We’ve discussed general strategy tips for Julius Caesar (Grant Dalgliesh/Justin Thompson, Columbia Games). One area that deserves closer scrutiny are the God cards. They are enticing, but best used in moderation. Which begs the question: Which of them are almost must-use cards and which the more disappointing of the divine bunch? Thus, I’ll rank them in ascending order, laying out how to use the card best and why I rank it how I rank it. Today, we begin at the seventh and lowest rung of the ladder… quite fittingly, that’s Pluto.

If you want to read more posts like this strategy post – for example, the next six posts on God cards in Julius Caesar – I strongly recommend you subscribe to the blog: All new posts in your inbox right when they go live!

What does the card do?

Pluto allows you to exceed the usual movement limits per road (only if you attack): You can move six blocks on a major road (instead of the usual four), three on a minor road (instead of two) and two across a strait (instead of one).

What would be the best uses?

This card can be useful for a bigger attack than planned – either to bring overwhelming force against a tough enemy stronghold or to force lightly defended straits.

Why is it bad?

In itself, the Pluto card is nothing but a 1 Move/0 Levy card which lets you go first. And the big attacks it promises are mostly a mirage:

Whenever you gather six blocks for a huge Pluto attack on the next card, you might as well tell your opponent with a megaphone that you hold the card. So, they can either prepare for the attack (usually by recruiting more defenders or moving reinforcements to the threatened area), or cancel it altogether by playing a God card of their own. In any case, you should probably not play Pluto as the last card of a year, because if you win the battle, you are likely to be left with too many blocks for the stacking limit.

Forcing a strait with two instead of one blocks runs into the problem that your opponent will likely have more forces nearby: If they defend the Hellespont/Bosphorus they can just reinforce the attacked space with whichever defender they had in the other space. If they defend the Straits of Messina, they can usually pull troops from Syracuse or Neapolis.

Is there a silver lining?

Yes – you can use Pluto when you suspect your opponent will play a God card themselves to cancel that card (as with all God cards). And you can use it if you desperately need to go first on a given turn for one move (for example, to run away with a damaged leader block).

How do you feel about Pluto? Similarly unenthused as I – or are you a plutophile, a plutomaniac, a plutocrat? What are your best tricks to use the card? Let me know in the comments!

We haven’t had a strategy post for some time here! Let’s do one on a classic – but one I only discovered two years ago: Julius Caesar (Grant Dalgliesh/Justin Thompson, Columbia Games), the block wargame on the Roman Civil War between Julius Caesar and Pompey. As per usual, we follow the structure of three basic tips which new and intermediate players can easily remember. First, we look at the low-hanging fruit of the early game, then at how to keep or gain initiative in the mid-game, and finally, there will even be spiritual advice.

If you want to read more posts like this strategy post – for example my upcoming deep dives on the God cards in Julius Caesar, I strongly recommend you subscribe to the blog: All new posts in your inbox right when they go live!

Race for the East

The victory conditions in Julius Caesar are straightforward: Have 10 victory points (VP) at the end of any year or more VP than your opponent at the end of the full five years of war. Absent the rare VP from a leader kill, these come from the control of victory cities on the board (up to 13). At the beginning, Pompeius controls cities worth 7 VP, Caesar only Massilia for 1 VP. That leaves five VPs in vacant cities: As it is much easier to take empty cities than those defended by your opponent, these should be your focus for the first year.

2 VP come from Rome, which Caesar must take and hold early (which shouldn’t be a problem for the plethora of Caesarian legions nearby). That leaves the 3 VP from three cities in the Greek-speaking East (Athens, Byzantium, and Ephesus) as the first spaces of contention between the players. Either should send an army there early, and make it strong enough not to be swatted away by the other. Especially when you use the Free Deployment, you can try to position yourself for the rush to the east. Try out a few different deployments, maybe with navis (ships) in different ports to reach cities by sea – or block your opponents from doing so. Which brings us to…

Win Naval Superiority

Once the front lines are drawn, ships become even more important. As defenders have the combat advantage of dealing hits first when battle priorities (ranging from A to D) are tied, defending is a lot easier than attacking in Julius Caesar. Successful attacks thus hinge on local superiority, and ships are the way to achieve it:

• You can transport your land forces amphibically much further than they could march on land. Instead of bashing your head against a well-prepared defensive position, your amphibious force can go ashore where the enemy is weakest.
• Instead of being limited to however many troops you can march into battle by road (four on a main road, two on the regular roads), the ships can join attacks on port cities and give you the boost needed to overcome the defenders.

Whoever has naval superiority thus usually decides where the action happens. You should gain it, or at least deny it to your opponent.

