A Compendium of Wargames

Back in 2023, John Curry (of the History of Wargaming Project) approached me and suggested I might like to write a book. We agreed that it would contain a selection of games that I have designed over the years and many of which have been presented at the annual Conference of Wargamers (jovially refererd to by afficionados as "COW"!).

Well it was a bit of a labour of love, but the book was finally published in 2025.

It contains 23 sets of wargame rules covering (as it says on the cover) everything from the Wars of the Roses through to World War II. There also chapters on how I got into wargaming (at th eage of 14), terrains and thoughts on game design.

You can get a copy on Amazon here and at all good bookshops. 

COW 2008 and after

In the event FMA in Time and Space didn't happen at COW this year, but my "Sunne in Splendour" game and the talk on 1st St Albans were both a great success.

Tried Basic Impetus with Normans and Saxons. Quite good, will have to try this again.

Moved gaming activities into middle bedroom.

Tried Napoleonic FMA skirmish. The game really showed how a couple of good figures (Elite) can dominate the game. Fair enough I suppose. With more formal periods you do need to avoid having too many Green troops and have mostly Average or Veteran.

Summer 2000

27th May: David and I went to Bill Leeson’s & played Kriegsspiel.

11th June: Tried “Simple Rules for Wargames” (a home grown set). OK, but perhaps lacking in flavour? A little short, but that’s probably cos I only had 10 bases a side. added rule that 1/3 losses ends the game. Don’t think leaders are appropriate to a straightforward battle (rather than pirates).

7-9 July: Several games at the Conference of Wargamers (COW). “Here They Come!” using VE worked well, fast and furious. Further rules mods for optional “group move”. Bob Cordery’s SCWARES was also good. Will be interesting to hear what others thought of the Stupid Simple Rules system. Peter Pig’s new pirates game looks promising, but I’m not sure about the smaller ships. Matrix games seemed to dominate... My “Steel Bonnets” matrix game was OK, but suffered from a lack of time to complete it and some dreadfully uninspired dice rolling (they kept getting 1s!). I really think a D10 would be better than a D6.

Good ideas from COW:
dolls house carpet for terrain boards;
buildings from FIMO modelling clay;
native huts from dolls house baskets.