Battle in the Vietnam War

Like a lot of people of my generation, the fighting in Vietnam was something that we lived with in our teens and early twenties. There was hardly a nightly TV news report that didn’t mention the fighting, and it was one of the reasons why I did not go to live in the US in 1972 when the opportunity arose. (At the time, my then girlfriend – who was a US exchange student – asked me if I’d like to go to New York to work in her family’s jewellery store … and then I discovered that if I did, I was liable for the draft even though I wasn’t a US citizen.)

My first experience of wargaming the conflict was at the very first Conference of Wargamers, which was held in 1980 at Moor Park. Greg McCauley – who was then a soldier in the British Army and a protégé of Paddy Griffith – staged a game using his rules, BUCKLE FOR YOUR DUST.

Not long afterwards, I was invited by Paddy to take part in a large-scale Vietnam game entitled MEMPHIS MANGLER. This took place under the aegis of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst’s wargames club, and I was given the role of being a US advisor to the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). It was the first ever megagame and was a wargaming experience like no other I had ever experienced.

Subsequently, Paddy Griffith wrote quite a lot about the Vietnam War but until now his writings have not been available in a single volume. As part of his ‘History of Wargaming’ project, John Curry has assembled this material and published it as BATTLE IN THE VIETNAM WAR: INCLUDING BUCKLE FOR YOUR DUST AND OTHER WARGAMES.

The book has an introduction by John Curry, forewords by Lt. Col Greg McCauley (Retd.) and Peter Perla, is split into eight chapters, and has a selected book list. The chapters are:

• Summary of the War
• A Chronology of Main Events
• Politics Trumps Battlefield Outcomes
• The Lessons of the Vietnam War
• Estimated Total War Casualties
• The War in a Nutshell
• Geography
• Troop Types and Organisations
• Communist Forces
• The Face of Battle
• The Pattern of Literature dealing with tactic in Vietnam
• Three Types of Battle
• The Alleged Supremacy of Technology in Vietnam 1965-73
• Low-Level Tactics
• The Impact of the Helicopter on the Way the War Was Fought
• Rules of Engagement (ROE)
• Reflections on the 'Dustoff'
• Operational Analysis Data from the Vietnam War
• Wargaming the Vietnam War
• Why Wargame Vietnam?
• Dungeons & Dragons – Indochina style
• Wargaming the Second Indochina War
• Types of Vietnam Wargame
• Sample Scenario: Fighting patrol
• Sample Scenario: Go-On Search and Destroy
• Sample Scenario: Extraction
• Sample Scenario: Operation Pensacola Pitcher, 29 August 1967
• Rule Set 1: Buckle for Your Dust: Miniature Wargames in Vietnam, 1965-73
• Rule Set 2: Mouth of the Dragon: Rules for Riverine Operations by Paddy Griffith
• Rule Set 3: 'One Braincell Vietnam' in 300th Scale by Andy Callan
• Memphis Mangler: The First Megagame (1981)
• A REMF's Guide to the Country – Its Flora, Fauna and Colloquialisms

There is also a Quick Reference Sheet for BUCKLE FOR YOU DUST.

In my opinion, this book contains pretty well all the information that wargamer who wants to refight battle from the Vietnam War needs to know. I did play a very minor role in getting it into print (I submitted my memories of taking part in Memphis Mangler), so my judgement might be seem as slightly suspect. However, most of this is pure Paddy Griffith, with a big dollop of Greg McCauley and a smaller one of Andy Callan, and these are people whose work is always worth reading. As Peter Perla states in his foreword:

'This book is another example of the multidimensional talents and sheer capacity of detailed research and intricate design by Paddy Griffith.'

You don't get many higher compliments than that!

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BATTLE IN THE VIETNAM WAR: INCLUDING BUCKLE FOR YOUR DUST AND OTHER WARGAMES was written by Paddy Griffith (with contributions by Greg McCauley and Andy Callan) and edited by John Curry. It was published in 2023 by The History of Wargaming Project (ISBN 979 8 3856 1798 2).

