The view from there

On the last day of each year I like to take a hike in a large park nearby that is centred on a really big hill or really small mountain, depending on which part of it you are climbing.

Today it was sunny, the best weather in days and I took this picture looking north from the top.

I live in a remarkable part of a remarkable country and I’m hopeful that 2026 will see us continuing to do the sorts of things we need to for our long term survival, if not prosperity.

This is too good to lose.

Happy New Year to everyone.

QUICK: files for new version posted

[illustration of a section of the new map, from QUICK Junior.]

I have posted new print and play files for a new version of the game: The QUICK Page

This will not be news to some of you, but unfortunately August 2024 was the last serial of the Urban Operations Planner Course held by the US 40th Infantry Division, California Army National Guard. I decided to keep the QUICK game available to everyone on this blog as it has attracted interest by civilians and military members from a variety of countries.

But I’ve made a big change to the approach used for the map, based on some work I was doing on another urban combat system. The map is divided into large hexagons called Areas, scaled at 750 m or more per hex, depending on the general situation shown in the module. Inside each Area is a further subdivision of 1 to 6 Locations, denoted by dashed lines within the hexagon like sections of a pie.
All Locations within an Area are mutually adjacent, but are adjacent to a Location in another Area only if they share a section (not a vertex) of Area boundary. The number of Locations denotes the relative “complexity” of the terrain in the area: that is, how challenging and canalizing the terrain is to fight through and the terrain type remains a modifier for the robustness of construction there.  So an open field or park would have 1 Location and Open Terrain, but a section of an older city with small alleys and stone buildings would have 6 Locations and Closed Terrain and would be very difficult to dominate and fight through. Yet both represent the same amount of physical distance. I don’t think anyone has done exactly this kind of thing with a hex map before. I’d be interested to hear your reactions; so far everyone I have demonstrated this to has been quite positive.

Like the earlier version, the set of files here are for a game that takes place in downtown Manila but it has a new pattern map that covers a larger area. Opposing forces are the US 1st Marine Expeditionary Force and the Olvanan 17th Group Army, plus North Torbian forces that could be on either side.

I have also made a module with I MEF advancing on Kuala Lumpur but will post it at a later date.

Optimistically, I have also kept the teaching materials and files giving instructions for a simple method of remote play on the page. The refer to the earlier (2024) version of the game but the mechanics are largely the same and can be adapted.

Thanks for your interest.

Free game: Gravel

Yeah, a bit like this.

A new abstract game I wanted to put out before the end of the year:

Gravel, a game about missing the (Schwer)punkt.

Gravel and GC 2 Feb 26

Years ago I had an idea for a Go variant where the single stone played each turn could be broken up into smaller bits with lesser power (stones make gravel, see) and played on other points of the Goban so captures would be probabilistic: you would make a capture by generating a random result equal to or less than your cumulative strength differential.

This is not quite that of course but in their turn a player may place and remove a total of friendly and enemy pieces (respectively) that is equal to or less than “X”, an integer agreed upon at the start of the game. A player loses through attrition (losing more than half of their starting pieces).

The idea of “control” over a space relying only on occupation of its flanks and rear (which permits capture in it, no matter how strong it is) is inspired by games like Ki (Corey Clark, 2010) and Control (Takuro Kawasaki, 2024) though those games forbid placement in an enemy controlled space.

Placements and removals in the game must be balanced, especially early on, and there is a crucial difference in placement between pieces that are already on the grid versus those that are coming from the pieces not yet placed. The choice of whether to place or remove first can be important; a player might want to first build up to attack a swath of territory or they might want to clear some points of enemy then follow it up with occupations.

Playing in the squares of an 8×8 checkerboard and setting “X” to 4 or 5 will give players a peppy 15 minute game if they don’t think too hard. The Tabletop Simulator module linked here is set up for that:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3627753715

Perhaps you will give it a try!

Obligatory end-of-year post, 2025

Another year creaks to a close.

Not a bad year for publishing, in the end, and I seem to have made a few speeches.

Here is the roundup but I have learned my lesson: I will not post any links here, since 2 years ago I put in too many and my blog got suspended for a couple of weeks when an algorithm noticed and thought I was a ‘bot or something, I guess… one part of the dead Internet talking to another.

