Conference of Wargamers 2025 - Part One

Off to Missenden Abbey for this year's COW. Alas this is our last visit to Missenden as it is being put up for sale. It has been a good venue for the last few years, and I think they were really getting to know us and what we want/need. Good to hear that our Committee has found a new location, and for me a good change as it's much closer.

First game of the weekend was a "bar game" as Tom M whipped out an Alien inspired game he'd picked up at UKGE just recently.

It's called "The game is KILLER". It plays with 3-10 players and has some interesting mechanisms as you hunt the alien from room to room, trying not to blow yourself up in the process.

If things go badly you flip over your Crew Status card. It is possible to get better. If you don't blow up the Med Lab (mentioning no names - you know who you are)  that is.

The plenary session - not really a game - was based upon a look at an SPI classic from the 70s "World War Three". We were split into Soviet and NATO teams and given a number of scenarios to consider and then provide a response. Over the scenarios we managed to advance Soviet control over Western Europe whilst avoiding nuclear war.

My first COW game proper was anotherof Chris A's set in the paranoid world of late 50s/early 60s USA. Off the coast of Lynchville, a repurposed Gulf of Mexico oil rig has had early warning radar installed  on it. As we head into hurricane season, things are starting to go wrong. Mysterious creaking noises and structural problems mean that is now occupied by a skeleton crew of civilian contractors and junior military staff trying to keep it operational. Chris relies on the players to generate their own paranoia by providing us with psychological profiles, supported by suitably ambiguous injects such as the Soviet spy ships (?) circling the stricken rig. Oh, and he has a copy of "Cthulhu Dark" prominently on the table in front of him.

It all ended badly and we all died, bodies of all but two never found. 

My Saturday started with me giving my "Anglo Hanseatic War" talk. I usually do my history talks on Sunday morning, and first up in the Conference proper when everyone is chomping at the bit to roll some dice wouldn't be my preferred choice. So it turned out - I had five attendees, which was disappointing. The group was fully engaged, so no complaints from that point of view and we had a good Q&A, but I won't do one in future on a Saturday morning if that's the only slot free.

Then it was time to get out in the sunshine.

John Curry has a large collection of big lawn models from the 1980s. We were a NATO recce formation edging across the lawn, trying to spot pre-positioned Soviet models, hiding in a pretty much flat surface. Even with binoculars and with a height advantage relative to the models it was really hard to pick the Soviet vehicles up. They were mostly positioned on the far edge of the lawn, the other side of the ha-ha. We spotted one or two on the main lawn, I think, and we called in artillery on a what looked like a T-72 with a couple of BMPs in attendance. We were feeling pretty good and pushed on confidently. Julian (in picture with binoculars near camera) and I had the left flank. We crossed the "river" (ha-ha) and pressed up into some cover (the gazebo) and immediately spotted more Soviet vehicles. Then some more. And some more. And more. 

Our colleagues were swept away with the counterattack, although we hid out in the cover and avoided it, being the sole survivors.

Time for a beer and then lunch. 

Post lunch was a back to back game in a fictional country ("Warfighter 3") set up by Tom M. "West Sepia" has a history of tensions between North & South, with the South having secessionist tendencies. Separated by a UN Peace Keeper force, the finding of rare earth metals in the South is focussing everyone's minds. A perceived lack of neutrality on the part of the UN meant the North had called in some support from the Wagner Group.

I was appointed Supreme Leader of the North, and we were given a budget and lots of lovely expensive new equipment of skills sets to add to our existing forces.

Tom had put Chris K into the other team, and he seemed to be playing the role of "Primus Inter Pares". As we worked our way towards a potential military conflict, could we negotiate a settlement?

Chris and I slipped into the corridor and explored some options. We seemed to have the shape of a deal, and called in Tom to see if it would fly for game purposes. We identified the areas where we couldn't trust each other and developed solutions with checks and balances. All it needed was for us to get round the map and agree where the notional border between North and South would be.

I think Tom was delighted with this bit, as he's done this for real in Yugoslavia. Peaceful solution to a "warfighter" problem.

There was nothing for it but to fill up the time in the session with a Wagner Group attempt at regime change against their erstwhile employers. Firstly they tried (and failed) to assassinate me, then launched a lightening fast mobile column against the capital. The Heroes of West Sepia held them at the epic battle at the Crossing of the Faye River. Supported by our prudently purchased naval cruise missiles, we held on by our finger tips to keep the peace deal alive.

Good stuff.

After that I went off to play something well out of my comfort zone. I know very little about the current state of satellite warfare. Or any technical stuff about satellites at all, apart from what I learned from watching "Moonraker". This game was described by Evan, the designer, as a bit of light relief for subject matter experts at a conference. The game scenario is that Russian has occupied Svalbard, and war is going from warm to hot.

Luckily we played in teams (Russia, UK & USA), so we could discuss options with our co-player and try and work out what on earth (!) we were trying to achieve. This was certainly a game where you needed to know what you were doing and have a plan. In our case, neither applied.

The game was supported by some nifty playing aids, and we were coached through each turn by Evan. In truth there was too much to take in, and it was more of a learning experience. We were never going to play to a proper conclusion in the time we had.

The two maps represented what was happening on the ground and in space in the same areas. This is the "space map", showing the various satellites and their various strengths and abilities. 

It would have been helpful to have the maps back to back rather than side by side.

This is a sample turn mission log, that enables you to record what actions you want your space assets to support. My hand writing is poor, so you 'll have to guess what we were doing. "BS" is Barents Seas. After the first three missions you need a "planning cycle", which is basically a means to increase the cost of the mission.

End game. The Allies have sneaked a submarine into Svalbard, as we have into the Norwegian Sea. Resources are being stretched rather thin. Some satellites have already been the subject of attacks, and the their operating space is filling up with debris.

A really interesting session.

The post dinner evening session was another David Burden urban warfare game. I really enjoyed his "Rubble Town" last year, which was quick to play and taught me stuff I didn't know.

This game was called "Johvi 2029" and is a scenario for his City & CEMA system. This is an attack on an Estonia town by the Russians - red blocks, this end of the table - against a NATO force, which has a fair number of British units. That's the initial Russian wave on the board and the reinforcements are off to the right. The blocks not on the white sheet are "dismounts" for the motorised infantry.

There are some similarities in mechanisms to "Rubble Town" , mainly the purchase of the various resource cards each turn.

We did okay. Our plan was sort of working, but we were bedevilled by our inability to hit much with our artillery. And we ran into some Challengers that messed us up a bit.

It's a much more complex game that "Rubble Town". This is the game with everything in it, as part of a PhD submission, so it isn't supposed to be "fun". I was a little at sea with the ultramodern tactics, so it was good to have a couple of more clued in people on the team with me. David ran the rules completely, so I never got really in to understanding how the various components worked. I gave David my email address, so if he sends me the rules I'll be able to have a look and work out what I was missing.

After that I went off to set up my game for the first morning session. I find it better to it get that done, regardless of how late it is, rather than set my alarm an hour earlier.

I was helped by Nigel Drury, who had signed up to play in the morning, who positioned all the "Terre Plein" pieces for me behind the wall.

We then went off and had a game of the "Watergate" 2 player board game, which is a lot of fun. Looks great. I won as Tricky Dicky, in the last hand. If the cards had come out differently, the newspaper guys would have got me. Recommended if you have an interest in the subject or in clever board game design.

Then I was away to my bed to get some shut eye before the last day of the Conference.