Don’t Overdo It With the Gods

Yes, I know. The God cards look great. Surprise attack with Mars! Bonus movement with Mercury! Volcanic eruption with, well, Vulcan! They are, however, not always better than the regular move/levy cards, and the more you have of them, the less flexible you are. So: One God card is fine (although I have sometimes discarded the only God card I was dealt). Two are a lot, and you should strongly consider discarding one of them. If you are ever dealt three, curse your luck and discard one for sure.

Over the next weeks, I’ll add a few more specific thoughts on the God cards. Watch this space.

Which tricks do you use to win at Julius Caesar? Let me know in the comments!

2026, what a year. Here’s what my board gaming looked like in the first half of it.

Let’s start with a statistical overview (as of June 30):

• I’ve played 20 different games (slightly down compared to last year at this point).
• Only 3 of them were new to me (massively down compared to last year’s 9).
• These 23 games resulted in a total of 57 plays (slightly up compared to last year)
• The month in which I played most games was June (with 16 plays), the months with the fewest plays April and May (5 each).
• Of the 23 different games, 8 are historical. These account for 29 of the plays (half the games, around three quarters of the plays compared to last year).
• 7 of the plays were solo (up from last year’s single play).
• 31 of the 57 plays were digital, continuing the strong digital bent of 2025.

The changes are partially due to a changed event schedule – I did not attend any conventions this year, so I played fewer new and fewer historical games.

Here are some of the games I enjoyed most this year so far:

Pax Pamir (Cole Wehrle, Wehrlegig Games)

As said, I didn’t play a lot of new games this year. But among them, Pax Pamir is the absolute standout. Cole Wehrle’s first design is a thoughtful exploration of the roles of small power brokers having to deal with big ones, skillfully seizing opportunities and avoiding pitfalls, using loyalty and betrayal as necessary tools in their struggle for security and power. It is also an incredibly clever game blending planning, chaos, and negotiation into a tight, low-scoring affair which usually sees several players reaching for victory until the very end.

At eight plays, Pax Pamir is my most-played game so far this year. I predict a few more plays will follow – facilitated by the excellent digital implementation at Rally the Troops!

Imperial Struggle (Ananda Gupta/Jason Matthews, GMT Games)

New discoveries are great. So are re-discoveries. I was enamored with Imperial Struggle in 2022, getting it to the table (and to Vassal) a few times. Since then, however, I hadn’t played it a single time… until it came to Rally the Troops! this year.

With that, I got in no fewer than seven plays. I delight in the diplomatic, economic, and military opportunities all over the globe and despair when my opponent snatches a key advantage. I carefully plan out the investment tile selection, but sometimes I go with my intuition about what’s the area of contest in which my play will have the biggest impact. And I love both the sheer might of the French juggernaut and the plucky resilience of the British underdog.

If you have also started (or re-started) playing Imperial Struggle and need some strategic pointers, have a look at my strategy post! And if you need the right music to play in the background, here’s my immersive playlist of period tunes.

Julius Caesar (Grant Dalgliesh/Justin Thompson, Columbia Games)

A game which I had only played online (also on Rally the Troops!) before… but finally, I had the chance to break out my physical copy! I must say, it is a very different experience – the perfect documentation of the digital implementation allows for a lot more analytic play. On the board, you need to rely on your memory – and on your intuition, which suits the bluffing-heavy style of the game anyway.

In our game, I led the Caesarian forces against the Pompeians of a newcomer. Antony and Pompey clashed aggressively in Italia; Scipio and Caesar in Asia. All four leaders barely survived their initial battles. After Antony had chased Pompey out of Italia, he rested on his laurels… but old Pompey still had some fight in him and returned with a fresh legion and some elephants to retake Rome! When the Caesarian advance in Hispania was turned into a rout by Jupiter’s divine intervention, Pompey won after only three years of civil war – also proving how accessible the game is to new players who are not burdened with too much rules overhead and can just focus on their schemes and ruses!

The Legends of Andor: The Eternal Frost (Michael Menzel, KOSMOS)

Games are fundamentally about people. Legends of Andor is a great series of cooperative games, but I am under no illusions that its main staying power for me comes from with whom I’ve been playing it: My good friends F. and M. started the Andor base game with me in 2014, and since then, it has become one of the mainstays for the three of us – and, since F. died in 2020, for M. and me. We have been steadily playing through the main series and have just finished the fourth big box instalment The Eternal Frost – the first one which M. and I played entirely without F. Legends of Andor is a game, but it is also a celebration and commemoration of our friendship. I can’t wait to start the next instalment: Legenden von Andor: Das ferne Land (The Distant Land – as far as I know, there won’t be an English edition).

What was remarkable about your 2026 gaming so far? Let me know in the comments!

Games + History = Life.

