Chestnut Lodge Wargames Group

Island Fortress 1

Island Fortress Concept I’ve always had a bit of a blind spot around the Seven Years War (1756-63). Though I loved the Last of the Mohicans, set to the backdrop of the savage struggle between France and Great Britain for control of North America, I found the scope of the war intimidating and overwhelming. Following […]

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Each generation gets the games they deserve – Offside report by Nick Luft

Recently I went to the British Museum to see a small free exhibition – “Playing with Money.” It is about how money, coins and bank notes are used in boardgames and also how boardgames have broadly changed over the last two centuries. In the 19th Century boardgames were for children and their moral admonishment and […]

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Bright Lights, Greek Cities: Gamifying City Management in 2nd Century BCE Asia Minor

What does a Greek(ish) city in 2nd Century BCE Asia Minor want to do with its’ time? That is the million dollar question that came out of my R&D session at May’s CLWG outing. Through presenting a game I’ve been developing  it’s clear the next stage of the design will be the ‘City Management’ portion […]

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Under the Chestnut Tree: CLWG Aphorisms

Aphorism: “a pithy observation which contains a general truth” I often hear CLWG members make very wise comments about game design. I thought it would be a good idea to write these aphorisms down. I will update this post as new ones are heard. Please send me any suggestions. Online Games Cannot be Winged The […]

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Battle of Britain – 1970 Style

Museum Review by Jim Wallman So, it being a bank holiday it was a good time to finally visit the Kent Battle of Britain Museum at Hawkinge.  I’ve been through Hawkinge many times and always wondered what it was like. Today I found out. Described as the worlds [sic] largest Battle of Britain collection.  I […]

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Shameless, Impudent and Indebted Lords – 1450

My aim for this game is to produce a club game for between 10 and 15 players, based on the political, economic and eventual military conflict in mid 15th Century England. I am due to run this game for the Holborn Gaming group in June. I attend this gaming group fairly regularly. They are not […]

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2019 CLWG Games Weekend – Brian Cameron [onside & offside]

2019 CLWG Games Weekend Offside reports (and an onside report) from Brian Cameron about the 2019 CLWG Games Weekend. Peking Duck [onside] This was a re-run of my game on the Siege of the Peking Legations during the Boxer uprising in 1900.  You may well have seen the old film, 55 Days at Peking.  In […]

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Offside Report on Barwick Green

by Mukul Wow what a feeling, and a great big shout to John Rutherford. The scenario, the UK is imploding politically and economically, UN peacekeepers are arriving to the hotbed of revolution, but we going to a game but a rural little village in sleepy England, think the Archers radio show. ​ ​ Most players […]

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American Civil War Megagame [offside]

This session was hosted by a contingent of our friends from Europe (while we have any left) at the 2018 CLWG Conference. They had already run a game based on the ‘Seven Days Battles’ on the Virginian Peninsular in 1862. [Campaign note – The enormous Union Army of the Potomac had been rebuilt and (re?)trained […]

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The Relief of Fort Stalwart, Zululand, 1879

Well, yes, if you young chaps would like to hear of another of my adventures, there was, of course, the rather famous one in Zululand.  A rum do that one and no mistake. I was in command of a relief column moving up to Fort Stalwart.  I had a company and a half of the […]

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Military Muddling

Chestnut Lodge Wargames Group

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