History, Medieval, Retrospective
Stuart Gorman
Castillon – A Reflection

Today is the anniversary of the battle of Castillion. A year ago today I submitted the final draft of my manuscript for Castillon: The Final Battle of the Hundred Years War to my editor. Now, once again on the anniversary of the battle, my book is out and I thought it would be interesting to write something about the experience of writing it. 

If I’m honest, though, I feel kind of disconnected from the book now. I finished it over a year ago, and while I’ve re-read it in that time as part of proofreading and making the final tweaks to the text, as a project it has felt finished for a long time. In the intervening time I moved to South Korea and started a new job, and I haven’t had much time to think about what that day in 1453 might mean to me still. 

Castillon – A Reflection
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Games as Texts by Alayna Cole and Dakoda Barker

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Games as Texts by Alayna Cole and Dakoda Barker

Back before I was a Big-Time History Dork (the technical term for anyone with a PhD in history), I studied Philosophy as well. I loved it dearly, but not enough to pursue it into a postgraduate degree for… reasons. There’s an alternate history version of me that took that path, and I’m sure he had a great time. One thing I’ve struggled with after leaving formal academia, and thus having the time and impetus to read it, is diving deep into philosophical reading. Now, Games as Text is more literary criticism than philosophy, but the two topics share a lot in that they’re generally hard to engage with as a casual reader. Thankfully, Games as Texts is doing its best to fix that problem by being a thoroughly approachable introduction to basic literary criticism and showing how it can be applied to games. Well, video games at least.

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WItMoYW - Ep. 14 The US Civil War by Mark Simonitch

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We did it everyone, we reached the end of 1862, and what better way to celebrate than by playing our first strategic game on the American Civil War? Like true connoisseurs, Pierre and Stuart have decided to pursue the Cult of the New and play a game that is only a decade old but has still acquired quite the distinguished reputation: Mark Simonitch’s The US Civil War. What will we think about strategic level ACW? Is there a lengthy discussion of a niche topic of Civil War memory? Did we use the Advanced Naval Rules? What about that rumor of a Top 5 Games list? The answer to these questions and much more can be found within this episode, so what are you waiting for?

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Korea the Forgotten War (OCS Korea) by Rod Miller and Dean Essig

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Korea the Forgotten War (OCS Korea) by Rod Miller and Dean Essig

Where do I start with something this big? I have been playing Korea semi-weekly (with a few gaps) since December last year. I’ve played it for at least twenty hours over the past eight months. In addition to my regular two-player game, I’ve dabbled in playing it solitaire. Playing Korea The Forgotten War has probably been my favorite gaming experience of 2025 so far. However, despite spending so much time with this game I still feel like I’ve only begun to dip my toes into its vast sea. In all that time we only played the game’s opening moments. We didn’t even get as far as the UN crossing the border and invading North Korea, let alone the Chinese intervention and the second phase of the Mobile War. For that reason I don’t feel like I am adequately equipped to provide a full review of Korea. I can only describe the glimpse I’ve had of its majesty. Caveats aside, this game is amazing and I love it. It is absolutely worth the time it requires.

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Castillon – A Reflection

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Castillon – A Reflection

Today is the anniversary of the battle of Castillion. A year ago today I submitted the final draft of my manuscript for Castillon: The Final Battle of the Hundred Years War to my editor. Now, once again on the anniversary of the battle, my book is out and I thought it would be interesting to write something about the experience of writing it. 

If I’m honest, though, I feel kind of disconnected from the book now. I finished it over a year ago, and while I’ve re-read it in that time as part of proofreading and making the final tweaks to the text, as a project it has felt finished for a long time. In the intervening time I moved to South Korea and started a new job, and I haven’t had much time to think about what that day in 1453 might mean to me still. 

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Inventing the Renaissance by Ada Palmer

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Inventing the Renaissance by Ada Palmer

As a card-carrying member of the Hates the Term Renaissance club, a not uncommon position for late medievalists like myself who are inclined to resent the division of our time period into dark and golden ages, I was immediately intrigued by Ada Palmer’s reexamination of the term and its time. Inventing the Renaissance promised to deconstruct one of the most mythologized periods of European history, and one that I felt warranted some poking and prodding. Palmer’s book is not a hit piece against late medieval Italy, though. Instead, as all great deconstructions are, it is a combination love letter and deep analysis of a period whose complexities are often painted over by popular narratives that just want to talk about the pretty art and clever people. Further, Inventing the Renaissance performs the magisterial hat trick of being incredibly insightful while also remaining eminently approachable and casual as it dumps a mountain of scholarship on its reader – in the most loving way. It’s an incredibly impressive work, both of scholarship and popular history, and one absolutely worthy of the time its 700+ pages require.