The legacy of Paddy Griffith

I can put my hand on my heart and say in all honesty that I would not be the wargamer I am today if I had not met Paddy Griffith.

Paddy's death in June 2010 was a shock, and eleven years on his legacy is only just beginning to be truly understood and his vast contribution to military history and wargaming realised. It is therefore worthy to note that John Curry's 'History of Wargaming' Project has recently published two books that cover just a fraction of Paddy's work.

PADDY GRIFFITH'S WARGAMING OPERATION SEALION: THE GAME THAT LAUNCHED ACADEMIC WARGAMING is an edited compilation of the original briefings etc., that were used in the famous Staff College wargame of Operation Sealion that took place in 1974 and the re-staging of that game (in modified form) at the Wargame Developments Conference of Wargamers in 2008.

Its contents include:

• Foreword (by Peter Perla)
• Introduction (by John Curry)
• Reflections on Wargames in General and Operation Sealion in Particular (by Paddy Griffith)
• Operation Sealion, the Biggest Non-Battle in History (by Paddy Griffith)
• Operation Sealion: The Book (by Richard Cox, with footnotes by Paddy Griffith)
• The Staff College Wargame
• Introduction
• Structure of the Game
• General Scenario
• Hitler's Invasion Directives
• Exercise Sealion Participants
• Rules for Umpires
• Sample Order Sheet
• The Weather
• The Weather Forecast of the South East of England
• Tie Times September 1940
• Sun and Moon Times
• Bomber Command Operations
• The Battle of Britain Wargame
• Damage to Targets Outside Fighter Command
• Order of battle
• German Invasion Craft
• Briefings
• Orders for German Invasion
• Orders for U-Boats
• Event Logs
• In Game News Reports
• The Result of the Operation Sealion Game
• Peace Offer
• An Umpire's Post Game Reflections
• Characteristics of Royal Navy Ships
• Characteristics of German Ships
• Characteristics of Main Aircraft in Operation Sealion
• The Wargame Developments Game at the Conference of Wargamers (2008) (by John Curry et al)
• Requirements for a Successful Operation Sealion (by John Curry)
• Selected Bibliography
• Appendix: Paddy Griffith's Debrief Notes on the Sealion Game at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford

A number of people who would have participated in the actual operation were involved in Paddy's wargame, and I wrote about them in some detail when the book was originally published.

Of possibly wider interest is PADDY GRIFFITH'S GAME OF WAR; REFLECTIONS ON A LIFETIME OF WARGAMING. This is a compendium of some of Paddy's articles, games, and correspondence, and gives a wonderful insight into his thinking about the relationship between military history and wargaming.

Its contents include:

• Acknowledgements and Challenges (by John Curry)
• Foreword (by Bob Cordery)
• Gaming World War II: Paddy's Greatest Legacy
• Obituary (by John Curry)
• A Wider View of Wargaming
• Donald Featherstone and Paddy Griffith
• A Lifetime of Writing Books
• Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst (1973-1989)
• The Moor Park Wargaming Conference (1980)
• The Toy Soldier Debate (1984)
• Interview with Paddy (1985)
• The Game of War: Wargaming for TV
• Waterloo 1815, The Wargame
• Balaklava 1854, The Wargame
• Reviews of The Game of War Mini Series
• British Army Evaluation of SPI's Firefight Wargame (1977)
• Roleplaying the Experience of Combat: Men Against Fire
• Naval Wargaming: Hunt the Bismarck
• 1814 Campaign - The Strategic Statistics
• The Civil Wars of Wargaming 1960-1990
• 'Black' Games
• Monkey Orange Solo Game
• The Taiwan Crisis Game: The Game that Almost Became An International Incident (2006)
• Books Published by Paddy Griffith

I did make a minor contribute to these books, and my opinion is therefore biased, but I feel that there is much in both of them that will interest the thinking wargamer who is looking for something a bit different.

