Conference of Wargamers 2014 - session update updated

The current session list is as follows:

Tim Gow et al

A Mighty Wind  -  The Plenary Game

1944.  The Home Islands are threatened by a huge enemy battle fleet and invasion force.  It is our sacred duty to die for the Emperor…..

WD Display Team North

DOODLEBUGGERS

Another fast-paced solo game.  Take to the skies over Kent to prevent those new unsporting V-1 flying bombs reaching London.  This only take 10 minutes to play so will run several times.  Who will be the top scorer in No. 607 ‘Knuston’ Wing? 

Will Whyler, Mike Elliott & Phil Steele

Gladiolus (the old SOA Gladiator game)

Three or four boards probably in different scales.

Jim Wallman

Cabinet Office Briefing Room A

A committee game for up to 12. Crisis managment of an unprecedented and dangerous crisis. And explaining it on the Today Programme.

Jim Wallman

Saving Private Mouat

A 100% Totally Not Footfall mission to rescue one of HMGs most vital assets.

Jim Wallman

Warriors for the Working Day

Just another wargame involving toy tanks in WW2. But very suitable for those who can't tell their HVSS from their APDS.

Jim Wallman

Little Wars: The War of Firefly's Nose

If there's any enthusiasm for lounging around on the grass and projecting matchsticks at each other randomly.

John Bassett

HEMLOCK AND DEMOCRACY

404BC: Sparta has defeated Athens.  The birthplace of democracy groans beneath the Thirty Tyrants.  But a small group of rebels seek to change all that... A political/military role-play featuring Spartan warlords, philosophers, priests, democrats and oligarchs.

  

John Bassett

OVID FOR WARGAMERS

John Bassett on his favourite Roman poet: man about town, wit, master of seduction, intriguer at the imperial court and exile.  Will feature a re-enactment of the sad, sad story of Orpheus, with audience participation.

John Armatys

BOOTS ON THE GROUND

A simple set of wargames rules for company level actions in the early Twenty First Century using 15mm figures and die cast aeroplanes – an entertainment for up to four players.

Wayne Thomas & David Brock

Nimy Bridge in 15mm
A refight of the attack against the Mons salient by the German 18th Division of the IX Corps. The latest adaptation of "Far Away Wars" for 1914.

Ian Drury, Peter Grizzell & Nigel Drury

Muskets & Tomahawks ADG

French & Indian Wars using 25mm figures and the French skirmish rules Muskets & Tomahawks.

John Curry

British Army Counter Insurgency Model

This is a map based game about current British led multinational operations somewhere in a fantasy continent called Fafrica. Huge map, giant counters and at the simulation end of the game spectrum. The session will start with a 15 minute talk to set the scene, then play the game. The players will represent the planning staff and will attempt to run the operation in a country that is disintegrating around them. Strictly no photographs of the session.

John Curry

Donald Featherstone: His rise, his fall and his rise again.

Would the real Donald Featherstone stand up?  The first attempt to analyse the character of Donald Featherstone will include some controversial areas.

Mike Elliott

Rematch at Quebec

After the glorious victory and capture of Quebec in 1759, the British endured a Canadian winter. The French, determined to recapture the city and planned a new attack in April 1760…

A toy soldier  interpretation of the Battle of Ste Foy.

  

Mike Elliott

Enigma Variation

Being a puzzle game based on the vital deciphering work undertaken by a forerunner of the famous Enigma code-breakers of WW2

Note: this is a non timetabled activity. All COW attendees will be given a copy of an encrypted message at Dinner on the Friday evening and invited to decipher it. Clues will be published around Knuston at intervals during the weekend. There might even be a small prize for the first person to crack the code!

Graham Evans

To Ur is Human

Sumerian warfare with 20mm plastic armies, using a square table and quick and simple mechanisms. The rules feature a central "fear" mechanism modelling the fight/fright/flight condition of the various units as they encounter each other, rather than a traditional morale system. This was arrived at to try to model the effects of the Sumerian Battlecarts on their social inferiors.

Michael Young

Hapsburg Lip

(see Nugget 270) The now infamous game of politics, marriage and inbreeding in renaissance Europe. Now in it's next incarnation with some amendments to ensure that there is always someone in the marriage stakes.

Michael Young

The Byzantine General's problem

(see Nugget 268). Byzantine Generals have to organise and fight a battle. Some may be traitors. Can you defeat the enemy whilst at the same time work out who the traitors are in your midst? A few 15mm soldiers, lots of accusation and mistrust, no dice.

Ian Russell Lowell

The Incident at the the Zuliya River Crossing

A game-cum-rules session: Mountains crawling with warlike tribes, a Hittite Prince, a broken bridge, a goddess, fast-flowing water, someone behaving like a wild pig!  All under the mismanagement of Ian Russell Lowell.

