Playing with Battle Box: Age of Sail

 “If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.”

— Seneca

I’ve dabbled in many historical wargaming periods over the years. The Age of Sail remains one for which I’ve never really found an accessible game — in both cost and rules — until now. Feral Wizard’s Battle Box: Age of Sail promises to deliver an intuitive game with plenty of tactical choices in a small package (much like its previous game, Battle Box: Napoleonic Wars). The game ran a successful Kickstarter back in the spring and should deliver physical components by the end of the year...but backers received the print-and-play component files when the campaign ended. So I printed out some cards and rules and played a few battles using my craft store sailing ships and my large-hex light-blue ocean canvas. After a few games to help me grasp the mechanics and strategies I found it offered a host of player choices to add depth to what seems on the surface a basic Age of Sail game.

What Do Games Tell Our Adversaries?

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

— Ovid

Members of the Chinese PLA Navy play Sebastian
Bae’s Littoral Commander: Indo-Pacific wargame.

A recent social media post by Sebastian Bae — game designer, wargaming professor, defense analyst, former US Marine (among many other roles) — shared news that members of China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) were playing his modern wargame Littoral Commander: Indo-Pacfic. “I did not have the PLA Navy playing my ‘Littoral Commander Indo-Pacific’ #wargame on one of their ships on my bingo card for 2026. Absolutely wild,” Bae posted. It is an interesting testament to our open-source internet age, where information and products travel the world for use by anyone who wants them...including our potential near-future adversaries. It certainly validates the quality and utility of Bae’s wargame. It also raises questions about what adversaries can learn from the games we ourselves design and use, how such games reflect both the designer’s knowledge of battlefield capabilities and assumptions about elements affecting the outcome of combat.

Craft Store Lament

 “The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.”

— Carl Jung

The times constantly change, more so, it seems, in a volatile capitalist society with a general government administrative “policy” of instability, uncertainty, and chaos. We fear change. Even at the craft store. Over the years, and certainly more recently, I’ve noticed my usually reliable stable of craft stores gradually shift away from providing plentiful resources for various adventure gaming hobby endeavors. One expects prices to increase over time, though not quite the jump we’ve seen recently. But the stock seems to ebb and flow depending on fads in the crafting hobby, predicted on customers’ purchasing habits and what influencers deem is fashionable at the moment. Which inevitably means gamers are paying more and finding fewer game resources at craft stores. I suppose I will grudgingly get used to it, venting, as I sometimes do, here at Hobby Games Recce.

Farewell to Comments

 “We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.”

— Epictetus

Frequent readers know I’ve often wondered whether it’s worth my time and effort to continue posting at Hobby Games Recce. I have far too many stressors in my life, along with personal demons, constantly urging me to give it up. I’m a stubborn old curmudgeon, so I’ve held on this long...and probably will for a little while longer, at least. Positive interactions with readers always give me a sense of fulfillment, that this is all worth it, even in little ways. Most of those engagements occur in my online social media presences — Bluesky and the Mastodon instance Dicecamp — and only occasionally in the blog’s actual comments section. I still cherish the infrequent comment here, but lately most finding their way into my comment moderation interface are spam. Initially they were blatant spam, but now they’re more cleverly disguised as vague if incorrect references to old posts with some link to a site they’re promoting. We get enough spam in our e-mails and web surfing...I don’t want to allow it here...even if it means diverting authentic comments elsewhere.

Watch, Read, Play: French & Indian War

 “Fathers, both you and the English are white, we live in a Country between; therefore the Land belongs to neither one nor t’other.”

— Chief Tanaghrisson

French and Indian War provincial militia
re-enactors march forth at Fort Frederick.

I don’t expect many Americans to have much familiarity with the French and Indian War (1754–1763); Europeans might know it as one theater in the larger Seven Years War (1756–1763) which some historians consider the first true “world war.” It’s an interesting period in American colonial history. Major European powers continue to stake claims to lands in the New World, with the British and French clashing primarily on the frontiers in New England and the mid-Atlantic. British colonists remain subject to the crown, yet, being separated from their governing body by several months’ treacherous voyage over the ocean, have cultivated a sense of self-sufficiency bordering on entitled independence. Over my years of reading and playing games about it, I’ve come to realize it sets up many of the issues over which Americans fought for their independence from Great Britain and highlights many issues we still face. One can more easily investigate the French and Indian War through movies, books, and games to gain a greater understanding of the conflict’s many aspects and outcomes that influenced the American War of Independence...and beyond.

Back-to-School Estimation

 “I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught.”

— Winston Churchill

My son returned to public school today, a constant gripe given the swampy weather and the lack of adequate environmental air handling in his school. So I offer apologies to regular readers; this piece is a bit more self-centered, having been pulled together late, after several false starts on other topics, and having dealt with several days of frantic back-to-school activities. Part of my deep mental programming still views the start of the academic year in the “autumn” as a time of new beginnings, new routines, and new goals, unlike my ever-growing disdain for personal re-evaluation and re-dedication to often unattainable ideals during the New Year’s holiday in mid-winter. In trying to organize my adventure gaming efforts, I look to projects foremost in my mind develop toward more refined forms worthy of sharing.

The Comfort of Physical Media

“Your library is your paradise.”

— Erasmus

JRR Tolkien's painting of Smaug
on his gold, with “invisible” Bilbo.

A host of recent news stories, think-tank surveys, and academic studies focus on the phenomenon of younger generations preferring physical media rather than the supposed cornucopia of digital delights. Many examine this trend in Generation Z (roughly those born from 1997–2012), though I can attest from personal experience old curmudgeons like me, relics of the last century, can also cling to our physical media like jealous dragons on piles of gold. It’s a strange phenomenon for those living in a century flooded with electronic media of all kind, often to the detriment of old, more reliable, more vetted formats (such as print magazines and newspapers). For some it’s resistance to, if not an outright revolt against, an increasingly corporate urge to sell subscription services rather than actual product one can own and put on their shelf; electronic products companies can withdraw for whatever reason, even after consumers have paid for them. For others it’s convenience of access. And some prefer the ability to display physical media in their spaces as an expression of their personal interests. Society keeps imposing on us to adapt to new developments and technologies — even if they prove detrimental to our lives and world, like data centers and artificial intelligence — yet preserving “the old ways” has its benefits on the individual level.