Innovations in Wargames Conference March 2010 by John Curry

While somewhat smaller than previous years (due to the reality of the economic situation), the conference proved once again an interesting and original experience on all matters of wargaming. Not as good as COW (of course, nothing could be). Situated in a lonely vicarage, perched half way up a cliff, the venue was a somewhat foreboding location. It overlooked a fast flowing river and its own church and graveyard. (The church had its own graveyard, not the vicarage). This report aims to give an overview, without giving the game away, as some of these sessions will emerge again at COW (probably all the better for being further play tested at this event).

Exercise snowball:. this was anti-terrorist training exercise run by someone (I can’t remember who) based in a well-known UK city. Any resemblance between this exercise and real ones was entirely coincidental. The players had roles representing the key decision makers in event of a crisis. The game was steeped in detail and was a sobering experience. Without ‘spoiling the plot’, it is sufficient to say that the players did not make any gross errors and acted in a largely rationale manner for the duration of the emergency. The game was an interesting mix of education and game. Personally, I found it a bit of an eye opener.

Early Wargames- This was an after dinner practical session about early wargames. My own view is the wargaming hobby saw concurrent development with board games and figures games with cross-fertilisation between the two strands of the hobby. For example Donald Featherstone wrote about Combat in 1965 in the Wargamer’s Newsletter and, being Don, suggested changing the rules.

Brian Horrocks (Commander XXX Corps) 1965 Combat game was an excellent example. While simple, it had a number of similarities with much more modern wargames. • Terrain: Players laid out acetate terrain of roads, woods and hills on the squared board. • Selection of forces: Player selected their forces from artillery/ anti-tank guns and armour and aircraft (infantry were not included due the production constraints). Forces needed to reflect one’s plan; e.g. if going on the offensive, tanks were better. • Hidden setup: The board split into two, which allowed players to set up their forces unseen by the enemy. Only 1 in 5 units were permitted to set up beyond the front line. • Terrain affected movement and combat • The combat system used cards (which concealed the hit probabilities until experience gave the answer) and saving rolls. • If using the four player version, players can only communicate every third turn (to reflect communication issues).

The game of Combat was simple, but had some depths to explore with many tactical options. The Triang Battleground Game has to be seen to be believed. A large boxed game, which required hidden setup of barb wire, trees (which block line of sight) and mines. Each side sends out patrols to attempt to reach the enemy’s trench (which wins the game). The artillery is represented by a spring loaded gun, which you move under the board. You point it in the right direction, aim and fire. If successful, it hits the base of the enemy infantry and they are blown up (they normally fly into the air!) It is easy to dismiss it as only a game, but HG Wells, Fred Jane, and others used physical means to represent firing. Tony Bath and Donald Featherstone used a cannon with lead shot to shoot at each other’s ships. My own view is the game taught the importance of moving in dead ground, with sufficient numbers to overwhelm an enemy you might encounter along the way.

Waddington's Battle of the Little Big Horn was a strange game. It had only one scenario, that of US Cavalry trying to escape the Skirmish at the Little Big Horn. Culturally, it was unique in its time, as it was a game of the white man being defeated. It is interesting to note that it the aim was to escape, not win the skirmish. The game had movement rates, firing rules, units can be forced back by firing, cavalry and morale (the Indians loose if they all three chiefs are killed). Usually, the cavalry are massacred, but Alec (as in the editor) managed to steal a victory, which was made all the more glorious by the loss of most of his command. Clearly he was role-playing as Custer as well.

The weakness of the game was the inclusion of only one scenario. A little bit of extra effort and the game could been designed to represent many skirmishes of the Indian Wars. Sword and Spear- was an original experimental medieval wargame refighting the battle of Tewkesbury. Over the years the game has developed and in a few more years, it will be ready to go to print. The game proved entertaining and there was a real air of excitement as the two sides strove to win. Wayne demonstrated the value of being mounted and fled the battle before his battle broke and ran. Unlike his historical counter-part, he declined to seek sanctuary in the abbey. He rode on, while his historical counter-parts were massacred.

‘Contacts Tanks East' French Foreign Legion in the Gulf War, 1991.

This was a modern game, unusually based on the French light division in the First Gulf War. Card activation and square based movement gave a feel of a original battle. I commanded a Bn of T72’s and I carried out some apparently strange manoeuvres until I was satisfied I could get all the tanks into contact into one turn (exercising the principle of concentration of force, or in wargaming terms moving around to get the biggest handful of dice).

Sadly the French brigade I was chopping up was saved by a Bn of AMX’s appearing on my flank. So I decided to stay and shoot it out at point blank range. The Game finished with only two companies of tanks left, but I have upset the French no-end. The game worked well, only the bit about character rolls seemed a bit out of place. Nice to upset the French though.

Zulu! Was an Old School Wargame, with beautifully painted 1/32 scale British infantry and Zulus, 'hundreds of 'em'. I had run it with my brother Michael as a participation game at my local show. The game was touch and go, only a brilliant bayonet attack by Alec saved the day. Damned fine show.

Mountain Warfare TEWT- was a tactical exercise without troops considering the problems of warfare... on a mountain side. Set in WWII as a British crossing in Northern Italy, we discussed various options for using trees as obstacles in the water, placement of mines, where to dig foxholes. We then considered the assault, where to form up, where to enter the water, how much support to use, the advantage of airbursts as opposed to HE. The TEWT worked well, but could have been improved by splitting into a defence and attack team to make two plans for comparison. TEWTs are always fun.

A town too far- The game consisted of a World War II airborne operation in the first half of the game, then the commanders carried out their plan in a megablitz type wargame. The briefings came from Featherstone’s Airborne Operations (the new edition with Bob’s rules in the back) and a WWII Historical Staff Study of Airborne Operations. Without giving anything away, the game was interesting and had a suitable climax. It proved somewhat lively and invoked much discussion at various stages. I will repeat the session for COW. I liked the acetate counters, as you could see the map through them, but they were too fiddly. Perhaps I need to find some thicker clear plastic to use.

Goodrich Castle was adjacent to the site, and was well worth visiting at the conclusion of the weekend. It is a most impressive castle belonging to English Heritage. Of course, the visualisations of the castle on their various signs are wrong (the image on one sign was a different castle to Goodrich). If visiting the castle, be sure to go into the moat to see the remains of the stables. They were burnt down in the ECW by a parliamentarian raid 3 months before the castle was taken.