COW2026: Some short session reports

The annual Wargame Developments Conference of Wargamers (COW) took place at the Cranfield Management Development Centre over the weekend 10th to 12th July 2026.

The main entrance,

The main hall. The various lecture rooms and break-out rooms all radiated off of this main hall.

The conference proper began after dinner on Friday when the conference organiser, Tim Gow, ...

... welcomed everyone in the venue's main lecture theatre.

This was followed by the plenary game.

THE PLENARY GAME: XERXES’ INVASION OF GREECE

In this game I took the part of Ezra the Scribe, a Jewish functionary in charge of protocol in the Persian court. I had to instruct the lesser members of the court and any military commanders in the correct way to approach and speak to the king, and to act as the eyes of the King's Ear ... his enforcer! I was also tasked with leading the ritual (and regular) praise of the King.

I had a great deal of fun and managed to take photographs of some of the participants which I then asked ChatGPT to turn into historical images.

King Xerxes of Persia ... in a beard that seems to have been borrowed from the film 'Gettysburg',

The serene Queen of Persia,

Two Persian officials. The one of the right was the King's Ear ... and would joyfully stab someone and smile whilst he did it,

The King of Sparta. He seems to be indicating that he's willing to take on anyone who thinks that they are hard enough.

A northern Greek. He seems totally bemused by events.

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During the next two days, I took presented or participated in the following sessions.

THE BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC: SINKING U-BOATS: A REACTION TO THE WATU ‘MYTH’

This lecture has been in preparation for some eighteen months, and I feel that I still have more to add before it will be in anyway complete.

I began by looking at the origins of the WATU (Western Approaches Tactical Unit) ...

... and the way that it has been described and depicted in the media, particularly over the last five years. I did this because I feel that its contribution to the eventual victory of the Battle of the Atlantic is not being assessed in context and is being misused to promote a particular agenda ... and that agenda is harming a proper and just assessment the unit's true impact.

I then described – in approximately chronological order – the weapons, technology, and tactical changes helped the Allies to win the war against the U-boats.

These included:

• Pre-war developments in anti-submarine warfare (e.g. depth charges and their throwers, hydrophones, and  ASDIC).
• The design, ordering, and commissioning of the Flower-class & Castle-class corvettes and the River-class & Loch-class frigates.
• The initial failure and later success of wolfpacks.
• The introduction of airborne and seaborne surface search radar.
• The importance of the seizure of the French ports on the Bay of Biscay.
• The roles of the Anti-Submarine Training School and the WATU training courses for escort ship officers.
• The introduction of Convoy Escort Groups and Escort Support Groups.
• The introduction and use of CAM (Catapult Aircraft Merchant) ships, MAC (Merchant Aircraft Carrier) ships, and escort carriers.
• The introduction and use of land-based and seaborne high-frequency direction-finding equipment (HF/DF) and the German counter-measures.
• The development of anti-submarine tactics (e.g. Operation Buttercup and the creeping attack).
• The development of ahead-throwing anti-submarine weapons (i.e. Hedgehog and Squid) and improved ASDIC.
• The role of the Bletchley Park codebreakers.
• Operation Drumbeat.
• The introduction of the Leigh Light on RAF Coastal Command aircraft and its impact on airborne attacks on U-boats.
• The publication of the Atlantic Convoy Instructions.
• The introduction of acoustic torpedoes by the Germans and Allies and their impact.
• The loss of the French ports after D-Day.
• Month-by-month and annual ship and U-boat losses.

I concluded with two graphics that showed the monthly total of U-boats sunk and ...

... and the numbers and tonnage of ship sunk by U-boats compared to the total number of U-boats sunk and destroyed by the Allies.

BATTLESHIP NOVOROSSIYSK

This was a committee game that looked at the events surrounding the sinking of the Russian battleship Novorossiysk (formerly the Italian battleship Giulio Cesare that was awarded to the USSR as a war prize) in Sebastopol on 29th October 1955. It is important to remember that this was less than two years after the death of Stalin on 5th June 1953 and Georgy Malenkov had replaced him.

