John Wilkie et al
1559 PAPAL CONCLAVE: THE PLENARY GAME
75 minutes all
attendees
18 Aug 1559, Pope Paul IV has died, the
Council of Trent is suspended, but the Inquisition is going strong. Rival
factions from France, Italy, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire are poised. The
longest conclave in the 16th Century is about to begin. The real conclave
lasted 121 days and left three cardinals dead and several others too ill to
continue, can we do it in an hour? Featuring plotting, conspiracy, manipulation
and riots, conclave 1559 expands on our previous Conclave 1492 with up to 55
cardinals and numerous other roles battling for control of the fate of the
Catholic Church.
John Bassett
START DIGGING YOUR OWN GRAVES
2 hours 3-6
players
A crisis management game based on a
real-life hostage rescue situation in Eastern Europe. The game system builds on elements of my
"Armageddon at Waco" (COW 2022).
Participants should note that this is
liable to be a black session.
David Burden
Rubble Town
20-30 mins 1
player
Up to 2 games in parallel multiple
sessions
Rubble Town is a card-based game of
clearing your way through a card generated urban route. Can you clear to the
end in a faster time, with fewer casualties and with less damage to the
environment than anyone else? COW2024 may feature the 2024 era version of the
game.
David Burden
Brick by Bloody
Brick
2 hrs 2-4
players
Brick by Bloody Brick is a Company-level
game of modern urban combat. It uses a stylised gridded map and vertical blocks
and is a more tactical counterpart to last year’s Battle of Redditch. Brick by
Bloody Brick features all the tropes of modern urban battles including UAVs,
UGVs, cyber (just), EW, subterranean, civilians and collateral damage.
David Burden
CITYFIGHT 2024
2 hrs 2-4
players
Cityfight 2024 is an updated version of
the classic Cityfight game of small-scale urban
combat. The game will be played
double-blind with each side having its own map and relying
on a "batteships" type system
to identify the enemy - but of course in this game the target can then just
move away! This is the same core game as
I ran at VCOW, but presented here in manual form, with players sat back to back
as intended by the original rules.
Cold War blitzspiel
2
hours 6
players
A
chance to shove some toys round the table and try the latest version of my low
level (a tank = a tank, an infantry base = a section or squad) simple
"modern" rules, which started life in the Cold War Wargames Workshop
at COW 2023.
Pete Sizer
PETE S COIN GAME
90 minutes 2-6
players
Back in an improved form this grand
tactical set of rules exploring insurgency warfare is part of my research for
my Wargaming PhD (under Dr. John Curry). It is a generic set of rules designed
to be adaptable for any twentieth century insurgency situation.
Stephen Aquilar-Milan and Robert
Eagling
BAFFLED BY BOARDGAMES: KINGMAKER
2 hours any
A learn to play session. I have owned a copy of Kingmaker for over 20
years and I've never really understood how to play the game. We would like to
run a session where the participants, hopefully with a degree of knowledge
about how to play the game, teach us the gameplay. It's a bit like one of those
demonstration games that we see at shows, only we would like to ask the players
about the game mechanics and why they made the decisions they made. Hopefully,
we can achieve a degree of knowledge transfer and the players can have a fun
morning with the Wars of the Roses.
Colin Maby
GANGSTERS. IT’S ONLY BUSINESS REALLY
2 hours up
to 4 players
A board/toy soldier game. This is the latest version of my game set
during the early 1920's in America. The object of the game is for the players
to make the most money, and make sure the other gangs don’t! A few people
including the Mayor and the DA may get hurt on the way.
Martin Rapier
POLAND 1939 WITH ONE HOUR
WW2
2 hours up
to 6 players
The latest version of the One
Hour WW2 rules, covering grand tactical actions in the second world war, with
battalion (or equivalent) sized elements on a small hex grid. This session will
highlight the latest revisions to the rules, and is both an opportunity for
players to try the system who missed out at COW last year, and for experienced
players to try it again. The scenario will feature asymmetrical forces in a
historical engagement during the Bzura counteroffensive, which will emphasise
particular features of the rules.
Mike Elliott
WAR IN THE CLOUDS
Short game – will run several times
An ADG of the war in the air during the
First World War. A simple set of rules with an emphasis on outthinking your
opponent(s) but very fun to play.
Mike Eliott
CIVIL WAR SIEGE
2 hours up
to 4 players
An attempt to wargame a siege set in
the English Civil War.
Jim Roche
ENEMY COAST AHEAD
90 minutes (game will run twice in this
slot) 4
players
Enemy Coast Ahead….the famous Lancaster
bomber game which I updated for a past COW.
Jim Roche
ARE THERE FRITTERS STILL FOR TEA?
