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Mark Johnson's occasional & opinionated podcast about family strategy boardgames

Monday, September 26, 2005

BGTG 37 - September 25, 2005 - Mark's Wargaming Credentials



Although this podcast will never be about wargames in a substantial way, I still play the occasional wargame and still consider myself a wargamer. Just an infrequent one. :-) Even though I don't play them so often, my interest in military history remains (all history, really). After hearing more about wargames on other podcasts, reading some Consimworld again, and generally experiencing my periodic resurgent interest in wargaming, I figured it was time to talk about them on Boardgames To Go.

This show is sort of a theme show, then . . . a general discussion of my own history with and interest in wargames. My preferences are for the lightest (or shortest, more accurately) wargames that even boardgamers might consider.

-Mark

Links
Wargame sites: Web-grognards, Consimworld, Alam Emrich's Introduction to Wargaming
Quick & Fun Wargames (3 hours or less) thread
Military History magazine
Strategy & Tactics magazine (Battle for Germany, World War One)
Vae Victis magazine (French)
Against the Odds magazine (which I haven't seen & forgot to mention!)
Wikipedia
Smithsonian series (Gettysburg, Battle of the Bulge, D-Day, Midway, Guadalcanal, Mustangs)
Attacktix games (Victory at Waterloo, 8th Army, Arnhem Bridge, Battle for Normandy, etc.)
One Page Bulge
We The People
Columbia block games (Quebec 1759, War of 1812, Napoleon, Liberty)

Sunday, September 18, 2005

BGTG 36B - All About Verräter (with Greg Aleknevicus - Part 2)



Here's part 2 of the show, the longer part that is the in-depth treatment of Verräter. You know, I'd love to get a translation of Casasola Merkle's "Entsehung" page for the game. It tells the story of the game's development. I can understand part of it using an online translator, but those are always sketchy.

-Mark

Links
Verräter
Brettspielwelt (where you can play Verräter and many others online in realtime)
Soldier variant (graphic and text)
Designer Marcel-André Casasola Merkle's web page for Verräter

BGTG 36A - All About Verräter (with Greg Aleknevicus - Part 1)



You can tell from the date that I've had this show recorded for a week already. The "All About" shows are often my most well-regarded . . . by both my listeners and myself! So you know I didn't want to sit on this one, especially for one of my favorite games. However, the quality of the sound recording meant that I had to work a little harder to fix this one up. I hope you're able to hear it ok, because both Greg's The Games Journal and Verräter are worth the attention.

I split the recording into two parts due to its length. This first, smaller part includes the interview with Greg about both himself and The Games Journal.

-Mark

Links
The Games Journal
Greg Alecnevikus' Gaming Bio article

Monday, September 12, 2005

BGTG 35 - SR: Kablamo, Bootleggers, Indus




I think this is settling into a standard format for this podcast: an audio session report show with feedback/letters section tacked onto the end for BGTG-aholics. (The other standard format is the theme show, especially the All About shows featuring just one game in depth.) In this show I get back in the saddle again with a Santa Clarita Boardgamer session, though a bit too rambly at the beginning. Hang in there--the game opinions come soon after.

Thanks to FNH for the bit of fun with my logo. This must be what the Boardgames To Go warehouse looks like! :-)

-Mark

Links
Kablamo
Bootleggers
Indus