Chestnut Lodge Wargames Group
At the October meeting I confidently asserted that Denis Showalter’s Tannenberg: Clash of Empires was the Best Battle History Ever Written. I was, of course, challenged to defend this in a review. Having written the following review I am, if it is possible, even more sure that it is the Best Battle History Ever Written […]
A Very Personal View of Bernie Ganley’s The World Will Hold its Breath, Barbarossa Megagame on 3rd August 2024 by Andy Grainger Back in February Bernie Ganley asked me if I might help out as a Control Umpire at his The World Will Hold its Breath (WWHIB) Megagame slated for 3rd August at Anerley. Although […]
By Andy Grainger NOTE I know the author of this book and have read both it and his previous book as cited below. The subject matter, the implementation of German racial and occupation policies in the East, is uncomfortable, to put it at its mildest. By concentrating on a small area this book provides real […]
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 […]
1942WATU, a newly created wargaming unit of the British Royal Navy, is tasked with developing and disseminating new tactics that would counter the successful attacks of German U-boats on trans-Atlantic merchant shipping convoys seeking to bring essential supplies to Britain. Naval escorts were provided by the British and US navies, but still, they could not […]
I’ve been drawn back the last two years into reading about Operation Market Garden through going back to the museum in Oosterbeek, a battlefield tour and helping out in a miniature wargaming project. I’ve also branched out into other operations in the Netherlands in 1944-45, such as the Battle of the Scheldt, operations in Noord-Brabant […]
After an exchange of good war movies to view at a recent Virtual CLWG meeting, I offered to curate a list for Milmud. I had in mind pulling together war movies that would be plausible enough for members who may not have a strong background in a particular era to gain some context for creating […]
Emu Wars is a landscape (map) -based game derived from real life events. In 1932, over 20,000 emus, large flightless birds indigenous to Australia, broke through the rabbit-proof fence on their annual migration to the coast. The emus saw the recently established croplands as a ‘tucker basket’, and the farmers saw the emus as dangerous […]
by Deborah Southwell As part of a course on game design, I was asked to critique a game. I thought it may be of interest to other Military Muddlers. Urban Nightmare: State of Chaos (Game designer: Jim Wallman) is a megagame exploring how government and city authorities in the USA might respond to an emerging […]
This is a review of a radio broadcast and a musing on the ideas it deals with. Review The radio broadcast was on the BBC World Service and is part of the series: The Cultural Frontline. The episode: Board games: The politics of play It starts by looking at the boardgame Pandemic, and its happenstance […]