1 hour any
Advertising/PR Agencies pitching for
the Government account to mark the events of 1944
Six to ten teams of 3 (MD, Creative
Director, Account Director)
Stephen Aguilar-Millan
THE WHITE ARCTIC
2 hours 4-8
players
Just suppose that it's technically
feasible to re-freeze the Arctic. Ought we to do it? And whose permission would
we need? The purpose of this game is to explore the geopolitics of refreezing
the Arctic as a way of diminishing the adverse impacts of disruptive climate
change. However, not everyone loses through climate change. Can those who gain
be persuaded to take an active role in refreezing the Arctic? And at what
price? Drawing upon our research into the politics of the future Arctic, we can
now explore one scenario that, at first sight, seems ridiculous.
Graham Evans
DIGGERS & LEVELLERS
1 hour any
A talk about radicals, revolutionary
movements and uprisings in Northamptonshire in the 17th century, including the
infamous Captain Pouch.
Graham Evans
We ran and
they ran – sheriffmuir 1715
2 hours 4-6
players
The climactic battle of the ’15 rising
saw the largest Jacobite Rising engagement on the British mainland. The
presence of veteran troops fresh from Marlborough’s Wars on the continent
should have made it a foregone conclusion but this was not the case. Fought in
much confusion where half of each army couldn’t see the other half its
narrative is much less well known than its counterparts of the ’45. So much so
that both sides claimed to have both won and lost. The game will use the recently published (I
hope) “Tricorn and Bonnet” rules, oodles of 20mm plastic figures and a square
based system to speed game play. The rules feature an Intimidation system for
those facing the fearsome Highland Charge to add to the period flavour.
Nick Riggs
CHALLY TROOP LEADER II
2 hrs 2-4
players
The latest iteration of the Game
Formerly Known As Coyle's Best. Each player manages their own Challenger II
tank crew as part of a British tank troop, fighting as the spearhead of their
battlegroup in an all-out war in Central Europe.
Nick Riggs
RUN THROUGH THE JUNGLE II
2 hrs 2-6
players
More running! More jungle! More
Creedence! A thoroughly revised version of my interpretation of the small-unit
patrolling game Ranger, by Omega Games. Players control US Ranger squads
stealthily moving through Central American jungles. Can you get in, perform
your mission and extract safely?
Nick Riggs
BATTLEGROUP CROSSFIRE
2 hrs 2-4
players
A modern armoured and mechanised
infantry game, based on Arty Conliffe's classic Crossfire.
Pete Sizer
Follow your
nose- a game of sewer combat
2hrs up
to 6 players.
Fresh from the Sheffield CALF, ‘Follow Your
Nose' is a quick play skirmish system for combat in sewers and other enclosed
spaces. Players select their kit from a historically appropriate list then
enter the sewers with their small group of fighters to scrabble about in the
dark. The game is based on two identical maps allowing it to be run
double-blind to add to that claustrophobic feel. A couple of different scenarios
will be available for players to choose from to choose from."
Ian Drury
Will My Soul
Pass through the Southland
2 hours 3-6
players
The Battle of Pleasant Hill 9 April
1864. An old school wargame using
S&T's 'Great Battles of the American Civil War' adapted for toy soldiers. I
like the GBOTACW system, but no longer have the tweezer wielding skills
demanded by the tall stacks of counters on 19mm hexes. This uses 15mm figures
on 1.5" bases as required for several current ACW wargames rules.
John Curry
German and
British Tactical Wargaming in WWII
2 hours 1-6
players
We will recreate some German tactical
wargames as they were played during WWII. Set at company level they will be
multiplayer solo's with all the players on the German side. Then we will run a
British tactical wargame to compare the two styles of game. Plenty of room for
spectators.
John Curry
The Hunt for
the Beast of Missenden Abbey
90 minutes any
The is a live action roleplay Dungeons
& Dragons Adventure in the grounds of the Abbey. The adventurers will do 10
minutes of weapons training, followed by 20 minutes of practising formations
and then they will set out on an epic adventure. The game will be run with
strict safety controls (e.g. no running, padded weapons) and will include
thieves, fighters, clerics and magic users. By the end of the session, the
players will realise why ancient and medieval armies were so reluctant to fight
at night. The session will run after dinner on Saturday.
Mike Young & John Curry
The Dilemmas
of Gaza
2 hours 4-6
players
This session will look at the
up-to-the-minute situation in Gaza and the wider Middle East, and the players
will take on the roles of the participants, such as Israel, Hamas, The Western
Powers, Hezbollah, and Egypt (or whoever is in the news at the time).
Michael Young and John Curry will use the
latest incarnation of Confrontation Analysis to structure and define the
negotiations. We will see if we can
forecast the way the negotiations will go in the future.