The players represented the various officials charged with identifying the cause of the explosion that sank the ship and gathering the relevant documentation required to support the committee's conclusion.

My player briefing.

A map of Sebastopol harbour,

My role was a naval engineering Captain from the Baltic Fleet and my main concern – along with the other members of the committee – was to find out what had happened to the ship's engineering log. It had apparently been removed by the ship's engineering officer and I clashed with my opposite number in the Black Sea fleet ... who I regarded as incompetent and obstructive.

I ruled out an accidental explosion and felt that the ship was lost due to the actions of the ship's missing engineering officer coupled with the incompetence of the fleet's head naval engineer and his failure to imposed proper procedures.

It was great fun ... and I'd certain play this game again!

OPERATION JADE EMPEROR

This was a planning game about the re-integration of Taiwan into the People's Republic of China. The players were tasked with mounting an assault on the island that would replace the existing government as quickly as possible and before the United States could intervene.

The map of Taiwan and the forces available to each side. Each of the blocks represented a brigade-sized military unit. The blue ones were the Taiwanese ones, and the red ones were the People's Republic of China's units.,

We were extremely lucky to have a player who had personal experience of an amphibious landing on an enemy-occupied island, and once we had – as a group – decided on a surprise attack of Taipei to decapitate the Taiwanese government, we produced a plan that met the requirements of the supreme leadership.

THE DEVIL TO PAY – BUFORD'S CAVALRY AT GETTYSBURG

I observed this session rather than participated. It featured an extract from a contemporary map of the ridges that Buford occupied before the Confederate arrived, figures from Warlord Game Epic American Civil War range, and a modification of the DBX rules.

This is still a work in progress, but in my opinion it has lots of potential and I look forward to seeing finished rules. I particularly liked the use of a contemporary map and simply-painted figures. It gave the whole thing an antique look.

THE FIRST FANTASY GAME

This was another session where I was an observer rather than a participant.

Now, until recently I had very little interest in fantasy wargaming, but since joining the Dice of the Hill gaming group my interest has increased by leaps and bounds. The players were using the SEWG Middle Earth Wargame Rules ...

... and some very early fantasy wargame figures.

The session generated a lot of fun and laughter ... and I would have loved to have taken part if I could!

BERLIN NOCTURNE

The mid-1950s saw an increasing level of spying centred around the divided city of Berlin. In this game, the seven players represented the representatives of the KGB (the Russian Committee for State Security) and GRU (the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate) in Berlin and members of the security department of the Democratic People's Republic of Germany, the STASI (Ministry for State Security). This group sat as a committee that met regularly to co-ordinate intelligence operations in Berlin ... and in this game, they had a major leak to deal with.

I played the role of Colonel Kurt Hagens, one of the STASI's counter-intelligence experts. It became very apparent from the start that the KGB and GRU were looking for a scapegoat ... and that scapegoat was not going to be Russian! As a result, my STASI colleague and I attempted to run an operation of our own that would feed information to the KGB to see if it leaked and thus exposed where the leak was.

In order to do this, my colleague (Major Buchardt) fed some false information to the KGB about my personal life. He told one of the KGB officers that it was known that I had a 19-year-old mistress who lived in the Potsdam area and who had links to some dissidents. Furthermore, I also dropped hints to both the KGB and the GRU that I had served as a Communist undercover agent in the Gestapo during the late war. (As I walk with a stick, it was not difficult to persuade them that I had operated under the codename 'Flick' whilst serving in France!)

This turned out to be a big mistake as it made me the obvious candidate to take the blame for the leak ... and that is how the game ended.

(The game was based on Operation Gold/Operation Stopwatch, which was a joint CIA and SIS operation in Berlin using a tunnel into the Soviet-occupied zone of Berlin to tap into landline communication of the Soviet Army headquarters. That was the source of the leak we were trying to find!)

