Chestnut Lodge Wargames Group

Megagame Design Debate – a new way of designing megagames

Onside Report on the Megagame Design session at CLWG on Sunday 6 August 2017 – By Tom Parry First, we would like to thank CLWG for inviting us to discuss megagame design. We had a very enlightening discussion, and we now have a much firmer grasp on the philosophy behind most megagame design. There is […]

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Programme for CLWG June 2017 Meeting

The CLWG June 2017 meeting is scheduled for Sunday 4th June from 12 at Anerley Methodist Chuch Hall (SE20 8QA). If you want to run a session then please let Jim Wallman know. The programme so far for the June 2017 meeting of Chestnut Lodge Wargames Group is: “At the Gates” – the sack of […]

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Cobre, Vacas y Cucarachas: Mexican Revolution 1913

Onside report by Jonathan Pickles This was a follow up to my game design session from October. The game revisits the many games I ran on the 1913 Mexican Revolution culminating in the megagame in 2004 The aim of this revision is to try to use far simpler mechanisms to deal with the operational side […]

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“Copper and Cows” by Pickles

Offside review by Nick Luft I have played earlier versions of this game. I was a table umpire in the original megagame, “Wind that Swept Mexico” (2004), and recently I took part in a play-test, at the 2016 CLWG Conference. Pickles’ newest offering, at the Games Weekend, April 2017, was an improvement on the first megagame […]

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Russian Civil War – Offside by James Kemp

Russian Civil War We were trying out a stripped down and streamlined resource allocation system for Bernie’s forthcoming megagame. We had the Siberian end of the game. A long thin strip of railway from just West of the Urals all the way to the Pacific Coast. There were four factions represented, the Whites, Reds, Greens […]

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CLWG March 2017 Meeting – What you missed

3rd Red Army boards the train at CLWG March 2017

Today was the CLWG March 2017 meeting, with 11 people attending and two game design sessions. The first session was a tryout of the Siberia section of Bernie Ganley’s Russian Civil War megagame. The second was Andrew Hadley and Bruce Walton’s  In the Hands of the Many megagame tryout. See below for some pictures and a […]

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Merdeka! – Game Background for 1 Jan 2017

This is some background on Merdeka! by Jaap Boender which will be run at the CLWG session on 1 January 2017. Merdeka – Game Background Merdeka is set in November 17, 1945. The place, Indonesia (depending on whom one asks, also known as the Dutch East Indies). The Second World War has just ended, but that […]

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Return of Captain Omen & The Terror From the Deep

Old stuff dredged up from the depths of time by Jim Wallman I rediscovered these notes about a deep sea diver LARP-like adventure from some time in the later 1980s.  I wonder if such a thing would be even possible these days?  😉 CAPTAIN OMEN AND THE TERROR OF THE DEEP Aim The purpose of […]

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Tabletop Wargames – How to Write Rules for Toy Soldier Games [Book Review]

A book review – Jim Wallman Just reading “Tabletop Wargames – A Designers’ & Writers’ Handbook by Priestley and Lambshead. A well written book with lots of excellent photographs and interesting discussion about how to write better mainstream toy soldier games in particular on structure, presentation, writing style and layout.  This aspect of writing rules […]

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Copper & Cows – Onside Report by Jonathan Pickles

Copper & Cows was a design session and tryout run by Jonathan Pickles at the CLWG Conference in October 2016. Copper & Cows covers one of Jonathan’s obsessions, the Mexican Revolution. This design session was trying to get a realistic campaign system. Copper & Cows Mexican Revolution (again) Onside Report I wrote some design notes for […]

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Military Muddling

Chestnut Lodge Wargames Group

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