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Battles of Westeros: a BattleLore Game, A Personal Retrospective

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Battles of Westeros: a BattleLore Game, A Personal Retrospective

When it was released Battles of Westeros came with the tagline “a BattleLore Game”, a subtitle that probably does not mean very much to many people, and I don’t think it particularly did at the time either, but which I think is a fascinating insight into its creation - and possibly it’s ultimate failure. BattleLore is a game designed by Richard Borg and was sort of a medieval history entry in his ongoing Command and Colorrs series of games. This was a series of fairly light wargames that combine dice, hexes, and either blocks or miniatures in a tactical level game about (usually) historical battles. Battles of Westeros represents an interesting off-shoot from the core series, but to fully explain why I think it is so interesting - and why despite that I no longer own a copy - we should consider the history of the series it came from in a little more detail.

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First Impressions: Arquebus – Cerignola 1503

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First Impressions: Arquebus – Cerignola 1503

Coming right off the heels of playing my first game of Blood and Roses I arranged to play fellow member of Team Crossboys Russ Wetli in a game of Arquebus that same day. I had a hurried skim of the rulebook to try and pull-out what elements were different from previous Men of Iron titles, which was thankfully a relatively painless process even without the volume specific rules highlights I was accustomed to from the Tri-Pack. There’s a lot to be said for playing games in a system. It makes it much easier to pick up the next game in the series since you already know about 80% of the rules, but on the other hand it also becomes increasingly easy to mess up that last 20% the more games you learn! This was Russ’s first experience playing Men of Iron and I wanted to be sure I got as much right as possible, and for the most part I think I succeeded. We picked the Battle of Cerignola to play because it was by far the shortest and simplest scenario in the box and neither of us was up for an epic multi-hour clash that evening. I also ensured that he had the full Men of Iron experience by having him play the side that lost the battle historically. Nobody ever promised that Men of Iron would be fair.

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First Impressions: Blood and Roses – First Battle of St Albans 1455

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First Impressions: Blood and Roses – First Battle of St Albans 1455

I’m very interested in pretty much all things medieval warfare but I have to admit that within that category the Wars of the Roses would rank near the bottom. I am not totally uninterested in the subject, but an assortment of miserable nobles all killing each other to see who gets to be King of England isn’t my preferred topic. It has some interesting moments, and I find Edward IV to be an interesting monarch, but overall it doesn’t fill me with excitement. This meant that while Blood and Roses promised to be a very interesting entry in the Men of Iron series, I haven’t been rushing to get it to the table. However, with the whole Men of Iron series having been chosen for this month’s Club de Jeu on the Homo Ludens Discord I decided to take a plunge and try and play a battle from every (published) entry in the series, which meant finally trying Blood and Roses. I picked the First Battle of St Albans as my entry point in part because it was a small battle that plays in under an hour and in part because the idea of more urbanised combat in a Men of Iron game was really appealing. I’m glad I did because I think First St Albans (as we’ll call it from now) is a great entry point into the Men of Iron series and a fun little battle in its own right!

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England, France and Aquitaine: From Victory to Defeat in the Hundred Years War by Richard Ballard

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England, France and Aquitaine: From Victory to Defeat in the Hundred Years War by Richard Ballard

I have lamented before about how there aren’t enough histories of the end of the Hundred Years War (in English anyway). That was why I was particularly excited to discover Richard Ballard’s history focusing on just Aquitaine over the Hundred Years War. Aquitaine was one of the main theatres of the Hundred Years War and most relevant was the location of its dramatic conclusion in 1453. This is not the first book to cover this subject but Malcolm Vale’s classic English Gascony, 1399-1453: A Study of War, Government and Politics During the Later Stages of the Hundred Years' War is both 50 years old and decidedly out of print so I was hoping for a newer volume covering similar ground. I have to confess, though, that I had an altogether uneven experience with Ballard’s book. It covers an interesting period and is well researched, but I would have reservations in recommending it to anyone but the most diehard of Hundred Years War enthusiasts.

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Infidel – Antioch 1098

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Infidel – Antioch 1098

For my second game of Infidel, I decided I should pick something a little more straightforward than Arsuf, much as I enjoyed it, and Antioch looked like it would fit the bill. It also helped that I’ve found the Siege of Antioch fascinating since literally my first year as an undergraduate in college. It’s also a bit of a weird battle so I was curious to see how designer Richard Berg adapted the Men of Iron rules to fit the fragile alliances and unusual deployment process that defined the climactic battle of the two sieges of Antioch.

