Reviews

Review Policy

If you are a publisher or game-designer and have a computer game, boardgame, or simulation that you would like to see reviewed on the blog, feel free to send us a copy for review—just email us first for address information. We’ll review on PAXsims anything that we think has educational potential regarding modern peace and conflict issues. If the subject doesn’t quite fit here, at the very least we’ll post a detailed review on Board Game Geek by way of a thank you.

We are also pleased to review books on conflict simulation and serious gaming.

Digital Games (15)

• A Force More Powerful (anti-authoritarian mobilization)
• Cuthroat Capitalism (Somali piracy)
• Fate of the World (global environmental management)
• Inside the Haiti Earthquake (Haiti disaster relief)
• Influence, Inc. (social media messaging and manipulation)
• Masters of the World (contemporary international relations)
• Mission Zhobia (peacebuilding)
• Peacemaker (Israel-Palestine)
• People Power (civil society mobilization)
• Rebel Inc. (stabilization operations)
• Rulers of Nations (contemporary international relations)
• Stop Disaster! (disaster prevention)
• Third World Farmer (agriculture and development)
• This War of Mine (urban survival during civil war)
• Tropico 4 (banana republic simulator)
• WarPaths (matrix game support)

Tabletop Games (35)

• 1989: Dawn of Freedom (Eastern Europe political)
• 7 Ronin (samurai and ninjas)
• A Distant Plain (Afghanistan, insurgency/counterinsurgency)
• Afghan Provincial Reconstruction (Afghanistan development/coordination)
• AFTERSHOCK: A Humanitarian Crisis Game (humanitarian assistance)
• Algeria (Algeria, insurgency/counterinsurgency)
• Andean Abyss  (Colombia, insurgency/counterinsurgency)
• Battle for Baghdad (Iraq, insurgency/counterinsurgency)
• BCT Command Kandahar  (Afghanistan, insurgency/counterinsurgency)
• Bloc by Bloc (urban insurrection)
• Chile ’73 (Chilean military coup)
• Construction and Corruption (corruption in public tendering)
• Cuba Libre  (Cuba, insurgency/counterinsurgency)
• Enter the Spudnet (cybersecurity and potatoes)
• Fire in the Lake (Vietnam war)
• Freedom: The Underground Railway (slavery and the “Underground Railway”)
• GridlockED (hospital emergency room management)
• Hearts and Minds (Vietnam, 1965-75) (Vietnam, insurgency/counterinsurgency)
• Hedgemony (US grand strategy)
• Hostage Negotiator (hostage negotiations)
• Ici, c’est la France! (Algeria, insurgency/counterinsurgency)
• Islamic State: The Syria War (counter-ISIS operations)
• Oil War—Iran Strikes (Persian Gulf)
• Labyrinth (global terrorism/counterterrorism)
• Liberia, Descent into Hell (Liberia, civil war)
• Mapmaker: A Gerrymandering Game (political districting)
• Peacekeeping: The Game (peacekeeping)
• Persian Incursion (Israel vs Iran)
• Rise Up (cooperative social activism)
• Somali Pirates (Horn of Africa, Piracy)
• Target: Iran (US-led coalition attacks Iran)
• This War of Mine (urban survival during civil war)
• Urban Operations (modern urban combat)
• Via la Revolution (insurgency)

Other Simulations (11)

• Brynania (peace building)
• Canadian Humanitarian and Disaster Response Training Program (course and field exercise)
• Dark Guest (cyberwarfare)
• EVOKE (social entrepreneurship and development)
• International Relations in Action (international relations)
• Intervention! (introduction to megagaming)
• Matrix Games for Modern Wargaming (includes several post-Cold war games)
• MMOWGLI (Massive Multiplayer Online WarGame Leveraging the Internet)
• Negotiating Peace in Deeply Divided Societies (negotiation simulations)
• Syria PeaceGame (Syria, peacebuilding)
• The Art of Intelligence: Simulations, Exercises, and Games (intelligence analysis)

Books (32—see also “other simulations” above)

• Appleget, Burks, and Cameron, The Craft of Wargaming: A Detailed Planning Guide for Defense Planners and Analysts
• Bae, ed., Forging Wargamers: A Framework for Wargaming Education (wargames in professional military education)
• Barbrook, Class Wargames: Ludic Subversion against Spectacular Capitalism (radical reflections on wargames)
• Ben-Yehuda, Levin-Banchik, and Naveh, World Politics Simulations in a Global Information Age (international relations simulation for the classroom)
• Carnes, Minds on Fire: How Role-Immersion Games Transform College (Reacting to the Past series of education role-play)
• Curry, ed. Paddy Griffith’s Counter Insurgency Wargames (COIN wargames used at Sandhurst).
• Curry, ed., The Pentagon’s Urban COIN Wargame (1966) (URB-COIN)
• Curry and Price, Matrix Games for Modern Wargaming (matrix games)
• Curry and Price, The Sandhurst Kriegsspiel: Wargaming for the Modern Infantry Officer (wargaming in professional military training/education)
• Curry and Price, Modern Crises Scenarios for Matrix Wargames (matrix game scanrios)
• Curry and Young, The Confrontation Analysis Handbook (confrontation analysis)
• Engelstein and Shalev, Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design (game mechanics)
• Gill, Inside the Box: Using Integrative Simulations to Teach Conflict, Negotiation and Mediation (integrative simulations)
• Hunter, World Peace and Other 4th Grade Achievements (conflict simulation in the school)
• Hyde, The Wargaming Compendium (overview of miniature wargaming)
• King, It Could Happen Tomorrow! (emergency planning exercises)
• Lahneman and Arcos, The Art of Intelligence (serious gaming for intelligence analysts)
• Lewin, War Games and their History (history of wargaming)
• Longley-Brown, Successful Professional Wargames (professional wargaming methods and approaches)
• Mead, War Play (video games and armed conflict)
• Peterson, Playing at the World (history of D&D)
• Priestly and Lambshead, Tabletop Wargames (writing miniature wargame rules)
• Sabin, Simulating War (conflict simulation)
• Matthew A. Schnurr and Anna MacLeod, eds., Simulations and Student Learning (education simulation and gaming)
• Starkey et al, International Negotiation in a Complex World (international negotiation)
• Turkle et al, Simulation and its Discontents (digital/virtual simulation)
• UK Ministry of Defence, Defence Wargaming Handbook (military wargaming)
• van Crevald, Wargames (war and games)
• von Hilgers, War Games: A History of War on Paper (social history of wargaming)
• Wojtowicz, Wargaming Experiences (gaming civil-military cooperation)
• Woods, Eurogames (Eurogames and those who play them)
• Zenko, Red Team: How to Succeed by Thinking Like the Enemy (red-teaming)