Games about the Ancient World

Games about the Ancient World July 11, 2017

As I gear up to present Canon: The Card Game to game companies at Gen Con in August, I’ve been looking up more information about a variety of companies. If you have played Canon and have suggestions about companies that you think would be a good fit, please do let me know!

One company that came to my attention during this process unfortunately does not have a booth at Gen Con: GMT Games, which specializes in historical reenactment military games. One of their games is called Genesis: Empires and Kingdoms of the Ancient Middle East, and it is based on an earlier game of theirs, Pax Romana. It focuses on military interactions from Egypt across Canaan into Mesopotamia, including figures who impinged on the history of Israel. I am already starting to think of how it could be useful in helping students to understand the political, military, economic, and also religious history of these regions.

One game by Minion Games, Kingdom of Solomon, focuses on a time of peace, which is thus rather different. But then there is the game Kings of Israel, which focuses on eliminating idolatry as the way to keep the Assyrians from destroying your kingdom. And so I could easily envisage having students play Kings of Israel and Genesis, and by way of comparison realize that what the Biblical prophets and texts were doing was interpreting events that almost certainly would have transpired anyway, through the lens of their own religious and ethical convictions.

blogged about Chris Heard’s SBL presentation about a couple of these games at SBL last year. Have any other blog readers played any of these games, especially those from GMT Games? If so, I’d really love your thoughts about them.

There are several videos on YouTube that will give you more information, including examples of play, about many of these games. Scroll down below the videos for images of the covers of the games and links to more information about playing and purchasing them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGObwXtfHZ0


Browse Our Archives