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PADDY GRIFFITH'S WARGAMING OPERATION SEALION: THE GAME THAT LAUNCHED ACADEMIC WARGAMING was edited by John Curry and published in 2021 by The History of Wargaming Project (ISBN 979 8 510 67146 9).

PADDY GRIFFITH'S GAME OF WAR; REFLECTIONS ON A LIFETIME OF WARGAMING as edited by John Curry and published in 2021 by The History of Wargaming Project (ISBN 979 8 464 48388 0).

The Great War on the Western Front: A short history

Having known the late Dr Paddy Griffith from 1980 until he far too early death in 2010, I always tried to buy copies of his books. On my bookshelves I have:

• NAPOLEONIC WARGAMING FOR FUN (1980)
• FORWARD INTO BATTLE: FIGHTING TACTICS FROM WATERLOO TO VIETNAM (1981)
• A BOOK OF SANDHURST WARGAMES (1982)
• NOT OVER BY CHRISTMAS (1983)
• RALLY ONCE AGAIN (1986)
• BATTLE IN THE CIVIL WAR: GENERALSHIP AND TACTICS IN AMERICA 1861–65 (1986)
• HOW TO PLAY HISTORICAL WAR COUNCIL GAMES (1991)
• THE NAPOLEON OPTIONS: ALTERNATE DECISIONS OF THE NAPOLEONIC WARS (2000)
• BATTLE TACTICS OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR (2001)
• SPRAWLING WARGAMES MULTIPLAYER WARGAMING (2009)

One volume that was missing and that I did want was THE GREAT WAR ON THE WESTERN FRONT: A SHORT HISTORY, which was published in 2008. When I was told that an online bookseller had a small stock of this book on sale for little more than the cost of the postage, I ordered a copy, and it has recently been delivered.

I am currently reading this book, and it is a very typical Paddy Griffith book. In his introduction he makes the point that he wants to produce a subjective rather than a sensationalist book about the Great War on the Western Front (he comments that there are far more of the latter than there are of the former), and from what I have read so far, he did what he set out to achieve.

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THE GREAT WAR ON THE WESTERN FRONT: A SHORT HISTORY was written by Dr Paddy Griffith and published by Pen & Sword Books in 2008 (ISBN 978 1 8441 5764 8).

Paddy Griffith's Wargaming Operation Sealion

Back in 1974, Paddy Griffith was a fairly new member of the staff of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, when he conceived the idea to run a serious historical wargame that examined what might have happened had the Germans attempted to carry out Operation Sealion. It was one of the first wargame of its sort and is credited by Peter Perla as showing that a wargame could be a serious academic tool when use was made of proper historical analysis, statistical modelling, and applied human experience.

The DAILY TELEGRAPH sponsored the event, and it was staged at the Army Staff College. The list of participants is very interesting, and included:

• General Adolf Galland: Holder of the Kight's Cross of the Iron Cross, with Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds, he was a fighter ace who had flown in combat from the Spanish Civil War until the end of the Second World War.
• Major Rudolf Rothenfelder: An ex-Luftwaffe pilot who became President of the German Fighter Pilots Association.
• Admiral Freidrich Ruge: Holder of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, he commanded naval forces in the North Sea, Italy, and the Channel during the Second World War. He became the first commander of the Federal German Navy.
• Admiral Prof Dr Jurgen Rohwer: German naval historian who served aboard several destroyers and minesweepers during the Second World War.
• Admiral Dr Schunemann: German naval attaché in 1974,
  
