Game: Le Jeu de la Guerre

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KevinPostlewaite — 2008-05-01T17:03:12+00:00

From the limited metal edition, photo by Alexander Galloway

Thread: About the Current Litigation

mkirschenbaum — 2008-04-14T13:28:31+00:00

I've written a long blog entry here about the current threat of litigation from Debord's estate against Alex Galloway's digital implementation of the game:

http://www.zoi.wordherders.net/?p=103

Thread: Re: Article about this game

ltmurnau — 2008-03-05T19:06:27+00:00

Debord would of course never admit it, but his game is frankly not very sophisticated - hardly more advanced than Tactics II. Given that he lived until 1994, he must have been aware that many other people, even French ones, played far more sophisticated wargames. But again, perhaps that made no difference to him.

Thread: Article about this game

BrenoK — 2008-03-05T02:55:55+00:00

http://www.bookforum.com/inprint/014_05/2071

Of course, the last paragraph is a travesty, but it tells the story about this game...

A boardgame by Guy Debord... now there's something I'd like to try.

Thread: Java-based Implementation Released

mkirschenbaum — 2008-02-23T01:05:17+00:00

http://r-s-g.org/kriegspiel/

Thread: A brief review of the English 2007 edition

emjay1950 — 2008-01-23T18:27:33+00:00

A Game of War was designed by the French political philosopher Guy Debord about 40 years ago, and only now has it been brought to a wider audience. My comments relate to the new 2007 English edition.

In appearance it looks something like chess, and is primarily set at the operational level, with some tactical elements. The product consists of counters, mounted board, and a book. The latter includes the rules, but mainly consists of a game replay, together with commentary.

I was sent a copy of the recent edition for review, but have been struggling to work out how to do that. It seems to me that it could be viewed on 3 levels:

(a) As a philosophical metaphor for life
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I can see that for those interested in philosophy, and particularly in Guy Debord's other works, this may well be of interest. The attempt to reduce the miltary art to its basics, and consequent minimalist design may also appeal to those of a philosophical bent. I am not really qualified to review it on this basis, lacking sufficient grounding in philosophy.

I am somewhat resistant to Debord's suggestion that lessons for life can be drawn from it. Whilst various games can give some guide to tactics & strategy - which can be more generally useful in life - my feeling is that this game does not provide anything more than many others. But this may just be me

(b) As a wargame or study of military operations
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This is really the only basis on which I have any competence to review A Game of War. On this criteria, I regret that I cannot recommend the game, because it is too abstract for this audience, and the production values are below current standards.

The game focuses on certain key elements of military operations in the horse & musket era, such as manoevre, concentration of force and maintaining a line of communications. The minimalist approach however means that many others are excluded, such as morale, fog-of-war, and realistic terrain. Arguably these are all as important.

The game also excludes many elements of battlefield tactics, and some of those it does cover are heavily abstracted (eg cavalry charges).

It seems to me that wargamers as a breed look for their games to create at least the appearance of period flavour. Examples would be accurate terrain (woods, rivers, roads, hills etc), historical units (actual regiments, brigades etc, perhaps rated according to training, historical performance), generals with command abilities (organisational, logistical, tactical etc). Extra flavour & detail does not necessarily provide extra insight of course, but there it is.

Graphically, I would have to say that A Game of War is a throwback to the 1950s. One could argue that players should look at substance over form; but there it is (again).

(c) As an abstract or semi-abstract game in the mould of chess
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It seems to me that there is a potential market here. A Game of War has obvious similarities to chess, but includes more of war. Chess variants are quite popular, and this may appeal to the same audience. Also chess-players do not expect the lavish graphics beloved of wargamers. Once again though, I do not think that I am qualified to review it on this basis. Maybe a keen chess player will now do so?

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Kula — 2008-01-06T03:43:43+00:00

A Game of War cover sheet

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Kula — 2008-01-06T03:42:39+00:00

A Game of War counter sheet

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Kula — 2008-01-06T03:41:39+00:00

A Game of War slipcase cover

Thread: English edition of The Game of War

ltmurnau — 2007-11-29T22:01:31+00:00

An English edition of this book was released by Atlas Press in October 2007:

http://www.atlaspress.co.uk/index.cgi?action=news

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Zapata — 2006-12-31T02:26:39+00:00

The 1987 edition

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Zapata — 2006-12-31T01:34:39+00:00

2006 edition (book), also signed by Debord's lifetime partner Alice Becker-Ho