Shooting the Chit: DJing Your Next Wargame

When it comes time to lay down a map and set up a title, it is more than a game. It’s an exercise in historical study, a narrative framework from which I can synthesize and explore different historical outcomes and examine how certain rulesets reflect our understanding of previous conflicts. And when the dice start rolling, nothing sets the mood better than a proper soundtrack.

Now, tastes in music range wildly and I love my usual genre fare but I prefer music that establishes an appropriate atmosphere, something cinematic and engrossing. Depending on the game topic, I lean heavily on film and video game scores congruent with the setting and time period. I rarely use diegetic or contemporary music from the era but their are, of course, exceptions (notably for American Civil War or Napoleonics).

Listed below is the collection of playlists I have made over the years covering most of my games. Even if the specific titles or scores don’t correspond with the subject matter, I used tracks that helped establish a particular mood for the game. There are plenty of duplicates between them as the same score can be used in several different settings but I think most are distinct and different enough to warrant so many. Hope you enjoy!

The Second World War