• General Heinz Trettner: Holder of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, he served as Chief of Operations of 7th Flieger Division in 1940, before taking part in the invasion of Crete. He later commanded 4th Fallschirmjager Division, and after the war he became commander of the Federal German Army.
• Air Chief Marshal Sir Christopher Foxley-Norris GCB, DSO, OBE, FRSA: He served as a fighter pilot during the Battle of Britain. After the Second World War he served as Assustant Chief of the Defence Staff, commander of RAF Germany, and the 2nd Tactical Air Force.
• Rear Admiral Edward Findlay "Teddy" Geuritz CB, OBE, DSC & Bar: He was the third most senior member of the beachmaster party on Sword Beach on D-Day. After the war he served as Deputy Director of the Royal Naval Staff College before a stint on the Naval Staff at the Admiralty. He then moved to become Captain of the Fleet for the Far East Fleet, then Director of Defence Plans (Navy), Director of the Joint Warfare Staff, and President of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. His last appointment was as Commandant of the Joint Warfare Establishment.
• Major General Glyn Charles Anglim Gilbert CB MC: He came ashore at Normandy in command of a company of 2nd Lincolns, and he fought with them throughout the subsequent campaign to liberate France. He took part in the Rhine crossing, and was still leading his company when they captured Bremen in 1945. After the war he transferred to the Parachute Regiment, and commanded of the Territorial Army's 44th Parachute Brigade before becoming the Commandant of the School of Infantry, Warminster. His final posting was as General Officer Commanding 3rd Division.
• John Davis: One of the wargaming pioneers, his figures were used in the episode of CALLAN that featured a wargame,
• Andy Callan: One of the founding fathers of Wargame Developments and still one of the most innovative wargame designers around.
• Brigadier Page: He was the Assistant Commandant of the RMA Sandhurst at the time of the wargame.
• Dr Antony Brett-James: After service with the Royal Corps of Signals during the Second World War, he served for a time as Head of the War Studies Department at Sandhurst.
• Professor Michael Orr: He lectured in War Studies at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, from 1969 to 1984. He later worked at  the Conflict Studies Research Centre, and amongst other things he is currently a Honorary Research Fellow in War Studies at the University of Birmingham, editor of the Records of the Douglas Haig Fellowship, and Secretary General of the British Commission for Military History.
• Nigel de Lee: He taught war studies at Sandhurst, before moving on to teach history at the US Naval Academy, Annapolis, and Operations and Tactics at the Krigsskolen in Oslo.
• Dr David Chandler: After serving as a Captain in the British Army, he lectured at Sandhurst and held held three visiting professorships at Ohio State University, the Virginia Military Institute, and the Marine Corps University. He specialised in the study of the Napoleonic Wars, and was an acknowledged expert on Napoleon's military career.
• 'Lieutenant' Featherstone: THE Donald Featherstone, who was 'temporarily' (and unofficially) promoted from his wartime rank of sergeant and allocated to the team from 44th Parachute Brigade who assisted in the running of the wargame.

A report on the wargame was featured in the DAILY TELEGRAPH, and Richard Cox used it as the 'plot' for his 'what if' novel about Operation Sealion.

A very poor-quality photograph of those taking part in the 1974 Operation Sealion wargame at the British Army Staff College. The map over which the battle was fought can be seen in the centre of the photograph.

This book contains a wealth of information and was put together by John Curry from Paddy Griffith's notes and records. It not only includes the background information and player briefings, but also the rules used and the data required to run the wargame.

In addition, there is a scale-down version of the wargame that was devised by John Curry for use by a smaller group or wargame club. This was used at the Wargame Developments Conference of Wargamers in 2008, and I contributed my research into the naval forces that would have been involved had Operation Sealion taken place.

I think that this will be one of those books that serious wargamers will want to have on their shelves. IT shows that wargaming is not only a fun hobby but can also be a very useful historical research tool if used correctly. I leave the final words to Peter Perla:

'Finally, to me, one of the more interesting and cogent contributions contained herein is the short section on Griffith's Reflections on wargaming in general and Sealion in particular. Those alone are worth the price of admission.'