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Men of Iron – Bannockburn 1314

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Men of Iron – Bannockburn 1314

Bannockburn is an interesting battle. Many historians have argued that it was a turning point in medieval warfare, the division between the High and Late Middle Ages, but you could just as easily argue that it was a symptom of broader trends, just one event of many in a slow process of change. It’s narratively fascinating and historiographically intriguing, and that’s before we get to the nationalism. It’s not very surprising that it has an enduring legacy in popular culture and in historical writing – it’s too good a story to ignore and many historians have tried to fit it into their pet theories about how the fourteenth century forever changed medieval warfare. And lest you think I am without sin I have done this very thing in the past, even as I have since become significantly more sceptical of such arguments in recent years.

Consim Game Jam 2022 – An After-Action Report

Consim Game Jam 2022 – An After-Action Report

I have no urge to design a Eurogame or to write roleplaying game rules no matter how much I enjoy both of those kinds of gaming. When it comes to wargames, though, I feel this itch to try and craft my own take on historical events that I am fascinated by. I think it’s because at their core so many wargames are historical models and, in my other guise, I’m a public military history. I cannot help but think about how I might be able to use game mechanics to communicate an idea about one of my favourite subjects. I suppose it’s no great leap from being prepared to commit several years of my life to writing a book for public consumption to spending a similar amount of time designing a game to achieve something similar. At least in terms of the impetus in my part that is. In terms of execution, the two are quite different!

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First Impressions: Sekigahara by Matt Calkins

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First Impressions: Sekigahara by Matt Calkins

I’ve wanted to play Sekigahara for years. The first time I saw the stacks of blocks and the glorious art of the board I knew I had to play it. Sadly, it was far beyond my meagre budget, and I wasn’t sure if anyone would play it with me even if I managed to buy it, so for many years I gazed forlornly at it from a distance. That is until last month, when I finally got a chance to play it thanks to my newfound competence playing games online using Vassal (and a helpful nudge from the Homo Ludens’ Discord Club de Jeu). That made it much easier to find someone who would play it with me, and since they also owned a physical copy of the game, I didn’t have to feel bad about not buying my own! I am not the same person I was back when I first saw Sekigahara, though. I have aged several years and played many games since. Will I still be as entranced by it as I was when I first saw it?

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The Hundred Years War by Desmond Seward

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The Hundred Years War by Desmond Seward

It may be damning with faint praise, but I expected Desmond Seward’s The Hundred Years War to be worse. Don’t misunderstand me, I didn’t think it would be terrible, but it was first published in 1978 which is a long time ago given how much has been written on the Hundred Years War since. On the whole I weas pleasantly surprised by my experience with Seward’s history. I probably still wouldn’t recommend it to most people, it has some glaring problems mostly derived from its age, but on the whole, it was a lot better than I expected!

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[Malta Month Bonus] Malta Besieged: 1940-1942 by Steve Carey

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[Malta Month Bonus] Malta Besieged: 1940-1942 by Steve Carey

The States of Siege games from Victory Point Games are some of the most widely recommended solitaire only wargames. Unfortunately for people like me who have recently taken up wargaming they can be quite hard to find since Victory Point Games shut down. All is not lost, though, as Worthington Publishing has recently taken to publishing deluxe editions of some of these classic games, and I thought now was a good time to finally try one. Malta Besieged is about the other famous siege of Malta, the attempt by the Axis to seize it during World War II. I have to admit I’m not much of a WWII buff and I wasn’t very familiar with the history for this one, but I thought since I’m doing a month of games about Malta why not try something a little more modern to mix things up?

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[Malta Month] Playing the Siege of Malta

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[Malta Month] Playing the Siege of Malta

aving now played multiple games on the 1565 Siege of Malta I wanted to take a minute to think about what I’m looking for in a game about the siege and to reflect a bit on how each of the games I played portrays this historical event. I’ve tried to outline several of the key elements or events of the historical siege that I want a game to incorporate in some form. I will discuss why I think they’re important and how each game approaches them. This is not meant to be a critique of the games – if you want my opinions on playing them you should check out the individual posts on each game (easily found via this linke: https://www.stuartellisgorman.com/blog/category/Malta+Month) –instead it is more of a (highly subjective) study of how the siege is portrayed in wargaming.