Here are the three that gave me most life this year!

You can read all of the Farewell 2025 posts here:

• Farewell 2025 – New-to-Me Games!
• Farewell 2025 – Historical Fiction!
• Farewell 2025 – Non-Historical Games!
• Farewell 2025 – Historical Non-Fiction!
• Farewell 2025 – Historical Games!
• Farewell 2025 – Best on the Blog!

Time of Crisis (Wray Ferrell/Brad Johnson, GMT Games)

I love a good ancient game. The Greeks and Romans provide not only ample literary and archaeological sources (which are the basis for any decent scholarship, and consequently, for games which take their history seriously), but also the right touch of drama to go with it. Yet while everyone know about the drama of the Greeks defying the Persian Empire or Rome’s struggle with Hannibal, late antiquity gets short shrift in popular media, games included. Time of Crisis does its part to remedy that, shedding light on the crisis of the third century in the Roman Empire which saw no fewer than 19 emperors in the fifty years the game covers (with several dozen co-emperors, emperors of secessionist empires, and anti-emperors who never gained legitimacy on top).

Time of Crisis is by no means a simulation. However, it does give you an idea of the sheer chaos of civil war, external invasions, social and economic upheaval, and quasi-constant usurpation… and it does so in a very entertaining way, daring you to wreck the Roman Empire in an enjoyable short evening.

Julius Caesar (Grant Dalgliesh/Justin Thompson, Columbia Games)

Did I say I love ancient games? Here’s exhibit B.

Julius Caesar takes two players to the final years of the Roman Republic, when Caesar and Pompey struggled for mastery of Rome. While the rules are the same for both sides, they play very differently: Caesar commands high-quality veterans of his Gallic campaigns, concentrated in Gaul (both transalpine and cisalpine), whereas Pompey’s more numerous, but greener troops are spread out all over the Mediterranean. Caesar will thus have an edge attacking… and attack he must, as the initial score (measured by control of objective cities) is 7-1 in Pompey’s favor.

That does not mean, though, that Pompey is only digging in. Pre-emptive movements to take victory cities and move to more defensible positions are indispensable, and the edge of Caesar’s attacks can often be blunted by spoiling attacks or distractions elsewhere… and should Caesar take the lead, Pompey must take more risks and go on the offensive anyway. Either way, Julius Caesar is always a thrilling experience.

And my favorite historical game of the year was…

Here I Stand (Ed Beach, GMT Games)

Here I Stand is no newcomer to these lists. In fact, it has been on there a record five times already, winning in 2018 and 2020. I guess that means that Here I Stand is doing a few things right… for example:

• Accessibility: Yes, I know. The game has a 48-page rulebook and takes all day. But for all that, as long as you have one person knowing the rules well, newbies can be eased into the game because the first turn is a bit of a “try out the mechanics of your faction” phase and there are several powers whose field of operations (geographical and thematical) is limited in the beginning (the Protestants, England, and the Ottomans). I played a six-player game early this year in which there were three newbies and they competed just fine.
• Diplomacy: A tricky thing in games. Some games only let you do all kinds of non-binding deals (and then people normally don’t do them because the stakes for betrayal are so high). Others only allow very specific, strictly binding things, which also restricts diplomacy a lot. Here I Stand has found the happy middle ground of making some things binding, but not others, and giving most powers something they can trade to any other power (sometimes only a juicy card event played in their favor).
• Ratching Up Tension: It’s no rocket science, but I love the way that Here I Stand makes the game tenser with every round. You need 25 VP to win, and most of them come from the control of “keys” (that is, objective cities) – so, whenever you gain one, another player loses one. Yet there are also other victory points which are permanent (ranging from winning a war over discovering something in the New World to disgracing an opponent debater)… and thus the overall VP count rises and rises, until “The Papacy might score 25 VP this round, let’s hold them back” has given way to “England, the Protestants, and the Ottomans might score 25 VP this round, and the Hapsburgs threaten a military auto-win”. It is exhilarating!
• The Big Picture: Here I Stand has a thousand little pieces (literally and figuratively) – Tyndale, the translator of the English bible, the conquest of the Incas, the corsairs of Algiers. Yet all these little stones form a magnificent mosaic. Playing the game you will realize how things that you never connected in your mind influenced each other – for example, if Tyndale holds his own in the difficult early stages of English Protestantism, that might encourage the Papacy and the Hapsburgs to end the intra-Catholic war with France. The Hapsburgs might then invest more in the New World, and a successful conquest might give them the means to take the offensive in the Mediterranean against the corsairs and fleets under the banner of the Ottoman sultan. I love when a game makes these connections.

And what were the historical board games that you most enjoyed this year? Let me know in the comments!

