Using Board Games to Teach History
I love a good board game. There are challenges, social interaction, and sometimes history to be learned. Yes, history. Almost everything I know about history and world geography comes from wargames. Who would remember Mongolia’s capital Ulaanbaatar (Ulan Bator), if it not for the fact it was the jumping-off place for Russian forces to battle the Japanese in World War II? Or that Roman triremes were Carthage’s naval nemesis? Or the revolutionary impact of “Stonewall” Jackson’s foot cavalry?
I believe board games have a unique opportunity to teach, especially if there is a historical aspect to them. I understand game themes. Not all games have to be historical, or even historically accurate. But when there is an opportunity, game designers should pounce. Board games in general, and wargames in specific, make a topic intimate for the players. Players get to study the map, know the units, maneuver, and battle on the actual terrain, even get to know the politics and limitations of the moment. This is all information that history books or documentaries can’t deliver.
I’m trying to make my point with a game about the Crusades named Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done (2018) by Seth Jaffee. I want to head off criticism. This only discusses my point to introduce history through games. This is not a criticism of the game itself. Crusaders take a Euro game approach to the topic. I really wanted to like this game. In part because I’ve been following the designer Seth Jaffee for a while, having KickStarted his Eminent Domain series. In part, too, because I wanted to introduce the notion of hex-based games to my game group. The game mechanics are well done, and smooth; none of these comments detract from that. I look forward to his next game, and I hope he’ll still let me KickStart it.
I know many players don’t care about this point; we all play games for our own reasons. Why does this matter? For many players, this may be their first exposure to the Crusades, and for some, their only, so whet their appetite for the subject. Even in a Euro, there is an opportunity to enlighten. The Crusades theme is fascinating. It is perhaps the most complex set of military, political, religious, and cultural conflicts in world history. Rarely have two vastly divergence cultures clashed, and rarely have two sides so misunderstood each other. The only possible outcome had to be disastrous for both sides.
My concern is about the treatment of the theme. Actually, my concern is about the mistreatment of the theme. To be fair, the designer wrote that this “is not a history lesson,” and the places and people “are not historically accurate.” It’s just a theme for his game mechanism. I understand that. However, as a history lesson these disclaimers aren’t good enough. I suspect Jaffee wanted to tap into the allusions and the grandeur of the Crusades conflicts. That is a legitimate idea but that should also come with responsibilities. And that is the mistreatment.
The game not only has nothing to do with the Crusades. What few connections there are, are just plain wrong. For starters, the Crusades didn’t take place in the Russian steppes. The Saracens were a generalized Western term for Muslim forces. The Crusaders lost as many battles as they won, and lost in a typically spectacular manner. In this game, they can’t be attacked, and they can’t even attempt an attack before being guaranteed a victory. Instead, it’s a cooperative genocide. You just can’t keep overlooking these.
But what could it teach? Pick any aspect of the conflict, or times. For example, at the least, the geography in the Middle East. Antioch was the strongest fortress in the world at that time. Both sides took it in different ways. The Crusaders needed to capture Jerusalem, further south, through a hostile desert, and more hostile resistance. Along the way was Tyre, Acre, the siege of Acre, Aleppo, Country of Tripoli, and the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The names of the leaders: Saladin, Frederick Barbarossa, Richard the Lionheart, and Philip II of France. Many players have heard of them, but now we have an opportunity to bring them back to life in a game.
This enlightening aspect may be as simple as flavor text on cards. Everything I know about pirates comes from Richard Berg’s Blackbeard (1991). He had the foresight to fill the back of the character cards with the pirate's biography. So compelling were these descriptions that I researched a number of the pirates, and that in an age before the Internet. In the same way, one of my children’s favorite game Santorini (2004) is a mythical god-based game. However, the designer didn’t add any flavor text to the god cards, and so, missed an opportunity to enlighten. The shame of that is the game is designed for the very age group that would most benefit from learning this.
Consider that the workaround is so simple. Subtitle it as “alternate history,” “historical fantasy,”, theme it as WWII (Germany moves east), controversially with the American plains wars, or even Peter Rabbit in Mr. McGregor’s carrot patch. None of these would have changed any mechanics of the game. I wouldn’t have KickStarted it with the other themes but I wouldn’t have lost goodwill either.
I urge designers to also consider history and their opportunity to enlighten.