I may have mentioned once or twice that I homeschool my kids
and that games are a big part of our “curriculum”. Games are great. There’s so
much going on there that can be used across the various “subject areas”. The
ability to simply read, comprehend, follow and explain to others very complex
instructions (like the rules for games with wildly differing mechanics) are
vital “language arts” skills necessary for functioning in society today. A lot
of games require logical thinking, planning, resource management, and
quick mental calculations – of both simple math (adding, subtracting,
multiplying and dividing multiple sets of numbers) and considering the
statistical probability of success and balancing risk and associated rewards
and recognizing there are multiple pathways to achieve a desired outcome. And,
as we shall see, a lot of the games we played this year (all the games I’m
talking about in this post) were related thematically to our study of the
ancient world – providing the kids with a hands-on, interactive way of
understanding the dynamics of relationships and interactions between different
peoples and cultures we read about and the relationships of power and authority
within those various societies, as well as understanding the decision-making
processes concerning the distribution of resources. Well… sometimes…
This past year we began reading
A Story of the World Volume One: The Ancient World. I think it’s a pretty good series so far – for what it’s set
out to do (provide a very basic general survey of world history for children).
It may be a tad western-judeo-christian-euro-centric, but the beauty of
homeschooling is I can bring my children’s’ attention to the fact that it may
be written from a certain point of view and that others may have a
different point of view and that I can supplement it with additional stuff
about topics/areas/cultures that I don’t think got enough attention… I’m trying
to use it for what it is - a very basic general survey of world history for
children – that, when we are finished, the kids will have a pretty decent
general understanding of world history that we will use as a springboard for
further study of periods and cultures that we are interested in studying more
in-depth.
So below are listed the games we
played along with reading various sections of A Story of the World Volume One:
The Ancient World. (We did play a LOT or OTHER games as well… but these are the
one specifically related to the sections of history presented in A Story of the
World Volume One: The Ancient World).
Ideally what I was looking for
(and didn’t always have or was able to find) were games with maps of the
regions and some method of showing the movement of peoples and/or the
aforementioned dynamics of relationships and interactions between different
peoples and cultures, the relationships of power and authority within those
various societies, as well as understanding the decision-making processes
concerning the distribution of resources, etc…. a tall order. Some were better
at this than others. I wasn’t really looking for “war games” – though there
were some - which showed the conflict involved when cultures clashed and
Empires expanded. In some cases I already had some of the games (I bought a
HUGE pile of games about five or six years back from a distributor that was
going out of business and dumping stock on ebay) others I sought out and bought
specifically for our “studies”. At times I knew of better games out there, but
I don’t have limitless resources to buy games to cover EVERY chapter of the
book – I did the best with what I had.
I also tried to look for games
with les luck/dice-rolling and more planning and decision-making.
(Remember: click on the pictures
for a bigger version)
The first chapters – after
discussing what IS history and how to we know what we know and a bit about
prehistoric hunter gatherers – focused on the development of the earliest
civilizations in Mesopotamia – Ur was one of the city states that developed
there and was the first game we played as part of our “gaming through history”
program.
This game was fairly abstract.
Each player is supposed to be the leader of one of the city-states of
Mesopotamia developing their own civilization. The gaming area itself is a
modular “game board” made up of tiles There are five different types of tiles
representing different aspects of civilizations; agriculture, trade, law or
politics, culture and military. Ultimately players want to control as many
tiles as possible of as many different types to have the “most rounded”
civilization. There is some ability to change the layout of the tiles. It is
also possible to built a ziggurat… but I forget how that worked. At the end of
the game victory points are counted and players are awarded more points for
more complete sets of tiles.
I guess it reinforced some of
the ideas of civilization building and that to succeed one has to have a
balanced civilization…?
Then we moved to Egypt…
(Despite the fact that we've played this game more often than any of the other games - so far - I somehow never got a picture of us PLAYING it?!)
