COW 2016 Sessions

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.