Conference of Wargamers 2010 - Preparations

As we are now entering the 'home straight' in the lead-up to COW (it's this Friday!) I am pleased to report that preparations continue apace.

I am now involved in the presenting and running of four sessions, and progress is as follows:

The End - this, you may recall is the game first presented at Triples in April.  his game will be run several times with a single player for each game.  Most of the bits are in a bag, with the map in a tube - both in my garage ready to be packed into the car on Friday morning.

Tank Terror - Playtested and ready to go in the car.  This game involves players cast as US Infantry attempting to fend off a determined assault by 10 motorised 20mm scale tanks.  AT weapons include bazookas (dropping ballpoint pens on tank photos) and AT grenades (hurling empty Coke cans into a plastic crate).  The dodgy AT mechanisms were inflicted on COW some years ago by Ian Drury, while the motorised tanks add pace and panic!  This ideally involves around 6 US players plus 1 or 2 Panzer 'drivers'.

Spock's Shameful Secret - despite the name this is in fact a recreation of the 'Black Buck' raid on Port Stanley airfield during the Falklands War.  The name, and indeed the game were inspired by the acquisition of an inflatable Vulcan bomber in the shop at RAF Cosford ( http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/cosford/)  last year.  The main problem about bombing such a distant target was fuelling, and the game will involve a Vulcan

with a crew of 3 having it's fuel tanks (a water-filled plastic beaker with a hole in the bottom) progressively topped up by a fleet if Victor tankers (more players with similar fuel tanks).  The tricky bit for players will be devising a refuelling plan...   Assuming fuel holds out the bomb run over Stanley will be simulated using an automatic airsoft pistol.  As you can see, the Vulcan is inflated.  I have also 'built' the runway and begun making 'fuel tanks'.  I'll carry on with the work this evening.

Completely Over The Top - This is the new 'emergency' plenary game.  Players will form a British division (and a few Germans) making a series of attacks during WW1.  Therfore pretty well everyone (there are 50+ attendees expected) will require a rifle.  Hopefully some people are making their own rifles (I know Graham Evans is planning a particularly luxurious version) but I appreciate that not everyone will be able to.  Jerry  Elsmore and I have therefore built 20-odd cardboard rifles.  I designed the rifle template by tracing round my M-14 and then adding a bayonet.  Sorry, baynot (not real, you see!).  I still need to build a 'tank' from a large printer box.  The tricky bit will be explaining to the client I am visiting on Friday morning why I have a cardboard tank on the back seat of my car...

For those of you intending to make your own rifles (please do!), mine are 37 inches long, plus another 7 or so for the baynot.  The photo shows one next to a very scruffy AK.  I'll let you figure out which is which.

New Plenary Game for COW 2010

One of the effects of Paddy's sad demise has been to deprive us of the Plenary game he had planned. While I (and others) have been sent some briefings I don't know exactly what he had in mind. It may be that his notes come to light and that we will be able to run this game as PG intended at a future COW, but with
only a week to go 'till COW I can't rely on this happening soon!

I am therefore pleased to be able to report that Martin Rapier has come up with a cunning plan. Well, a plan. 'Completely Over The Top' will essentially be a lawn game version of his successful 'World War One in Three Turns' - as demonstrated by WDDTN at a number of shows a few years ago.

This has the benefit of continuing the WW1 theme Paddy was to use and will also require the construction of cardboard rifles and bayonets (or baynots?) Period Headgear (cardboard or otherwise) is also encouraged.

In a change to the advertised plenary game, WD Display Team North (aka messers. Armatys, Elsmore, Gow and Rapier) invite you to go 'Completely Over The Top'.

Paddy Griffith

My thanks to Bill at TMP for running the news on Paddy so quickly.  http://theminiaturespage.com/news/318431/

Paddy Griffith

It is my sad duty to inform you all of the death yesterday of Paddy Griffith. I gather that he suffered a heart attack and was taken to hospital but did not survive.

Paddy, as many readers will know, had many credits to his name.  Here are just a few:  he was a founding member of Wargame Developments, the author of many books on military subjects, a TV star ('Game of War' in the late 1990s) and more recently ran an number of Special Interest days at IWM Duxford.

I am grateful to Martin Wallace (who was told by Tim Cockitt) for emailing me with this news. Paddy's wife, Genevieve also rang me, although I was out at a meeting at the time. I am hoping to be able to speak to her later in the day.

I will disseminate futher information as I receive it.