Charlie Wesencraft Refights Arnhem at Wargames Holiday Centre

This year the Donald Featherstone Memorial Weekend at the Wargames Holiday Centre UK involved refighting the Battle of Arnhem.

Charlie Wesencraft surveying the Arnhem town where he defeated the British Airborne.

Charlie Wesencraft and Mark Freeth (owner of the centre) commenting on the German recce adancing over the bridge at Arnhem. Lionel Tarr, the first wargamer to devise modern wargaming rules for recreational use, was there (See Early Wargames Volume 4 for Lionel Tarr rules).

Charlie Wesencraft now has 3 wargaming books in print through the History of Wargaming Project:

Practical Wargaming

With Pike and Musket

Seven Steps to Freedom Wargaming the French and Indian War and the American War of Independence

New book by Charlie Wesencraft and new book about early naval wargames

I am very pleased 2 more books have gone to print.

Charlie Wesencraft's Seven Steps to Freedom: Wargaming the French and Indian War and the American War of Independence is a new book. Started a few decades ago, I provided a bit of help to polish the book to get it ready to print. About the French Indian Wars and the AWI it has a foreword by Henry Hyde, This is the third book by one of the real gentlemen who helped launch modern wargaming with toy soldiers.

The second book is Over Open Sights: Early Naval Wargaming Rules 1873-1904 Early Wargames Volume 6  Dec 2014 by Fred Jane, Lieutenant Castle R.N., Captain Colomb R.N.Lieutenant H. Chamberlain R.N. and me

 

This aims to play Fred Jane in his correct place as part of sequence of professional Royal Naval late 19th century wargames. Jane's innovation and imagination were huge, but he built on the work of others.

So what next? Donald Featherstone's Battles with Model Soldiers, a new book Sue Barker 'An Introduction to Ancient Wargaming, a new book by Phil Dunn about his massive global wargame, a new book about using serious games in emergency planning in the health service by Russell King and a new book about a very important wargaming campaign- details to follow.

I continue to get random but important contributions. Tim Gow has found a set of amendments for the WRG 2nd edition ancient rules to convert them to medieval use. I will add them as a pdf to my site shortly. Someone else sent me stuff that included some military wargames and I am seeking permission to reproduce. I have another 40 books in my production schedule...

More wargaming books about to go to print

The first book will be a new book on wargaming the American War of Independence by Charlie Wesencraft. The book is being proof ready before being sent to Henry Hyde to add a foreword.

The next will be a book on Matrix games as used for professional modern wargaming. Matrix games were the clear innovation of Chris Engle and they allow the new generation of wars to gamed for operational analysis, training and professional development purposes. They are also a lot of fun.

The long awaited book on early naval wargaming is almost ready. 5 years and a £1000 later all the materials are ready and I am just adding commentary.

Phil Dunn's new book, Your World War, has been typed up, formatted and is now just being checked. It was a challenging job to bring together a stack of material from campaigns he ran 1950-1970 into one cohesive rule set. They key task has been not to alter the original, but just format it so all the rules relating to each subject are together.

Just received another small wargaming archive. One of the best bits of the project is the excitement of finding previously unknown wargaming material and getting it to print.