John Basset
John Basset originally encouraged me to print my updated version of the Fletcher Pratt Rules At COWs over the last few years, John Curry has made excellent use of the Practical Room to put on innovative and fast-moving large scale modern wargames involving lots and lots of toys and a dozen or more players. Back at the September 2004 West of England CALF, John presented his amended version of the classic naval wargames rules and everyone who played it then thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm glad John decided to bring it to COW. When I turned up to the Practical Room half way through Saturday morning, John had 16 wargaming veterans entranced, and the floor covered in 1:1200 Royal Navy and Japanese warships.
As previously reported in the Nugget, John has made some amendments to Pratt's original rules to cover the use of torpedoes and aircraft. Theses certainly allow the game to take account of the naval realities of the 1940s, although there was some discussion of the torpedo rules, so there may be scope for further development there.
John's refereeing and facilitation skills were a critical part of making this game a success. He kept things moving at a cracking pace, not something I normally associate with naval wargames. In addition, he has produced useful software that enables a referee to generate all the required paperwork in advance in a painless way. I'm not entirely sure of the wider applicability of the rules: you still benefit from having a good amount of floor space and a referee who can keep the game moving quickly. But everyone should have the chance to take part at least once in this new presentation of a wargaming classic.