Clifton Train, 1927-2021

Last week my uncle Clifton passed away, age 94.

He was the one who sent me my first wargame, a copy of Tactics II, when I was 15. I don’t think my parents would have given me this, but he saw my interest in war and history and games and thought this was something I could get into. And so started my 40+ year descent along this path of wrack and ruin…

He was a kind, clever, highly intelligent and relentlessly creative man. He was not only my favourite uncle, he was one of my favourite people. Ave.

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/thestar/obituary.aspx?n=clifton-duncan-train&pid=200227957&fhid=2933

A distant Plain: review at Player Elimination

https://playerelimination.com/2021/09/28/adp

A perceptive and heartfelt review of A Distant Plain by Charlie Theel at his blog Player Elimination. 

Podcast: Beyond Solitaire #58 – A Distant Plain

https://beyondsolitaire.buzzsprout.com/1091807/9218856-episode-58-volko-ruhnke-and-brian-train-on-a-distant-plain

A great podcast by Liz Davidson, talking with Volko Ruhnke and me about A Distant Plain’s origin, structure and intent – and touching on the sensitivities of designing games on contemporary conflicts.

Punched #3 out now

https://www.cardboardemperors.co.uk/punched-3

James Buckley of Cardboard Emperors has just put out #3 of Punched, his free online-only magazine on wargames and wargame culture. Contents include:

• a feature article on five compact wargames that are really good (I’ve actually played three of them – Table Battles, Cousin’s War and 13 Days – and I agree)
• the Mini Games series from Decision Games (IMO remarkable in its variety of subjects and the sameness of its treatments of same)
• an article on Bonsai Games products (mostly designed by Yasushi Nakaguro) written by the entertaining Charles Vasey
• an interview with Florent Coupeau of NUTS! Publishing (he makes a side mention of We Are Coming Nineveh)
• an interesting article by Riccardo Massini on Napoleon Bonaparte as a “political” general (of course he was), and on the games that show his talent in this arena
• and reviews of the Campaign Commander Series, Atlantic Chase, World War Africa, Battle for Kursk: The Tigers are Burning 1943, and Prophecy of Kings (TI4)

It’s World War Africa that attracts James’ attention (and mine! though as yet, I have no horizontal surface in my house to play it on, as The Great House Renos enter their 13th month), as in his editorial he discusses the termination of Modern War magazine.

I’m becoming ever more interested in magazine wargames. They often cover the less beaten path, and by their nature tend to be less complex and of lower counter density than big box games (a good thing, in my mind). Also importantly for me given the lack of shelf space in my stuffy London flat, I can fit five magazine zip lock games in the space that one larger production takes up.

The flip side is the games typically have much less time spent on design, play-testing and production, which can result in a fair number of duds and/or mountains of errata. Worth it though, I believe, for when something like World War Africa comes along.

So farewell Modern War magazine. It wasn’t in anyway modern in terms of graphic design, layout, or accessibility (probably a factor in it’s demise), but it sure produced some good games, and will be missed.

Well, I have my own take on why Modern War didn’t last and I do not agree that magazine wargames have more than their share of duds and errata… they do when they are cranked out in quantity by the one publisher that dominates the field (no names, no pack drill) and I think that rather spoils the impression for the remainder.

Anyway, go check out issue #3, it’s great!

Alan Paull: professional differences

https://www.surprisedstaregames.co.uk/single-post/amateurs-talk-strategy-professionals-talk-game-design

Over at his blog for Surprised Stare Games, the very clever Alan Paull writes on the differences between professional and recreational wargame design processes.

Perhaps not a revelation for some readers, but a good description of his own design and development process as a recreational wargame designer (but frequent attendee at Connections-UK).

Obit: Yacef Saadi, Abimael Guzman

Yacef Saadi, military commander of the FLN’s Algiers Autonomous Zone during the Battle of Algiers, has died age 93.

This went almost unreported in English language media, so French language link. https://information.tv5monde.com/afrique/algerie-dernier-hommage-yacef-saadi-figure-emblematique-de-la-bataille-d-alger-423953

Saadi’s name would likely be lost to history if he had not made a place for it by bringing Gillo Pontecorvo’s film on the Battle of Algiers into the world.