Risto Tammela
Red Chain Game
2 hrs 4-8
players
Co-operative game where cyber threat
APT-711, consisting of you and your friends, plans and executes a cyber
operation against real life target.
Action just on the tabletop, no legal consequences forecasted.
Risto Tammela
In the
footsteps of our fathers
2 hrs
4-6
players
Finnish local defence company has 48
hours to prepare defences until it encounters an advancing Russian mechanized
battalion. Your great grandfathers were
able to stop the red menace in 1939. Are
you able to do it in 2024?
Military background and knowledge of
NATO-symbols beneficial but not mandatory.
Tim Gow
WHERE SEAGULLS DARE
2 hours 6-9
players
An extremely dodgy role-playing game in
the style of an 1970s action movie, very much in the mould of Ian Drury’s ‘Guns
Of Toblerone’ game from COW 2005. The game of the film of the war. Set in the exotic Mediterranean but filmed
for budgetary reasons in Yorkshire and starring a host of D-List stereotypes. Features an original score by the man who used
to empty Ron Goodwin’s dustbin.
Historical Consultant: Zoe the dog.
David Knight
THE BATTLE OF dupplin
moor
2 hours 1-4
players
Test of Resolve 100 Years War is a
period specific set of miniatures wargame rules that seeks to mimic the
tactical doctrine of the period, which also includes the Second Scottish Wars
of Independence and the War of the Breton Succession. Expect arrows to fly, men to crush in on each
other, ransoms to be sought but be sure that at the crux of the matter will be
guys with spears swords and axes hacking at their enemies. The system is card driven and uses 1 D12 for
movement, morale, melee and shooting.
Dupplin Moor was the first occasion when the English Tactical doctrine
was used which was to prove successful against the French at Crecy and
Agincourt.
John Bassett
NKVD SPECIAL SQUAD
2 hours 4-6
players
A role-playing game about an NKVD
special unit in Leningrad during the winter of 1942.
Participants should note that this is
liable to be a black session.
National Guard
90 minutes 6-8
players
A low-level patrol game using a
two-sided double blind (Kriegsspiel) format, about a rear area patrol behind
the lines in the Ukraine. Players on the Ukrainian side will form the patrol,
with other players will take the part of other things in the scenario.
Tom Mouat
Air-Strike –
Nigeria
2 hours 6-8
players
A planning and execution game for an
airstrike, set in contemporary Nigeria. It will be run in a two-sided double
blind (Kriegsspiel) format, with the Nigerian Air Force on one side, and the
Invaders on the other side.
Tom Mouat
The Takagai
March
2 hours up
to 8
A traditional 2D6 science fiction
adventure one-shot RPG about a team of ex-Shipyard workers, taking working
passage on a passing merchant ship, with a routine delivery mission. What could
possibly go wrong…?
John Bassett
BLACK SEPTEMBER 1970
2 hours 4-6
players
A matrix game about the conflict
between the government of Jordan and the various factions of the Palestinian
Liberation Organisation that had such momentous consequences for the subsequent
history of the Middle East. Features such luminaries as King Hussein,
Yasser Arafat, Henry Kissinger and Moshe Dayan.
Mark Flanagan
THE GREAT PACIFIC WAR OF THE 1920s
3 hours 3-4
players
The Great War has ended with unsettled
ambitions for two Great Powers in the Pacific, the United States of America and
Japan, with both navies being untouched by trauma of the First World War. With
international animosities rising, the game assumes the Washington Naval Treaty
has failed to happen (again) and a naval arms race has ensued. As USN strategic
planners, the players are tasked with generating a Fleet capable of pursuing
"War Plan Orange", as war is expected to break out within the next
ten years against Japan. When war breaks out (as it surely must) the players
must then use their fleet to undertake their planned campaign (War Plan Orange)
of conquest against Japan.
Jonathan Crowe
RAMROD
10 minutes – will be run several times 1
player
John Salt's ground attack game
Jonathan Crowe
HAROLD AND HENRY
2 hours 4
players
Mediaeval take on Graham Evans'
Spartans and Successors. Two battles -
Hastings in 1/300 and Agincourt in 25mm.
Run simultaneously.
David Burden
THE URBAN CALCULUS GAME
2 hours 2-4
players
The Urban Calculus Game (TUC) is a
strategic-level, highly abstracted wargame, verging on the political-military,
of large scale modern urban conflict (surprise!). As well as the kinetic fight
players have to consider societal support, collateral damage, civilian harm and
global opinion. The game plays with playing cards not dice and I’ll have two
contrasting scenarios to choose from (or play a bit of both), one based on Gaza
and one on a future NATO-Russia conflict.