ESSAI DE JEU DE GUERRE

I had hoped to sign up to participate in this session but didn't manage to. However, I did manage to observe ... and that was almost as good as actually playing the game.

The rules were written in France during the early part of the First World War and was intended to validate the French Army's aggressive tactics. The playing surface was a map divided up into squares and the playing pieces represented infantry, cavalry, machine guns, and artillery. Movement was orthogonal and the combat results were deterministic and dependent upon the circumstances the opposing units were in (e.g. the defending unit was in trenches, the attacking unit [or units] had charged and not engaged the enemy in a firefight) and NOT on dice throws. Of particular interest was the fact that artillery engaging a target could not hit it during its first turn as this was regarded as being merely ranging fire.

The tabletop battlefield,

The French attackers,

The German defenders,

During the game, a French force attacked a line of German trenches and after suffering some setbacks and considerable losses, they force the German to retreat. This obviously proved that the aggressive tactics employed by the French should work ... and we all know how true that turned out to be!

This session was of particular interest to me because it showed a French military wargame that was developed during a period when the French Army was not a devotee of wargaming. In many ways it reflected the sorts of designs that were prevent in the UK in the 1880s and 1890s, such as Dr David Charles Ballinger Griffith's POLEMOS.

THE GRIMNESS OF WAR

The Salonika Campaign is probably one of the least well-known operations undertaken during the Great War, and this talk did much to educate the attendees as to why its importance should not be ignored.

My particular interest in this campaign arises from two facts.

Firstly, the 2/20th Battalion, London Regiment (Blackheath and Woolwich) – which was recruited from the part of London where I live – was one of the units that formed part of 60th (2/2nd London) Infantry Division. It participated in the Battle of Doiran (24th to 25th April and 8th to 9th May 1917) before being sent to Palestine later that year.

Secondly, the 8th County of London Brigade, Royal Field Artillery – which had its headquarters at 'Oaklands', St Margaret's Road (later St Margaret's Grove), Plumstead – was also a locally-recruited unit and formed part of 60th (2/2nd London) Infantry Division. (I wrote a blog post about its war memorial on my blog.)

LE KRIEGSPIEL

I had very little idea about the history of wargaming in France before attending this session ... and I left very well informed! This is hardly surprising as the presenter wrote JOUER LA GUERRE: HISTOIRE DE WARGAME (PLAYING WAR: THE HISTORY OF WARGAMING).

It was interesting to note that one early French wargame designer used hexes made up of six equilateral triangles and that after the defeat of the Second Empire in 1870, one German innovation that wasn't emulated by the French Army was wargaming/kriegsspiel.

I enjoyed the aside about the reluctance of some military players to the use of dice ... but they were happy to use six-sided friction generators!

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This was a great conference and was the largest staged to date. It has already been agreed that Wargame Developments will be return to Cranfield Management Development Centre for next year's Conference of Wargamers (COW).

Wargame Map Tool: My Operation Barbarossa Mini-campaign Maps redrawn

The next step in my 'learning how to use the Wargame Map Tool hex map drawing program' was to see if I could use it to redrawn the maps I used for my Operation Barbarossa Mini-campaign. These date back to the 2015s and included:

• Operation Barbarossa Mini-campaign: Crossing the river (15th February 2015)
• Operation Barbarossa Mini-campaign: Counter-attack (17th February 2015)
• Operation Barbarossa Mini-campaign: Defence line (20th February 2015)

Below are the original maps, in each case followed by the relevant redrawn maps created using Wargame Map Tool hex map drawing program

The original 'Crossing the river' mini-campaign map.

The redrawn 'Crossing the river' mini-campaign map.

The original 'Counter-attack' mini-campaign map.

The redrawn 'Counter-attack' min-campaign map..