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Further Idle Thoughts on Arquebus (Men of Iron vol. 4) by Richard Berg

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Further Idle Thoughts on Arquebus (Men of Iron vol. 4) by Richard Berg

I really enjoy playing new games and writing about them for this blog, but sometimes the pressure (mostly from myself) to play the latest game on my shelf means I don’t make enough time to revisit old favorites. I don’t want to sound like an ungrateful whiner, I really appreciate that thanks to review copies I can try so many new and exciting games and I feel privileged to play as many new titles as I do, but at the same time I find myself gazing longingly at old friends, wondering when will I play them again.

Earlier this month I decided to abandon my sense of obligation and pull one such old friend off the shelf. Men of Iron (MoI) is where I started my wargaming journey, and is easily the series I have written the most about. Of the games in the series, Arquebus remains a favorite, but also one I haven’t given enough attention to either. So, I decided to set up and play through the next two battles in the scenario booklet. I had no thought that I might actually write anything about it, this was purely for fun, but having revisited this system after a long time away from it I have some idle thoughts I’d like to scribble down. I make no promises for this to be top quality analysis, this is instead back of the envelope musings from spending time with an old friend again.

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Hunt for Blackbeard by Volko Ruhnke

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Hunt for Blackbeard by Volko Ruhnke

At time of writing my Volko Ruhnke’s Hunt for Blackbeard is on track to become my most played game since records began (c.2019, when I installed the BG Stats app on my phone). For all that, I’m not sure it is an all time favorite game for me. It’s just so…more-ish. This is enabled in part by the excellent implementation on Rally the Troops, which is also how I’m reviewing a game which has yet to receive it’s physical release. This means there won’t be any section on the physical production, how it feels to play, or what the blocks taste like. Sorry! In its digital form at least, this cat-and-mouse pirate hunting game flies by in a mere moment but has you wondering what if you did it differently next time. It is by far the shortest and simplest game from designer Volko Ruhnke (known for COIN, Levy and Campaign, and big boy CDGs), but it is not without many of his signature elements as a designer. I’m largely ambivalent about hidden movement games, but I’m logging game after game here, so there must be something noteworthy about this one, right?

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What’s in a Name – Defining the Hundred Years War

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What’s in a Name – Defining the Hundred Years War

Nobody caught up in the chaos and bloodshed in France between the years 1337 and 1453 ever referred to what was happening around them as The Hundred Years War. Neither did future generations, until the early nineteenth century, when the name was coined by French historians (technically as La guerre de Cent Ans), from where it spread across Europe and the world. Since the concept of The Hundred Years War is entirely a historiographical construct, it was only a matter of time before people began to question whether it made sense. After all, the kings of England and France had fought numerous wars before the Hundred Years War and would continue to do so after, so what made the Hundred Years War a coherent conflict? Buckle up kids, because this might take a while.

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How to Pick a Good History Book

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How to Pick a Good History Book

One of the more niche skills I, and many others, have acquired in studying for a PhD in history is the ability to identify whether a history book is likely to be good or not. This is also something of a curse, since whenever some non-historian friend shows me a new book they’ve bought or are excited to read, I must suppress (something I don’t always succeed at) the urge to pontificate on the merits of such a book. To do so is, more often than not, to take on the role of a vibe killer by pointing out why X popular history book is fundamentally flawed (looking at you Guns, Germs, and Steel, you know what you did). This leads to a natural follow up, though, of how could I help someone find better history books – how can I share this skill of identifying whether a book is likely to be good or not with others who are interested in reading good history books but didn’t spend years of their life getting a fancy piece of paper to hang on their wall? It’s a rather difficult skill to articulate, but in this post, I’m going to do my best to explain my methods and to also discuss the importance of good history.