Pontecorvo couldn’t get money for the project in Italy, so when he was approached in 1964 by Yacef Saadi, who was the director of the Casbah Film Company – Algeria’s first and only film production company – with an offer of money and logistical cooperation, they set to work. Saadi altered the script significantly several times during the process, and gave himself the major role of Djafar in the film – that is, he plays himself in the movie, though under another name. Pontecorvo put up with this because Saadi’s political connections with the Algerian government allowed them to film in Algiers and the Casbah zone itself, for five months in 1965. President Houari Bomedienne, who had recently taken power from Ahmed Ben Bella in a coup d’etat, made sure the film got all the necessary permissions, and loaned both troops and equipment from the Algerian Army for crowd scenes (which explains the jarring appearance of a Soviet SU-100 assault gun in the riot scene near the end of the film).

Yacef Saadi did not only rewrite the film, he rewrote the role he played in its subject. Towards the end of the Battle of Algiers a tip from a double agent led the French to Yacef Saadi’s hideout, where he was discovered with Zohra Drif, one of the women who had set bombs in the milk bar attack. Both of them talked freely, without physical coercion, and were kept prisoner until the end of the war in 1962. At the beginning of the film you see a frightened man who has just been tortured into giving up the location of Ali-la-Pointe, the last leader of the FLN in Algiers. This man never existed. In fact, it was Yacef Saadi himself who led the French paras to the hideout, because the real life equivalent of “Little Omar” in the movie was Saadi’s nephew, working as an errand boy for Ali-La-Pointe, and the boy’s mother had appealed to him to save his life.

In other news, Abimael Guzman, leader of the Sendero Luminoso movement in Peru, has died in prison aged 86.

He had been in solitary confinement more or less continuously since his capture in 1992; I was a bit surprised he lasted this long.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-49110427

‘Terps

‘Terps

I don’t know if you are into role-playing games but I was reminded of something I ran across years ago: a “live action free form game” written in 2014 by Jason Morningstar of Bully Pulpit Games and offered as a free download.

It’s been a long time since I’ve indulged in any RPG stuff myself, and this form of the game seems to be almost more improv theatre and “scenes” than it does the conventional image of a table full of people staring at another person sitting behind a small screen. But it’s an interesting exploration of the problem, inspired by the writer’s experiences with an actual interpreter and given a very thin science fiction sheen, and quite poignant these days.

Anyway, check it out if you are interested.

Strafe fur Kabul

(don’t worry, it’s because the album cover has a picture of a lady’s bare back)

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/7/taliban-announce-acting-ministers-of-new-government

Ich habe Tradition
Ich habe Religion
Ich habe Tradition
Ich habe Religion
Ich habe Tradition mehr
Ich glaube gern

Ich habe Politik
Ich habe Strategie
Ich habe Politik
Ich habe Strategie
Ich habe Religion mehr
Ich starbe gern

• “For Mao, Folk and Religion”, from album Santa Maria (1986) by Strafe fur Rebellion

Also, an interesting article by Scott Kelly, in which the writer describes the warlords as the “third rail” of Afghan politics and control. This is what I am talking about in a game about the tricky task of winning the peace.

Don’t ignore the Green faction!

Warlord Diplomacy: Now the Real Struggle Begins

Review: Zones of Control

It’s been a while since it came out, but here is a new review of the Zones of Control anthology:

https://thetidesofhistory.com/2021/08/22/book-review-zones-of-control-edited-by-pat-harrigan-matthew-kirschenbaum

Nice review – the writer liked the collection generally, including the chapter on gaming insurgencies that Volko Ruhnke and I wrote.

He did note:

Examining the short blurbs at the end of each essay, I noticed that the vast majority of the authors had Master’s and/or Doctorate levels of education. Only one or two authors had anything lower and they were Bachelor’s degrees at the very minimum.

Guilty!!

It appears that I and co-editor Pat Harrigan are the two bringing up the academic rear….