Great Britain and the American Civil War

by on February 22, 2026 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

This is a 1925 book. I got it for cheap at one point through Diversion Books, but it’s available through Project Gutenberg as well. In fact, the latter appears to be in better shape, with proper linking to footnotes, which would have been good.

But the Diversion version came out a decade ago, it’s quite possible not everything had been done yet. I’ve certainly seen Gutenberg books get derailed by all the tagging for the original page breaks (though I just found a problem that persists in the Gutenberg edition—the only problem I’ve seen—of confusing “II” for “11” in a date). At any rate, it is currently available for free, and worth a look.

The purpose is to examine relations between the United and Confederate States and Great Britain, and examine the popular perception of Britain’s government leaning towards recognition of the Confederacy. As such, it is focused entirely on diplomacy, with instructions, notes, the differences between things said, and things officially said. The big events like the Trent affair are covered, but do not consume that much of the book, because they have been so well covered elsewhere, and the goal is to trace the day-to-day course and all the smaller actions not typically talked about.

It sounds dull, but Adams keeps it from actually being so. While diving into the weeds, a good pace is kept and actions and memoranda sweep on. The chapters are done by subject, but with a minimum of going back and forth in time, though it does happen. In fact happens most on a small scale, with a chapter, thanks to the speed of communications across the Atlantic.

The general opinion held is that the view of the British government was any rebellion as large as the South’s had, historically, won out in the end, and even if the North could somehow subdue them, the size of the army of occupation afterwards would be entirely impractical. This largely explains the feeling the Union generally had that the government was leaning towards recognizing the Confederacy as a separate government; they felt it was a done deal.

But there was a definite war on, and Great Britain adopted a neutral stance while the parties involved worked towards a solution. As the war drags on, the North seems no closer to getting anywhere (Britain, like so many others, mostly paid attention to the eastern theater), and the loss of life and property keeps growing, a desire to mediate between the sections is pressed. This reaches a climax in mid-1863 with a decided fight in the cabinet over what should be done (and then aftershocks in Parliament).

But Palmerston and Russel, while thinking there’s no hope for a restoration of the Union, understand quite well that mediation itself is a hopeless cause. Just a bare offer to do so would, at best, be empty air, and likely be resented by one or both. And there is no concrete proposal that could be put forth that would not be immediately rejected by one side or the other. Trying to force mediation would be equivalent to declaring war (de facto, if not de jure) and Britain is in no shape to take on a large country that is already on a wartime footing, no matter how distracted it is. All that can be done is wait for events to run their course and look for a time when defeat of the North is so apparent, hope in the war so low, that mediation could be started.

But no matter how bad things get, there’s still another Union success waiting to redeem the war effort, and that time never comes. The later parts do deal with the Alexandria and the Southern attempts to get popular support. The final chapter actually goes into popular support for the Union, and isn’t as well developed as the rest, but still fairly informative.

Generally, this is book for people who are already interested and generally knowledgeable about the ACW. This isn’t a place to begin studies. But it is, in it’s own way, still a general book, and an interesting one.

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Troy

by on February 18, 2026 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Boardgaming

After our tour in World War I, Mark and I decided to return to Chariots of Fire, and he wanted to go to the final scenario, on the plains in front of Troy.

This is one of two scenarios that uses the hero rules, and has a few other oddities. Most notably, there are no “wing commands” in this scenario; instead the commanders activate anyone who is within range. Momentum can be used to just move all the heroes instead of rolling to command a wing, but they can also move with units they’re already stacked with, and we extended it to they got commanded and could move regularly with a leader activation, to keep things from grinding to a halt if we needed to rework them.

The first task for both sides is to set up, and therefore organize the troops. This is especially true for the Danaans (Greeks), since they enter from the west edge of the map, and you go by their grouping for the initial entry. The Trojans set up in Troy, but there are more allied troops than actual Trojans, and they set up on a convenient rise south of the city. I had the Danaans, and set up Idomenes in the north with lots of SI and a handful of BI, Menelaus took the center with the best SI and a good number of BI (also the best ones), and some chariots, and Nestor got the south flank with low-quality SI, a good amount of BI and the single LI.

