a multi-episode, multi-month exploration of one battle/war. Instead, this is a single episode about (mostly) a single topic, WW2's Long Range Desert Group. I vaguely remembered hearing something about history, then earlier this year the French wargaming magazine Vae Victis featured the LRDG in their issue game. It was a small, solitaire design, and I tweeted about how I was intrigued. A friend recommended a book to read about it, and soon I discovered another solitaire game on it. That was enough for me--it sounded like the makings of a podcast episode.
This episode also features an interview with wargame designer David Thompson. He created Pavlov's House and has Castle Itter coming up next, both published by DVG. As you'll hear, he's got some other games on the way from other publishers, too. In fact, his interview is primarily about what it's like to get a wargame published, particularly the part about pitching a project to a publisher. He's researching the LRDG himself for a project, so the interview was perfect timing.
Movies & Video
• Sea of Sand
• Lost in Libya: In Search of the LRDG
• Battlestorm Lite - LRDG (3 parts including Moore's March)
Books
• Sand , Wind, and War, by Ralph Alger Bagnold
• Incident at Jebel Sherif, by Kuno Gross, Roberto Chiarvetto, Brendan O'Carroll
• Killing Rommel, by Steven Pressfield
Discussions
• Long Range Desert Group versus aircraft
Next I'm going to start playing some WW2 East Front games. It's an enormous topic, one of the centerpieces of our hobby. My knowledge about it is fairly limited, but I'm learning a bunch already. Also, I've naturally got quite a number of wargames on the topic already. With a subject this large, there are several smaller options out there, just like I prefer. I'm starting with Frank Chadwick's introductory classic, Battle for Moscow. I've started a geeklist about with these games, too.
If you're not a Twitter user (or don't follow me), but still want to see my photos and short videos about some wargames, just go to http://www.twitter.com/WargamesToGo. Feedback here or there is always welcome. -
At long last, the interview with author and game designer, Joe Balkoski. He's been on my podcast before, when we talked about The Korean War. At that time we made plans for his return when I dove into D-Day games. Besides designing some notable games on the subject, Joe has had an entire second career (his main career, really) of writing books on the subject. It's no exaggeration to say he is the definitive expert on US 29th Infantry Division and it's actions on Omaha Beach and beyond into Normandy, the rest of France, and Europe.
I had the opportunity to interview Joe, and this time it wasn't at the end of a Skype line. This time I was able to meet him at his workplace, the home of the Maryland National Guard at Baltimore's Fifth Regiment Armory. It's right there on 29th Division Street in downtown Baltimore, and you'll hear what a fortuitous role it played in Joe's life.
With this episode, I'm wrapping up my drawn-out series on D-Day. After the Balkoski interview I talk about some battle games played that were "beyond the beachhead," covering the Battle of Mortain. As well as a few titles that don't have anything to do with D-Day at all: they're in here because my trip to Maryland/Virginia included some local sightseeing and inspired the play of these other games. I've had a little more time to think about what makes or breaks a good, short, small wargame. I'll share my thoughts, and would especially welcome any discussion on that subject.
I think in my previous episode I toyed with the idea of stopping my podcasts. I no longer think I'm going to do that. Although future Wargames To Go episodes may no longer follow the multi-episode format for a "quarter" (or so) per topic, I'll still do something. I'm still figuring out what. Right now I know I want to play a couple different Long Range Desert Group games I've acquired. Both are solitaire titles. Then it's high time I learned some basics about the Eastern Front, and what better time to try that than in winter. Maybe I want to squeeze a Bulge game in around Christmas, too. Hmmm...
-Mark
If you're not a Twitter user (or don't follow me), but still want to see my photos and short videos about some wargames, just go to http://www.twitter.com/WargamesToGo. Feedback is always welcome. -
A solo episode this time. That interview with author and designer Joe Balkoski is still coming, but not quite yet. He's got the little matter of his own retirement and a well-deserved vacation to deal with first. Ok, no problem, I just recorded this episode to record more thoughts about a variety of D-Day games I've played. Then I get to share my own travelogue from my visit to Normandy in 2014.
Playing those games, it got me thinking about smaller wargames, in general. Every so often there's a discussion posted online (here on BGG, perhaps in the wargaming twitterspace, or something else) where a gamer asks if there are any good, shorter wargames out there. YES! There are LOTS of them. These are the games I seek out. However, they often are less well known, because for many years the hobby has focused on the beefier end of the spectrum when it comes to wargames. It's easier to find monster wargames (see? they even have a term for it) than shorter ones.
