Stuart Ellis-Gorman Profile picture
Jun 9, 2022 12 tweets 7 min read Read on X
Hello everyone, I'm here to talk about board wargames and how they can provide valuable insight into how the historiography of the Middle Ages has been adapted for an audience of history enthusiasts outside of the well tread grounds of movies and television. #MAMG22 1/12 Picture of the Battle of Arsuf as depicted by the game Salad
Historical wargames designers put a lot of research into their games, but they are often limited by what materials they can access, and even when they can access academic materials current scholarship may not answer the types of questions they are asking. #MAMG22 2/12 Picture of GMT Games' Pendragon, a counter-insurgency game s
This can force game designers to turn to older scholarship that does address the types of questions they’re asking, and then games based on that scholarship can in turn affect the kinds of questions new designs seek to address in turn. #MAMG22 3/12 Excerpt from A.H. Burne's The Agincourt War showing his lack
Take for example Richard Berg’s classic Men of Iron games, which uses hex grids and cardboard counters recreate famous medieval battles. Classic hex and counter games like this are the most popular type of medieval wargame. #MAMG22 4/12 The game map with units for the Battle of Agincourt in Richa
The predominance of hex and counter games subtly pushes forward a narrative that medieval warfare was dominated by the pitched battle. They focus on famous victories like Hastings or Agincourt. Only in rare cases are sieges or campaigns adapting for these systems. #MAMG22 5/12 Battle of Ashdown 871 as depicted in Hollandspiele's Great H
This interest in field battles is present in other genres, albeit more subtly. In Columbia’s series of block wargames conflict is primarily resolved through field battles, with only one game, Crusader Rex, in the series including rules for sieges. #MAMG22 6/12 Photo of Richard III from Columbia Games
Sieges are emphasised in some games – Warriors of God, a strategic game of the Hundred Years War – gives sieges similar prominence to battles. However, it is also a lighthearted game with a random leader death table that leads to absurd historical results. #MAMG22 7/12 Image of MMP Games' Warriors of God showing a huge pile of l
Warriors of God is also a Japanese design, and thus rooted in a different historiographical tradition, which could partly explain why it was different.
Medieval wargaming has traditionally not tackled the issues of logistics or politics that dominated in the period. #MAMG22 8/12
There is some good news in the form of Nevsky which places medieval logistics at the forefront of the play experience – portraying longer campaigns and making battles and sieges primarily issues of provender rather than pure military strength. #MAMG22 9/12 GMT Games' Nevsky, designed by Volko Ruhnke
Its sequel, Almoravid, even adapts the systems of 11th century Taifa politics, adding an extra political element to the game. Both are part of the Levy and Campaign series which promises to bring new depth into medieval wargaming. #MAMG22 10/12 Picture of the board set up for Almoravid from GMT Games
Medieval wargaming has long been dominated by a historiography rooted in the works of A.H. Burne – a study of Great Battles and Famous Victories at the cost of the sieges, raids, and politics that are crucial to understanding the period. #MAMG22 11/12
The future is bright though as series like Levy and Campaign show players are interested in other forms of medieval warfare but there is still a need for systems to tackle medieval politics and to integrate wargaming with more elements of medieval culture and history. #MAMG22 fin

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More from @DrCrossbows

Aug 31, 2020
It’s a rare occasion indeed when anything crossbow related gets traction basically anywhere, so I’m going to use the popularity of this tweet as a spring board to talk about my favorite weapon. 1/lots
I would like to start by saying that I’m not ragging on this person specifically. In fact many of the issues I’m about to talk about are common in even academic works of military history. The problem is that basically nobody studies the crossbow so it's never challenged. 2/
Firstly, let’s talk Second Lateran Council. The actual relevant text is Canon 29 and it says: “We prohibit under anathema that murderous art of crossbowmen and archers, which is hateful to God, to be employed against Christians and Catholics from now on.” 3/
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