Another fairly abstract game bidding and set collection. Tiles representing
different aspects of ancient Egyptian society – pharaohs, the Nile, floods,
civilization (agriculture, art, astronomy, religion, writing), monuments, gods
are drawn out of a bag and set out on a track – throughout the rounds there are
a number of opportunities to bid on the sets of tiles laid out. There are three
rounds representing Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, and New Kingdom periods. At
the end of each period/round points are awarded for collecting various sets of
tiles. I felt the theme was a little bit stronger in this one than Ur, but it
was still fairly abstract.
Not all of them have two letter names - this one has THREE!
While covering straight history
the Story of the World also covers various civilizations… well… stories –
they’re myths and legends and such. While many other stories of the bible are
included – Noah’s Ark wasn’t – there was a very similar much older story in the
epic of Gilgamesh, which involves a great flood and someone collecting up pairs
of animals to preserve in an ark… So we busted out Ark – a fun little game of
trying to load animals onto the ark. It’s been a while so I can’t remember how
the game is scored, but I do know you have to keep the ark balanced (lest it
capsize in the water) and you can’t have carnivores omnivores loaded up in
stalls with herbivores, and can’t have herbivores in stalls with feed and can’t
have cold climate animals in with warm climate animals…
Okay this one was not so
historical… and not tied specifically to any of the stuff
we were reading about. I had it… there
were Greeks… and Egyptians… (and… er… NORSE!?) and the kids had fun playing
it….
This was only a two-player game
and I only got around to playing it once with The Boy one night. Again, very
abstract, “bolt-on theme” with cards/tiles could easily have just been
different colours – but they were supposed to represent different peoples on
the ancient world (Medes, Sumerians, Hitites, Persians, and Assyrians – all
peoples we did read about) building monuments…
We did read about Nebuchadnezzar
and the gardens he built for his Persian wife Queen Amytis – which would become
one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. In this game you are using cards
with different garden elements on them to “plan out the gardens” when a certain
number of grouped together you get to select from a number of tiles that are
available – variable points are awarded at the end of the game for those who
were able to collect certain sets of tiles. It’s fairly abstract and there’s
more pattern recognition and planning than history… but it sort of tied into
what we were reading. Sort of…
In this game players represent a
civilization trying to build one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient world.
You
collect cards from hands that are passed around putting into play cards that
represent buildings or resources that your civilization builds or develops some
just give you victory points some just make it easier to complete the next
stage of your wonder.
We played this a lot - with different groups of people - it's pretty easy to teach the basics of and because of the simultaneous action adding more players doesn't make the game any longer - as it does with most games.
Each player represents a Greek
city-state. This is a worker placement/resource management game – the “workers”
are priests that you send to different temples to pray to different gods of the
Greek pantheon which offer different rewards to further the advance of your
city.
Victory points are awarded for building certain buildings and for being
the first to reach the maximum value in the six aspects of each city’s
civilization are tracked: population, culture, military and productivity of the
three resources (grain, venison and fish).
Love this one.
Now this was more what I was looking
for in a “good game” for learning. WE played it a few times...
This is a commodity trading/resource management/building
game set in the Ancient Aegean (c600BC). The game board is a map of the Aegean
sea (with all it’s islands), some
nearby lands (the Greek mainland and the coast of Ionia – where lots of Greeks
settled), and some foreign lands (Egypt, Carthage, Italy). Players control one
of those islands in the Aegean and try to develop the civilization on the
island – first by developing resource production, and then trading for other
resources required to build other infrastructure (to increase or diversify
resource production or allow other special activities/abilities). Players can
trade with other islands (the other players) or with neighboring lands or
further “foreign” lands. Journeys to neighboring or foreign lands are more
risky - storms or pirates can mean losing entire fleets – or one can arrive
only to find there is a surplus of what you want to trade at that port… but
there can also be big pay-offs… Players who are co-operative and trade more
with the other players can do quite well.
It’s
way more fun with more players as there is a lot more deal making and trading
amongst the islands.
This was another really great
one. I had really wanted to include some sort of game about the campaigns of
Alexander the Great - unfortunately most of them are two player war games where
one player plays the roles of the Army of Alexander and the other plays the
role of the Persian Empire and other opponents… play doesn’t necessarily follow
the route of Alexander’s campaigns…
Then I stumbled across this game
– which was perfect (for what I was looking for). The campaigns of Alexander
are pretty much a forgone conclusion in this game – the army marches on,
conquering lands following, more or less, the route that Alexander took.
