WEEK 19: AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS

Jules Verne was arguably the first modern s.f. writer, with books like Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and Journey to the Centre of the Earth (both of which have been made into games, if you pursue the links). The book this week's game is based on was more of a travelogue-thriller, but remains one of Verne's most popular.

WEEK 18: ARNHEM

Operation Market Garden was the most ambitious paradrop campaign of WWII. It inspired the 1977 movie A Bridge Too Far, directed by Richard Attenborough and with a star-studded cast that included Denhom Elliot, Dirk Bogarde, and Sir Laurence Olivier. And because of its mixture of parachutes, gliders, tanks, engineers, and against-the-odds heroism, it's a favorite with wargamers as well.

WEEK 17: ARMORICA

I like good cheap games that can fit in your pocket. Armorica is such a game.

WEEK 16: THE ARAB-ISRAELI WARS

 

After last week's foray into Looney Labs' Aquarius, it's back to the battle-board with this 1977 Avalon Hill title, which I haven't played in--easily--twenty years.

Few parts of the world are more contentious than the Middle East, and few states are subject to as much scrutiny as Israel--although the recent Arab Spring has drawn the spotlight away somewhat, for the moment. There are two major narratives about Israel, one in which its establishment and existence is a heroic act, and another in which Israel is an agent of colonial (or post-colonial) imperialism and repression. I grew up attending a Hebrew parochial school submersed in the first narrative; I've spent the rest of my life negotiating the perilous ideological terrain between the two. I highly recommend the books 1967, by Tom Segev, and How Israel Lost, by Richard Ben Cramer, for their attempts to tease out the many complex strands in this conflict.