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PADDY GRIFFITH'S WARGAMING OPERATION SEALION: THE GAME THAT LAUNCHED ACADEMIC WARGAMING was edited by John Curry from the writings of the late Dr Paddy Griffith. It was published in 2021 by The 'History of Wargaming' Project (ISBN 979 8 5106 7146 9).

Other people's Portable Wargame battle reports

It is quite some time since I did a review of the battle reports that have been featured on the PORTABLE WARGAME Facebook page, and doing so reminded me just how inventive so many of the players are.

Paul Wisken has been using the TRAVEL BATTLE boards made by the Perry brothers with 3mm figures from his collection ...

... and the result is very impressive!

Gary Sheffield took the 'Seize and Hold!' scenario we fought online some weeks ago, and re-fought it with another wargamer ... but this time the location was changed from central Europe to the American Civil War.

He named the river crossing points ('Griffithville Bridge' and 'Paddy's Ford') in honour of the late Dr Paddy Griffith, a military historian and wargamer we both knew well.

Jon Freeman has produced a wonderful setup using Billy Bones paper figures and terrain ...

... which give the whole battle the look of a contemporary woodcut! In this case, the Parliamentarian forces were fighting the Royalists in the Battle of Bucklebroadwood near the hamlet of Luckett.

Finally, Barry Cater continues to use the rules to fight all sorts of unusual tabletop battles. In this instance, Croatian Ustaša units of the Black Legion were fighting Chetnik partisans in part of the former Yugoslavia.

I am sure that my regular blog readers (and especially the other users of the PORTABLE WARGAME series of wargame rules) will agree that these players had produced a very varied set of battle reports, all of which have interesting and innovative features.

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Please note that the photographs featured above are © Paul Wisken, Gary Sheffield, Jon Freeman, and Barry Carter.

Not Quite Mechanised (NQM)

When I rediscovered my 'lost' scratch-built/modified vehicles I was reminded of Chris Kemp's NQM (NOT QUITE MECHANISED) wargame rules, which were the direct progenitor of Tim Gow's MEGABLITZ. Chris has always been a prominent advocate of the use of scratch-built/modified models of vehicles that are not or were not readily available to buy 'off the shelf', and has – over the years – produced some wonderfully robust models that certainly looked the part even if they were not 100% accurate.

I first met Chris thirty five years ago (!) at the inaugural Conference of Wargamers. The conference was organised by the late Paddy Griffith and was entitled 'New Directions In Wargaming'. It was held at Moor Park College near Farnham, Surrey, over the weekend of 23rd to 25th May 1980. Even then Chris was trying to devise a wargame that allowed players to fight wargames at the sort of level that military historians wrote World War II campaign histories about, and over the years this endeavour coalesced into what became NQM (NOT QUITE MECHANISED.

Eventually Chris turned his pile of notes into a set of rules entitled PANZERBLITZ ... OR NOT QUITE MECHANISED ... and I am lucky enough to actually own a copy of them. (I actually own Copy No.1 of 20, and it occupies a special place in my collection of wargame rules.)

As stated on the cover, the rules came with their own 'Free Playsheet'.

Since then the rules have continued to evolve, and the current draft of the rules (or what Chris prefers to call the NQM Umpire Guidelines) can be found on his blog. His blog also contains the battle reports from his ongoing re-fight of the German invasion of Russia ... although the tabletop Germans were – until recently – doing better than their historical counterparts.

COW2015

Before going to COW2015 I attended the funeral of a fellow Freemason's wife in Enfield, Middlesex. After the funeral – and the reception that took place afterwards – I drove on to Knuston Hall, Northamptonshire, where I arrive at just after 4.00pm. This is supposed to be the earliest time that we can check in … but it turned out that nearly a third of the attendees had already arrived, and the place was really bustling.

After collecting my room key and uploading my luggage, I joined the throng that had collected in the entrance hall. A bring-and-buy table (which functions on an honesty system and which works surprisingly well) had already been set up, and quite a few purchases were being made. (I managed to buy a ROCO StuG III for £1.00 … which was a real bargain!)

