Game Aspirations for Summer

“Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play.”

— Heraclitus

A toast to summertime
gaming aspirations.

Our much-manipulated academic schedule calls for the local public school year to end before Memorial Day (and begin the first week in August…don’t get me started). So we’re already considering father-son gaming and history activities to stay engaged over the summer. I remain thankful my teenage son has cultivated an interest in history, one that, over the years, has matured beyond simply visiting sites and playing games into a more critical examination of our past and how we can explore it on the gaming table. This offers me some comfort in my ever-challenging efforts to engage him in anything beyond sleeping, spending time on his electronic devices, and asking what’s for dinner. He has, surprisingly, voiced an interest in several activities that would involve him in somewhat productive intellectual activity (and pry him away from his devices). Right now we have a list of very flexible objectives, but it’s a start in providing some structure to what can easily become a summer of lazy days.

Of course all this must fit between my other writing goals, Sisyphean yard and household duties, and a continuing yet unsuccessful job search with uncertain and deteriorating prospects related to instability in the realms of politics, the economy, and backwoods Virginia in general. But I remember the somewhat carefree summers of my own youth, especially after discovering the adventure gaming hobby, so I strive, in my own limited way, to provide a similar intellectually stimulating yet leisurely experience to help my son expand his interests. We already have a list of more practical summertime objectives: giving his room an organizational overhaul and cleaning, getting his driving learner’s permit, motivating him to help out in the yard despite the intensely withering humidity and hordes of monstrous insects. But providing engaging activities for him remains a priority.

In school my son has nurtured an interest in history (much like his parents), which we’ve encouraged with rare family vacations and occasional day trips, films about historical subjects, and the infrequent game. So it should come as no surprise that he now has his own opinions about historical sites, periods, and related games he wants to explore. Alas, finding local venues where he can engage these interests remains unlikely. Most summer programs and camps at the local museum, library, and other organizations remain geared toward elementary school students...if they even bother to dabble in either history or tabletop gaming. (And my own efforts to cultivate such programs, even on a one-off basis, have remained frustrating and ineffective.) So we’ve talked about what has, in a way, become our own customized summer camp exploring his interests.

One of the cannon atop Drewry's Bluff,
one of our possible day trip destinations.

Day trips have become a hallmark of our summertime activities; I try making one once a week during his 10-week summer break (students return to school on a sure-to-be sweltering August 5…). Our proposed excursion menu includes plenty of old standards: the National Museum of the Marine Corps, the National Air and Space Museum, probably some American Civil War battlefields (we have about eight within a one-hour drive, a few more at two hours’ drive*), possibly a renaissance festival, Colonial Williamsburg, and possibly a game store or two. To this we may add some new destinations. My son’s a fan of the movie Gettysburg, so we might try to make a trip to the battlefield (though this might require an overnight stay); a day trip to Antietam might prove more reasonable. (We already got a head start on our battlefield tours attending a re-enactment for the 165th anniversary of the First Battle of Manassas.) Having visited the International Spy Museum several years ago, I’m tempted to make the trek into Washington, DC, despite misgivings on various levels; but my son’s expressed an interest in a visit and I feel it can expand his understanding of global events. (All of these, I regret, remain subject to the increased price and, dare I consider, the availability of gasoline for car trips given the state of the oil industry in these unpredictably chaotic times.)

Games naturally figure into our summertime plans. One of my numerous yard projects includes setting some square paver stones on a flat section of the yard to form a large chess board. While I suppose I should also build a set of large chess pieces for it, I expect we’ll use it as a battlefield for wargames with large unit pieces and various gridded rules, possibly by Morschauser or more likely Bob Cordery’s The Portable Wargame (ironic considering the extreme non-portability of an in-lawn chess board). I’ve already experimented with 54mm Peter Dennis paper miniatures and have plans for a few larger-sized American Civil War ironclads suitable for 12-inch squares. We’ll see...that might prove too overly ambitious.

Richard III is on our wargame menu.

Many factors influence our choices for tabletop games to explore: themes and periods we particularly like; new games I’m keen to try; and old favorites with which we’re familiar. So I’m hoping my collection can satisfy those urges. While I’d love to learn and play one new game each week, I realize that’s pushing my luck. That said, he has in mind a few games tied to historical periods that appeal to his interests. He’s been reading about the English Civil War (and watching Cromwell) and is starting to investigate the War of the Roses, so we have a few games that can help us on those counts: a recently acquired copy of The English Civil War (Ariel Productions, 1975) and Richard III: The War of the Roses (Columbia Games, 2009). I’ve told my son about block wargames, so Richard III seems a more interesting choice than the classic Kingmaker (Avalon Hill, 1974). I just acquired a copy of The British Way: Counterinsurgency at the End of Empire (GMT Games, 2023) as he wanted to explore the origins of some of our current conflicts (notably Palestine). I will, of course, encourage him to try some games I’d like, but those remain subject to his own level of engagement.

When we started discussing summertime gaming objectives my son impressed me by declaring he wanted to embark on a scenario-design project of his own choosing. We’re planning on attending a regional gaming convention in October, where we’ll run several games. My son helped me consider which games to run and what times during the convention would be best to attract the most players. We’ve attended enough gaming conventions over the years, as both players and hosts, that he’s acquired a firm grasp of the various considerations in both attending and running games. So I shouldn’t have been surprised when he expressed an interest in creating a historical wargame scenario of his own design with an eye to running it at a future convention. After considering battles from the War of the Roses and the English Civil War to simulate on the gaming tabletop, he chose the Battle of Bosworth Field, 1485.

This presents an excellent, long-term father-son project. We already had some pretty intellectual discussions about choosing a battle, but now we’re talking about how to research Bosworth and distill its elements into a game experience (much as I recently did for the Battle of Great Bridge). Playing Richard III will provide some context, but I also have the Osprey book for the battle that gives us some details on the terrain and forces involved. I expect him to read up on the battle as well as examining various miniature wargaming rules to find a suitable one to use (or to create his own). He has ideas of his own, notably to purchase, paint, and use plastic wargaming figures rather than settling for crafting the excellent Peter Dennis paper miniatures from the book I already own. The convention he intends to run this at is relatively far down the calendar, so we have some time…but I’ve crunched painting minis for an event before, and I’d rather not do it again. Still, I can’t complain too much if it keeps him busy this summer.

So we have a host of game and history related activities to occupy his free time. No doubt some things will fall by the wayside as vacation ennui sets in or other, easier diversions draw him off. Travel expenses may curtail some day trips. I’m thankful to have the freedom to spend time with him now, guiding his focus and nurturing a critically engaged mind in activities that reflect on the past and prepare for the future.

* For the historically minded, battlefields within a one-hour drive of our home include Brandy Station, Kelly’s Ford, Cedar Mountain (each no more than 30 minutes away), Chancellorsville, Wilderness, Fredericksburg, New Market, and Manassas. Within two hours you’ll find Antietam, Harper’s Ferry, and Drewry’s Bluff, along with others in the Richmond area. No doubt I’m omitting a few.

Postscript

Goodness knows I’ve rambled on about summertime gaming over the years. Readers can peruse some of these to perhaps find some inspiration for their own game and history related activities:

“Summertime Gaming Can Reinforce Lessons”

“Another Pandemic Summer”

“Summertime Distractions”

“Summertime Gaming”

“In our leisure we reveal what kind of people we are.”

— Ovid