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My First KBO Game

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My First KBO Game

I didn’t really grow up with baseball, or at least watching baseball. I’m still American, so my dad taught me how to throw and how to (kind of) hit a baseball, but I never played outside of our yard, and we never watched games. I can put most of the blame for the latter on the fact that we had no team for most of my childhood – Virginia lacks any major sports teams and Washington, DC (my dad’s hometown and source of our local major sports teams) was in its 33 lacuna of no baseball until I was fifteen, by which point I was a bit too busy to become invested in another sport. I’ve had a passing interest in baseball, and I followed the Nationals 2019 triumph, but only via the newspapers. However, when we were planning our move to Korea, I had heard that attending a baseball game in Korea was a must. While we were surviving our first Korean winter (I say surviving, my wife and daughter loved the freezing cold, me not so much) I was eagerly looking forward to the start of baseball season.

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The Wilderness Campaign ed. Gary W. Gallagher

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The Wilderness Campaign ed. Gary W. Gallagher

As I child I spent many days in The Wilderness. My father was something of a Civil War buff and on the weekends he would, in moments of desperation, put my brothers and I in the car and drive us to a nearby battlefield where we could run around to our heart’s content. As a result, I have visited the battlefields of central Virginia countless times. The Wilderness was always my favorite. I could say it was because of some enduring fascination with those violent days in May 1864, but in reality, that came later. The Wilderness is fundamentally just a dense forest, and as a kid who liked being outside in the woods that made it infinitely more appealing than an open field.

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The Burgundians by Bart Van Loo

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The Burgundians by Bart Van Loo

As a rule, I don’t usually review books that I didn’t finish. This does somewhat tilt my reviews in a more positive direction, since I rarely finish books that I genuinely dislike. I don’t think it would be entirely fair to classify Bart Van Loo’s The Burgundians in that latter group, but I ultimately decided it was not worth finishing. The reasons for that say more about why I personally read history and what makes a book worthwhile to me, so I figured I’d write a little about The Burgundians and why it disappointed me in the end (or, to be completely accurate, in the first hundred pages).

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Graphic Design for Board Games by Daniel Solis

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Graphic Design for Board Games by Daniel Solis

I am an unlikely candidate to be reviewing Daniel Solis’ book. To say that graphic design is not my passion would be an understatement. I struggle to draw stick figures let alone solve the complex problems of layout and design necessary for an attractive and playable board game. However, I do have an enthusiasm for board games and like all nerds I have strong opinions on them and how they look. I am also broadly intrigued by CRC Press’ new series of books edited by Geoff Engelstein. I really enjoyed the other two books in the series, and for completeness’s sake I figured I should read this one as well, even if it was further afield from my own areas of interest and knowledge.

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A Greater Victory by Steve Carey

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A Greater Victory by Steve Carey

Initially, South Mountain wasn’t a topic that captured my imagination – McClellan’s somewhat underwhelming victory that precedes Antietam doesn’t exactly get my blood boiling. Last year I played John Poniske’s Fire on the Mountain, on this very battle, and while that game ultimately left me underwhelmed it generated a potential interest in its subject. To confirm that suspicion I turned to Blind Swords, one of my favorite hex and counter systems, and its treatment of South Mountain, designed by Steve Carey and published in 2022. A Greater Victory is an excellent addition to the Blind Swords system – there were even times when I thought it might have secured the position of my favorite entry, but I’m still not sure it has claimed that honor just yet. Nevertheless, it is an excellent game that gave me new insight into aspects of Blind Swords that I hadn’t fully appreciated before.

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We Intend to Move on Your Works ep. 13 - Army of the Heartland

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We Intend to Move on Your Works ep. 13 - Army of the Heartland

Episode 13 and we’ve finally reached the end of 1862! Honestly, this took us much longer than I initially planned but I think the longer journey was worth it. For this episode we played John Prados’ Army of the Heartland, his fascinating and slightly messy take on operational Civil War logistics. We both ended up liking it far more than we expected. You can listen to it on either Spotify or YouTube, I hope you enjoy!

