Postcards of war

As I’ve mentioned in the past, I’ve found Battle Card Market Garden an interesting little work. The game really plays itself but it’s an interesting to show Operation Marker Garden on a post card.

Looking into it a bit more, I quickly learned it was from the Postcards From the Front game design jam. (Not a contest!)  (https://itch.io/jam/postcards-from-the-front) It’s a collection of almost fifty postcard war games. They range from small scale hex-and-chit games to much more abstract interpretations of conflict.

While I am not really a war gamer by any stretch of the imagination, I still find this collection fascinating. Honestly , that’s just because the printing effort is one page per game and many of them are either solitaire or have solitaire options. 

I can’t decide if my interest in these small scale games is a compliment or an insult to war gaming. War gaming’s roots are in historical simulation and I assume post card games fall short of war college standard.

But I also have to admit that I’m not being fair to postcard games. Tactics and Strategy Magazine has been including a complete war game since 1967. And magazine inserts are clearly a step between World in Flames and postcard games.

Looking back, the first time I heard about postcard war games was Postcard From The Revolution, which came out in 2004. As a format, it may not have taken the world by storm but it’s stuck around for at least twenty years.

More than that, many of both the postcard games from the jam and other places I’ve seen are focused around specific historical events. Heck, one of the non-historic games about ants and termites was designed by an entomologist.

In short, if an educational component is something you are looking for in a war game, this jam has that. I have learned about the Great Emu War of 1932. I learned that Jose Garcia saved the Alhambra from being blown up. I found out Germans impulsively sacked Rome in 1527. Even if I never play any of the games, I’m learning stuff.

I don’t know if I will play any games from the Postcards from the Front jam but I have gotten plenty out of looking at it.

A blurry snapshot of Operation Market Garden

First off, I am not a war gamer. I have played war-themed games and I have played a few games that actually cross the line into what I think can honestly be called a war game but I don’t have the drive or interest to be what I could call a war gamer.

( would say that the definition of a true war game is realism. I mean, military colleges use war games to train folks about fighting actual battles. War games, at their ideal, are simulation. They may be asking what would happen if chaos marines were real but it really feels like the details are what define war games. Feel free to disagree)

But the brevity of Batrle Card: Market Garden has kept my eye on it. There are four locations and the game lasts six turns. (So, there really aren’t any details.)  it’s a postcard sided game with six markers so crafting it takes minimal work.

Then I saw someone made a web implementation of it. And that’s what it took for me to actually try the game lol

After I tried it a couple times, I looked at a review of the game. Jon Ericson wrote that the game was made up of forced decisions. You either decide to defend or attack at contested locations. You can move forward but only into allied controlled locations. And you have to make those movements or lose.

At the same time, Battle Card: Market Garden is still enjoyable. Part of the fun does come from the fact that it’s a five minute distraction. You don’t expect much from a postcard PnP that is six turns long.

But really, what makes Battle Card: Market Garden is interesting is rhe actual subject matter. Operation Market Garden is one of those fascinating pieces of history. If the Allie’s had managed to cross the Rhine and had a foothold n the other side, it would have changed the course of WW II. And this game gives you a snapshot of the event. A blurry, Polaroid snapshot but a snapshot none the less.

I’m not going to play Battle Card: Market Garden over and over. Being able to play it online means I won’t bother cutting out the counters for the physical game. (I do wonder if would work well in the classroom, given how short some students’ attention spans are) And I am glad I’ve finally tried it.