The long distance between the armies gave us time to sort out some form of line, but we didn’t start coming to grips until turn three, when a pair of my BI got across a bend of the Scamander River. I was worried that Mark would hit them before I had anything else there, but I successfully trumped Acamas’ activation (who had his center), and used that for Menelaus to go again and engage his line of chariots that were just in range while I got a third BI over the river. My BI each took a ranged hit on the way in, but the chariots each took to from the pre-shock check, and then the combat itself scattered the chariots with one routing and the other fleeing.

The start of turn 4 saw Aeneus go first, and his chariots got out of the way as a line of BI formed with some SI behind them, and forcing one of my BI to rout in a two-on-one combat; the other one fled two activations later when the engagement concluded. But, I now had a four-unit line of half BI and half SI across the river, with another three units behind them. Idomeneus was just in range of these last, so they could extend the line while his wing got up to the Scamander. Mark got momentum with Aeneus, and set up a line opposing mine and anchored on a marsh.

Then I got momentum on Idomeneus, and I pushed forward into Mark’s line with everyone across the river while reinforcements crossed behind them. While part of my line was BI, all of Mark’s was, and my SI cut right through them, causing four units to rout, while the rest were engaged.


Second Contact.
↓ Read the rest of this entry…

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Fairy Tales

by on February 14, 2026 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

This is a recent contemporary fantasy furry romance novel. It’s fairly lighthearted, fun, and good.

On the furry side, it’s the fairly typical backgroundless furry contemporary world. Technology is about what we have (cell phones and all). Background isn’t really given, but we’re somewhere in the Midwest United States. And everyone is an anthropomorphic animal of various types, without any rhyme or reason (other than fitting the character, of course).

The contemporary fantasy side is fairly typical too. Magic exists, there are witches out there who largely keep an eye on things, and most everyone else will automatically default to a more ordinary explanation given any reason to do so.

Our inciting incident is when an ordinary-but-glamorous cat accidentally hits a weak place in the boundaries between realities and lets a large number of pixies into the normal world. Coyote goth witch-in-residence Tamara repairs the breech, puts a memory charm on the unfortunate Maddie, and starts thinking about how to round up the magical pests.

Glamor-cat Maddie is unexpectedly completely resistant to the memory charm, and eager to help out. And so our unlikely duo is born, with Maddie learning about the magical world, and both trying to find and catch the pixies before their mischief-making causes too much damage—possibly to the pixies themselves.

This isn’t a big ambitious novel trying to break new ground. It doesn’t need to be. It stands on its characters and a fairly easy-going plot. There’s a few more dramatic incidents, but the book is mostly at a steady but relaxed pace, keeping everything character focused the entire time. A lot of fun, well worth a read, and the door is left open to a sequel I would be happy to get.

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End of a Great Journey

by on February 10, 2026 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Computer games

This is the thirteenth in a series of reviews looking at the evolution of Crusader Kings II. See the previous reviews here:
Crusader Kings II: The Second Crusade
The Old Gods: That Old-Time Religion
Sons of Abraham: A Little of Everything
Rajas of India: My Elephant for a Kingdom
Charlemagne: Back in Time
Way of Life: The Short Way
Horse Lords: For the Horde
Conclave: Lords of the Realm
The Reaper’s Due: Crusader Kings: Pandemic
Monks and Mystics: Secret Mystic
Jade Dragon: Off-Panel Dragon
Holy Fury: Expanded Fury

After Holy Fury came out, development continued on Crusader Kings II. There were no more expansions planned, but Paradox supported it with three more major patches, each of which added a new major feature to the game.

Patch 3.1 came out April 2, 2019, patch 3.2 on May 28, and patch 3.3 on October 19. The game became permanently free as of the release of patch 3.3 as part of the push for the just-announced Crusader Kings III, though you still have to pay for expansions. This review will look at the content of the last three patches, and give my recommendations for the best expansions.

Great Works

The focus of the first post-expansion patch was great works, monuments. They constitute a fourth type of special holding (along with trade posts, forts, and hospitals), and can be built up in stages. There’s a number of different types (temples, statues, etc), and they all generally have four stages which then provide a constant monthly bonus for the possessor. There’s a number of generic and unique features that can be added to them as structures in the holding.

There are new game rules to overall turn off great works, and to turn off or restrict the historical ones. And yes, a number of historical ones exist in the game from the start, including such things as the Great Pyramid and the Hagia Sofia.

This is largely a later game feature for after technology and new buildings have increased the income and money available. It most resembles the hospitals as an extra structure that can consume a lot of money. However, it also borrows ideas from Stellaris: Utopia with its four-stage megastructures. The bonuses granted aren’t as big, but with the extra structures, can be more flexible.

