My return to regular monthly wargaming in central London … I hope!

Some years ago a group of wargamers began to meet in central London on a Sunday once every month. It was not a wargame club as such, just an ad hoc group of likeminded wargamers who know each other, and who enjoy playing a wide range of different (and sometimes experimental) types of wargames.

Over the years (and pre-COVID-19) these games have included:

• Multi-centre wargames where players in London, Sheffield, and other locations across the UK remotely took part in the same wargame
• Naval battles using Fletcher Pratt’s rules and 1:1200th models
• Committee games
• Operational-level World War I battles using Richard Brooks’ OP-14 rules
• A variety of role-playing games

The whole thing is very civilised and starts with the participants meeting up in a nearby café at about 11.30am before going to the venue to set up the game or games. A break for lunch takes place at about 1.30pm, and everyone contributes to the meal in some way. The gaming usually winds up by about 4.00pm, and is followed by a trip to a nearby pub for a drink and a chat.

I used to be a regular attendee, but for some years before the recent pandemic started I was finding it difficult to get enough free time on a Sunday to take part, and once the COVID-19 restrictions began, the meetings of the group had to be suspended. Things are now beginning to return to something approaching normal, and as I am free today, I will be going up to central London to take part in some wargames. The sessions on offer include:

• ‘The posse rides out’: A western gunfight
• ‘Cyber Warfare’: A game that how cyber attacks are mounted, and how they can be thwarted
• ‘Dallas: The role-playing game’
• ‘In Warmer Waters’: A speech writing game about an incident in the South China Sea
• ‘1549’: A skirmish-level game set during the Prayer Book Rebellion
• ‘Show and Tell: 3D printing for wargamers’

I am taking my copies of MANOEUVRE and MANOEUVRE: DISTANT SHORES with me as one of my fellow attendees has a copy of the game and uses it regularly. I am hoping that he will be able to talk me through how the game works so that I have a better grasp of its mechanisms. We might even manage to fight a battle or two … and I am sure that some of the other attendees will enjoy trying the game out.