After many people taking the time to give me online (and offline) feedback I have sketched out the next 12 months for the future of the project.
There is clearly more to do about the development of the hobby, so I will start work with Stuart Asquith to produce some of the very best of his work. At the time I will include some of his great friends work, that of Terry Wise. I will aim to produce two books of their work and next year, perhaps produce two more. Stuart Asquith was another of the key figures whose tireless writing helped the hobby grow.
I have some done further wargaming archeology from the Cold War and I will produce one, perhaps two, more professional wargames over the next 12 months. Some key wargames have been already lost and I am aware that the Project is a golden opportunity to preserve more of the key wargames from an era when the world faced nuclear Armageddon.
Professionally I use wargames for analysis and education. I would like to document some of my ideas and work in an area where almost no-one publishes their methods for fear of others taking up their ideas. There are going to be two books in the professional wargaming space.
I have decided that next year I must seize the opportunity to start the massive Paddy Griffith archive.
Having made a plan, I may need to be flexible. I am in touch with many of the early key wargamers and if they are inspired with a project, I will seize the day and help them get it ready for market.
I have three books about to go to print. Donald Featherstone's Battles with Model Soldiers (a nostalgia book rather than anything ground breaking), Your World War by Phil Dunn (his lifelong WWII campaign game) and an American Cold War wargame from 1989.
The Project aims to research and publish key works in the development of professional, hobby and educational use of wargaming. It currently includes work from Donald Featherstone, Fletcher Pratt, Peter Perla, Phil Barker,Fred Jane, Charles Grant, Stuart Asquith and Terry Wise...
Sunday 26 April 2015
Monday 6 April 2015
Future Directions for the History of Wargaming Project
The Impact of the
Project (2008 to March 2015)
The project to date has made available 4.5 million words
about wargaming, through 60 publications, 23 of the books are new wargaming
books, 37 are second editions.
Five books contain sets of
professional wargaming rules from the Cold War that have not been previously
published before. (British Army Tactical
Wargame (1956), British Army Desert Wargame (1978), Canadian Army Tactical Training
Wargame (1980), Dunn Kempf, the American Army Tactical Wargame (1977-1997) and Tacspiel:
American Army's Vietnam War Game (1966)).
While all the books in the
series contain supplementary material that has not been previously published
e.g. new chapters, rules and commentary, it is worth highlighting 3 works in
particular that have added to the history of wargaming.
·
Fletcher Pratt’s Naval Wargame: Wargaming
with Model Ships 1900-1945-
Contains extensive previously unpublished material by Fletcher Pratt and material
from an interview of the last surviving Fletcher Pratt player, Commander
Bothwell.
·
The Wargaming Pioneers Including Little Wars
by HG Wells, The War Game for Boy Scouts, The War Game by Captain Satchs Early
Wargames Vol. 1 placed the
innovations of HG Wells in a sequence of early wargames.
·
Over Open Sights: Early Naval Wargaming
Rules 1873-1898 Early Wargames Vol. 6 placed the innovation of the Fred Jane Naval Wargame in a sequence of
early Royal Navy Professional Wargames.
The annual plan for the Project is largely based on an annual 3 hour discussion with a professional and hobby wargaming veteran, during the car journey to the Conference of Wargamers in July. The journey involves a battlefield tour or a military museum and (a pub lunch), but lays out the priorities for the Project for the next 12 months. The project also receives regular editorial input from Major Mouat (Defence Academy) and the veteran wargamer Arthur Harman (friend of Paddy Griffith, author of staggering numbers of wargaming articles). There are many others such as Peter Perla, Tim Gow, Michael Curry, Charlie Wesencraft, Phil Dunn and others who kindly offer advice.
The question is what should the Project prioritise for the
next 60 book?
Hobby Wargames: There are a number of books/ articles that
need to include in the project. There is also substantial new material to bring
into the public domain, largely from the archives of key wargamers who have
helped turn the obscure hobby of wargaming into a major hobby. In the last 12
months the Project has published a new book by Charlie Wesencraft, Phil Dunn
and Sue Laflin-Barker.
Early Wargame History:
The project has already doubled the number of words in print about wargaming
pre- 1960, but there is still some major (and minor) publications to get into
print.
Wargaming History of
the Cold War: Reading the work of Peter Perla (and others) highlights the
importance of wargaming in the Cold War, but almost none of the wargames
mentioned have reached the public domain. In some ways it is a race to find them
before they are lost and no-one who played in these games is left to help.
Innovations in
current professional wargaming: There are some very interesting
developments in the military application of wargaming, but the problem is almost
none of this is captured, recorded and disseminated. The new book on Matrix
Wargames was an example of a hobby technique that leapt into the professional arena
and is being used for training and analysis.
Serious Games- Wargaming in education: Wargaming techniques can be
applied to transform education. The Project produced a new book on gaming Cyber
Warfare and will soon publish one on how games are used for emergency planning in
the health service, but there is scope for producing a whole series of books
that illustrate how wargames can be used as part of a wider curriculum.
The Paddy Griffith Archive: The Project holds key material, sufficient
for many books of unpublished serious games created by one of the key figures
in wargaming in UK, the late Paddy Griffith. This is going to take perhaps a
year’s work to sort the material into a structured format before producing the
first book.
Toy Soldiers: Last, but not least, is the history of Toy Soldiers.
These have been an integral part of the development of the hobby, but their
history needs to be documented.
So the question I am currently considering is, “What
proportion of editorial effort should be directed against each of the key
themes above?”
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