From my arrival until dinner time at 7.00pm I spent most of my time chatting to loads of people and making sure that newcomers to COW were settled in. I also managed to get the dates and cost of COW2016 sorted out. (It will be taking place from 8th to 10th July 2016, and the cost will be £5.00 more than this year.)

Friday Evening
After dinner everyone assembled in the Lounge, ...

... where Tim Gow and I formally opened the conference and Tim introduced the plenary game DON'T LOOK NOW! Everyone was split up into teams of three and given access to a copy of a 1970s British Army Military Vehicle Recognition booklet. After what seemed a very short period of time, each team was then taken into the Panelled Room where some MILTRA terrain had been set up. (At one point MILTRA had supplied 1:100th-scale military vehicle recognition sets to the British Army, and Tim Gow had bought an almost complete set earlier in the year … and had designed the game around it.)

The teams – each of which represented a Milan anti-tank missile team – had to sit some distance away wearing military headgear …

… and had to spot any vehicles in amongst the terrain, identify them, and decided which to fire at … all in a couple of minutes.

Needless to say, this proved to be a lot more difficult that one would have expected, and although the team I was in did not come last, we were by no means the best either!

After the plenary I took part in Kiera Bentley's new HUNTER RAGE game. This was designed in response to the current fashion for 'celebrities' to go hunting for big game so that they can have their photograph taken with their 'kill'. The game even has its own Facebook page, where participants can publish their successes … or failures.

Each player has a Lego figure which they can arm from a selection of weapons. (I chose to arm mine with an RPG.)

They then go 'hunting'. In my case I managed to miss my animal (a zebra) when I fired my RPG at it, but eventually managed to kill it when we had to fight hand-to-hand. A photograph of my figure and my 'kill' was then taken and posted on Facebook.

Other hunters were not so lucky, and several got trampled by elephants, rhinos, and other similar beasts. I am sure that some people might think that this game is in very poor taste … but the point of it is to show how stupid 'celebrities' that go big game hunting are by mocking their 'achievements' by turning the whole thing into a game.

Although I was quite dark by the time the HUNTER RAGE session had ended, Kiera, Chris Willey, and I then sat down and tried to design a game about rescuing migrants and refugees who were trying to get across the Mediterranean. It took us about an hour to do so … and we hope to get people to try it just before dinner on Saturday.

I then took a quick look around what else was going on, and managed to catch as glimpse of some of the action in Tom Mouat's game DAUGHTER OF THE SKIES ...

... and WD Display Team North's COASTAL COMMAND game.

By this point in the evening I was feeling quite tired, but Nigel Drury managed to persuade me to try the new Finnish wargame WATERLOO 15 … and I am very pleased that I did so. This is an excellent decision-making game, and as Napoleon I just about managed to cause Wellington's army to collapse just before my own did.

Saturday Morning
I spent the first half of the morning in Jim Wallman's session entitled DESIGNING WARGAMES TO ORDER. He described his experiences of designing wargames for the British military establishment, and this led on to a general discussion about the wargame design process.

During the second half of the morning I spent some time trying to get my camera-carrying helicopter drone to fly … and gave up once I realised that the batteries I was using needed charging!

I then spent time talking to some of the other conference attendees about wargame designs we were working on. (This was not a programmed event, but is a frequent activity at COW and allows attendees to bounce ideas of one another.)

Saturday Afternoon
My afternoon was taken up with a LITTLE COLD WARS session that was run by Tim Gow. The scenario featured an air assault by Soviet Airborne troops on a NATO airfield that was defended by two Bristol Bloodhound guided missile batteries and a company of RAF Regiment soldiers.

Just over a kilometre away – in a nearby village – a French Reserve Infantry Regiment was stationed to provide a covering force in the event of an attack.

The Soviet air assault was not a total success, mainly due the very effective anti-aircraft coverage provided by the French force's anti-aircraft gun.