The original 'Defence line' mini-campaign map.

The redrawn 'Defence line' mini-campaign map.

As can be seen, the redrawn maps are simpler than the originals and lack some of the finer details ...

... BUT ...

... once I set up the basic hex map, I managed to produce the redrawn maps in less than fifteen minutes, and that included uploading the original exported PNG images into MS Paint to tidy up one or two minor problems and to save them in JPG format.

I am still on an upward learning curve with this program, but the more I use it (and make mistakes as I do!), the more I am learning the strengths and weaknesses of this hex drawing program.

Fifteen million hits!

15,000,000 hits!

The AI bots may still be the major contributors to the total number of hits my blog has received  … but today - whilst I was attending COW2026 - my blog achieved fifteen million hits!

• Fourteen million hits: 6th June 2026
• Thirteen million hits: 16th May 2026
• Twelve million hits: 10th April 2026
• Eleven million hits: 3rd March 2026
• Ten million hits: 3rd February 2026
• Nine million hits: 16th December 2025
• Eight million hits: 4th October 2025
• Seven million hits: 26th July 2025
• Six million hits: 6th September 2024
• Five million hits: 20th January 2024
• Four million hits: 8th November 2021
• Three million hits: 6th December 2018
• Two million hits: Unsure
• One million hits: 25th December 2015

As ever, I would like to extend a huge THANK YOU to the regular blog readers who continue to read and comment on my somewhat eccentric blog posts. Long may you continue to do so!

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I am giving serious thought to only writing a blog post about the number of hits my blog has received when that number reaches twenty million. Mind you, at the present rate that will be sometime in October or November!

COW2026

The annual Wargame Developments Conference of Wargamers (COW) will be taking place this weekend.

This year's conference will be taking place at the Cranfield Management Development Centre and the program is a full one, as the following shows:

• THE PLENARY GAME: XERXES’ INVASION OF GREECE
• BAFFLED BY BOARDGAMES – STEVE JACKSON’S ILLUMINATI
• CAIRO 1942
• WORLD WAR III IN TEN MINUTES
• CAVALRY CONSIDERATIONS
• IN TENEBRIS
• A YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY – MONTROSE’S SCOTTISH CAMPAIGN
• 633 SQUADRON
• THE BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC: SINKING U-BOATS: A REACTION TO THE WATU ‘MYTH’ (My contribution to the conference programme)
• SAVE THE EMPEROR!
• BRICK BY BLOODY BRICK 2
• CAPTAIN SCARLET AND THE LEPERONS
• THE FIRST FANTASY GAME
• TONKIN BLUES
• GMT'S LABYRINTH – THE WAR ON TERROR – TEAM PLAYING, 25 YEARS ON
• THE BLOOD ROAD
• HITHER SPAIN 208/9 BCE
• THE BIRDS ARE SINGING AND IT’S AWONDERFUL DAY
• THE BEAR WENT OVER THE BORDER; DUNN KEMPF REFOUGHT
• RED ARMY: SOVIET WARGAME
• HIVE CITY
• GALTIERI, MY PART IN HIS DOWNFALL
• THE GRIMNESS OF WAR
• WINNING A VC WITH THE 6TH
• THE EARTH PREPARED – DO WE STILL TASTE LIKE CHICKEN TO THEM?
• LET’S ROCK! JIM ROCHE’S FINAL SINGALONG TOUR
• BATTLE FOR TIKKAKOSKI AIRPORT – REAL-TIME TACTICS
• RAPID URBAN COMBAT KRIEGSSPIEL UMPIRING SYSTEM (RUCKUS)
• SIMPLE SALAMIS
• TEAM BLACK HAT
• ENGLISH CIVIL WAR SIEGE – TAKE 2
• RIDING BY MOONLIGHT
• DON’T BE A PILLOCK, JUST TAKE THAT HILLOCK
• BAFFLED BY BOARDGAMES – SPI AIR WAR
• THE RECCE-STRIKE COMPLEX
• SPACE HULK!
• FRIGATE ACTION!
• THE DEVIL TO PAY – BUFORD’S CAVALRY AT GETTYSBURG
• WE’LL GO NO MORE A’VIKING. MAYBE
• JACOBITES SIR…..THOUSAND OF ‘EM
• WHEN GOVERNMENTS PLAY II

