Classical-era ancient warfare is hard to get right; far harder, in my opinion, than any other wargaming period. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why, but it may be – I suppose – because ancient warfare is asymmetric in several dimensions. The usual speed (cavalry) – strength (infantry) – firepower (missiles)…
I really dislike historical computer games. Well, let me qualify that: I really dislike the dodgy history that so easily gets propagated by these games. I realize that this is not a completely PC view to have, but I can’t help getting slightly irritated whenever I read yet another post…
I have been somewhat amiss in not pointing this out earlier, but if you enjoy historical games on the ancient world (as I do, and I assume you do, given your presence here), then you really mustn’t miss Troy Goodfellow’s excellent series of blog posts: A History of the Ancient…
Continuing my thoughts on things barbarian in games, it’s been extremely interesting to see the way the concept of “culture”( usually = civilization) is increasingly present in the games we play. What I find less interesting, is the idea of the civilized cultures conquoring the uncivilized. And I don’t mean…
What is a barbarian? Etymologically, it supposedly comes from the Greek word barbaros; bar-bar being the Greek variant of the modern english blah-blah-blah. In essence, then, one might say that barbarian simply means “people who speak funny”. This is why, to the ancient Greeks, anyone who was not a Greek…
I recently read a discussion about barbarians and their representation in games which reminded me of the classical article “You Have Unleashed a Horde of Barbarians!”: Fighting Indians, Playing Games, Forming Disciplines by Christopher Douglas, published in Postmodern Culture in 2002. In the article, Douglas argues how games are not…