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When I was growing up, my dad had a small business in the wargaming industry, acting as a wholesaler for other companies, selling games retail by mail, and publishing a magazine. So, I grew up amidst a collection disparate products from Avalon Hill, SPI, and an insane number of tiny publishers in the wargaming and [… Read More]

This is the third in a series of reviews of Paradox’s empire management games. See the earlier reviews here: Europa Universalis II: A Tale of Two Europas Hearts of Iron: Europa of Iron After Hearts of Iron, Paradox turned its attention to the nineteenth century, releasing the empire management game Victoria in 2003. It was [… Read More]

After reading Norwich’s book on Venice, I looked at his other books, and saw one on the Mediterranean that looked interesting. However, most of the reviews for it said it was okay, but Abulafia’s The Great Sea was much better, so I put that on my wishlist instead, and got it for Christmas. It’s a [… Read More]

This is the second in a series of reviews of Paradox’s empire management games. See the first review here: Europa Universalis II: A Tale of Two Europas After Europa Universalis II, Paradox Interactive stuck with what they had proven that they do well, and started work on more empire management games. WWII is apparently Johan [… Read More]

For me, 1997 represents a high water mark in computer gaming. Some of this is an accident of circumstance, where I had a fair amount of free time and money, and a roommate who shared my interests. But, for me, it is really hard to beat any year that sees titles like Panzer General II, [… Read More]

As of about AD 200, the Roman Empire was by far the most powerful state within its known world, and had been for over two hundred years. Three hundred years later, the western half of the Empire had ceased to exist, and the remaining part, while still powerful, no longer held the clear advantage over [… Read More]

Roger Collins is a name I’ve known for many years through his Early Medieval Europe 300–1000, so when I realized that a book I was considering getting was by him, it became an instant first choice. Covering nearly 2000 years of history in about 500 pages, even if restricted to a single institution (the papacy), [… Read More]

Harold Lamb wrote a bunch of very readable and enjoyable historical biographies from the 1920s to ’60s, but is sadly not very well known today. He was an exemplar of a narrative style of popular history writing that seems to have fallen largely by the wayside, but does a great job of bringing people and [… Read More]

Part two of Osprey’s survey of European Medieval Tactics is much like the first volume. Unfortunately, while I felt the first volume started strong and finished somewhat weaker, all of this volume is at the level of the later portions of the first. The main problem is that the first one started with a fairly [… Read More]

As usual, Osprey’s Campaign series does an excellent job of presenting the background and people involved in the battle in question. In this case, the later stages of the Wars of the Roses, and Richard III’s reign are covered very well. There is a lot that cannot be known through the distorting lens of Tudor [… Read More]