Eventually the airfield was overrun, ...

... although a French counter-attack did succeed in causing the Soviet attackers significant casualties.

The Soviet situation was made worse by the fact that the transport aircraft carrying the attacker's ASU-57 self-propelled anti-tank guns and engineers crashed onto the wreckage-strewn runway.

The battle ended when a Soviet armoured reconnaissance force appeared only a few kilometres from the town ...

... just as a light French armoured reconnaissance force arrived to support the remaining French infantry troops.

This was an excellent session, and yet again proved how enjoyable fighting battles with 54mm-scale figures on a lawn can be!

Before dinner Kiera and I did manage to persuade a few people to try out the migrant/refugee rescue game we had designed on Friday evening … and the participants certainly enjoyed taking part, even if the subject of the game was regarded as being a little dubious.

Saturday Evening
After dinner I managed to observe Phil Steele's naval wargame, SINK THE BISMARCK!

The game is deceptively simple, but actually produces very interesting results and is ideally adaptable to any naval battle where one side is hunting the other. Whilst watching it I though of several such actions (the Battle of Coronel, the Battle of the Falklands, the pursuit of the Goeben and Breslau to name just a few) and I suspect that modified versions of the rules may well feature at future COWs.

I then attended Jim Roche's WATERLOO REVISITED session. Jim's sessions have become a firm favourite over the years … and this year was no exception. He told the story of the Battle of Waterloo through the tunes and songs of the period, including such old favourites as 'The British Grenadier' and 'Hearts of Oak' and some lesser-known ones including ‘Veillons au salut de l'Empire’ (‘Let's ensure the salvation of the Empire’) – Napoleonic France’s unofficial national anthem – and ‘Le chant de l’Oignon’ (‘The song of the Onions’), which was adopted by the French Grenadiers of the Guard as their battle song.

Sunday Morning
Once breakfast was over I set up my KRIEGSSPIEL 1914 session in the Lounge. The rules were a slightly modified version of those used in Professor Phil Sabin's original game.

The session went extremely well, and both sides ended up fighting each other to a standstill ... although the Germans did not quite manage to advance as far as they did historically.

I spent the rest of the morning wandering around the conference venue looking at what else was going on. I spent some time in Mike Elliott's WAKING SHARK session ...

... before looking in on Ian Drury's BRAVE ADMIRAL BENBOW GAME.

Ian Russell Lowell was in the Library running a session about ancient playing cards that was not on the timetable ... a not unusual occurrence at a COW!

Sunday Afternoon
After lunch John Curry delivered a talk entitled PADDY GRIFFITH – HIS RISE AND FALL. This outlined Paddy's career as a military historian and wargame designer, and set the stage for the future publication of several compendiums of Paddy's as-yet-unpublished work.

The final act of the conference was the Annual General Meeting of Wargame Developments. There were reports by the Conference Organisers, the Treasure and Membership Secretary, the Editors of THE NUGGET and THE NUGGET COLOUR SUPPLEMENT, and the three regional Display Team Co-ordinators. Elections for the forthcoming year's Officers were also held, and several proposals for minor changes were made and discussed. The AGM was over by just after 3.45pm, and after tea and cake the remaining attendees began to disperse.

COW2015 was over; roll on COW2016!

Fifth anniversary of Paddy Griffith's death

Today is the fifth anniversary of the death of Paddy Griffith.

Paddy Griffith was the ‘father’ of Wargame Developments, and in just over two weeks time we will be holding the 35th COW (Conference of Wargamers) at Knuston Hall, Northamptonshire. COW came about as a direct result of Paddy organising the NEW DIRECTIONS IN WAR GAMING conference that took place at Moor Park College from 23rd to 25th May, 1980. At the end of that conference those present decided to set up an organisation that would 'spread the philosophy of realistic wargaming through the hobby ("better realism and better game structures") and ... put like-minded 'realistic' wargamers in touch with each other, so that they can more easily exchange ideas and rules. ... We will hold a conference similar to Moor Park, every year.'