Players represent various
generals/advisors in Alexander’s army. The game is mostly a game of resource management. The
campaign is broken down into six stages. Each stage take two or three turns to
complete and at the end of each turn and stage victory points are scored for
areas controlled (most army markers in each province within the area of the
current stage of the campaign) and for cities founded and temples built. There
is a final scoring for whoever has the most temple/cities in total and the most
in each stage area.
I like it because it’s sort of a
war game, but not really a war game. The game board is a great map of the region
and the play follows the route of Alexander’s campaigns, but the focus is
not-so-much on the battles (which most war games are) but on the resources that
have to be managed to keep the armies marching and the spread of Greek culture
through the region (through the building of temples and founding of cities)
that followed in the wake of the campaign.
The wars of the Diadochi
(Alexander’s Successors) was a bit of a footnote in the chapter on Alexander
the Great – but, I felt, an important part of understanding that whole period
of history. Alexander spent all this time and effort building this HUGE empire…
which was then shattered immediately after his death – shortly after returning
from his last campaign – when the empire was split between his generals, who
immediately started fighting against each other…
This is a more traditional area control war game that was
simple enough for my kids to play, allowed a number of players. Play is similar
to the old Milton Bradley big box game
Shogun/Samurai
Swords - the provinces are even supposed to be dealt out at random.
I
changed this a bit to give each of the generals a core of four or five
provinces in the area they historically controlled (Ptolemy in Egypt, Seleucus
in Persia, etc).
Players play different tribes
trying to settle the seven hills that will eventually become the city of Rome.
The board is modular, roughly hexagonal tiles representing the seven hills of
Rome.
The players take turns placing different inhabitants (Soldiers,
Merchants, and Farmers) which will interact with the others placed next to them
– depending on the number and type of inhabitants - then the hills are scored
and victory points awarded. Seemed simple enough. We played a couple quick
games one afternoon, but haven’t returned to it.
Another great game for learning history – though it covers a
great deal of history of one particular area - in this case 330-80BCE.
The game
board is a map of Italy and surrounding areas and plays over a long period of
time with successive groups moving into the area, dominating the previous
groups (or at least trying to) and then being dominating by other groups moving
into the area
It’s sort of like an historical
version of
Small
World (if you’re familiar with that game). The game is based on
another game called
Britannia.
I have a copuple other games based on the Britannia system which I will be
using later on -
Maharaja
for India, and
China:
The Middle Kingdom. I also would have LOVED to have been able to
track down a copy of Britannia itself or
Chariot
Lords, but they’re all out of print and not-so-easy to find…
Italia is a fairly complicated
game and it took us two days to play it. The game also includes a second set of
tiles to play a completely separate game covering the period of history from
the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 390CE through the tumultuous period
of
medieval Italian history until
1100CE – so we’ll be playing that again pretty soon!
There were slightly different mechanics to represent different kinds of incursions - some turns are played over decades or even hundreds of years - representing groups of people slowly migrating in, while others are played as specific military campaigns over just a few years:
hannibal marching across the alps with his elephants... Except unlike what actually happened, Flaminius there stopped Hannibal and his elephants dead (I just had the WORST luck with the dice...)
...and here is Scipio (soon to be called Scipio Africanus) after he lays waste to Carthage!
I don’t actually have this game, a friend brought it over
one weekend and The Boy and I got to play it. I really liked it – it’s card
game of city building and resource management after the fire of 64CE – there
are lots of different ways to use each cards and multiple paths to victory. The
Boy was a little overwhelmed…?
Ostia was the port of Rome. This
is another trading game. Rather than shipping anything you are simply buying
the stuff coming off ships from… wherever… and storing it or selling it at the
markets in Rome to make money or donating it to the senate to gain favour (and
victory points!). You do need to sell a certain amount to stay solvent – but
the more you sell of any one commodity on the market the lower the price per
unit gets – so you have to keep track of what other players have bought that
round and guess at which they will be donating and which they will be selling.
An interesting game, but the theme was a little “bolt-on” – in that it could be
easily be any port anywhere in time (or even a space port in the far future).
