Foxes and Lions: Renaissance City-States in the Age of Machiavelli

Join the Silicon Valley Archives in welcoming cultural historian Paul Wright to discuss his forthcoming board game from GMT Games, Foxes and Lions: Renaissance City-States in the Age of Machiavelli, on Wednesday, October 21st at 4pm.

Foxes and Lions (co-designed with Liz Davidson) is a richly historical “sandbox game” in the same series as GMT’s Here I Stand, Virgin Queen, and Tanto Monta—each of which covers a different aspect of 15th or 16th century Europe. While most games in the series have a broader canvas, Foxes and Lions focuses specifically on the Italian Wars during the period 1494-1527, both in Italy proper and in the Venetian colonies of the Balkans; this is the period stretching from the rise of Friar Savonarola to the notorious Sack of Rome. Five players take on the roles of five key political protagonists identified by Machiavelli in The Prince—the Republic of Venice, the Duchy of Milan, the Republic of Florence, the Kingdom of Naples, and the Papacy.

In part, the game exists to put the emphasis on Italian experiences of the Italian Wars, an emphasis lacking in most wargames on the period, which often devolve into narratives of “greater powers” like France and Spain. In Foxes and Lions, players are fundamentally underdogs in a precarious environment, and while strenuously competing with one another, they must also beware of non-player antagonists among the “great powers” of the era, which include France, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, and the Ottoman Empire. In fact, players may even lose collectively to the great powers and find “Italian virtù” exhausted by external threats, much as Machiavelli had warned throughout his writings—and what was arguably the ultimate outcome of the historical conflicts.

Foxes and Lions also promises to be the first board game to honor the full range and dynamism of Machiavelli’s writings, including the Discourses on Livy, Florentine Histories, The Art of War, and more. The game also includes the colorful, talented, and controversial condottieri—the captains independently contracted to lead various powers’ troops and their own mercenaries. In this light, the game interrogates (rather than simply accepts) Machiavelli’s condemnation of mercenaries and their captains, bound as that was to his celebration of citizen militias as preferable alternatives for both their patriotism and their capacity for instilling civic virtues, especially in republics. The game also explores the role of diverse political systems in the Italian political sphere (including merchant republics, princedoms, feudal aristocracies, and theocracies), as well as how Machiavelli’s ideas about popular sentiment reflect his deeper concerns with the precarity of all political arrangements.

In his talk, Wright will explore the decade-long genesis of Foxes and Lions as a product of a career dedicated to teaching and researching Machiavelli, as well as the inspiration afforded the game by scholars ranging from John Pocock to Albert Ascoli, John Najemy, Anthony Grafton, and many others. He will also discuss how the game navigates the difficult yet essential space somewhere between historical simulation and ludic sandbox that allows for counterfactual outcomes. He will also address the broader role of game-based learning and games as historical inquiry, as well as how these growing traditions have shaped the evolution of Foxes and Lions.