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Month: May 2025

We’re Going to Italy!

We’re Going to Italy!

I’m really excited to announce that Aileen, Tiernan and I will be taking a trip to Europe in the second half of this month. We’re flying to Paris on May 17th, and from there touring by bus to Italy by way of Milan, and onward to Cinque Terra, Tuscany and Rome. It’s a trip of a lifetime for me, as I’ve always wanted to see the iconic sights of these destinations, and to steep in their ancient and medieval history. I have been to Spain and the south of France, but never to Paris or to Italy. Aileen has been to these places, but she’s a sweetheart and wants me to get the chance to experience them, too, so was willing to repeat the trip. Tiernan says he doesn’t care about where he is; he just likes being with us.

In addition to the enticement of visiting well-known touristy locations, seeing the ruins of the old Roman Empire, and enjoying delicious cuisine and wine, I am excited about the fact that our itinerary more or less overlaps with a famous expedition in military history. This would be the route taken by the French King Charles VIII when he invaded Italy in 1494, kicking off what are known as the Italian Wars.

These wars were pivotal in military history, as they marked the transition from the medieval to the modern era in warfare, when gunpowder weapons started coming into common use, replacing the old way of fighting with muscle and steel. They introduced what is called a “revolution in military affairs,” which caused a significant shift in the balance of power. When Charles VIII invaded, it was clear to all that advancements in the development of siege artillery (cannons) had made the medieval castle, long dominant in European affairs, suddenly obsolete. This completely undermined the power of nobles to resist their kings, in time ending the feudal system of the Middle Ages and bringing about the early modern age of absolute monarchy.

This watershed moment in the evolution of politics has been identified as the dawn of the modern “state” – understood to be a political abstraction that exists independently of the people who comprise it. The state arose from the necessities imposed on the wealthy Italian cities caught up in these wars. In the face of military advancements, they now needed extensive new defensive constructions and large, reliable armies – and the fiscal apparatus to maintain these. They needed permanent ambassadorial legations in one another’s courts, and espionage networks to keep up with shifting alliances. In the course of this evolutionary process, sovereignty shifted from the person of the ruler, where it had resided in the medieval conception, to the bureaucratic state constituted to serve the ruler.

A seminal figure of the time period was the political philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli. His famous work, The Prince, is often interpreted as an apology for tyranny. According to Philip Bobbitt’s excellent book The Garments of Court and Palace, Machiavelli’s real argument was to distinguish between a ruler’s personal and governing ethos. In other words, in the context of ruling the state, in the interests of the society for which it was constituted, a ruler should not be expected to behave according to standards of personal morality, as codes of honor had demanded of medieval princes. A new political era had arrived.

In the democratic revolutions that came in later centuries, the concept of sovereignty shifted even further. The state evolved, from an entity that served as a tool by which the prince’s will was exerted, to a formal representation of the will of the people. It was no longer ruled by a monarch, but rather administered by representative officials – at least in theory. But in the course of this evolution, the thorny problem of how the state can serve its constituent’s needs and also avoid moral transgression remains unsolved, as testified by the killing fields of modern times.

Yes, these are the thoughts inspired in me by taking a trip to Italy. On the path followed by the invading forces of a French king in the 15th century, many Renaissance-era structures still stand in the 21st century. For example, the city of Lucca, where we’ll be staying at one point, retains the walls that were constructed starting in 1504 – part of the wave of defensive fortifications that sprang up in the aftermath of Charles VIII’s campaign.

I’m bringing along a copy of The Art of War in Italy by F. L. Taylor, considered a classic in the field of military history. As I read it, I will be looking for signs of its lessons in my surroundings.

I will have my smartphone with me, but not my laptop, and probably won’t post much for a few weeks.

Wish us a bon voyage!

Wrapping up My Top 10 Games

Wrapping up My Top 10 Games

This post wraps up my top 10 games list, as I have completed the GeekList about the top 10 games on my BoardGameGeek user profile. As already mentioned, I have created this list as part of a project to capture for posterity details of my board gaming life. This includes digitized versions of beat-up old customized rules and accessories, much of it up on my personal gaming site: A Real Live Gaming Workshop. Presumably these sites on the Internet will outlive me, at least for a little while.

Here is the final GeekList: My Top 10 Games.

And here are the last two entries not yet published on this blog:


#1: Terraforming Mars

If you know me, you’re not surprised to see this game at the top of the list. You might think this is the only game I ever want to play! I was hooked the moment I first played it at a convention, which I’m pretty sure was on the year it came out (2016).

Terraforming Mars hits all of my favorite board game marks. It has a rich science-fiction theme. It’s super-crunchy with lots of calculating for optimization. It has patient engine-building in the early game that pays off in the later game without the game rushing to an end, as so often happens with engine-builders. It has a huge deck of cards where every card is unique, possibly my favorite feature in a game. And it also has a board with fiddly bits, and tile layout with a modest degree of pattern matching.

I think the game plays great with every expansion; they each add extra dimensions of game play, and also new unique cards for the deck. I also like that you can pick and choose which expansions to use, and have a good game with any combination. And I think the game plays well with any player count, including 2-player and even solo!

I own all the official expansions, and some fan-made ones as well (though not all the fan-made ones). I own the ‘big box’ upgrade which has a larger game box and 3D printed components to replace the original cardboard ones. It’s somewhat absurd how much I’ve invested in this game, but what can I say except that a hobbyist needs no excuse?

 I’ve played solo a lot, and I’ve found that solo games make for great storytelling session reports; here’s one of my favorites: “You nuked Mars!” – a solo session with Aphrodite that begins with negative points.

I also will note that as much as I enjoy this game, I do not think there is a future for the human race in terraforming the red planet. The challenge is extraordinary and there is no payoff for the insanely high costs. I enjoy the idea as science fiction, but like all science fiction it is not realistic. It is space fantasy.

Here’s another way to think about it – if it’s worth it to terraform Mars, why haven’t we put in the effort to “terraform” Antarctica? Surely that would be much easier. Antarctica is so much less hostile an environment than Mars. For that matter, so is the ocean floor. But we don’t have any colonies in those places.


#11: Through the Ages

That’s right, my top 10 list goes to 11.

Through the Ages is a medium-to-heavy weight game with a theme of advancing civilization from ancient to modern times. I wouldn’t say that it’s my favorite civilization game; I prefer one’s like Avalon Hill’s version (already on the top 10 list), because they actually have a map of the world where your civilization spreads out and comes into contact with other players. This game is a bit more abstract in its implementation.

I will say that it has a very elegant design, with exactly enough complexity for its theme. It has a limited deck of unique cards, but they interact in so many ways that each game plays differently. You’ll often see new combinations of effects you haven’t seen before even if you’ve played scores of times already. I have a lot respect for the designer, Vlaada Chvátil – all his games are good. Even if you are not a big gamer, you might have encountered one of his more popular designs – Codenames.

Through the Ages game makes it onto the list because it has a special place in my board game biography. Ever since the pandemic back in 2020, I have had fewer opportunities for in person gaming than in the past. But some of my old friends and I have been playing this game online, more or less continuously, for four years. So I get to scratch my itch for a medium-heavy game, even though it’s really hard to actually get one to the table these days. Czech Games Edition‘s online version lets you play with no time limit on the turns, so it’s very casual playing with trusted friends.

I have spent countless hours of my life playing board games. And while not as many hours in the current stage of my life as in my past, I do have this ongoing digital game to keep me connected to the hobby, and to my good friends who share it with me.