If you haven’t been following The Player’s Aid over the past month, you’re really missing out. In addition to digging in to a number of games I haven’t even seen before, they have an excellent interview with Marc Gouyon-Rety, the designer of the upcoming Pendragon. Up until now the COIN series entries from GMT Games have tended to be associated with more recent conflicts such as Vietnam or Afghanistan. Here Marc explains how he came to his decision to tackle a situation that very nearly on the borders of legend:

I realized in 2014… that, despite its name, the COIN system was not so much about counterinsurgency as it was about multi-factional and asymmetrical conflicts. I had been looking for a way to tackle Dark Ages Britain for some time, and the light came on after reading a couple books portraying post-Roman Britain as a ‘failed state’, and offering a startling re-interpretation of Arthur as a post-Roman leader caught between scheming Romano-British elites and his Saxon mercenaries (Foederati). The basis for Pendragon was laid in one frantic hour of laying the basic factions and their conflicting interests and objectives in June 2014, and these basic principles have held true ever since. Late and post-Roman Britain was by no means a united polity, riven by ancestral tribal identities and accompanying enmities, competition between established elites based on traditional tribes and cities, and military strong men, often coming from humbler, or even Barbarian, stock. All relied heavily on foreign ‘Foederati’ (allies bound by treaty in exchange typically for land and grain payments), as was the norm in the late Roman Empire, to fight against both local rivals or foreign marauders (often the very kin of the aforementioned Foederati).

Read all three installments here, here, and here!

And for more wargaming commentary, don’t miss the other blogs on the Wargame Wednesday link round-up:

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PaxSims (Simulations)

• Engle: A short history of matrix games (7/26/16)
• Simulations miscellany, National vanilla ice cream day edition (7/24/16)
• Frost: Wargames are for players (7/23/16)
• Lacey on wargames in strategic education (MORS wargaming CoP) (7/20/16)
• CKNW on ISIS Crisis (7/19/16)
• 2016 APSA Teaching and Learning Conference: simulation and gaming track summary (7/18/16)
• Wong on “Wargaming in Professional Military Education” (7/14/16)
• Connections (US) conference registration deadline fast approaching! (7/13/16)
• Simulation & gaming miscellany, post-PDW edition (7/07/16)
• Simulation & Gaming (August 2016) (7/07/16)

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Inside GMT (GMT Games)

• GMT Games: State of the Union (Part 1) (7/21/16)
• Silver Bayonet Example of Play (7/18/16)
• 70 Minutes to Victory: A Hitler’s Reich Replay with The REAL Game Components (7/14/16)
• Silver Bayonet: Playtest Report (7/09/16)
• Fire in the Lake:  Designer Variants (7/05/16)

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Castalia House (Wargames)

• Avalon Hill’s Panzer Leader (7/20/16)
• DIVINE RIGHT in development (7/16/16)
• Guest Post by Bill Morgal: Designer John Poniske Brings History to Life (7/11/16)
• Elements of Wargaming: Reverse Influence (7/06/16)

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Real and Simulated Wars (JC)

• Flashpoint Latvia Episode 4 – Falcon 4 BMS – Recon (7/26/16)
• Combat Mission Final Blitzkrieg – Assault Gun Tactics (7/25/16)
• Command Modern Naval and Air Operations – Old Grudges Never Die (DLC) (7/22/16)
• Team Yankee Back in Print (7/21/16)
• Flashpoint Latvia Episode 3 – Arma 3- Use of Light Armored Vehicles in a Hybrid Warfare Environment (7/21/16)
• Scourge of War Waterloo: Quatre Bras – Review (7/19/16)
• DCS SA342 Gazelle – The Hovering Command Post (7/13/16)
• Arma 3 Apex – Preview (7/12/16)
• Graviteam Tactics Mius Front – Narrow Victory: The Left Hook (7/12/16)
• Graviteam Tactics Mius Front – Narrow Victory: First Contact (7/11/16)
• Flashpoint Latvia Episode 2 – Command Modern and Naval Operations – Close to the Tarantula’s Fangs (7/10/16)

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Ludic Futurism (Brian Train)

• The early history of matrix games; 2p matrix games (7/24/16)
• Interview with Grandmaster Phil (7/22/16)
• Teaching COIN (with Cuba Libre) (7/21/16)
• A Distant Plain – another review. (7/12/16)
• Back, bruised, from Tempe. (7/06/16)

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VASSAL (News)

• New Module – Five Tribes (7/25/16)
• Update – In Their Quiet Fields II (7/23/16)
• New Module – Sorcerer (7/20/16)
• Update – Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game v6.0.2 (7/19/16)
• New Module – The Devil’s To Pay (7/18/16)
• Update – To the Last Man (7/12/16)
• Wiki temporarily locked due to spamming (7/07/16)
• New Module – La Granja (7/06/16)
• Update – World in Flames 5th Edition Redux Released (7/02/16)
• Update – Blackbeard v1.15 (7/02/16)

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War in a Box (Warren Abox)

• Cult of the Dungeongod (7/25/16)
• Chaos Panthers and Basing Issues (7/18/16)
• It’s Okay, I’m With the Warband (7/11/16)
• Prayers for the Fallen (7/08/16)
• Guest Post at Castalia House This Week (7/05/16)
• Big Nasty Bugs (7/05/16)

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The Players Aid (Grant A. Kleinhenz)

• Silent Victory Play Log – Episode 1 “Maiden Voyage” (7/26/16)
• Interview with War Co. Expandable Card Game Designer Brandon Rollins – Part III (7/25/16)
• Unboxing GMT’s Enemy Coast Ahead (7/24/16)
• Map-A-Week: The Village of Farmer’s Retreat & Hammnar’s Cottage (7/22/16)
• Chess with cannons! – A Review of American Heritage Battle-Cry A Civil War Game from Milton Bradley (1961) (7/21/16)
• Exclusive 1st Interview with War Co. Expandable Card Game Designer Brandon Rollins – Part II (7/19/16)
• Review: Champions of Midgard (7/18/16)
• Exclusive 1st Interview with Pendragon: The Fall of Roman Britain Designer Marc Gouyon-Rety – Part III (7/18/16)
• First Time Playing…Broom Service (7/17/16)
• Solitaire Sunday: Phantom Leader Deluxe – DVG’s aerial warfare over Vietnam (7/17/16)