*****

Game publishing and publicity

January: Got a copy of the Bonsai Games reissue of Winter Thunder! Unfortunately the SS counters were the usual white on black, not the frou-frou hot pink I wanted. But no one asked me.

June: Got an advance copy of China’s War to look over! No complaints except that I wanted a darker reddish orange for the Warlords than the yellow-orange they went with, about like the ARVN In Fire in the Lake. But they still show up OK and are distinguishable from the khaki Japanese. Also, I learned that a Computing Science student in Finland had used Guerrilla Checkers for his degree thesis in machine learning.

July: After its being featured in the Australian Defence Force’s “Army Battle Lab Professional Gaming List 2025”, I thought it was time to make 91 DSSB Staff Game available for free print-and-play. No idea how many people may have actually looked at it.

August: Compass Games launched a last-minute Kickstarter to squeeze the Brief Border Wars Volume II re-order lemon one last time… 114 people got wrung out, just as Volume I sold out too.

November: At last! Copies of first Brief Border Wars Volume II and then China’s War started thudding onto tables across the planet. All pretty positive reports so far. Also, I decided to finally pull the trigger on O Canada and assembled 50 physical copies: sold them all within 48 hours, but a PnP version is now up on Wargamevault and Vassal and Tabletop Simulator modules are there for anyone who does not want to do the crafting project first. And finally, I got copies of the FOURTH printing of A Distant Plain!

December: pulled the pin on Gravel, abstract game played on a square square grid of any size. It may or may not be a competitor to Guerrilla Checkers in brain-burny. Relies on attrition, territory and open flanks; how’s that for vague direction. Also published new version of the QUICK game (Manila module) that uses a new approach to map graphics to show the complexity of urban terrain, also designed a module for the Klang Valley near Kuala Lumpur but will not put that out just yet.

Game design work and future publication

Work and/ or testing began or continued on the following.

Houses of Cards/Il Treno di Carte and District Commander Briganti: Two games on the Grande Brigantaggio period immediately following the Risorgimento, set in southern Italy. The first is a simple and fast card-based game that will be sold through the National Museum of the Risorgimento gift shop, after final graphic production (images are stupendous, the Museum made its archives available to the publisher) and a history-background pamphlet is written by an historian specializing in the period. The second is an adaptation of the District Commander series with a few period-appropriate twists.

My first attempt at a Brigantaggio game, a four-player asymmetric game called Briganti! that I did in 2024 was not set up quite right but I think the framework of it is good for another game set in another time and place. The hobby needs some games that are not strictly about war but also about enforcing reform and a difficult peace. I am still waiting for a good game on the Reconstruction period in the US and how it went off the rails.

Scaleable Urban Simulation: Got back to work on this and have made some changes to it. Two modules of it are now complete: a brigade-level one set in Daugavpils and a division-level one set in Hsinchu in northern Taiwan. However, given this year’s forced meld of Army Futures Command and TRADOC-G2 and other bits and pieces, the time may have passed where this could have been adopted.

Strongman: Title now changed to The Chair is Empty (thanks, Roger Leroux). A good test and lots of suggestions by knowledgeable parties at Spring Bottoscon and Class Wargames, this one is also a candidate for publication in the next year or two, now that I have found a good card printer in Canada. I’d like that.

Game Conventions

February: At the end of January I posted that I would not go to ConsimWorld Expo for reasons that are now all too obvious less than a year later. I don’t think any Canadians went this year, and maybe this will continue. Anyway, do online cons count? I was on two panels at SDHistcon Winter Quarters Online. One on portrayals of terrorism and counterterrorism in modern board wargames (no audio or video) and another where I joined the authors of the Eurowargames anthology, which was just then appearing.

June: Went to Spring BottosCon in New West, Rob Bottos thought this one up for the benefit of the Canadians who would not be going to CSWExpo this year and others. Good fun! Though the Curling Club where it was held was a bit dark.

November: Went to (fall) BottosCon in New West. No COVID this time, not even the usual con crud. Got in some games of O Canada and discussed its physical production, test games of Gravel which is I think one tweak away from being good but I am not sure where to tweak it.

