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.

Salamanca - 22 July 1812

 

Haven't posted here for a year. I'm still using LinkedIn for most work and wargaming PhD stuff - which currently doesn't leave much else. PhD should be finished in a year so my amount of hobby wargaming will hopefully then ramp back up!

On 21-22 Feb 26 we (as Rose Hill Wargaming Group) ran the 4th of our 20mm Peninsular War "big battles" - this time Salamanca. This is the biggest game we've done so far with a 26' x 14' playing surface (split over 3 tables) and over 3000 20mm figures (a mix of plastics and metal). The rules are still our own Steady Lads Steady, which are designed for play on a 10cm grid.

The tables at STARTEX, showing how few blinds are out at 8am

This is one of those battles where hindsight is a real issue. The French are unlikely to be silly enough to open up a gap in their lines as they march along the Monte de Azan, and Wellington, knowing the French want to force his flank can just try and block the route with a strong force. A lot of Salamanca wargame scenarios start when the French make the mistake and Wellington throws a chicken leg over his shoulder and declares "By God, that'll do" - so the French don't have a lot to play for.

Deployment positions at 0800 with movement boxes. One square = 600m

We therefore started the battle at 0800, when very few French or Allies were on the table. And since all were beyond 600m of each other all were represented by blinds (some of which could be dummies). For their missions, the French primary aim was to get a division off the far edge of the table, with a secondary objective of inflicting a good kill ratio on the Allies. The Allied primary aim was to block such a move, but without suffering excessive losses. To try and remove some hindsight the table was divided into  four "boxes", the Allies initially being able to deploy only in the northern one (DZ), and then getting release to move into the other boxes as the French advanced. This would hopefully stop a solid wall being put in place before the French had any chance of making it to the far end.

Still a lot of blinds, and the Allied barrier forming

Before the game the Commanders issued their orders, and in particular where off table units were to arrive. The umpires then controlled the arrival time - roughly based on historic movement speeds. Wellington assigned the potential blocking task to the 1st (incl. Guards) and Light Divisions, supported by the Heavy Cavalry. This meant they could get into position a lot faster than Packenham's 3rd Division could historically - the 3rd was ordered to make its shortest possible march, onto NE edge of the table.

As the battle started Marmont immediately ordered Foy into the attack towards the Lesser Arapiles, supported by 3rd Division, whilst 8th Division and his main force moved behind the Greater Arapiles and started heading for the Monte de Azan. Unfortunately by the time they go there the Allied roadblock was in position (perhaps I'd been a bit generous with box release or 1st and Light Division arrival times, or the French had taken too southerly a route). The two western forces then just faced off against each other whilst the battle evolved all the rest of the way down the line. The KGL cavalry seeing off the French Dragoons, and the French Light Cavalry losing to their British counterparts meant that for most of the game the French only had one light cavalry regiment - which certainly hampered their ability to manoeuvre. By the end of Saturday (Turn 11, 1330hrs battle time) the front line was a big zig-zag, running N-S in the West (far end of the table), then E-W along the plain in front of Los Arapiles and between the Greater and Lesser Arapiles, and then N-S again between the Pelagarcia and the Lesser Arapiles.

Shortly before the end of Saturday, 3 Div holding the E end of the line just off camera

It was interesting how different in flavour Sunday was from Saturday. Saturday had primarily been the CinC's day, getting the blinds to move across the table, trying to manoeuvre for position, apart from some light fighting in the centre and E flank. Sunday though was when the brigade commanders earnt their keep, fighting the enemy in front of them along a now relatively static front line. The centre was a fight of steady attrition, with both sides feeding new troops in and the French getting at least one battalion up to the base of the Lesser Arapiles, but certainly nowhere near the village of Los Arapiles. In the E, Foy's 1st Division and subsequently 3 Div and even 4th Div kept up a steady pressure on  the Allied 7th Div, and 3rd Div when it arrived, finally beating them back to the Lesser Arapiles itself. In the crook of the front line by Monte de Azan the Allies were slowly pushing the French in, but it wasn't until the final moves that the Guards and Dragoons moved across the rough terrain of the Monte de Azan to start pushing the French back. The zig-zag increasingly became more of a straight line and, as with many wargames, the front line rotated as the French pushed forward on their R flank (north) and the Allies pushed forward on their R flank (south).

We called ENDEX at about 3pm real time, about 1630 battle time, so about when the French line collapsed - but there was no sign of collapse here but the battle had settled down into an attritional fight.

A few turns before ENDEX view from the E end of the table

There are several ways in which we can try and evaluate who "won" the game.

Historically, the French performed far better than their real-life counterparts, still holding their own against the English, troops bumping up against the Lesser Arapiles on two sides, a route open to Salamanca and in all probability they may have been the ones to stay on the field. The Allies fared less well, although they blocked the French flanking manoeuvre they didn't destroy the French force in the way that Wellington did - although they had strong untouched brigades left whilst most of the French ones were damaged. Interestingly the research I did on the bicentennial Napoleonic games showed that wargamers often had a hard time reproducing the victories of Wellington and Napoleon! So on a historic basis it was probably a win for the French players.

Statistically speaking the Allies had lost 13 of 29 brigades, so just short of their 15 brigade break point. The French had lost 7 of 18 brigades, so also just short of their 9 brigade breakpoint - and with more fragile brigades the French may have lost it first if the game had gone on a bit longer.

In terms of the scenario victory conditions, the Allies got 2 out of 3 for their Decisive Victory (blocked exit, below army breakpoint, but not a 3:2 damage ratio). They did though meet the conditions for Marginal Victory (blocked exit, below army break point, below 3:2 damage ratio - although the ratio was actually more like 2:3). The French failed their Decisive Victory condition (exit a Division plus), but made their Marginal Victory condition (2:1 damage ratio). So on that basis it was a draw.

Overall we called the game a draw, which I think was fair, both sides having fought themselves more or less to a standstill (at least in the centre) and both very close to their army breakpoints.

Trying to design a scenario for a battle where one side won primarily due to a mistake of the other, and where neither side really wanted to fight is always a challenge - and particularly when you've got a bunch of wargamers who want to play a wargame for the the whole 2 days! The scenario may not have been perfect, but I think that most people really enjoyed themselves, and we enjoyed staging it. Roll on Vitoria in 2027!

(If you'd like to be put on the mailing list for Vitoria then just get in touch).

Some more photos from the game below.