According to the mainstream narrative, wargamers are alternately either losers that have never really left mom’s basement or else monsters that are keeping women out of gaming. Imagine my surprise then to see something completely new on this point: the wargamer as romantic lead!

I am positively beside myself.

The Wargamer woos me. He invites me to play Cuba Libre! (2013). It’s a board game co-designed by the former CIA analyst Volko Ruhkne to show the complexity of Fidel Castro’s insurgency. By this time, I’ve told him I research GiTMO, and I take the plunge. I say confidently, “I’m game for your game.”

Nice double entendre there. I really am hanging on every word here, too. That Volko Ruhnke’s games could transform the way you think about war…? That’s old news now. That they can serve as a battleground of love…? Stop the presses!

Of course, the twist here is the icing on the cake:

We begin one day in May as two wonkish wargamers, and end it, strangers on the street.
I have other battles to fight. Those are his last words. I am swiftly expelled from—what I’ve come to nickname—his Ludoland. It is too tempting to gamify the relationship, to think of the different cards that could have been played. I reflect on the fact that as I delved deeper and deeper into the Wargamer’s world, I forgot to give him a full tour of mine. The thesis chapters not shared, the conversations about Guantánamo not had, they all stack up in my mind like soldiers preparing to go to war. But I am no general. I flee.

Hey, girl. We’ll always have Cuba Libre!

Man, this is the best love story since X-Men #186.

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PaxSims (Simulations)

• Exploring US engagement in the Middle East: A crisis simulation (9/07/16)
• Connections UK 2016: Civil War in Binni (9/06/16)
• Gaming foreign policy (at the FCO) (9/01/16)
• New Chair of Wargaming Department at US NWC (8/30/16)
• Clashing in the classroom (8/28/16)
• IMPACT: A Foresight Game (8/25/16)
• Simulation and gaming miscellany, 24 August 2016 (8/24/16)

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Inside GMT (GMT Games)

• Bayonets & Tomahawks Biweekly Issue #1: Action Tokens Part 1 — Nailing Down the Operational Tempo… and More (9/06/16)
• Defend the ROK: Allied Strategy Considerations in Next War: Korea (8/27/16)
• The Many Paths to Victory or Defeat in GMT’s Hitler’s Reich (8/25/16)

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Castalia House (Wargames)

• WARGAME WEDNESDAY: Pursuit of Perfection: Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures Game (8/31/16)

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Real and Simulated Wars (JC)

• Steel Beasts ProPE 4.0 – The Roadblocks to Walloonia (9/06/16)
• IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of Moscow – If You Can Land the Rata … (9/02/16)
• Panzer Battles Kursk The Southern Flank – AAR – No Smoke Can Silence the Cries of the Dying (9/01/16)
• Steel Beasts ProPE 4 0 Team Weber AAR Part 2 (8/30/16)
• Tigers Unleashed Beta Patch, an Exclusive from the Dogs of War Virtual Unit (8/26/16)
• Command Modern Air and Naval Operations – Command Live: You Brexit, You Fix it! (8/26/16)
• Combat Mission Final Blitzkrieg – Take Your Infantry to the Attack Day – Remarks (8/24/16)
• Firefight – Minireview (8/24/16)

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Ludic Futurism (Brian Train)

• New paper on Third Lebanon War (9/07/16)
• Interview on The Player’s Aid, Part 3 (9/06/16)
• Shrink-rip video: Scheldt Campaign (9/02/16)
• Interview on The Player ‘s Aid, Part 2 (8/31/16)
• Paddy Griffith’s Counterinsurgency Wargames – out now! (8/25/16)
• Interview on The Players’ Aid, Part I (8/24/16)

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VASSAL (News)

• New Module – Tactics (25th Anniversary Edition) (8/31/16)
• New Module – Tuf-abet (8/24/16)

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The Demo Gamers (David)

• Konflikt 47 Index (8/25/16)

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War in a Box (Warren Abox)

• Chicken Joe! (8/31/16)
• It’s Wizard Time (8/29/16)
• A Kind of Dog and Pony Show (8/24/16)

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The Players Aid (Grant A. Kleinhenz)

• Review: Dominant Species by GMT Games (9/07/16)
• Interview with Brian Train Designer of Colonial Twilight: The French-Algerian War, 1954-62 COIN Series Volume VII by GMT Games (9/06/16)
• Unboxing Garphill Games’ The North Sea Saga Kickstarter (9/06/16)
• Unboxing Terraforming Mars by Stronghold Games (9/04/16)
• A First Look at Bomber Command The Night Raids 1943-1945 by GMT Games (9/02/16)
• Best 3 Games with…Deck Building! (9/01/16)
• Interview with Brian Train Designer of Colonial Twilight: The French-Algerian War, 1954-62 COIN Series Volume VII by GMT Games – Part II (8/31/16)
• GMT Games’ Enemy Coast Ahead – First Impressions (8/31/16)
• Gen Con 2016 Game Recap: Kraftwagen V6 Edition by Stronghold Games (8/30/16)
• Review: Guilds of London by Tasty Minstrel Games (8/30/16)