The Iron Century

The 3.2 patch focused on a new bookmark, exploring a “missing” century between the standard 1066 start and The Old Gods 867 start. The particular date (936) is set for the crowning of Otto I of Germany. He is at that point the most powerful of the successors of Charlemagne’s empire, but is far from the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire that would dominate much of European religious and secular politics for centuries.

In Africa, the Fatimids are just getting going, and the Abbasids are still a major power in the Near East. Much of the Balkans and the Black Sea coast is under the Bulgarian Empire. Hungary is a large and growing state, but still a century away from the tribes truly settling down under a more feudal system.

England is in good shape under Aethelstan, and the Battle of Brunaburh is but a year away… if the historical coalition of other powers combines to challenge him.

Overall, I don’t think this bookmark is quite as exciting as 867, but as ever there’s a lot to explore, and I’ve only scratched the surface.

Monarch’s Journey

The third post-expansion patch coincided with the announcement of Crusader Kings III, and the base game became free at that point.

The patch introduced what would be a temporary feature. Every other week, a ruler was picked by the design staff, and featured in the start game menus. Players were encouraged to play the game as that character, and try to achieve certain goals. These goals then generated points that would unlock extra portrait cosmetics in CK III.

It was a neat idea, and a good way to keep interest up while CK III was being worked on. Unfortunately, it was all shut down later, and while you can look up what the challenges were, and find the character in-game to do the same thing, there’s no easy way to it, and no reward or tracking.

Expansions

As this is the end of my series of reviews of Crusader Kings II, it is time to give overall advice on the best expansions to get for the game. Paradox has since officially broken up their expansions for various games into different categories, but that came as CK II’s time was ending and I unofficially break their expansions up into three categories: scope expansion, event, and personal (all the music, portrait, and unit model add-ons that I don’t cover would be a fourth category; if you’re into the game, I generally recommend the portrait assets and the main-line music ones).

The early add-ons were generally scope expansion DLC. These generally accompanied a patch that made the game bigger, and make your options much wider. Similarly, your first couple expansion purchases should be in this category, as they can take you far afield of 11–14th century Christian Europe. The biggest highlight is The Old Gods, which lets you start in the wilder world of 867, and lets you play as a pagan ruler, either to try and reform your religion to resist the wave of “world religions” sweeping across all else, or converting to one at an opportune time.

Sword of Islam doesn’t do much besides let you play as a Muslim ruler, but that is important by itself, and the mechanics and events around it are well done. Rajahs of India and Horse Lords are similarly placed as letting you try out more unusual positions, and are well done, but are only must-gets if you have an interest in that part of the world. Charlemagne mostly just gives the 769 start date, but it isn’t nearly as interesting as The Old Gods, and I largely rate it as skippable. The Republic gives you a very different style of play, and didn’t really get a lot of attention with later updates, but I do actually recommend it, other than that there are plenty of better options.

The event DLC mostly add… events. Some of it is bigger items, but they tend to have a large number of random one-off events that you may not see that often. The over three hundred new events of Sons of Abraham make it the clear winner in this category, though this includes a lot of “supernatural” events, and you will need to set up the rules if you wish to skip that side. I also highly recommend The Reaper’s Due as a very good replacement of the (already good) wounding and sickness system, and for its enhancements to contagious disease handling.

Legacy of Rome is good… but outside of retinues, you won’t notice unless you’re playing in/as the Byzantine Empire. Holy Fury has some very good additions to crusades, and the new coronation decisions for Christian kings is great, but is overall kind of limited. Jade Dragon is also largely just an interface for dealing with off-map China, and a skip unless you’re playing in the east (which means having Horse Lords or Rajahs of India first). Finally, Sunset Invasion is a completely ahistorical DLC. I do like it, but only get it if you feel a need to introduce an equivalent to the Mongols to western Europe (for most purposes, playing in 867 with The Old Gods will do nicely, but if you’re actually getting a couple centuries in on your plays, you might want the Aztecs showing up).

The personal DLC are generally later releases, but may be the early ones to consider, as they open up more options for the person you’re playing as. Way of Life is the winner here, adding a lot of great options without complicating the game unduly. Conclave is also very good and recommended, but is a little more complicated, and will tend to tie your hands as the council gets in your way. Monks and Mystics is a good idea, but quickly wore out its welcome for me.

