Updated 18/05/16
Behold the current list showing a healthy 31 sessions. My thanks to all those of you who have offered sessions.
If you have an additional session or if you think you've sent me a session which isn't on the list, please get in touch ASAP as I need to crack on with assembling the timetable.
CONFERENCE OF WARGAMERS IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY WARGAME DEVELOPMENTS.
Sue Laflin and WD Display Team North
Holy Relics! The
Plenary Game
Based on the idea that the Anglo-Saxon and
medieval religious centres competed for income from pilgrims and collected
relics to increase their popularity. Of
course, all of our relics will be completely genuine….
WD Display Team North
Cursus
Honorum II
A slimmed-down version of the original game of
careers in the Roman Republic. WDDTN’s
participation game for shows in the 2016 season.
John Bassett
De Valera's War
A matrix game on Irish neutrality in WW2,
featuring Abwehr agents, intransigent Orangemen, bombers, gunmen and quiet
Americans.
John Bassett
Fluechtlinge
A workshop looking at how to game what is
probably the worst refugee crisis in history: the expulsion of fourteen million
Germans from eastern Europe in 1945.
Participants should note that this may be a black session.
John Curry
Future UK
Army Concept
A simple military training game to practise
future force development, in particular the reduction in manpower in infantry
companies: 3 platoons to 2 per company. Using large homemade counters and 1/300
stylized terrain it will emphasize the importance of ammunition conservation,
concentration of fire, coordination of all arms, covered approaches and
suppression. Games are played against active opponents who are doing their best
to win.
Alan Paull
Airfix
Battles
An introduction to Modiphius Entertainment’s
Airfix Battles Introductory Set, and /or the Collector’s Edition (WW2 land
combat). An opportunity to use those old
Airfix figures and models that you have tucked away at the bottom of a cupboard
of miscellaneous stuff you collected when you were young and naïve! A chance to
play (and to talk about ‘hollywood
wargame’ design too). [This *should* be using the
released game itself, subject to the vagaries of publishing, plus any expansion
materials to hand.]
Alan Paull
Mission
Command - Somewhere in Normandy, Summer 1944
Mission Command is a set of World War Two
wargaming rules for use with miniatures. It's an umpired game, and prior
knowledge of the mechanics is not required. This session will be an attempt at
an interesting and stimulating miniatures game for one team versus an umpired
enemy, with associated discussion about simulating tactical / operational
engagements in WW2, focused on Normandy on and after D-Day. It will use Mission Command (the alpha or
beta?) version of SSG Wargames’ draft WW2 miniatures rules) and some toy
soldiers.
Graham Evans
It’s getting
a bit Chile....
Between 1879 and 1884 Chile, Peru & Bolivia
fought a brutal and bloody war on both sea and land ostensibly over guano
mining rights. The outcome shaped the power structure of modern South America
and still has ramifications today. From the maritime warmth of the coastal
areas, to the harsh, dry Atacama desert and the brutal altitude of the
Altiplano they armies fought each other anywhere they could, showing no mercy
on either side. Fought with (mostly) modern weapons comparable with their
European contemporaries, using a variety of tactics from the Napoleonic to the
most up to date.
A most obscure war...except for a couple of
really good wargaming based sources and a really neat range of 15mm figures
from Outpost. For this year we’ll go with
a table top 15mm late 19th century wargame is under development to
educate and excite CoW goers, under the gaze of European military observers.
So, put on your sandals, wrap yourself in your poncho and put some coca leaves
in your cheek, it’s nasty up there.
Tim
Gow
A
FISTFUL OF HERRING
Being a
gentlemanly method of resolving conflict on the high seas. Conceived during the Great Herring War of
1909 (reduced from 2016), this session will feature 1/1200 toy ships and
matchstick firing cannon. It's as if
Fred T Jane bumped into H G Wells in the pub.
Ian Drury
1866 And All That: The Battle of Lissa
2016 is the 150th
anniversary of Lissa (20 July 1866), the only major fleet action of the
ironclad era, and the most over-analysed hour of fighting between Trafalgar and
Jutland. The Italian fleet has all the advantages: bigger ships with far better
guns, and more of them, and includes the Affandatore ram ship
with two unfeasibly huge Armstrong rifled muzzle-loaders. What can possibly go
wrong? A game for 4-8 players keen to shout ‘ramming speed’ (in German).
John
Armatys
Cursus Honorum III - The Card Game
Another game of political
advancement in the Roman Republic - based on Rummy, it has had a few test games
with three players but needs some serious testing, preferably with different
numbers of players.
Russell
King
The land that decency forgot
Up to five expert support service information
technology giants bid for and execute contracts for cyber-security from amongst
the world's most massive, successful and sought-after companies, across a
wide-range of activity from banking, pharmaceuticals, and entertainment to
construction. In the dark hours of the morning, when not working with their
clients, and under the influence of performance-enhancing drugs, their
employees are also engaged in activity disrupting the very corporate sector
they slavishly serve, striving to achieve social justice and modify the behaviour
of these increasingly self-serving corporate nightmares.