But the box said “Ostia” and the commodities were right for the period so it
worked.
A latin phrase meaning “where
are you going?”
You are trying to get your
candidates into the senate – that’s where! Moving up through comities – needing
a majority of votes from the committee. Other players will ultimately have
playing pieces in said committees so you need to negotiate to get the aid of
other players and help other players – but not help them TOO much – because
ultimately you want YOUR candidates to get to that senate chamber…
It’s hard to find games with
eastern themes set in ancient times that had the elements that I was looking
for - which I really wanted to do because they are kind of glossed over in the book. I didn't really find anything for India - either the Harapan/Indus civilization or the Mauryan Empire that we read about - but I was super excited to find ZhanGou as it fit the bill perfectly – Board
game is a map of China – it takes place just after Shi Huang Di unified china
and became the first Qin Emperor.
The players are Emissaries of the Qin trying
to culturally unify China through the various building projects and
establishing governors and quelling unrest. You had a hand of cards each round
that could be used in different ways to recruit officials or workers or build stuff
or establish There was a LOT going on in this game and different ways. I liked
it.
In this games players are legati
Augusti – Representatives of Augustus – trying to maintain the empire and vying
for the title of consul. To do this the players must gain the support of
influential senators to take control of the various provinces of the empire.
The provinces and senators take the form of “objective” cards that require a
certain number of parkers on each to win over. Markers are drawn randomly from
a bag. Once a player has completed (gained the support of or taken control of)
seven of these objectives the game ends and victory points are calculated for
various combinations of stuff… it’s quick.
I don’t think we actually read
about Pompeii in the story of the world – but did read about it in some of the
supplemental readings and some other books we read on our own about Rome. There
are two phases to the game – phase one players are trying to populate Pompeii
with as many of their friends and family as possible…
Then, once the volcano
starts to erupt on 24 August 79CE, phase two begins where you try to evacuate
as many of your friend and family as possible before they are buried under
tones of pumice and ash…
This is a set of rules for
playing miniature skirmish wargames set in urban areas of the ancient
Mediterranean in the first century BCE (+/- a century or two). We played a few
games of this with various different factions we put together.
You can find more detailed
reports of some of the games we played below:
...and an article I posted about putting together a faction
for the game here:
Still to Play...
A larger war game similar to
Alexander’s Generals that I’ve been trying to organize a game of for months,
but just haven’t been able to get the game on the table with people around it
ready to play. It’s a longer game and would take up most of a day. I’ve been
trying to get a bunch of players together (up to six can play) – but I should
probably just sit down one day and play it with the kids…
During out study of the ancient
world we had a few “missed opportunities”…
I have a BUNCH of
De
Bellis Antiquitatis armies for the ancient world; Egyptians and
Nubians, Multiple Greek Hoplite armies, Skythians, Thracians, Macedonians,
multiple Alexandrian Successor armies, multiple Early Imperial Roman armies,
Ancient Germans, Picts… Unfortunately none of them are completed. I had hoped
studying history might have motivated me to get a pile of them finished so we
could play out some historical battles with them… alas… I didn’t really get to
finish up any of them.
We also could have played more
skirmish level games. I’m not sure how much useful history there is to be
learned there – but playing some historical miniature games has got to be
somewhat more educational that playing straight fantasy games… We totally could
have played
A
Song of Blades and Heroes with various historical figures I have – or
Song
of Arthur and Merlin…
Getting a little less historical
– I totally could have run
Of
Gods and Mortals with a mix of historical and Mythological Greeks…
Nothing can immerse players in a
setting like a good role-playing game – I’ve been itching to run a
Cthulhu
Invictus campaign… but just didn’t find the time to prepare and run
it…
While we were originally doing
about a chapter a week - giving us time to do other activities and additional
readings and activities for each chapter – I realized this will take us about
four years to get through the four volumes… So we’ve decided to speed things up
and are doing 4-5 chapters per week… so hopefully we’ll be done this survey of
world history by the end of December this year. We are already well into Volume
2 – and have been playing lots of game to go along with it! WE should have the second volume
finished up by mid August – so I’ll post again then about all the games we’ve
played along the way.
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