Chestnut Lodge Wargames Group

Offside Report – “a thought experiment with biscuits”

This was a thought experiment of a sort – given a loose an invented Sci-Fi based scenario, we were asked to come up with the kind of tactics that an outnumbered and outgunned militia would come up with, facing a technologically advanced opponent. Just a few brief thoughts on this: It was great to have […]

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Offside Report – Yevinsgrad

These are a few thoughts on one of Evan’s sessions at the January meeting. I’ll link to more details about the game if they’re made public. In the meantime, as a very brief summary, this was a committee game set if a very soviet-like state, with the players acting as members of a Politburo – […]

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The Procurement Bonanza – offside reports

The December 2024 session featured two interesting and thought provoking procurement games… (by Nick Drage) Future Procurement Game James brought an interesting science fiction procurement game for us to playtest. Jim Wallman has already written up an excellent description of the game: https://milmud.clwg.org/2024/12/future-procurement-game/ , as has James the designer: https://milmud.clwg.org/2024/12/december-hybrid-session-procurement-bonanza-on-side-and-off-side-reports-by-james-halstead/ . I liked the world-building and […]

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Two Brush Strokes – Japanese Team development Session

Offside report by Jim Meeting 5 October 2024 Dave brought a prototype section of his upcoming ‘Two Brush Strokes’ china-themed megagame that related to the two player Japanese team. This issue for him was (If I understood it correctly) that Japanese policy in China in the late 1920 was to some degree ambivalent. Whilst there […]

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Thai-Sho on Deck – Game by Evan D’Alessandro

Offside Report by Nick Luft Thai-Sho’s Leaving Party In no particular order, and in no particular organised way the ad hoc committee met to decide on the organisation of the Q7 Joint Allied Commander’s leaving service. It was decided. Gift A suitable deactivated Exterminator Artefact encased in transparent perspex to be encased by a transparent […]

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Connections UK 2023

In 2023, Connections UK, the conference for wargaming professionals, was held at Sandhurst Military Academy on 5-7 September. Due to Covid-19 lockdowns and restrictions, this was the first time I was able to attend. Needless to say, I was as excited to see and explore the building as I was to listen and participate in […]

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Triplanes vs Terrordactyls (run by Evan D’Alessandro): An Offside Report

In 1930, the largest airship at the time, the Graf Zeppelin, could fly 24 passengers from Germany to Brazil in four and a half days. In the late 30s, the Hindenburg was flying 50-72 passengers between Frankfurt and New Jersey, in four days one way. They weren’t the first flying ‘objects’ originating in Germany. Pterodactylus […]

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Fog on the Somme (James Halstead): An Offside Report

This is Deborah Southwell’s offside report of ‘Fog on the Somme’ run by James Halstead at the CLWG Conference. Fog on the Somme – Offside (Deborah Southwell) Five phases were planned for the German Spring Offensive of 1918: Operation Michael (21 March – 6 April) Operation Georgette (9-29 April) Operation Blücher-Yorck (27 – 30 May) […]

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The Quiet Battlefield: offside review by Nick Luft

Jim presented The Quiet Battlefield, via an online CLWG session. He was inspired to make this game after playing The Quiet Year a game we played at the December CLWG Hybrid session. The Quiet Year is not a wargame, or a boardgame. It is perhaps more of a role-playing game, though the players do not […]

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The Quiet Year: offside review by Nick Luft

The Quiet Year (TQY) was recommended to me after a friend heard about it in a gaming pod cast. He was intrigued by the open ended structure and the non-gamer friendly nature of the game. Although it is a commercial “game” I thought it was sufficiently interesting to be worth examining with the assistance CLWG […]

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