Who Was Zheng He?

Zheng He was born in 1371 in Yunnan Province. His given name was “Ma He,” indicative of his family’s Hui Muslim origins since “Ma” is the Chinese version of “Mohammad.” His father was a hajji, a Muslim who had made the hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca. Zheng He’s great-great-great-grandfather, Sayyid Ajjal Shams al-Din Omar, was a

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Designer Blogs

“Rocks & Shoals”: Navigating Infernal Machine’s New Orleans Action Board — Part 2

Part Two: Down River from Port Hudson to Baton Rouge Beginning April 16, 1862, the US Navy’s West Gulf Blockading Squadron under Flag Officer David Glasgow Farragut began a thunderous bombardment of the Confederate forts Jackson and St. Philip, guardians of the lower Mississippi River and the approaches to New Orleans, Louisiana. Seven nights later,

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Designer Blogs

Arquebus Replay: The Battle of Ceresole — Part 2

The Spanish player activates Madruzzo’s (Blue) wing. Spanish Note – I want to get the battle started so I’ll move my center wing closer. Ed. Note – For the first few moves we will show the units moving one at a time so we can show how the Missile fire works (BTW shouldn’t it really

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After Action Report

Borikén: Why Did I Make This Game?

I have been designing games for 5 years. In that time, I have learned so much about the board game industry. One element of game design that instantly stood out to me and is thankfully being addressed by many publishers and designers is cultural appropriation in games. I remember how disappointed I was after my

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Designer Blogs

The First Stirrings of Rebellion: Britannia

In October 2020 Fred Serval (designer of GMT’s Red Flag Over Paris, and A Gest of Robin Hood) organized a ConSim Game Jam sponsored by GMT.  Participants had 3 days to make a game. As participants, we had to use a pre-existing GMT COIN game at its core and make something new from it. We

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Designer Blogs

The Battle of Piedmont: A Narrative AAR for the “1300 Start” Scenario from Battles for the Shenandoah — Part 1

Part 1 – through the end of the 1400 turn Introduction. I compiled this after action report using designer Greg Laubach’s Cyberboard gamebox, as the gamebox features images of the final components rather than the playtest components. The “1300 Start” scenario begins with the two forces fully deployed, just before the Union launched its attack.  It

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After Action Report

Arquebus Replay: The Battle of Ceresole — Part 1

All is lost, save Honor. Francis I Situation The Battle of Ceresole was an encounter between a French army and the combined forces of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire during the Italian War of 1542–46. The lengthy engagement took place on 11 April 1544, outside the village of Ceresole d’Alba in the Piedmont region

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After Action Report

Cross Bronx Expressway: Losing and Seeing The Bronx

Shortly after finishing the third installment of this series about the tactility of the pieces, I took some time to capture a multihand playthrough of my physical prototype. Let me tell you a secret. I lost. In fact I lost in the first decade, three times in a row. Granted, this was the “Bronx is

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After Action Report, Designer Blogs