It is a very diverse program of sessions this year, with lots of historical, professional, and science fiction/fantasy topics being covered and gamed. Attendees opt for those sessions that take their fancy, and it is amazing just how much cross-fertilisation takes places as a result. For example, in previous years I have seen someone attend a science fiction game which inspired then to write a historical game using the same rules structure and mechanisms, adapting them for something the original designer never considered using them for. This is one of the strengths of Wargame Developments and is why COW has been going since 1980.

The conference is only open to members of Wargame Developments, so if you are interested in attending next year's event, you need to join.

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PS. As I will attending COW, it is highly likely that I will not be blogging very much over the next few days.

Model railways, mini-campaigns ... and another ghost of an idea

After I wrote my recent blog post entitled MODEL RAILWAYS, MINI-CAMPAIGNS ... AND THE GHOST OF AN IDEA I remembered the plot of Antoine Vanner's most recent book in the DAWLISH CHRONICLE, BRITANNIA'S BLUFF.

The plot of the book revolves around an attempt to draw Turkish attention away from Gallipoli in the run up to the Allied evacuation and involves a landing and temporary occupation of part of the Turkish coast in the Gulf of Alexandretta.

The main means of communication in the area is a railway line, and it plays an important role in the defence of the landing area.

Now, this would make another excellent railway-based mini-campaign, as the maps from the book show.

© Antoine Vanner

© Antoine Vanner

Notes

In the book, the two redoubts (Wellington and Marlborough) were constructed by the landing force and were served and supported by the railway. They were intended to be the outer defences for the landing area at Alexandretta.

The defensive Clapham Perimeter around Toprakkale Junction was constructed by the landing force to protect its improvised airfield and the local railway depot. It was also the base for an extemporised railway gun.

The Turkish force that was sent to attack the landing area comes from the direction of Ceyhan.

So, this is yet another ghost of an idea that may never come to fruition ... but it certainly has the sort of potential that makes it worth investigating further!

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BRITANNIA’S BLUFF: THE DAWLISH CHRONICLES: NOVEMBER 1915 – JANUARY 1916 was written by Antoine Vanner and published in 2025 by Old Salt Press (ISBN 9781 943 40470 4) and can be purchased via Amazon in paperback or Kindle editions.

Wargame Map Tool: My first attempt to draw a map

Having recently downloaded the WARGAME MAP PROGRAM hex map drawing program, I have managed to start playing around with it. I decided that my starting point would be to produce the sort of map I used for the Operation Barbarossa Mini-campaign that I staged last year at my local game club, Dice on the Hill. It took me a couple of attempts to get it the way I wanted it to look, and the result looked like this:

It is by no means as detailed as I hoped it might be, but for a first attempt I was quite pleased with the result.

The Timeless Traveller: The endgame

Well, the final game session has taken place and our adventure is over! Here is what happened:

The group – less Bumble (the Stormshifter) , who was near the captain – arrived on deck … for the second time just as the High Priestess emerged from the body of the dwarf after an amulet had been pressed into his chest. Neo-Munch (the conjoined Hooded Man and Munch the Songweaver) shouted, ‘Kill the High Priestess! Don’t let her take off!’

