COW 2026

 As the (hopeful) end of the PhD hoves into view (I've got about 6 months left), I really ought to start blogging more again. We'll see how I go....

Wargame Development's Conference of Wargamers was held at Cranfield Management Centre for the first time on 10-12 July. We had to move from the wonderful Missenden Abbey as that was being put up for sale, and whilst Cranfield is very much a modern conference centre and so lacking in a bit of character it more than makes up for that in having lots of very usable space, a lovely atrium area for general mixing, and, crucially for that weekend, very effective air conditioning. I took 3 games along and got to play in another half dozen or so. Here's a quick summary of what I did and saw.

Captain Scarlet and the Leperons

This was my game for the Friday night after dinner slot - so something fun rather than serious. It came about for two reasons - a discussion of Captain Scarlet late night at the last COW (and the discover that 28mm figures are available), and a wish to show people the custom card mechanic of Buck Surdu's Albedo Combat Patrol. So what better scenario than Spectrum fighting rabbits uplifted and reanimated by the Mysterons! The game went down pretty well I think, and reminded me just how good the ACP rules are. I might well do a modern version (and even finish the Anderverse version I started), and I also worked out how to build a simple Javascript app to replaced the cards during development (and even afterwards for those so inclined).

Captain Scarlet surrounded by dead rabbits

Lt Green takes a bead on the advancing rabbits

Recce Strike

I didn't get to play this, but its a version of the game used by the British Army to look at the recce strike model - where you aim to defeat ~66% of a force before it reaches you through a combination of ISR, drones and Fires. Lovely big operational map and some neat mechanics. All units are represented on the map as "task forces", with actual task force composition off map, and of course some are dummies.

Brick By Bloody Brick

This is my PhD game on tactical urban combat - so around reinforced platoon level. It uses a tile set to lay out different urban environments, and manoeuvre units are typically half-sections or specialist teams. UAVs are actively portrayed - as movable on-table units for ISR, and single effect counters for FPVs and Bombers. It uses a bucket of dice model, with doubles causing damage, or problems. There is also a mechanic for causing collateral issues such as civilian harm, fires, toxic gas release and rubble. Read more at the Brick By Bloody Brick home page. Game went down very well and I'm aiming at releasing it in the autumn.

Airstrike Landstrike

The venerable Seastrike game was one of the hits of last years conference (I think we amassed over a dozen copies - and I've since bought my own), so one of our members has decided to start extending it into a Joint game, with air and land components - each with their own card deck. Very much a work in progress but what he had so far worked well and shows a lot of potential. We also went down a rabbit hole talking about the Joint rules that used to appear in the back of the Armies and Weapons magasine in the 1970s/80s (translated version of an Italian magasine), and which were published in Italy as a book called Alfa-Tau (and which we may have tracked down a copy of).

The Perfect Battle - The Battle of Aliwal, January 1846

Something a bit more traditional for the after lunch slot on Saturday, a battle from the Anglo-Sikh wars played on a gridded table and with the author's own rules (derived from his Taiping Era rules). Serious BOD (17 was the most I think), lot loads of fun. My cavalry managed to reach the far table edge - which is always a good sign.

RUCKUS

My third game for COW, this was my PhD game set at brigade/battalion level. Again it uses tiles to generate different urban layouts. Everything works off 1D6, and all the key rules and charts are on a 1 page QRS. I finally achieved my goal at COW of playing a sizeable urban engagement in less than an 2 hours. More details on the RUCKUS home page, and it should be out by the end of August.

The Earth Prepared

This was more a "happening" than a wargame, as, representing different nations and factions on Earth (I was the Elon Musk characters intern!) we plan for an incoming alien invasion. A game full of lovely props and wacky ideas.

Checkpoint Zulu

Last session on Saturday night and a complete change of tone. This was essentially a map TEWT (Tactical Exercise Without Troops) run by a Finnish reservist about being on stag at a vehicle checkpoint outside of a Finnish airport as tensions between Russia and Finland rise. The real insight was not so much into the VCP duties as now to do them in the sub-zero temperatures of a Finnish winter!

Labyrinth

This game of the "global war on terror" has been on my to buy/play list for ages so it was great to be able to try it out. I was on the Jihadi team, but the US made very short work of our presence in Afghanistan so we were forced to move our operations to the Philippines, and start up cells in London and Paris. It has the potential to be a very dark game, but the mechanics are excellent and its a lot easier to play than Twilight Struggle which sort of kickstarted this genre. Now moved to the top of the "to buy" list, and also some ideas I might borrow for Centennial.

Le Kriegspiel

The final session on Sunday morning, and the last session of the Conference, was a fascinating presentation by a French Army Officer (and head of their wargaming team) on the history of professional wargaming in France, and the modern state of play.

A superb weekend as ever. And in 2027 I might actually be out of the PhD and might be a) able to put on something other than urban games and b) not put on so many games so I can play more of other peoples games.

The conference gallery is up on the WD web site at https://wargamedevelopments.org/conferences/cows/, which also has details about how to join WD if you'd like to take part in next year's COW.