Conferences and professional wargaming stuff

February: The Connections-North conference, a one-day event was held at CFB Kingston. I was on a panel about urban warfare, along with friend Major Jayson Geroux of the RCR who is still busy rewriting the Canadian Army’s urban doctrine. From Kingston I went back to Toronto, to participate in the “Simulation Summit”, another short event held at the Royal Canadian Military Institute and sponsored by Zeroes and Ones Inc.. My main contribution was helping to facilitate a rapid game design workshop, after which I was interviewed in the aptly named Sword Room for some of my thoughts on games and game design. Amazing how short my talks can be once the umms and ahhhs are edited out.

April: At Connections-Online I made a presentation on “Gaming-Neglected Aspects of the Operational Environment”, an adaptation of the presentation I made at the Mad Scientist event at Georgetown University the year before but of which there are no audio records.

June: I made an online presentation on “Urban Warfare and Crisis Management” to a wargaming workshop at the Centro Alti Studi Difesa in Rome: trends in urbanization, the city as a system of systems, urban warfare as a slow- or fast-motion disaster with progressive damage to those systems, a few illustrative games, and eight points for attention and design in making a really good game about this subject that relate to principles of disaster management.

September: Another extended trip abroad: just two weeks this time. First Connections-UK at Brunel University where I made no presentations but ran games of QUICK Junior (Scaleable Urban Simulation and 91 DSSB also on display but no takers), Gravel and The Chair is Empty; then to Turin to do some work on the Italian Risorgimento and Resistance games, and give a lecture on irregular warfare game design at the University there; then to Lausanne for Connections Suisse, which had mostly urban warfare themed presentations – I talked about my recent urban warfare work and ran some more games of QUICK Junior. Then I went home with a nasty cold to a dead computer and a union on strike.

Writing and ‘casting

February: Got my paper copy of the Eurowargames anthology, containing my chapter on analog newsgames. Maybe now I can shut up about it.

October: On an episode of Mentioned in Dispatches with Brant Guillory, where I talked about the three games coming out in October/November and Quadrigames generally.

November: Interviewed by Grant Linneberger for his Pushing Cardboard podcast. Should be out early next year.

December: Presented “Idiosyncrasy in Motion” online to the Georgetown University Wargaming Society, about my general body of work – family-based designs and one-offs, how I design, why I do it. Not my best presentation but it made me think about how much paper I’ve defiled over the last 35 years.

Near-meaningless digest of site statistics:

Overall traffic seemed to be about the same as 2024. I seem to be cruising still at around 1,700 views per month, for a total of about 21,200 views. About 8,500 visitors in all. The five most curious countries were: US (by a very wide margin), Canada, UK, and Spain. One visit each from 22 different smaller countries, with Albania bringing up the rear (no visits from Afghanistan this year, but that may be the Taliban shutting down the Internet there).
Besides the then-current post, popular pages included Free Games, BTR Games, the QUICK Page and Scenarios and Variants pages like always.
The most downloaded documents were items for free PnP games: mostly items related to QUICK, Ukrainian Crisis and 91 DSSB. By the unequal numbers of downloads for the different game components I cannot help but think that a lot of these downloads are just grabs by ‘bots… whatever for, I don’t know.

O Canada: Tabletop Simulator modules available!

Okay here goes, not entirely sure I know what I am doing in Tabletop Simulator but here are modules I have made for play of O Canada’s four scenarios for anyone who has the physical or PnP versions.

I did the best I could with the displays of the Event Cards but there are some pretty tight margins, no words got cut off completely but you can always check against your actual cards.

Tabletop Simulator:

• • 1950 scenario:  https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3624283340
  • 1970 scenario:  https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3624289609
  • 1990 scenario:  https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3624290567
  • 2010 scenario:  https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3624291274

Maple Leaf Battalions

Card from O Canada game.

https://charlieangus.substack.com/p/canada-mobilizes-a-peoples-army

Well, this is kind of interesting.