I should also put as a disclaimer here that there is one game about the Siege of Malta that I haven’t played: Knights of Justice a magazine game published in Wargamer Magazine #50 in 1986. Copies of this are hard to come by so I wasn’t able to play it this month. However, I have found someone who can share their copy with me, but not until they have access to their storage in a few months’ time. When I do get a chance to play it, I’ll write up some general thoughts for a much belated Malta Month post and I may revisit this post then to incorporate the final Malta game.

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Conquest by Juliet Barker

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Conquest by Juliet Barker

There aren’t a lot of books in English that focus on the end of the Hundred Years War. I suppose there has generally been little interest in revisiting the collapse of English rule in France when there are more glorious times to focus on. Most histories tend to skip forward abruptly after the arrival of Joan of Arc directly to the end of the war, skipping over many important developments in the process. Thankfully there are a few historians that have decided to make a closer study of the period from 1417-1453. Conquest by Juliet Barker focuses just on the war in Normandy, covering the period from Henry V’s conquests starting in 1417 until the collapse of English rule in the Duchy and it’s total reconquest by the French monarchy in 1450. It is well researched and is a much-needed study of this period, but I have mixed feelings on the book as a whole.

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[Malta Month] Preview: Waning Crescent, Shattered Cross by Andy Loakes

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[Malta Month] Preview: Waning Crescent, Shattered Cross by Andy Loakes

Waning Crescent, Shattered Cross (WCSC) is by far the most complex game about the Siege of Malta that I’ve played. This is not a light game to be played in less than an hour. Instead, it is nothing less than the full siege in all its violent glory to be re-enacted over hours of gameplay. WCSC is still in development and Legion Wargames helpfully put me in touch with designer Andy Loakes. Andy kindly shared the draft rules and Cyberboard module being used for playtesting and was even more generous by spending four hours across two weekends to walk me through the game. In that time, we played approximately three weeks of the siege. A full game can last for twenty. That should give some indication of the scale of this experience. I have to say, though, that I had a blast and was engaged the entire time. This is a fascinating game, and I can’t wait to see how it turns out in its final published form.

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White Mythic Space: Racism, The First World War, and Battlefield 1 by Stefan Aguirre Quiroga

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White Mythic Space: Racism, The First World War, and Battlefield 1 by Stefan Aguirre Quiroga

I think some people might see the title of this book and think it does not have any relevance to them or their interests and that’s too bad because White Mythic Space offers a valuable framework for countless situations beyond just those explored within its pages. This is the kind of book that, if there is any justice, will be referenced for decades to come. It’s a fascinating, well written, and approachable work that expanded my understanding of more subjects than I can readily count. I’m going to try, though, because if I just continue sing it vague praises that do it an injustice and wouldn’t make for a very interesting review.

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[Malta Month] 1565: St Elmo’s Pay by Tristan Hall

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[Malta Month] 1565: St Elmo’s Pay by Tristan Hall

1565: St Elmo’s Pay is the second game in Hall or Nothing Production’s Historic Epic Battle System. The first game was 1066: Tears to Many Mothers, a game about the Battle of Hastings. Both games are relatively quick playing, 30-40 minutes, card games for 1-2 players. While I haven’t played 1066 there are certainly ways in which this system feels like it originated as a model for a battle rather than a large scale siege like Malta. Capturing the epic scope of the Siege of Malta in just a few decks of cards is a daunting task, but despite its limitations I think St Elmo’s Pay does an admirable (if not exactly perfect) job at representing the siege. Before we get to deep into my thoughts about how well it models the siege, let’s talk about the game some.

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[Malta Month] The Great Siege of Malta by Bruce Ware Allen

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[Malta Month] The Great Siege of Malta by Bruce Ware Allen

I am enthralled by the Great Siege of Malta. It is one of the most engaging historical narratives I’ve ever come across, the kind of story that feels too exciting to be even remotely true. Too long to really work as a movie, it feels perfectly suited to a high drama HBO series – except probably lacking in sufficient opportunities for gratuitous female nudity. It is a story full of sudden dramatic changes in fortune, deaths, betrayals, desperation, and dramatic last stands against all odds. An underdog story of resistance against an unstoppable foe that somehow also manages to show how much that massive foe is struggling against their own difficulties. It is easy to see why it captured imaginations at the time and within months of its conclusion some commentators described it as the greatest siege that ever was.