Johnny-Baptiste (the Cheat) immediately began to climb one of the masts whilst Ragnar (the Berserker) rushed forward and hit one of the Hooded Men near the High Priestess with his axe. At the same time, Vale (the Shepherd) also moved forward and cast a spell on a Hooded Man and Callistra successfully cast her ‘Hunter’s Marks’ on the High Priestess. She followed this by firing an arrow at the High Priestess … and it found its mark! Mankare (the Shadowmancer) called up one of his shadow spirits just as Bumble changed his form into a wasp so that he could attack the High Priestess. Neo-Munch successfully cast a sleeping spell over several of the Hooded Men next to the High Priestess, but she was able to deflect part of its effect onto Mankare, who fell asleep!

Callistra fires an arrow at the High Priestess ... and wounds her!

The High Priestess shouted out, ‘We have guests! Clear the decks!’ just as she cast her flying spell and began to rise from the deck, reading from the book as she did so. In response, one of the Hooded Men attempted to self-immolate by stabbing himself in the chest with the dagger.

Neo-Munch immediately cast a spell to disrupt the High Priestess’s attempt to fly … and despite her best attempt to deflect the spell, she fell back to the deck and landed safely on her feet. Neo-Munch then took cover behind the mast. Vale cast a spell to summon his spirit dog, and although he was successful, it did influence those that were close to him. Callistra fired two more arrows at the High Priestess and hit her once … just as Ragnar used his axe to injure one of the Hooded Man and the High Priestess. Whilst this was happening, Johnny-Baptiste slid down the mast before throwing her magical dagger at the Hooded Man that Ragnar had attacked and a second Hooded Man who was near the High Priestess. Both were hit, and the first was killed!

Johnny-Baptiste uses his magical dagger to attack the High Priestess and a Hooded Man.

Neo-Munch had managed to revive Mankare, who summoned two more shadow spirits with which to attack the High Priestess just as Bumble flew next to her. She screamed an incantation … and when nothing happened, she cried out, ‘Where is the book?’, just before coming invisible. However, she had forgotten that Callistra had marked her, and although she was no longer visible, Callistra could sense her location in the air above the deck.

The Hooded Man who had attempted to stan himself in the chest tried to crawl towards the High Priestess and another moved towards Mankare’s shadow spirits and cried out. ‘For the Dark Lord,’ before he also stabbed himself in the chest. At the High Priestess’s command, the Hooded man exploded and caused a large hole to appear in the deck … which Vale fell through! Another Hooded Man attempted to attack Callistra, but she was able to avoid his blows by moving backwards.

Neo-Munch used a health potion to heal some of Johnny-Baptiste’s wounds and sent him an invisibility potion, which he took. Meanwhile Vale looked around for ways to extricate himself from the cargo hold he had fallen into and began piling crates together so that he could climb up them to get out. Mankare advanced down the deck and used his ice lance spell on a Hooded Man, causing him serious injuries, including blindness. Ragnar again wielded his axe and killed an already wounded Hooded Man. Callistra fired yet another arrow at the High Priestess and hit her, causing the High Priestess to cry out. ‘How can you see me?’ Johnny-Baptiste moved towards a Hooded Man but when he attacked the man, he lost his invisibility.

Thanks to her 'Hunter's Mark', Callistra was able to fire at - and hit - the invisible High Priestess,

The High Priestess cried out, ‘To me!’ and a Hooded Man moved towards her … and began to melt as she drew on his energy to revive herself. The Hooded Man who had been fighting Johnny-Baptiste lunged forward and wounded him before disengaging.

At the same time, Neo-Munch produced the illusion of a book, which he threw over his shoulder, and the High Priestess tried to grab it before realising that it was not real. She turned all her venom onto Neo-Munch … who teleported himself out of the way. Callistra fired yet another arrow at the High Priestess, wounding her again. Whilst this was taking place, Vale manged to get his spirit dog onto the deck and Mankare moved forward and summoned up two more shadow spirits. Ragnar finished off an already wounded Hooded Man and Bumble attempted to sting the High Priestess. In retaliation, the High Priestess attempted to swat Bumble away and caused a wave of water to come over the ship’s side and engulf Ragnar in a huge water-filled bubble. Vale finally managed to climb up onto the deck, just as he heard someone cry out, ‘Give me the dagger!’.

