Month: March 2026

Interested in a free advance reader copy of my upcoming fantasy novella: Francois He and the River of Spices?

by

A MAGITECH FANTASY NOVELLA

Francois He is a war hero who never wants to pick up a gun again. Civilian life, building marvels with the power of Fog, suits him fine.

So when the distant republic of Platinea offers him a job, Francois jumps at it. Introduce Fog technology, collect his fees, and enjoy the seafood. Easiest money he’ll make in his life.

But he’s barely digested dinner when rebels storm the capital. And the desperate Platineans draft the most seasoned commander they can find: him.

From the grimy docks of the capital to a command barge on the River of Spices, from the salons of the palace to a war camp in the highlands, Francois must turn a mob into an army, deploy Fog on a budget, and outwit a charismatic warlord who really, really loves his job.

FOR FANS OF GEORGE MACDONALD FRASER’S FLASHMAN, LOIS MCMASTER BUJOLD’S VORKOSIGAN, AND DJANGO WEXLER

Hi, everyone. A couple of weeks ago I mentioned I was working on a novella, due for launch soon. Well, check out the gorgeous cover and blurb (above)!

I am targeting a launch in early May, and if you’d like a free advance reader copy (ARC) before that, you can sign up here.

This has been a long journey — I started writing the first draft on 31 December 2024, well over a year ago, and it builds on a fantasy world I have incubated on and off for nearly 20 years. It draws on a very, very wide pool of inspirations, everything from historical adventure fiction to real-world history to RPGs and tactics games (including some I’ve written about on this site).

Whether you sign up for an ARC now, or check back once the novella is out and available to buy (expect to hear back from me in May!), I hope you will enjoy it.

Clippings: Old World DLC, 1990s strategy re-release, roguelite deckbuilders, science fiction

by




Hi, everyone.

The upcoming release of Old World’s new DLC, “Empires of the Indus”, has crept up on me (30 March!). This is a fully-fledged expansion to what I still consider the best, most original, and most tightly designed historical 4X game there is. It adds three new nations (the Maurya, Yuezhi aka Kushans, and Tamilakam), new religions, a new tribe (the Huns), new wonders, and more. I think once it’s out, that will be my opportunity to start a new Old World game, although I might just have to turn down the difficulty while I get back into practice…

Also due out soon (April) is the Steam re-release of a 1990s strategy game, Machiavelli: the Prince (from the same developers as Emperor of the Fading Suns). This is a merchant/trading strategy game set in the Italian Renaissance with a unique mechanic: instead of the world map being totally blank when you begin the game, it’s rough and inaccurate. I enjoyed the 15-turn demo and look forward to picking up the full game.

I’m still slowly playing the excellent Pokopia, where I alternate between progressing the story and taking time to improve the towns where my Pokemon live: roads, stairs, street lights, houses, hot springs, and more. Between this, my recent Anno 117 playthrough, and my annual revisits of Anno 1800, I have the germ of an idea for an article about the balance between free-form vs structured goals for the player in builder games…

I’ve also picked up two roguelite deckbuilders: the Early Access Slay the Spire 2 (I game over… a lot) and Monster Train 2, both sequels to earlier games that I really enjoyed. I find the Monster Train games notable for being less punishing to new players than others in the genre — it’s encouraging to be able to win on the basic difficulty!

A final note is that while my fantasy and science fiction reading has been a little dry of late (the most recent books in the genre I read being Malka Older’s Infomocracy and Null State back in February — fascinating novels set in a world where nation-states have been replaced by 100,000-person “micro-democracies”), the movie adaptation of Project Hail Mary is well worth a look as a science fiction adventure with a sense of humour and a big heart.

Enjoying this site? Subscribe to updates here:

Clippings: Pokopia, digital board games, what else I’ve been playing

by

Hi, everyone. It’s been a busy few months in real life, but I will try to write more here!

My newest find is Pokopia, a Pokemon-themed block-building game for Switch 2. Longtime readers will recall my love for Dragon Quest Builders 2, which fused block-building mechanics with the overarching structure of an RPG (go to new zones, complete quests to unlock the next zone) and an endearing cast of sidekicks. Pokopia is a spiritual successor, in which the player builds towns, habitats (and houses!) for Pokemon. I love the combination of exploration and freeform building, and vastly prefer it to the aimlessness of Animal Crossing. It is very well regarded (Metacritic/Opencritic scores of 89) and as I write this, is currently at the top of the Switch 2 charts.

I’ve also been spending a lot of time with digital board games on Steam lately. Special shout-out to Dune: Imperium, which combines strategy with brevity: a game against the computer takes less than an hour. I’ve also been playing zookeeping game Ark Nova (don’t be fooled by the cosy theme; it is deeper, crunchier, and against the computer, a lot harder than the cute animals would make you think) and Tokaido (themed around travel in Edo Japan, it’s not the world’s deepest game, but is possibly the most wholesome).

Other than that, I’ve been playing a mix of:

  •  2025 releases such as Mario Kart World and the — I would argue — underrated Civ VII. The excellent (if evolutionary) Anno 117 is currently on break, pending the release of the season 1 DLC. Hades II is also on break; one of these days I’ll clear that pesky surface route…
  • Older releases. Starting last year I spent a lot of time with Rimworld, a game I had previously bounced off a few years ago. This time the trick was explicitly playing it as a story simulator rather than a survival experience: beginning with a much more generous custom start and using a character editor to customise every single starting and newly recruited character. Following Terra Invicta’s 1.0 launch I also began a third playthrough… although an alien offensive has put me on the back foot.

A final note is that I’ve been spending a lot of my writing time on fiction. I expect to release a novella in the next couple of months, so watch this space…