Ian Russell Lowell

A Forgotten Conflict?  The German Peasants War 1524-1526

Collecting snail shells, Landsknechts, shoes on poles, and a painter named Jörg Ratgeb — plus religion, politics, social change in the Holy Roman Empire.  A gently-paced introduction with an aim to work out a way to wargame this conflict by Ian Russell Lowell.  (And no chariots at all, but maybe a fortified cart or two!)

  

Jim Wallman

MEGAGAME DESIGN

Megagames have been going for a while.  Just recently I've have a load of people approaching me about how to set up and run megagames.  At the same time I'm finishing off a book on megagame design.  This session is open ended, exactly what we discuss will depend on the interests of those who turn up - bust essentially talking about megagames - how they get used how they are designed, and discussing whether there are some broader principles around megagame design that is cross-applicable to other games.

John Bassett and Jim Wallman

LIES, DAMNED LIES AND STATISTICS

A discussion led by Jim and John on how we use anecdotes and statistics from our sources when we design our wargames. The idea for the session came from a conversation on sources for the 1941/42 Malayan campaign, but this discussion will range across military history. All welcome

Phil Steele

The Battle of Montaperti 1260

Guelph/Ghibelline wars using a scenario modified Basic Impetus ... Toy Soldier historical game suitable for all comers (will serve as an intro to Impetus as well as medieval battle) ... 2 to 6 players.

This was awarded best overall game at the 2014 Society of Ancients Battle Day.

Phil Steele

The Battle of Northampton 1460

A new game developed in association with the Northampton Battlefields Society to aid understanding of the battle.... Toy Soldier historical game suitable for all comers ... 2 to 6 players.

Tim Gow

LITTLE COLD WARS

Possibly the sort of thing H.G Wells might have developed if he had been a child in the 1970s.  For those who were, LCW sees a return to playing in the garden with Dinky tanks and Airfix soldiers.  Still very much under development, and featuring many mechanisms players will recognise as having been ripped off from other COW games, LCW provides the essential COW experience of doing silly things with silly toys while wearing a silly hat.

  

Russell King

Apokalypse 1945

A recreation in 15mm of the final hours of the Fuerherbunker.  A full and final briefing will be given. You are one of several Soviet platoon commanders, fighting the ever more desperate last Nazis, with the NKVD examining your every move over your shoulder. Will you be first to the Berlin high command? Will you, as you get closer to the centre of Berlin, catch the fleeing war criminals? Will you turn out to be a Hero of the Soviet Union? Or will you be shot, or hung for failure to make progress to Stalin's timetable?

Russell King

The March 1971 Political Justice Sub-Committee

The allegations are completely unfounded. I have never distanced myself from the Provisionals' cause, and I have never ever been involved in any disappearance or death which might or might not have taken place. I can neither confirm nor deny that this session exists, and nor say whether it might or might not be set in a very private room of an unknown Belfast pub. But in very general terms, we can say that it was probably more than likely time that someone somewhere stood up and called the shots

Jim Roche

THE battle of Twitterloo

A development of my old board/card-game about writing accounts of Waterloo, ‘Diary of a Ball’. The title of the original was based on Wellington’s criticism of battle memoirs. The updated version asks, can you describe your adventures in less than 144 characters per turn? Twitter IDs provided or you can use pen and paper

Jim Roche

It’s a Long Way from Tipperary

A Saturday-night singalong to mark 2014, the anniversary year.

Tom Mouat

Close Quarter Battle!

 This is a simple and fast generic game system for fighting in close quarters, like buildings, spaceships and underground tunnels. Players command a Squad, select the mix of equipment for their Mission and attack! (or defend!).  It will feature hidden set-up and simple mechanisms.

Tom Mouat

Special Forces in WW2

This is a role-playing game set in WW2. A small band of determined men setting out to foil Hitler's evil plan! Featuring evil Nazis, wonder weapons, toy soldiers, derring-do and British pluck!

  

Tom Mouat

Challenges and Adventures!

This is a tribute to Gary Gygax and the Birth of Dungeons and Dragons 40 years ago. It will be a fantasy role-play adventure with a slight twist in that rather than dig out a set of the original D&D rules (I have a copy of the original "White Box" edition), I decided to design my own rules from scratch (trying to stay true to the original ideas). The rules are a lot simpler and feature a novel system for magic.

Tom Mouat

Cyber Trumps!

This is an educational card game, based on an original set of cards using the "Top Trumps" basic idea, but revised, expanded and updated (and actually featuring some intellectual content!). Recently used on the International Cyber Awareness Course at a major university (the Nigerian and Chinese students had some interested input over certain elements of the game!).