Ragnar's attempt to break the water bubble spell almost cost him his life!

During the confusion Bumble flew straight at the High Priestess and stung her, causing her to scream out in pain.

Bumble's poisonous sting seriously hurt the High Priestess.

To get into a better position to fire at the High Priestess, Callistra climbed one of the ship’s masts. Deciding that jumping into the sea might break the water bubble spell, Ragnar rushed to the ship’s side and jumped over the bulwark … only to discover that the water bubble floats! He immediately used his axe to attach himself to the side of the ship before it sailed on and left him behind. Neo-Munch attempted to use his lightning spell on the High Priestess … but she turned it back on him. As a result, Neo-Munch and Mankare are wounded, with Neo-Munch become energised with electricity that makes him dangerous to anyone who is nearby. Because he was so close to the High Priestess, Bumble was wounded by the spell and returned to the deck … although as he did so, he realised that the High Priestess was no long invisible! Johnny-Baptiste’s magical dagger and Mankare’s shadow spirits attack a Hooded Man, and both wound him. Mankare then cast a splinter spell on the High Priestess while Vale healed Bumble’s wounds.

The High Priestess cried out, ‘To me!’ for a second time, and a Hooded Man rises from the deck toward her as she moved towards the ship’s controls. She also sends a fireball towards Mankare and Vale’s spirit dog, causing Vale to be turned upside down and to drop his pet chicken! Callistra used the ship’s rigging to swing through the air and was able to seriously wound the High Priestess twice with her dagger.

By using the ship's rigging, Callistra was able to swing down and catch the High Priestess unawares and to stab and seriously wound her.

Neo-Munch now used a spell that causes the High Priestess to fall to the deck again and to cry out, ‘I command you to come now!’ Neo-Munch follows up by casting a shatter spell on the High Priestess … and she is killed by a barrage of icicles.

Neo-Munch's shower of icicles killed the High Priestess, thus ending her reign of terror aboard the ship

When this happens, the last Hooded Man – who had been raised above the deck by the High Priestess – falls to the ground and breaks his neck. Now that the High Priestess was dead, the water bubble around Ragnar dispersed and Johnny-Baptiste helped him to climb back aboard. It also enabled Vale to resurrect the dwarf and Neo-Munch to return to his Munch form.

Whilst the adventurers gathered together on the deck, an unnatural silence surrounded them … and then a brilliant light appeared from the clouds and a tall, ethereal creature wearing armour and armed with a sword descended.

The Herald of the Gods descends to speak with the adventurers.

It looked at them and in a melodious and powerful voice it said, ‘I am the Herald of the Gods. They are grateful for what you have done. Will you all please step forward, and I will answer any questions that you have.’ In reply, the group asked how the wisp tree and its spirits could be release. The Herald replied that the only way was to return it to the forest.

Thinkertop then appeared with many boxes of gold and the Herald stated, ‘Thinkertop was the carrier of the artefacts on our behalf as we cannot directly interfere in mortal affairs.’ He then turned to Thinkertop and told him that, ‘This world now belongs to you.’ … and then the Herald flew upwards and the light suddenly disappeared.

The adventure was now over … and the group were free to look for a new one.

The group contemplate the events of their recent adventure ... and begin thinking about their next one.

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This was a magnificent adventure and I thoroughly enjoyed myself ... and my thanks must go to Paolo (the very innovative Game Master) and the other players, Alicia, Ben, Guy, Jason, Louie, and Sophie.

Wargame Map Tool: Is it the hex map drawing program that I need?

First, a big THANK YOU to Pete Forster, who sent me a link to WARGAME MAP TOOL hex map drawing program. As the following images from the relevant page on Board Game Geek website show, it seems to meet all my requirements ... and possibly more!

I have now downloaded the program, and hope to try it out over the next few weeks.