As a final reiteration, the game is complete and very good all by itself, and a new player should not get any expansions until used to the base game (and making sure it’s one you want to invest even more time time in). By that point, you should have an idea of what category of expansion interests you most. Personally, I think the essential collection is The Old Gods, Sword of Islam, The Reaper’s Due, Way of Life, and Conclave, but those are all optional as well.

Conclusion

Crusader Kings II was a surprise breakout hit for Paradox. The higher standard of presentation with the Clausewitz 2.0 engine helped get people to notice, and the improved interpersonal systems of the game gave it a good “medieval soap opera generator” ability while HBO’s Game of Thrones series was coming out.

It was also the game where they shifted gears to lots of little expansions from the more traditional big packages. This also was the right choice, mostly because the new method lets you skip anything you don’t think is interesting enough, instead of having to get the earlier expansions to be able to use the later ones. The number of DLC they generate per game has since come under attack, but overall, it’s a good way to do business and enjoy a game.

The funding of further development through expansions also let the game grow and change over time, though CK II stayed closer to its original play than some later games did. There were some big changes early on (to province looting and the such), but the major systems were modified rather than completely rewritten for the bulk of its seven year life span. And those initial systems were very good. I still need to spend real time with its successor, CK III, but it is hard to believe they did a rewrite anywhere near as good as the change from the original game.

The biggest missed opportunity is the holdings. They are a great way to subdivide a map without having to actually subdivide it ad infinitum, but this was never really explored. A few counties are split between owners at the start, but there’s no support for just taking that one city in the peace deal. The special holdings were a good addition, but they too remained a mechanical ad hoc solution.

Since the game is now permanently free, there is absolutely no reason not to check it out. Some people accuse it of just being a spreadsheet (they’ve obviously never played Out of the Park Baseball), but is much closer to a more common ‘dudes on a map’ style game, just with lots of personal dynamics thrown in. The limitation is that these are all very mechanical dynamics, but the series is one of the few games where that actually works. Give it a try, and see how it feels when you discover your disloyal court is trying to murder the one vassal who likes you.

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Team of Rivals

by on February 6, 2026 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

It’s hard to say there’s too many books about Abraham Lincoln, but there certainly are an awful lot of them. Doris Kearns Goodwin manages a slight of hand to emerge from the pack by spreading her net to the four primary Republican candidates for the 1860 presidential campaign, one of whom is elected, and the other three end up in his cabinet.

This does cause a few oddities. She starts (after an in medias res opening during the Republican 1860 convention) with the early life and careers of Lincoln, Seward, Chase, and Bates. But, it stops with the death of Lincoln, so it is a biography of him, and partial biography of the others.

I will admit that I am somewhat disappointed in this book. I seem to have expected something more like Massie’s Dreadnought, which brought a large, complex cast of characters to life. Goodwin does do some of the same here, but with a much more limited cast.

My disappointment does not mean it’s a bad book. However, I’ve am reasonably well read on the period, and there is not a lot new here for me. As a general-audience book, there will be a lot that’s new for that audience, and the high concept does put it all together in a new format. For me, Chase is probably the one I knew the least about, and he’s also the most contentious figure in the cabinet. Also: Goodwin spends more time than is sadly typical on the First Lady, Mary Lincoln, and gives a better-rounded picture of her than the usual.

The central thesis, meanwhile, is how Lincoln pulled together the best his party could offer, and tied them together as a team. This is well served, with a lot of the book being about how various members had their various ambitions, and how Lincoln increasingly tied them together in respect and friendship. While it’s obvious this is unusual, it’d be nice to be pointed at some examples of other examples of this kind of high-office relationship. Or, if it really is that singular, some thoughts on how that works. But this is a more general-audience book, and like that audience, I’d probably be put to sleep with too much political philosophizing. Which again, points up the need to point out some concrete comparative examples. Just a quick look at how Jeff Davis performed as president of the Confederate States could have been illuminating.

For those less well-read on the 1850s-1860s, this should be a very good book, especially if all you know is the military side of the ACW. I do also wish that Goodwin had talked more about the rest of Lincoln’s cabinet, though certainly Stanton gets a good amount of attention, once he comes in. For those better read, it’s still an enjoyable book and well put together. I will note that many chapters have an illustration from the time, and they are ones you generally don’t get to see today, and that is a very good touch as well.

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