Tuesday 29 November 2022

VCOW 2023 - the session list so far

UPDATED 13/12/22

While this is clearly still a work in progress, booked and prospective attendees may be interested in what's on offer.

David Burden

Vertical Urban Wargame

2 hrs                                                                                                                            2-4

This will be an urban wargame in 10mm, with big multi-storey buildings and limited sight lines, and all you get to see is what your (mostly) street-level webcam tells you. A bit of an experiment to see if remote wargaming is actually better in some ways for tactical urban wargaming.

 

John Bassett

Kapuziner

90 minutes                                                                                                                   up to 5

A Zeitgeist game about Viennese coffee house culture in the years before World War One, when Freud, Klimt and Wittgenstein rubbed shoulders with the likes of Stalin, Hitler and Trotsky.  An experimental game, part role play, part matrix, part balloon debate and almost certainly a complete fiasco...

 

John Bassett, Russell King & Ian Drury

Omdurman to Sarajevo: Wargaming the Period 1898 to 1914

90 minutes                                                                                                                  any

A discussion on wargaming the decade and a half that saw Kitchener in the Sudan, San Juan Hill, Mafeking, the relief of Beijing, the battles of Mukden and Tsushima, Italian aerial bombardment of the Ottomans and the chaos of the Balkan wars.  It's also the era of Sidney Reilly, the Russian revolution of 1905, the Sidney Street siege and the Curragh mutiny.  It's a fascinating period that perhaps deserves to be wargamed more than it is.

 

Michael D'Alessandro

Pearl Harbor - A Virtual Battlefield Tour

1 hour                                                                                                                          any

Covering why the Japanese considered the war inevitable, why Oahu was the optimal target, the technological leaps the Japanese had to make to ensure the success of the attack, and why the Americans considered Oahu impregnable. We will start at the tea house which the Japanese used to gather open source intelligence on the disposition and operations of the U.S. Pacific Fleet and tour the coastal artillery defenses the U.S. invested in and the air defenses they did not invest in. We will visit the the fleet anchorage and airfields at Ford Island and Bellows Field that therefore were taken by surprise. We will reflect on the cost by visiting the USS Arizona Memorial and the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific and end by considering the aftermath for all involved.

 

Alan Paull

KINGMAKER II – THE RESURRECTION

1 hour                                                                                                                          any

Back in 2019, Gibsons Games asked me if I would be interested in re-developing Andrew McNeil's seminal Wars of the Roses board game, Kingmaker. It seemed like a good idea at the time, though it turned out to be a longer and bumpier journey than originally conceived. Now, we've had a successful Kickstarter campaign, and Gibsons’ new edition is on track for delivery in or around March 2023. In this session I'll present some thoughts about my experience between then and now. There will be space for questions

 

Jim Roche

1943 AND ALL THAT

1 hour                                                                                                              any

Singalong session including the delights of Stalingrad.

 

Jim Roche

LA GUERRE DE DEMAIN

90 minutes                                                                                                                   7

A Paddy Griffiths game.  French Officers Mess discussion in a fort under siege in the Franco-German War of 1893.  Political future - what are we fighting for?   What tactics to employ? Participants are members of the Officers Mess in Fort de Liouville, Fort de Gironville and Fort du Camp-des-Romains.  In addition to the major issues already set-out, we must address the issues such as Le Pantalon Rouge, c'est la France and the role of the Chasseurs Alpin (a Lieutenant on secondment)  Jamais ĂȘtre pris vivant (Eng: Never to be Taken Alive)

 

Russell King

James F Dunnigan's Origins of World War One (1969)

2 hours                                                                                                                        5

Take part in a moderated session of Origins of World War One by JFD, one of wargaming's great designers. This is a keenly competitive political game in which the five major nations in pre-World War I Europe all figure. They will pitch with and against each other to achieve each nation's objectives using diplomatic effort and international treaties. Ranging across theatres from mainland Europe to North Africa and India via the troubled Balkans, a simple system of play shows clearly how feverish intrigue developed across the world from 1909 to 1914.

 

Pete Sizer

Hybrid Warfare: A Wargaming Workshop

1 hour                                                                                                                          any

What is hybrid Warfare? Is it a completely new phenomenon? How can we game it? This hour-long workshop will examine the issues involved and attempt to come up with some suitable techniques to wargame them

 

John Curry

BOSNIAN MERCENARY

90 minutes                                                                                                                   1-15

The aim of this game is teach something about the life and psychology of modern mercenary. Build your character, then work through a series of situations as the war develops. Each of your decisions is then compared to what the actual mercenaries did. At the end of the campaign, your performance will be evaluated.  Note: some might consider some of the content to be exploring some very black situations.

 

Graham Evans

NORTHAMPTONSHIRE’S COUNTRY HOUSES IN THE CIVIL WAR

90 minutes                                                                                                                   any

We all know about the siege of Basing House, but Northamptonshire has more stately homes per square mile than any other county in Britain. Whilst this meant the county was the playground for the rich and powerful, it was staunchly Parliamentarian during the Civil war.  However, its country houses offered an opportunity to exert power by both sides. This talk looks at what did and did not happen with them.

Sunday 27 November 2022

VCOW 2023

 

Virtual Conference Of Wargamers – February 2023

 

What is it?

When is it?

Where is it?

What will it cost me?

                                    


Following the success of similarly events in the past three years, VCOW is now an annual fixture in Wargame Developments’ calendar.  VCOW 2023 will take place over the weekend of 3-5 February.

VCOW has preciously featured participants from four continents and welcomed many new and returning members, many of whom had in the past been unable to share in the COW experience. 

VCOW is not a replacement for COW – the latter will take place as usual in July.

Attendance at VCOW is open to the following:

Members of Wargame Developments

Guests invited by WD members

Booking details will follow shortly. The cost will be £10 - the proceeds will be used to help defray the expenses of WD's online presence.

2024 Sheffield CALF

  Sheffield CALF – March 2024   What is it? When is it? Where is it? What will it cost me?                                      ...