I find great irony in the fact that this pastime of wargaming is comforting and strangely soothing for my inner child. Simulated battles in a grimdark universe with lore drenched in zealotry, bigotry, and a universal need for conquest as a primary means of defense. That’s what I crave on a relaxing Sunday afternoon, or could spend 12 hours with friends or strangers doing.

War is hell, except when it’s play. And funnily this isn’t my first hobby to be steeped in the topic of war and battle. I have always found strange comfort in Word War II - you know the one, where millions of people died, cities were bombed to rubble, a mustachioed maniac reshaped Europe and wanted world domination, and we as people learned to harness the power of the atom and turned it into a weapon.

“War is hell, except when it’s play. ”

WWII was undoubtedly the darkest time in the 20th century. And yet looking back on it with the benefit of time and clarity… it feels uniquely simple compared to modern conflict. The Nazis are the bad guys. Always have been, and always will be. There is a comfort in that compared to the modern theater of war where “One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter” as my dad used to say often during the evening news.

When I’m feeling overwhelmed, or depressed, or I need an evening to turn my brain off… I almost always turn to one of two documentary series on Netflix. The first, “Greatest Events of WWII in Colour” where actual footage from all fronts of the war has been digitally restored and colorized to help tell the story of WWII as it has never been seen before.

The colorization of this footage greatly humanizes the scenes of battle and politics. Suddenly historical figures look more like people and the stories feel less like facts and more like lives. From Blitzkrieg to the Battle of the Bulge to Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima, the 10-episode series adds much-needed context and narrative to the war from both sides.

But the Nazis will always be bad. And the Allies will always win the day. That’s strangely comforting to me. Like an old bedtime story.

The second series I turn to is arguably much darker as it hits closer to home. “Turning Point” produced by Luminant Media is two 10-episode docuseries that entail either the lead-up and fallout from the 9/11 attacks - or a dive into the Cold War period from after WWII through the beginnings of the Ukraine War.

This series I like for a very different reason, the fact that it is exactly not as black and white as WWII. Luminant Media interviews people from every side I can conceive of in both documentaries. They interview Twin Tower survivors, ex-Mujahadeen soldiers, CIA and Pentagon staff, American politicians, foreign leaders, and citizenry from everywhere in between.

As a millennial born in 1992, I like to say that I was born outside the realm of ‘precedented’ times. Geopolitical conflict has been a constant in the background of my life ever since I was nine years old. Even writing this blog comes just a month after a truly bizarre election season here in America with two conflicts internationally raging in Europe and the Middle East.

“Turning Point” makes the point that history has always been crazy. At least in the modern era of technology and globalization. I am beginning to learn in my thirties that the world simply does not fall silent, and instead burns and blossoms in ways no one could imagine even the day before.

Maybe that’s why these small wargames feel fun. These tiny conflicts in a fictional universe help make our own feel less grim and dark by comparison.

I hope that as we enter the holidays, you can cling to any strange comforts you hold dear without knowing it.