Yet the shorter ones are out there. New wargamers tiptoeing into the hobby may ask for them, but just as often it's an experienced wargamer who still wants to enjoy the hobby but cannot host weekend-long setups any longer. Weeknight Wargames is what I tried to call them. Ones you can play in 1-3 hours. Whatever they're called, they can be found. One of these days I need to make my own geeklist with suggestions. When I do, I'll link to it here.
If you're not a Twitter user (or don't follow me), but still want to see my photos and short videos about some wargames, just go to http://www.twitter.com/WargamesToGo.
-Mark
Remember to follow along & chime in on my geeklist/discussion) for all of my Korean War explorations. If you're a wargamer on social media, follow me on Twitter (@WargamesToGo). Feedback is always welcome. -
At long last I’m getting to the D-Day episodes. It may seem long to you because I skipped last month (April). But it’s a lot longer than that. I visited the Normandy beaches on vacation back in 2014. I figured I’d record a podcast about that and play some related games soon after. Then when I went to live in France from 2016-2017, I brought a number of Normandy games with me, again thinking I’d get to them. In both cases, other things took their place, and my D-Day podcast was pushed back & back. Now, though, I’m getting to do it, and synced up with the anniversary of the battle. (I always prefer to play wargames around the anniversary of their battles, because the weather outside fits the action on the map a little closer.)
In this episode I briefly mention the books & movies listed below, talk about my recent time at GMT’s Weekend at the Warehouse, then dive into the extensive geeklist of games I aspire to tackle on this subject. I never get to ALL of them, but already I’ve made more of a dent than I’d hoped. It helps that there are SO many D-Day/Normandy games to choose from. That includes some famous biggies, but also quite a number of smaller wargames, as I prefer.
There’s no historical intro to the subject this time—-I’d feel silly doing that, and assume all wargamers geeky enough to seek out my podcast already know plenty about this famous battle. I did, too, but have been very pleased to learn a lot more details that previously escaped me. Especially about the fighting in Normandy to expand the beachhead and create the breakout. Operations Goodwood, Spring, and Cobra are exciting parts of the story I knew less about before this podcast.
-Mark
Movies
• Saving Private Ryan
• The Longest Day
• Band of Brothers (episodes Day of Days and Carentan)
• Storming Juno
Books
• D-Day, by Anthony Beevor
• Parachute Infantry, by David Kenyon Webster
• Six Armies in Normandy, by John Keegan
• Beyond the Beachhead, by Joe Balkoski
Remember to follow along & chime in on my geeklist/discussion) for all of my Korean War explorations. If you're a wargamer on social media, follow me on Twitter (@WargamesToGo). Feedback is always welcome. -
To wrap up my series on the Korean War, I've got a shorter episode featuring just me talking about the games I played. I never get to as many as I'd like--my geeklists are aspirational and for reference rather than predictive!--and the same is true of movies. Nonetheless, my exploration of this subject has been a satisfying one. I went into it not knowing much about the conflict that inaugurated the Cold War, and the defining historical event of my father's generation. Between games, books, movies, magazines, and other podcasts, I now understand considerably more.
[
What I enjoy most of all is that I feel like I "get" the overall narrative arc of this piece of history. There's the war itself, with its milestone events (invasion, retreat, Pusan perimeter defense, amphibious invasion to the rear at Inchon, reversal of the invasion, Chinese intervention, retreat from the Yalu and escape from Chosin...). There's also the political machinations going on from the end of WW2 to this episode.
Once again, I'm struck by how much I enjoy the old/traditional style of wargaming, with its hexmaps, ZOCs, OOBs, and reinforcement schedules. Even plain, old IGO-UGO rules systems. I recognize those systems have their limitations, but they really help me learn more about a subject. In a related way, I confirmed for myself that I don't really care for tactical systems. When they include the things that are necessary at that scale (LOS, opportunity fire, etc.), I just find that the game rules get in the way of my appreciation of the game and its depictions.
-Mark
Remember to follow along & chime in on my geeklist/discussion) for all of my Korean War explorations. If you're a wargamer on social media, follow me on Twitter (@WargamesToGo). Feedback is always welcome.
And if you want to anticipate my next podcast series on D-Day, check out its own geeklist.
- Visa fler