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[Malta Month] 1565 Siege of Malta by Maurice Suckling

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[Malta Month] 1565 Siege of Malta by Maurice Suckling

Making a game about a siege is challenging. Sieges are often by their very nature filled with long stretches of time where one side has little to do but endure. A siege like the Great Siege of Malta, which lasted most of a year, can be a long, slow, tortuous, and brutal event that doesn’t lend itself immediately to being turned into a game. Capturing the scale of a siege while also giving players plenty of choices and things to do to keep them engaged is a challenge. Even when you do find an element to gamify, if the game is multiplayer, you will need something for both sides to do. It’s not very exciting if one player is taking lots of actions and the other player just has to wait until something happens. You can design the best system ever for the attacker to try and topple his opponent’s walls, but if the defender has nothing to do you haven’t made much of a game. This may be why many wargames about sieges seem to be solitaire games. When you only have to create a game for one side and can entirely abstract the other it simplifies the challenge of making a game from the history.

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[Malta Month] Cutting Room Floor - The Great Siege of Malta

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[Malta Month] Cutting Room Floor - The Great Siege of Malta

The Great Siege of Malta in 1565 was not the first time that the Knight’s Hospitaller clashed with the Ottoman Empire, nor even the first time they had fought against the sultan Suleiman I, The Magnificent. Forty years earlier in the winter of 1522-3, at the very start of the sultan’s reign, he had driven the knights from their previous home on the island of Rhodes. The 1522 Siege of Rhodes is just one in a series of famous Ottoman sieges, starting with the Siege of Constantinople in 1453, then the less talked about 1480 Siege of Rhodes during which the Hospitallers drove off the forces of Suleiman’s father, and the later Siege of Malta in 1565. Suleiman opened his reign by driving the hated Knights Hospitaller, a military order with its roots in the eleventh century and which had participated in nearly every major crusading conflict, from the eastern Mediterranean and opened the sea for future Turkish expansion.

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First Impressions: Gettysburg by Mark Herman

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First Impressions: Gettysburg by Mark Herman

I’m not sure how many times I’ve visited Gettysburg. Enough to have the entrance to the town’s Holiday Inn burned into my memory, as well as the layout of several family friendly restaurants. I can close my eyes and picture Little Round Top as if it was in my back yard. Growing up every summer my family would drive for 15 hours from central Virginia to upstate New York to spend a couple of weeks by a lake in the Adirondacks. When I was young, we didn’t drive those 15 hours in one go, instead we would stop over at Gettysburg for a night and then usually spend a second night somewhere far less remarkable near the New York border. My father is a huge American Civil War buff and I think he really enjoyed sharing that with us at Gettysburg – we mostly enjoyed climbing on cannons and on the rocks by Devil’s Den. Still, of all the many, many battlefields he took us to (most of them in Virginia) I always enjoyed Gettysburg the most. Maybe it was because we were on vacation, but I always preferred it over Chancellorsville.

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First Impressions: Almoravid by Volko Ruhnke

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First Impressions: Almoravid by Volko Ruhnke

It took me longer to get Almoravid to the table than I expected. Partly it was the sheer size of the game – the board plus lord’s mats for the first scenario pushed the limits of my little wargaming corner. I have no idea how I’m going to play the later scenarios. The greater factor, however, was a personal mental block around learning the rules. I learned Nevsky thanks to Jean Michel Grosjeu’s excellent YouTube videos on it – I did later read the rules, but only once I knew how play worked. The prospect of learning Almoravid from scratch, especially tired as I was due to a very hectic few weeks in work, resulted in me postponing night after night.

What finally helped to sit me down at the table and play was San Diego Histcon’s online Levy and Campaign Fest event. At the event I picked up and played several in development L&C titles and my experience with Nevsky, limited as it is, was more than enough to get me playing without having read the rules to any of these games. When I finally did sit down to read Almoravid’s rules, it only took me like 15 minutes since I could just skim the sections where the rules were identical to Nevsky. The rulebook helpfully highlights areas where rules are new or have changed so you don’t need to pick through it looking for differences. Much like with Volko’s previous series, COIN, once you know how to play a Levy and Campaign game it really does making picking up another one much simpler.