Russell
King
Islamic Terrorist Bingo
Eyes down! Get a line for a big surprise!
Jim
Wallman
The Great Crossing
A short, slightly dark, game about an
international response to migration across a small sea.
Jim
Wallman
Wargame 2020
A tactical wargame based on some recent
professional work I've been doing. The
game is about battlegroup and brigade operations in the near future based
around the projected capabilities of professional armies in the 2020-2025
period. This is map based and a pretty
simple and accessible system that wargamers should be able to pick up in a few
minutes. The game is designed to draw
out insights and discussion about force mixes and the application of
capabilities in a variety of settings.
Colin
Maby
GANGSTERS
– RETURN TO THE SOUTHSIDE
Developed since last year, a card driven game
for four players whose object is to end the game with the most money by the
control of crime and the running of illegal operations (and of course to prevent the other players from
doing the same).
Ian
Russell Lowell
QADESH –
THE BATTLE AFRESH
An illustrated talk on the 1274BC battle.
Ian
Russell Lowell
THE DEVIL
TO PLAY
The Reformation: Rebellion & Reaction. Further thoughts on the German Peasants’
Revolt, 1524-1526. A talk with gaming.
David
Bradbury
Unredeemed Neptunes
English and Flemish Pirates of the Barbary Coast
in the Jacobean Age. There will be no
references to rum, but sodomy and the lash might be touched upon in passing,
possibly with some Shakespeare quotations thrown in for good measure.
Tim Gow
et al
Suitcase Sagger
Back in the good old days of the Cold War, an
elite team trains with the very latest in anti-tank technology. This session may involve laying on
grass. And possibly getting up again.
A lawn game from the team that brought you PVO Strany and Spock’s Shameful Secret. So
you’ve been warned.
Wayne
Thomas et al
Pickett's Charge
Up to seven players are needed
to replay the famous action using 10mm figures and the new "Hail of
Lead" rules.
Mike
Elliott
Fail Not Tomorrow - The Battle of Nibley
Green, 1470
A game based on the last
battle fought between “private” armies in England.
Mike
Elliott
A Terrible Beauty
A game / discussion on the
Easter Rising, Dublin 1916 to mark the centenary of this historic event in
Irish history.
Mike Elliott
A Dark Night in Whitechapel
September 1888. A dark
night in Whitechapel. An ADG based on (you guessed it!) the arch-criminal who
was never caught ...
John Curry
The Heart of Darkness- Gaming terrorism
For several months I have
been working with some organisations on developing new gaming models around the
dark subject of terrorism. Playing a red team has been used in serious games
for many years, but the difference is these new games are designed to be run
from perspective of the terrorists. The aim of the research is to explore the
value of such games in developing a deeper understanding of these complex
issues. The session will consist of a short 20 minute introduction, then will
give people the chance to try one of the game prototypes. WD is the only group
with some track record in gaming this area and so feedback will actively be
encouraged.
Jim Roche
Men Against Fussing
A reworking of Paddy Griffith's 'Men Against
Fire' game in the light of Leo Murray's 'Brains and Bullets'. With toy soldiers and the risk of being hit
on the back-of-the-head with a rolled-up copy of the Daily Telegraph.
Jim Roche
Off to Dublin in the Green
A singalong based on the events of 1916, from
Gallipoli and Kut-al-Amara to the Somme and the Easter Rising; plus the Battle
of Jutland and the Sopwith Camel, with a nod towards Verdun and Winston
Churchill's command of a battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers. If you want the old
battalion, We know where they are...
Tom Mouat
Sandhurst
Kriegsspiel
This is a wargame used at
the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst as part of junior officer training. So
simple I could teach someone how to run the game in 30 minutes – so no
experience a positive advantage. There will be two scenarios – a Platoon Attack
and a Counter-IED patrol (scenario created by Capt Ed Farren).
Tom Mouat
Twinkle,
Twinkle, Little Asteroid…
This is a “Footfall” type
game with completely revised rules and mechanisms, this time set in the Far
Future (and looking a lot like the classic game “Traveller”). The crew are
adventurers in the Laver Asteroid Belt, looking for Pirates and Salvage! The
rules are simple enough for anyone, so no experience necessary.
Tom Mouat
Pequena
Esperanza
This is a game used by the
Defence Academy for language training. It is a simple Matrix Game set in the
jungles of South America and featuring the Army, The Police, the Village Elder
and the notorious Drug Baron! And probably a couple of other people!
Bob Cordery
OH WE SAIL THE OCEAN BLUE …
A (hopefully) fun/not too
serious session of late ironclad/pre-dreadnought naval battles using home-made
toy-style model ships, Hexon II hexed terrain, and simple rules based on the
Portable Naval Wargame and Memoir of Battle at Sea rules. So if you fancy
yourself to be a reincarnated Jackie Fisher or Charlie Beresford - or even a
Percy Scott - then come along and try your hand.
John
Bassett
GO TELL THE SPARTANS
A presentation and
discussion on winning and losing the narrative in contemporary conflict.