Games + History = Life.

Here are the three that gave me most life this year!

You can read all of the Farewell 2025 posts here:

• Farewell 2025 – New-to-Me Games!
• Farewell 2025 – Historical Fiction!
• Farewell 2025 – Non-Historical Games!
• Farewell 2025 – Historical Non-Fiction!
• Farewell 2025 – Historical Games!
• Farewell 2025 – Best on the Blog!

Time of Crisis (Wray Ferrell/Brad Johnson, GMT Games)

I love a good ancient game. The Greeks and Romans provide not only ample literary and archaeological sources (which are the basis for any decent scholarship, and consequently, for games which take their history seriously), but also the right touch of drama to go with it. Yet while everyone know about the drama of the Greeks defying the Persian Empire or Rome’s struggle with Hannibal, late antiquity gets short shrift in popular media, games included. Time of Crisis does its part to remedy that, shedding light on the crisis of the third century in the Roman Empire which saw no fewer than 19 emperors in the fifty years the game covers (with several dozen co-emperors, emperors of secessionist empires, and anti-emperors who never gained legitimacy on top).

Time of Crisis is by no means a simulation. However, it does give you an idea of the sheer chaos of civil war, external invasions, social and economic upheaval, and quasi-constant usurpation… and it does so in a very entertaining way, daring you to wreck the Roman Empire in an enjoyable short evening.

Julius Caesar (Grant Dalgliesh/Justin Thompson, Columbia Games)

Did I say I love ancient games? Here’s exhibit B.

Julius Caesar takes two players to the final years of the Roman Republic, when Caesar and Pompey struggled for mastery of Rome. While the rules are the same for both sides, they play very differently: Caesar commands high-quality veterans of his Gallic campaigns, concentrated in Gaul (both transalpine and cisalpine), whereas Pompey’s more numerous, but greener troops are spread out all over the Mediterranean. Caesar will thus have an edge attacking… and attack he must, as the initial score (measured by control of objective cities) is 7-1 in Pompey’s favor.

That does not mean, though, that Pompey is only digging in. Pre-emptive movements to take victory cities and move to more defensible positions are indispensable, and the edge of Caesar’s attacks can often be blunted by spoiling attacks or distractions elsewhere… and should Caesar take the lead, Pompey must take more risks and go on the offensive anyway. Either way, Julius Caesar is always a thrilling experience.

And my favorite historical game of the year was…

Here I Stand (Ed Beach, GMT Games)

Here I Stand is no newcomer to these lists. In fact, it has been on there a record five times already, winning in 2018 and 2020. I guess that means that Here I Stand is doing a few things right… for example:

• Accessibility: Yes, I know. The game has a 48-page rulebook and takes all day. But for all that, as long as you have one person knowing the rules well, newbies can be eased into the game because the first turn is a bit of a “try out the mechanics of your faction” phase and there are several powers whose field of operations (geographical and thematical) is limited in the beginning (the Protestants, England, and the Ottomans). I played a six-player game early this year in which there were three newbies and they competed just fine.
• Diplomacy: A tricky thing in games. Some games only let you do all kinds of non-binding deals (and then people normally don’t do them because the stakes for betrayal are so high). Others only allow very specific, strictly binding things, which also restricts diplomacy a lot. Here I Stand has found the happy middle ground of making some things binding, but not others, and giving most powers something they can trade to any other power (sometimes only a juicy card event played in their favor).
• Ratching Up Tension: It’s no rocket science, but I love the way that Here I Stand makes the game tenser with every round. You need 25 VP to win, and most of them come from the control of “keys” (that is, objective cities) – so, whenever you gain one, another player loses one. Yet there are also other victory points which are permanent (ranging from winning a war over discovering something in the New World to disgracing an opponent debater)… and thus the overall VP count rises and rises, until “The Papacy might score 25 VP this round, let’s hold them back” has given way to “England, the Protestants, and the Ottomans might score 25 VP this round, and the Hapsburgs threaten a military auto-win”. It is exhilarating!
• The Big Picture: Here I Stand has a thousand little pieces (literally and figuratively) – Tyndale, the translator of the English bible, the conquest of the Incas, the corsairs of Algiers. Yet all these little stones form a magnificent mosaic. Playing the game you will realize how things that you never connected in your mind influenced each other – for example, if Tyndale holds his own in the difficult early stages of English Protestantism, that might encourage the Papacy and the Hapsburgs to end the intra-Catholic war with France. The Hapsburgs might then invest more in the New World, and a successful conquest might give them the means to take the offensive in the Mediterranean against the corsairs and fleets under the banner of the Ottoman sultan. I love when a game makes these connections.

And what were the historical board games that you most enjoyed this year? Let me know in the comments!