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The Frozen Chosen by Thomas McKelvey Cleaver

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The Frozen Chosen by Thomas McKelvey Cleaver

The breakout from Chosin Reservoir is one of those almost-mythical moments in the history of the United States Marine Corps that shows their very best and most impressive qualities against the face of adversity. It was also undoubtedly the result of a colossal fuck up by US high command, an example of disastrous strategic thinking that needlessly endangered the troops on the ground. It’s hard not to be a little triumphalist about the Marine Corps’ (and their allies’) achievements in November and December 1950, but in doing so it is too easy to fall into the trap of making the Korean War about Americans and losing sight of what any of it meant. The Frozen Chosen is a pop history* account of the Chosin Breakout, as well as the war up to that point and up through MacArthur’s firing after, and while I had a reasonably good time reading it I can’t say it blew me away. It has strange priorities in places and the narrative is not as coherent as it should be, but it also does a good job at sharing the blame for the disastrous strategy without falling into overly simplistic narratives.

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Labyrinth: The War on Terror by Volko Ruhnke

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Labyrinth: The War on Terror by Volko Ruhnke

I was twelve when the War on Terror began, not quite fourteen when American invaded Iraq. The political and global climate created in the aftermath of 9/11 defined some of my most formative years – the time in my life when I first became aware of politics and tried to become politically active for the first time. By the time Labyrinth was released in 2010 I was in my twenties and living in Ireland. Labyrinth isn’t unique in being about a still ongoing war whose conclusion was far from determined when it was designed and published, but it is still a rarity within the hobby. That it was on such a major conflict, and one whose casualties extended well beyond a traditional notion of battlefields, certainly drew a lot of attention to it, as did the fact that its designer Volko Ruhnke was an analyst with the CIA at the time. Playing it fifteen years after its initial release, after America’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 marked what is often considered the end of the War on Terror, is an interesting experience. This is not exactly a historical game, it was not made with enough distance from the events it covers for any real historical hindsight, but it captures a certain perspective on events of the time that we can look back on now and try our best to evaluate. It’s also an incredibly well-designed card-drive wargame (CDG).

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Thematic Integration in Board Game Design by Sarah Shipp

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Thematic Integration in Board Game Design by Sarah Shipp

Trying to explain to someone who doesn’t play board games why this game about trading feels thematic but that other game about trading has a pasted-on theme is, in my experience at least, a ticket to a conversation that both of you lose interest in once you’re far too deep into it to easily back out. That is why I don’t envy Sarah Shipp’s task in trying to define concepts like a board game’s theme and when theme integrates well with a game’s mechanics. This is the sort of thing that is intuitive to many who have spent time in the hobby – they know thematic games when they see them – but despite what some American jurists might believe this is not particularly firm ground for a working definition. In Thematic Integration in Board Game Design Shipp sets out not only to define and explain these concepts in a manner that can serve as a foundation for future discussion, but then to also provide advice to designers on how best to effectively integrate their game’s theme with the mechanisms and rules.

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The Army of the Heartland by John Prados

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The Army of the Heartland by John Prados

In the niche within a niche that is operational games on the American Civil War the Great Campaigns of the American Civil War (GCACW) series looms above all others. Despite arguably draining much of the oxygen from the field it does not hold a monopoly on the topic. John Prados, the designer of Rise and Decline of the Third Reich among other legendary titles, threw his hat into the ring before GCACW had even fully materialized. The Campaigns of Robert E. Lee was published in 1988 by Clash of Arms games, the same year as Joe Balkoski’s Lee vs Grant – generally considered the predecessor to GCACW – was published by Victory Games. While Stonewalll Jackson’s Way, also by Balkoski, was published in 1992 by Avalon Hill, ushering in the GCACW, it would not be until 1996 that Prados provided his own sequel: Army of the Heartland, also published by Clash of Arms. Comparing Prados’ games to GCACW is instinctive: both are operational games on the ACW by legendary designers with established pedigrees that were released at approximately the same time. They also share certain design ideas, most notably random movement and the unpredictability of whether an attack will even happen let alone go well, but at their core they are very different designs. Rather than a cousin for GCACW, I see similarities between Prados’ series and another legendary series that first appeared in 1992: Dean Essig’s Operational Combat Series (OCS).

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Most Anticipated Games: 2025 Edition

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Most Anticipated Games: 2025 Edition

It’s almost Lunar New Year (shout out to fellow Year of the Snake people), so what better time to take a moment and look to the year ahead? Last year I did a most anticipated games list, and since it was pretty good fun, I decided to do it again! First, though, I want to reflect for a moment on last year’s list and see how I did both in terms of predicting what came out and what I managed to play.