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Monday 24 June 2013

The programme for COW2013 is almost ready

My co-organiser of COW2013Tim Gow – sent me the programme on Saturday and I will be taking it to the printer later this morning.

Besides the session timetable ...


... the programme contains a list of the sessions that will be on offer, and they are currently as follows:

THE PLENARY GAME – THE FIRST GENOCIDE (Mike Young)
Homo Sapiens vs. Neanderthal. The 2013 plenary game will be a 'cardboard simulator' representing the first great victorious war of mankind – that in which Homo Sapiens Sapiens eradicated the Neanderthals.

TEN ROUNDS RAPID (WD Display Team North)
Plucky Brits trying to bag a few Huns before going home by Christmas. A fast-paced WW1 participation game.

FLETCHER PRATT ON GRASS (Tim Gow, John Armatys & Martin Rapier (so basically WDDTN again))
The Fletcher Pratt Naval war game with 1/200th-scale toy ships – on the lawn!

CURSUS HONORUM (John Armatys)
The game of political advancement in the Roman Republic which involves much rolling of dice and instructing stone masons to carve suitable inscriptions on tombs. An entertainment for up to six players.

GENTLEMEN GO BY (Sue Laflin Barker)
It's still the morning after the smugglers have landed their goods. They are still trying to deliver the contraband to those who have ordered it and the Revenue are still trying to intercept it. I have made some adjustments to the rules which I hope will make the game run more smoothly. As before there is room for up to 4 tavern keepers and up to 3 revenue.

THE FORTRESS (Jim Wallman)
A committee game set in World War II about designing and constructing a scheme of fortifications.

THE WAR OF FREEDONIAN SUCCESSION (Jim Wallman)
A Game for Boys from twelve years of age to one hundred and fifty and for that more intelligent sort of girl who likes boys' games and books. Basically cocking about on the lawn with big toy soldiers and matchstick firing guns.

TAIPING ERA (Graham Evans)
A brief description of the session - 15mm rules for warfare in mid 19th Century China. The mechanisms are designed to cover combat between Imperial forces (their European style supports such as Chinese Gordon's Ever Victorious Army) and the various rebels (mainly the Taiping) and also the Barbarian Invaders. The core system uses the EDNA approach to simulate unit cohesion.

BATTLE 1945 (Phil Barker)
A WW2 ‘Sharp End’ toy soldier game.

RANDOM TALES FROM THE HISTORY OF WARGAMING PROJECT (John Curry)
The first mega-game, the worst commando raid in history, how Paddy Griffith prevented World War III, why WD never ruled the (wargaming) world, video interview by ??, the true story of Don Featherstone’s Skirmish Wargames, the demise of the Wargames Newsletter, and future directions of the History of Wargaming Project.

MICHAEL KORN'S MODERN WARS IN MINIATURE (John Curry)
This will be a recreation of the almost unknown skirmish game from the early days of modern wargaming. Hidden scenario, limited situational awareness each player will command small band of men. Whether these men are equally determined as the players will be seen.

BOSWORTH (Phil Steele)
A talk and presentation about the Battle of Bosworth. This will be followed by:

BIG BOSWORTH (Phil Steele)
The new 54mm DBA version of Bosworth.

ALL THE NICE GIRLS LOVE A SAILOR (Jim Roche)
Another singalong session following on from last year’s triumph. This will have a nautical theme…

ZONA DI CAMORRA (John Bassett)
Liberated Naples, 1943: a small team from British Intelligence. hunts for leading Fascists in an ancient, starving city rife with racketeering, prostitution and vendettas. A rather dark role-play on post-conflict reconstruction with some adult themes.

16 CARD CARRIER STRIKE (Alan Paull)
A simple game of carrier action in World War II
World War 2 aircraft carrier battles were immensely complicated affairs, with many types of aircraft, weapons, different types of carrier and multitudinous other ships. Or were they? 16 card Carrier Strike portrays the essence of carrier battles in a simple format requiring cards, dice, markers and a playing area to represent the ocean. Cries of Tora!, Tora!, Tora! are completely optional.

MISSION COMMAND (Alan Paull)
A rather complicated WW2 tactical / operational miniatures game.

TURKISH DELIGHT! (Wayne Thomas & David Brock)
A 15mm foray into the Balkans circa 1912 using a "Far Away Wars" variant. Greeks v Ottomans

IRONBOTTOM SOUND (Ian Drury)
A second demonstration of GENERAL QUARTERS III: this time a night action off Guadalcanal in late 1942. All aboard for the Tokyo Express. . .

OPERATION VIJAY (Bob Cordery & Tim Gow)
A planning session followed by a map-based wargame (with toys!) about Operation Vijay, - the Indian ‘liberation’ of Goa in 1961.

KENTISH REVELS (Mike Elliott)
Being a game set in the 18th century somewhere in Kent. It may (or may not) have something to do with smuggling ...

THE BATTLE OF GUMBINNEN, 20 AUGUST 1914 (Ian Drury)
The first major battle between German and Russian forces in 1914, refought using Richard Brooks's rules with the same pinboard hidden movement system recently used in our refight of Mons-Le Cateau.

CHICAGO CHICAGO! (Russell King)
A session which replays in a group format the infamous SPI political game "Chicago-Chicago!" about the 1968 Democratic Party convention and presents some of the very odd and - for their time - innovative ideas behind it.

HAPSBURG LIP 2013 (Mike Young)
Leave the waging of wars to others! But you, happy Austria, marry; for the realms which Mars awards to others, Venus transfers to you

MOVE OVER TONY BLAIR.... (Mike Young)
An attempt to see if we at COW can come up with a peace settlement that would work in Syria in 2013. Players take the role of Assad, the Alawites, the Sunni, Iran and the USA. Using a combination of a COW committee game and a Decision Workshop we see if we can come up with some ideas of what might work in Syria. We can then compare it with what happens over the next year, and see how well we do compared with history. One map, 1 page A4 briefings, Politics on a single screen… Want more details? Bring a newspaper.

The interesting thing is that additional unofficial sessions will no doubt 'appear' on the programme timetable once it goes on display on the Friday night.

It looks like being yet another great conference, and as long as the weather is not too bad, one where we will be able to do quite a bit of al fresco wargaming.

4 comments:

  1. One year I tell myself, one year....

    Cheers,

    Pete.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Pete,

    I look forward to meeting you if and when you do make it.

    All the best,

    Bob

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love these COW programs, and wish there were something like this somewhere near me.

    The most recne tissue of Modern war magazine has the game Decision Iraq in it, it is a game on the Iraqi insurgency that uses some notions from Chicago-Chicago. A later issue of the magazine will have my game on the Greek Civil War 1947-49, using a variant of that system.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Brtrain (Brian),

    We've been running COW since 1981 and we seem to gradually evolved a style of conference that meets the changing needs of wargaming. This COW has a nice mix of sessions ... and I know that I am going to have difficulty choosing which ones to go to.

    Perhaps you will be able to attend one day; you will certainly be made welcome by all!

    It is great to hear that your game designs are reaching such a large audience ... and an audience that will appreciate all the work you have put in to developing them.

    All the best,

    Bob

    ReplyDelete

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