At the time quite a few people within the wargaming fraternity expected that Wargame Developments would last a few years before it fell apart or ceased to exist. The view was also expressed that the idea of having an annual Conference of Wargamers would never take off. They were wrong ... and Wargame Developments and COW seem to be going from strength to strength.

Thank you Paddy, because without you it would never have happened!

New books from the History of Wargaming Project

Today's post included a thick-ish padded envelope containing two books from John Curry of the 'History of Wargaming' Project. Both were eagerly awaited by me ... and a quick glance through them indicates that I will not be disappointed when I get around to reading them.

The first book is THE BRITISH KRIEGSSPIEL (1872): INCLUDING RUSI'S POLEMOS (1888) EARLY WARGAMES VOLUME 2 (ISBN 978 1 291 53126 8) and it was edited by John Curry.

This book is 170 pages long and is split into the following chapters:

• Foreword by Doctor Peter Perla
• Introduction by John Curry
• Map Manoeuvres: An Introduction to Kriegsspiel (1839)
• The Rules for Kriegsspiel by Captain Baring (1872)
• The German Game of War (1878)
• Aids to Kriegsspiel (1897)
• The Dangers of Kriegsspiel and Political Officers (1899)
• War-Game Maps (1888)
• Bellum, an English Kriegsspiel Variant (1909)
• Kriegsspiel and the Teaching of Military History (1890)
• The Game of Polemos (1888)
• Lieutenant Henry Chamberlain's RN New Game of Invasion (1888)
• Appendix 1: The Kriegsspiel Charts for Captain Baring’s 1872 Game
• Appendix 2: The New Game of Aldershot, a War Game Mystery
• Appendix 3: The Game of War (1858)
• Kriegsspiel Bibliography

I had a role in producing this book as I contributed much of the material for the chapter about POLEMOS, including word-processing and checking the text for the rules.

The second book is PHIL DUNN'S FURY AT SEA: RAPID NAVAL WARGAMING INCLUDING PADDY GRIFFITH'S ONE-EYED NAPOLEONIC NAVAL RULES (ISBN 978 1 291 51026 3) and is also edited by John Curry.

This book is 107 pages long and is split into the following chapters:

• Foreword by John Curry
• Wargaming Memories
• Phil Dunn’s World War Game
• Over Open Sights
• The Battle of Yellow Sea Scenario
• Tabletop Jutland 1915
• An American ‘Jutland’
• The Battles of Leyte Gulf
• Sandhurst’s One-Eyed Napoleonic Naval Rules
• Conclusion: Dodgy Dice and Shooting
• Appendix Review of Phil Dunn’s Sea Battle Games: Naval Wargaming 1650 – 1945 Revised Edition
• Bibliography of Naval Wargaming Books

I am looking forward to reading both these books over the next few weeks ... and I am sure that they will prove to be popular with all those wargamers who have an interest in either or both the history of wargaming and naval wargaming.

A parcel from Australia

One of the people that I met at the very first Conference of Wargamers (COW) that Paddy Griffith organised was Greg MaCauley. Although he moved to Australia not long afterwards, we have remained in contact over recent years thanks to the invention of emails and the Internet.

A week or so before I went on my recent cruise Greg sent me an email informing me that he was sending me 'a few' Britains 54mm-scale figures to add to my growing collection. Thanks to the vagaries of the postal system, the Post Office tried to deliver Greg's parcel on the day after I left for my cruise, and I was not able to pick it up until yesterday. This is what it contained:

If this is 'a few', I would hate to think what 'a lot' would look like!

Greg's gift (for which much thanks must be publicly recorded!) will enable me to field an even bigger Funny Little Wars army than I previously had, and gives me a considerable amphibious capability. All I need now is some suitable model boats to make that capability a reality!