The Castle Herald No. III - September 2026

Only Castles Playing

Leviathan Wilds (Moon Crab Games, 2024): My poor friend who picked this had to suffer through my bad Forest Whitaker impression adapting Saw Gerrera's rhydo-influenced rant in Andor: "Leviathan! Leviathan Wilds!!" Regardless, it is a very fun climbing game where you are trying to help giant creatures that have harmful crystals growing on them. Your job is to leap around and break the crystals off.

Origin Story (Stonemaier Games, 2025): I've played this fun trick-taking superhero game a half dozen times now and it's definitely one of my favorites of the genre. The escalating powers work in similar ways to others, but it's altogether more clever. The reveal of your character makes the final round very tense, too.

This War of Mine (Ares Games, 2017): Another open-ended play of a game based on a video game based on the siege of Sarajevo. It's a survival game like Dead of Winter, but based in reality instead of zombies. Things feel a lot more visceral because of that: the need to make a heater or scavenge through buildings is easier to imagine when the characters you are playing are just normal people and their "enemies" are other normal people.

Faraway (Catch Up Games, 2023): This is essentially a tableau game but you build your tableau left to right, and then score it right to left after eight cards. It breaks your brain in a good way. The idea is that you are on a journey and are gathering supplies and friends to help you on your return trip.

Vijayanagara (GMT, 2024): Got a second play of the game in and I was again floundering as the Dehli Sultanate. The unique aspect of this 3 player game is that the Sultanate starts out in control and gets slowly hit on 3 fronts: the upstart Bahmani and Vijayanagara kingdoms as well as Mongol invaders from the northwest. And reader, it's hard to manage!

The British Way: Counterinsurgency at the End of Empire (GMT, 2023): My remote partner and I finished playing all 4 scenarios (twice!) in this box and we are now embarking on the End of Empire campaign mode. It's been a fantastic journey so far, allowing us to keep in touch and have interesting discussions along with the game play. We plan to play the campaign twice as well so we each get to experience both sides. Once done, it will mean I've played each scenario in this box 4 times. Times 4 scenarios, that's a lot of value from one game! I'm thinking a special article about the experience will be coming down the pike.

Only Castles Reading

A Trade of Blood by Robert Jackson Bennett (Del Rey, 2026): This series continues to be one of my favorites. This time, Ana and Din examine agriculture as a tool of empire and uncover a few secrets. Bennett has a way of looking at socioeconomic issues in fantasy that is thoughtful and poignant. Hope he writes many more of these!

A Resistance History of the United States by Tad Stoermer (Steerforth, 2026): I saw this in the book store one day and it was immediately intriguing. It's not an unbiased history book by any means and reads like a series of essays trying to demonstrate a point. I appreciate the balance he tries to keep and the individual chapters have so far been fascinating insights into how resistance plays out in early America.

The Twist of a Knife by Anthony Horowitz (Harper, 2022): Horowitz's meta detective series is one of the more consistently enjoyable crime stories, despite the lead characters both being a bit annoying. The author is basically Watson to a grumpy detective, but he makes himself incredibly dumb in the books, to the point where I'm questioning it logically. That said, they are smooth reads and I would recommend them as summer reads with a bite.

Only Castles Listening

WWOZ: As happens regularly, when I'm not listening to any albums or artists in particular, I turn on New Orleans' WWOZ and just listen to that. I love the traditional jazz show, but more and more I've been starting my mornings with the contemporary jazz morning set. There was a really special set the other week that introduced me to incredible songs by Tom Skinner ("The Journey") and the Five Corners Quintet ("Shake It," which absolutely rips).

Only Castles Watching

Sugar (Apple): Season 2 finale was great! I think this season was an improvement on the first, with a captivating story and an escalation of the twist from that season. Colin Farrell is incredible and it was fun to see Laura Donnelly again after just seeing her in Say Nothing. The thing that wows me about Sugar the most, though, is the cinematography. The best lighting of any show on the screen today, bar none. Absolutely beautiful show to watch.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day (Marvel): Loved it, but I have to say that the first two Tom Holland films are better in my mind simply because Peter Parker is a bit mopey in this one. Understandably so, but it is just jarring to me. The Punisher scenes were great, and I absolutely loved seeing Liza Colón-Zayas in this. Intrigued to see where they take Sadie Sink's character.

Lanterns (HBO): I was not all that interested in this until Damon Lindelof joined it and it started being described as a True Detective-style buddy cop drama. Lindelof + HBO is magic and I can definitely see his influence on the show, despite him not being the show runner. Very intrigued by the backstory mystery being developed over the course of the first three episodes. It actually does remind me of the way Watchmen unfolded.

The Bureau (Paramount): I've started watching the show after listening to how much The Watch loved it and its American remake The Agency. It's very captivating to see an intelligence show that is not American or British. The French are clearly underdogs in the worldwide intelligence game and they have to play a different game.

The Agency (Paramount): After finishing the first season of The Bureau, I decided to go back to The Agency and finish that season. My plan was to go back and forth between the two, but The Agency is so compelling, I rolled straight into the second season. I think the Bureau is excellent, and fully intend to return to it, but right now the combo of Jeffrey Wright and Richard Gere is what is pulling me to the Agency side. Additionally, the plot of season 2 of the American remake is following a topic I find interesting.