Kris Hall: Books for the Historically-Minded Gamer

I realize that most books are only tangentially related to our hobby, but I was struck by the coincidence of both a Spartacus boardgame and a new non-fiction book on the rebel slave appearing at the same time.  Here are a few games and some appropriate books on the subject matter that inspired the games.

Spartacus.  Designed by John Firer.  Published by Compass Games.  This card-driven wargame deals with the Roman Republic’s attempt to deal with three threats: a renegade Roman general, a tough Eastern King, and the most famous slave revolt in history.  There are two books out (or about to be published) that deal with the latter two.

The Spartacus War by Barry Strauss will be published in the next couple of weeks.  I haven’t read this book, obviously, but I did read Mr. Strauss’ book on the battle of Salamis, and found it gripping and informative.  I’m looking forward to reading The Spartacus War.

Mithridates the Great by Philip Matyszak.  The career of one of Rome’s most persistent enemies is covered in this book by an author who specializes in Roman history.

Shogun, A Most Dangerous Time.  There have been several games titled Shogun so I’ll let you guess which one I am referring to.  A Most Dangerous Time is a soon-to-be-published card-driven wargame from Multiman Publishing.  It was designed by Tetsuya Nakamura and developed by Adam Starkweather.

Last summer I went on a samurai-era reading binge.  And you cannot do much research into Japan’s long samurai era without encountering Stephen Turnbull who has made a career writing about various aspects of the samurai world for various publishers.  Later this month Mr. Turnbull’s latest book Strongholds of the Samurai will be published.  If you have any interest in Japanese castles, then this book will likely interest you.

Steam, Age of Steam, Railroad Tycoon, 1830, and other innumerable railroad-era games. 

I’ve been teaching American history this semester, and I’ve been reading about the Gilded-Age tycoons and their schemes.  Two books have impressed me: Iron Wheels and Broken Men: The Railroad Barons and the Plunder of the West by Richard O’Connor, and The Tycoons by Charles R. Morris.  Iron Wheels was published in 1973 and is now out-of-print so only used copies are available, I imagine.  This book is a corrective to the all the glory-of-railroad books available.  Mr. O’Connor reminds us of all the crooks, frauds and hucksters who used the railroads to con unwary investors, and even points out that these cons could have lethal results when incautious pioneers were urged to buy railroad land in areas full of hostile Indians.  Mr. O’Connor writes with the outrage of a duped investor, and his book is more of an historical indictment than a balanced account.

The Tycoons is a joint business biography of John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, Jay Gould, and J.P. Morgan.  In between the biographical chapters, Mr. Morris adds overview chapters on the American economy in the Gilded Age.  Readers looking for the last bit of detail on these giants of commerce had better turn to individual biographies, but The Tycoons provides a good birds-eye view of the period and the men who dominated it.

Reading these books makes me want to get Railroad Tycoon to the table again soon.

Comments: