Ben Madison's Games: Designer Spotlight - The Players' Aid

[@donatist59]

Thanks for the publicity! Glad you're enjoying my games. I've been out of the game designing loop for a while (working full-time, and getting banned for life from Board Game Geek for being a Christian, a historian, or both). But the second edition of Death in the Trenches is coming out from Compass Games this year (it's a strategic World War I game, the whole war in all theaters) and I am working on a second edition of Mound Builders with co-designer Wes Erni. Tabletop Tycoon will be publishing that sometime this year or next. And White Dog is getting ready for me to submit a new States-of-Siege type strategic game on World War I where you play the Central Powers. So keep watching this space!

[@grantkleinhenz6789]

Thanks for the update Ben! Keep those games coming and I will play them all. I am currently dabbling with The White Tribe on my table and hope to get it played and reviewed in the next month or so.

[@donatist59]

Just posting a follow-up. Glad you like the approach I took in Mound Builders and The Mission -- I'm working on a similar type of game with White Dog Games right now called "Gift of the Nile: The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt." Same premise: You build your empire and then defend it from attack. Hope to be done sometime in late 2022!

[@grantkleinhenz6789]

I just purchased this one Ben and it is on the way as I write this. Still need to play Global War a few more times.

[@donatist59]

@grantkleinhenz6789 Sounds fantastic! Gift of the Nile was 75% done before I got "distracted" by Global War....

[@lmad9153]

Might be time for your top States of Siege games!?

[@rockhopper01]

I never thought I was a States of Siege fan, but man, Jeff Davis and The Mission are just so solid. I also have Don’t Tread on Me but I’ve not gotten far into that one just yet.

[@denroy3]

Don't know how I missed this vid. "Don't Tread on Me" is my first game of his...have some other lined up. 'White Tribe' peaks my interest, but Mound Buliders I'm trying to obtain...being from Mobile, Alabama, the Mound builders have a special spot.

[@davidwarren3221]

I've got Jeff Davis and loved it, very challenging...They also have a semi-mounted board also for that

[@Djmeeple]

Excellent! Great games for sure. I still need to pick up Jeff Davis.

[@steveoh9285]

Ben Madison is an excellent designer who is not afraid to tackle tough subjects. The Mission from White Dog games is awesome!

[@donatist59]

Thanks for the compliment -- those tough subjects got me banned from Board Game Geek unfortunately! 😞

[@donatist59]

@@Spearca Thanks for pulling aside the mysterious curtain that shields BGG's inner sanctum from public scrutiny. At least now I know something about the rationale behind my lifetime ban, a rationale they never bothered to tell me. Perhaps you are a BGG employee and have knowledge of their inner workings. Perhaps you are Octavian himself. So now that you've raised these issues publicly, let me address them. > You were banned because, in the course of arguments about the historical accuracy of The First Jihad All these arguments deserve to be just that -- arguments about history, backed up by evidence. One critic raised one criticism that was valid, a question about the etymology of the word "dhimmi", where the source I quoted appears to have been in error. If I were still on BGG, of course, I could address that issue there. Instead, as you point out, these issues are not really about history at all but about ideology. > you made comments that were understood as representing a general prejudice against Muslims The "community guidelines" are incredibly vague, and thus subject to arbitrary enforcement. Is all criticism of an ideology considered "general prejudice" against all people holding that ideology? If so, I am generally prejudiced against National Socialists, homophobes, Christian fundamentalists, climate change deniers, anti-vaxxers, free market economists, and a host of other adherents to a wide variety of ideologies. But I am pretty sure that such "bigotry" on my part would not result in a lifetime ban from BGG. Only certain protected ideologies are defended, and apparently fundamentalist Islam is one of those special categories of protected ideology. Naturally, if the community standards clearly said "Expression of opinions against fundamentalist Islam will not be tolerated," I could have avoided doing so. But the idea that criticism of the conduct of the Umayyad Caliphate in the 7th century constitutes "prejudice against all Muslims" is insane. > the final straw of which, for Octavian, was you calling a Muslim BGG user "Islamic Jihad." You'll have to show me exactly where I am alleged to have done this because I don't remember doing it. At any rate, the term "jihad" according to Muslim apologists simply means a personal striving to be a better person. Why should a Muslim object to being labeled by this word when they use it themselves? > Reading along in the relevant threads, I had thought that was an odd moment to choose to ban you. Well I hope you don't get banned for saying that. > But you did seem to react badly to good criticism from players like Bulut Güner, Chris Cooper, and Alberto Cairo, who perhaps liked the game mechanically, but found your commentary, often about modern Islam, in game materials weirdly hostile and out of place. Those same critics, especially Güner, made some completely absurd historical comments that were indefensible, and I corrected them. For example, the idea that the Crusades were somehow a vastly larger and vastly more significant historical event than the Islamic conquests they were meant to contest. The Crusades were pinpricks compared to the massive and unrelenting and ultimately almost completely successful world-shattering assault that the Islamic conquests represented. Another ridiculous point was that the game somehow promoted the "stereotype" that Islam was spread by the sword -- a claim that the game itself specifically goes out of its way to deny, at least in terms of the Umayyad Caliphate which purposefully did NOT "spread Islam by the sword" because it relied on an economy where non-Muslims were taxed to promote the Caliphate, and where the Caliphate would have lost revenue if it had converted its taxpaying non-Muslims into non-taxpaying Muslims. The conflict between the Jizya tax system on the one hand, and the "conversion by the sword" model advanced by the Abbasids and later Islamic empires, is a key theme in the game. > Even your co-designer Wes Erni agreed that you have a particular antipathy toward Islam. And he's absolutely right, but as I said above, nothing in the deliberately vague community standards at BGG clearly says "you can attack 21st century Christians for being Crusaders but you can't attack 7th century Muslims for believing in Jihad." As for contemporary Islam, the only comment I made on the subject was that there is an ideological thread connecting modern phenomena such as ISIS with ideological foundations laid in the 7th century. Does anyone seriously dispute that fact? Of course not -- but it is embarrassing to contemporary Islam so it must be ruled out of the conversation.

[@HissyCat]

Thanks for the deep dive on Ben's games.

[@hanng1242]

RE: Nubia - "Metropolitan." A "Metropolitan" isn't a travelling priest. It is an archbishop. For the Catholics, group of dioceses close to each other form an ecclesiastical province, and the bishop of the most important and/or oldest diocese is an archbishop - the bishop of his see and the "metropolitan" of the province. The Archbishop doesn't have any jurisdictional authority over the other bishops in the province, so he is sort of a prima inter pares For example, the oldest Roman Catholic diocese in the United States is the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Within that Ecclesiastical Province, are all the dioceses in Maryland, Delaware, Virginia and West Virginia - the dioceses of Arlington, Richmond, Wilmington and Wheeling-Charleston (Washington, DC has been spun-off into its own archdiocese). The same organizational system exists as well in the Orthodox Church, although I think only the Russian Church and those born from her use "metropolitan" as a title. In the United States, there are three major Orthodox jurisdictions - the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, and the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America; the latter two are provinces within the Patriarchates of Constantinople and Antioch, respectively. The OCA grew out of the Russian Orthodox "Metropolia" starting in Alaska and moving down into the continental United States (officially, this self-governing part of the Moscow Patriarchate was named, confusingly, the "Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church," which is why everyone referred to it as the "Metropolia"). Although this is disputed by the other two jurisdictions, the OCA claims to the the autocephalous Church in North America, which they received from Moscow in 1970. Currently, the head of the OCA is Metropolitan Tikhon, Abp. of Washington, DC. While the Roman Empire existed, there were five "patriarchates" - Rome, Constantinople, Alexandra, Antioch and Jerusalem. Later, Moscow declared itself a patriarchate, and since the territory of all four of the eastern patriarchates was occupied by the Muslims, nobody could really complain because Moscow was the de facto head of the Orthodox Church. There were (and still are) patriarchates east of the former Roman Empire in the former Persian Empire and in India (the Oriental Orthodox and the Nestorians). These patriarchs use the title "Catholicos." Two patriarchs use the title "Pope" - those of Rome and Alexandria. The current Coptic (Oriental Orthodox) Patriarch of Alexandria is Pope Theodore II. The Nubian Church was a daughter of the Church of Alexandria (as was the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, granted autocephaly from Alexandria in 1959).

[@grantkleinhenz6789]

Thanks for the clarification.

[@josephgavinsyverson]

Great video! Loving the videos treating just one designer or just one topic (like the French and Indian War video).

[@przemekbozek]

An excellent idea Grant, really enjoyed the walkthrough of the different games by the same designer. Who's next? Mark Herman? :D

[@dexterbudd1589]

Jeff Davis and the Mission sounds like the name of a controversial blues band. Great vid! I highly recommend The White Tribe and Mrs Thatchers war if you haven’t played them already, I imagine Mrs Thatchers War might appeal to Alexander.

[@vincec5260]

Great! Ben Madison is emerging as one of my fave game designers :) :)

[@scotthansen5989]

I had fun playing "Don't Tread on Me". I played it 5 times and grew tired of it. It was worth the money. I've played Jeff Davis once. I agree with you it's a long game. I look forward to trying it again.

[@grantkleinhenz6789]

I think that with both Don't Tread on Me and Jeff Davis there is some level of fatigue because they are long and involved games. I usually play them for 45 minutes, mark my spot on the turn sequence and come back later when I am refreshed, sometimes a few days later.

[@hanng1242]

As an American, I like "Don't Tread on Me" because if I win, I win; if I lose, I still win.

[@twarnken]

I want to get Mound Builders someday. I’m interested in the theme and I enjoy the SoS system.

[@donatist59]

Tabletop Tycoon, who now own the VPG line, are working with me and Wes to come up with a new edition of Mound Builders. No release date in sight yet however.

[@jasbal1737]

Thank you for this video Grant - excellent as always. You're responsible for me buying 4 of these games! :-)

[@MyOwnWorstEnemy]

Awesome designer of solitaire games! I'm also looking forward to Death in the Trenches (2nd ed) from Compass Games. Great video, Grant!

[@neeleyfolk]

Mound Builders is one of my favorite games. Great history text on the cards, hoping to visit some mound sites one day. You really need to build your economy and empire in the Hopewell Era, protect that economy & empire in the Mississipi Era (maybe even advance both) before the Spanish come, and as they did historically they show no mercy in their invasion. The Mission also looks good, any one have more info on it?

[@michaelstearnesstearnes1498]

Thanks for the review Grant. I'm very fond of the States of Siege type of games. Just got Soviet Dawn. It's a real struggle but am gaining more insight into the strategy. Have you done a review or playthrough as yet?

[@ThePlayersAid]

There's a full review and a separate playthrough on our channel, yes!

[@donatist59]

@@ThePlayersAid You can really wreck the historicity of the Russian Revolution by playing hard on those silly political objectives but other than that it is a solid simulation of the Russian Civil War that I really enjoy playing. Very good game.

[@strelnikoff1632]

Interesting video. I live about 10 miles from the Etowah Mounds in NW Ga (one of the locations on the game map). Come down sometime and I will give you a tour.

[@donatist59]

Etowah is an amazing site!

[@mikewilcox4346]

I have three of Mr. Madison’s games: White Tribe, Gorbachev and Don’t Tread on Me. They are interesting themes. He really could use a good art person and better components. Some of the maps are pretty awful frankly. Other than Gorbachev I find I don’t get them to the table too often. Jeff Davis looks interesting, but I will wait on that one. Look forward to your play through of that.

[@JohnPywtorak]

White Dog is not a fantastic publisher, sorry Grant I disagree. They have very poor trade / resale value since they practice gate keeping digital content, exclusive to the purchaser. Great for the purchaser of the game until they may want to trade or sell. Don’t have room for a large collection, so trade and resale is a healthy thing I and many others do with their games. White Dog and others unfortunately lock content to the original purchase. I would not buy any used games from White Dog and it makes me purchase much much less if any from them. I want to, games look fantastic. This is not the same for Compass, Draco, SNAFU, Worthington, etc. Notice White Dog is completely absent from the public Vassal.

[@grantkleinhenz6789]

No worries about disagreeing. I think your concern is valid but I don't believe it makes them a bad publisher. Just small and maybe a bit behind in certain areas.

[@JohnPywtorak]

@@grantkleinhenz6789 thanks Grant, truly appreciate you guys and your thoughts. To be clear you called them fantastic and bad, I didn’t. Are they an ok publisher, maybe, but could they be better, yes. When you say fantastic publisher in a video, it refers to the business for viewers. We do not have the relationships you have to the people or the games. So, be careful, do you mean the people and games are fantastic, support of the channel by sending review copies, or the business is and how it opperates? I would argue the business is hostile to the consumer. I know that may hurt and be harsh, but when they don’t engage as a business the community nor trust in their consumer instead of assume they will pirate, that is not friendly nor fantastic. Other publishers do the exact opposite, engage the community everywhere, including BGG, TTS, Vassal, PDF’s, etc all so I can get the most out of any physical purchase. This includes being able to trade the game or sell it. Please note it is not only White Dog that is behind the times, there are some others.

[@grantkleinhenz6789]

@@JohnPywtorak Hey John I purchase most of my games from White Dog. I still stand by that I love their games and think they are a great publisher. I also do this as a hobby and don't edit these videos so you get what I put out there. No idea how you would consider them hostile. But thanks for your comments.