VCOW21 - Conference and Gaming Report

WW2 Brigade Commander via Zoom

This last Friday/Saturday/Sunday was the weekend of the Virtual Conference of Wargamers, and event usually held physically in the summer by the Wargame Developments Group. I've never got to COW, but last summers VCOW was a cracker so I was really looking forward to this 2nd VCOW, and it sounds like it will now be a regular fixture, running every February - wonderful.

This VCOW had a lot more sessions, and a lot more of those were games. Having watched several US wargaming conventions on Little Wars TV recently it seems that VCOW (and I expect COW) has more in common with those than UK wargaming shows, and certainly than a more conventional conference (except perhaps Connections).

Lecture wise there was an excellent double-header opener looking at Counter-Insurgency wargames, the second being given by Brian Train, creator of the Afghanistan boardgame A Distant Plain. There was another excellent presentation by Nick Riggs on his PhD work looking at how we model (badly) tactical actions. The conference kicked off with a virtual battlefield tour of Brecourt Manor (of Band of Brothers fame) by someone who conveniently lives just down the road from it.

Game wise this is what I managed to fit in between Friday evening and Sunday lunchtime:

• Seize Warsaw - a Brigade level blind kreigspiel on Discord and ConceptBoard on the German assault on Warsaw on 7th Sept 1939 - I never fired a shot but the Germans did well
• The Six Week Naval War, 1789 - a country level blind kriegspiel of naval conflict between Britain, Spain and France - we got well beaten as the French 
• Lockdown and the Portable Wargame - a talk on the Portable Wargame by its designer Bob Cordery and then the chance to play in out in a Zoom'd ACWesque encounter in 25mm - we won narrowly but I must admit the rules seemed very abstract
• In the Heart of America - Buffalo hunting as a native American with a great card mechanic and 54mm sized toys (just). Would be a great demo game at a show.
• WW2 Brigade Commander - Brigade level open wargame with Zoom on a 6x6 hexon grid with 6mm models - superb and my battalion took both the objectives! Will run my own games so watch the blog.
• Politics By Means of Pointy Sticks - Ancients game using Zoom and the One-Hour Wargame rules (and 15mm?) - great fun, superb narration and we won again! Again will play my own games.
• Papal Conclave 1492 - a political game with Zoom and lots of Zoom breakout rooms for secret (and not so secret) meetings, great fun (and I didn't get elected Pope!)

And here are a few more photos - Zoom's not very exciting I know!

Politics by Means of Pointy Sticks

The Portable Wargame

Nice TTS Op Martlett DLC being used for a wargaming PhD (!)

A superb conference with a great range of games. Roll on the main COW (in some form) and VCOW 2022.