For those who don’t recognize the name, Charlie Angus is one of Canada’s more interesting political commentators with an interesting pedigree. Born in northern Ontario (Timmins), in the 80s and 90s he was a punk rock musician and community activist in Toronto then went back to northern Ontario to write books and produce a magazine. From 2004 to 2025, he was the Member of Parliament for Timmins and an important figure in the left-wing factions in the New Democratic Party. He left politics and broadcasts on the Meidas Touch network and writes some good Substack.

I’ve written before about the Department of National Defence’s proposals for building a supplementary reserve force of up to 300,000 members (though they realize that it is not going to be easy! https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/army-mobilization-canada-troops-9.7009323 ).

A Canadian Civil Defence Corps

“Canadian military wants mobilization plan in place to boost reserves to 400,000 personnel”

Personally I believe it should be called something like the “Civil Defence Corps” with only a minority of its members trained in weaponry (I’ve long since come to the conclusion that most people are more useful without a rifle in their hands, nor do they necessarily want one) but here are his ideas for the “Maple Leaf Battalions”:

• Choose an inspiring name rooted in Canadian pride and patriotism – perhaps the Maple Leaf Battalion.

• Build from the bottom up. Decentralized local networks of resistance will foster esprit de corps and can respond quickly in the event of a local emergency.

• Equip members properly with a uniform and access to a weapon so they can carry out their responsibilities confidently and safely.

• Draw on the expertise already in our communities: involve health care and front-line workers, community planners, retired military and police.

• Invite the Canadian Rangers to play a role in establishing local training programs and consider a Junior Rangers-style program for our young people.

• Prioritize training in first aid, communications and logistics that can be used at the local level in case of emergency.

• Bring in Ukrainian trainers to help with drone skills and civilian-defence expertise.

• Give the battalions a strong social media presence to highlight local service and build national unity.

Again, I’m of two minds about giving everyone access to a weapon but there are some interesting touches here… I like the one about bringing in Ukrainian trainers, a fair trade since so many Ukrainian soldiers were trained by Canadian soldiers before the current war and who helped turn that military around quickly. And by all means, train everyone possible in first aid, communications and logistics to help deal with inevitable and real-world disasters and build community resiliency and a sense of belonging, protection and pride.

Again again, I do not at this point believe that the United States wants to literally occupy this country still less make it some kind of formal territorial acquisition. But they do want formal and informal acquiescence: a vassal state that poses no threat or alternative, gives unfettered access to anything the United States wants, and retains a performative government of Quislings that will keep the lid on while the looting and asset-stripping continues. The methods used to obtain this state of affairs are not so crude as an armed invasion and resisting them will take organization and intelligence (in both senses of the word).

O Canada: PnP version available through WargameVault

https://www.wargamevault.com/en/product/548801/o-canada

The 50 physical copies of O Canada that I made all sold within 48 hours.

I’m resolved not to make any more physical copies, but O Canada is now available in limitless Print and Play format to anyone and everyone through WargameVault!

Cost is $18.00 US funds, or 80% off the price of the physical version… so you can expend up to $70 CAD worth of your time building a copy, and still be ahead of the game!

The first 50 orders will receive a FREE deck of special Event Cards (produced by The Playing Card Factory of Mississauga Ontario) so one of the more onerous tasks is done for you already.

Even at that you could just get the files, and use them to play the free Vassal or Tabletop Simulator modules that have been made available.

https://vassalengine.org/library/projects/O-Canada

Tabletop Simulator:

• • 1950 scenario:  https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3624283340
  • 1970 scenario:  https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3624289609
  • 1990 scenario:  https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3624290567
  • 2010 scenario:  https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3624291274

Thanks for your interest, everyone!

Webinar: Sin-crazed Idioms

Next week in the everlasting series of Georgetown University Wargaming Society webinars:

Idiosyncrasy in Motion

December 9, 2025 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM EST (that’s GMT -5)

The wargame designer Brian Train shares some thoughts on how he does what he does.

After publishing close to 70 games of all sizes and approaches over the last 30 years, he must have learned something….

If you missed this, it is up on the GUWS Youtube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/@georgetownuniversitywargam6881

It’s around 1 hour and 20 minutes long but if you took out all my umms and ahhs it would be less than 40, I’ll bet.

This old-timer do ramble on….