Friday 5 January 2018

Next 6 months in the History of Wargaming Project


I have a professional interest in gaming counter insurgency (COIN) and have published Paddy Griffith’s Counter Insurgency Wargames (1980) in 2016. I looked around and some hobby gamers have been doing some interesting stuff about gaming COIN on the table top, so I will shortly publish Small Wars: New Perspectives on Wargaming Counter Insurgency on the Tabletop.

The Matrix game methodology has made a huge impact in professional wargaming circles, so I am editing a handbook on the subject, working with Chris Engle and Peter Perla to produce a more academic examination of the theory and practise of matrix games.

I occasionally publish a non-wargaming book. The one this year is going to be one on an epic road trip around the USA that visited every Vietnam memorial.

I want to publish more books for the solo wargamer. I have done Donald Featherstone's Solo Wargaming and Donald Featherstone's Battle Notes for Wargamers Solo Wargaming Edition. The next one is going to be a solo game about a WWII bombing mission.

I have been interested in naval wargames for a long time and at last I aim to publish a book about the great naval wargames of the America navy prior to WWII. I thought the material has been lost, but now it has survived. It just needs collating and publishing.

I also want to finish a book A Practical Guide to Medieval Warfare, covering the real detail. Of course, this will include 3 new sets of rules to illustrate various aspects of our understanding.

Of course, I also have various authors such as Phil Dunn, Charlie Wesencraft, Stuart Asquith who all have new stuff that needs to get into print. In the background I am continuing to digitise, sort and collate huge archives of wargaming material, which will no doubt lead to further books. I guess this explains why I do not tweet much.

7 comments:

  1. John,
    I am looking forward to some of new titles!

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  2. Likewise looking forward to these
    Currently reading my way through Innovations in Wargaming Vols 1 to 3
    Finding lots of "good stuff"
    Thanks fro doing a great collation exercise :)

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    1. To me the best bits are the previously unpublished material that I manage to include.

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  3. Sounds great John. Hopefully you're also planning on making 'Target for Tonight'available again, there have been some murmurings over on tmp after the Devon war games blogs

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    1. The first draft of target for tonight has now been completed. We need to check it all makes sense and then proof the rules. Loads of extra details have been added such as bomb loads, instructions on escaping from the aircraft, sample historical mission briefing, period notes etc...

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    2. Sounds brilliant, looking forward to it! Will you also be including Wellingtons, Stirlings, and other early war bombers?

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    3. The book is initially going to cover the experience of Lancasters 1842-44. It has taken a lot of detailed research to ensure that the experience captures that of the Lancaster crew. The other bombers must have had similiar experiences, but there must have been quirks of each type of aircraft.

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