Postin’ down the road part II

(Leading with a picture of the Ludovico Clinic, in sunny Uxbridge.)

Okay, I got back last night from what was a very long but very interesting and worthwhile trip.

After my spare day doing laundry and making the previous post, I ventured out to the Red Lion pub near Uxbridge (how English is that) where I had a short time to drink, eat a Ploughman’s and chat with three PhD in Wargaming students of John Curry’s: Pete Sizer (insurgency), Dave Burden (urban) and Nick Riggs (tactical). Who would have thought, once upon a time, that such an academic distinction was even possible? And here are these three, and Brunel University is launching a one-year MA program in Wargaming too….

The next morning was the beginning of Connections, after the initial processing and opening address everyone played Jim Wallman’s icebreaker game Rollbahn, a simpler operational scale game with considerable logistical content in it. Pete Sizer and I umpired/facilitated a table. Since it had a certain amount of detail and only two hours to play it in, chaos reigned at first but after a bit the rhythm of the game established itself, as it usually does with Jim’s work. And also as is the case with Jim’s work, it included an interesting extra tidbit – there were five tables and beforehand Jim said to the crowd that they had been divided into Easy, Basic, Moderate, Harder and Expert level tables and people should select the table they thought appropriate to their level of experience and ability. This experiment in self-selection actually produced nearly even numbers at all tables, and of course all five tables were playing exactly the same game… well played, Wallman!

After lunch was a choice of Introduction to Wargaming (worthwhile because at least half of the attendees were completely new to Connections and possibly also to wargames) or a series of short panels on topics like red teaming, analysis and wargames, and unethical wargaming.

Later was a choice between a session about applications of AI in wargaming, and one on the “next generation of wargamers” – it was a general theme of discussion and presentation that professional military/government wargaming in the UK and other countries is having a surge of notice right now, that most of the Old Guard are retiring or have passed away (eg. Peter Perla commemorative activities) and the new crowd have to come from somewhere and ought to be encouraged and trained properly into it. Whence the launch of the MA in wargaming program at Brunel University, and the expanding range of work and students at Kings College London.

After this was some networking and social gaming at the student centre pub, which is a great idea except that I cannot hear or think in these places, so did a lot of nodding and smiling (also, the summer bout of COVID has left me with a slight but persistent cough, and the yelling you must do to be heard in a pub just aggravates it).

(Patrick Rueschmann got to meet Matt Caffrey, though.)

Next day was the real beginning of the conference, I attended panels on academia in wargaming and military deception wargaming in the morning. In the afternoon was the Games Fair, about 25 games were running simultaneously in different rooms of the Lecture Centre, an interestingly awful piece of Brutalist architecture that stood in for the Ludovico Treatment Centre in Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange. See the picture at the head of the post.

I had teams of four show up on both days to play QUICK, they both opted for the QUICK Junior I brought with me as its European setting seemed more appealing… it’s just as good an introduction to the system because it scaled well. Pijus Kruminas from Lithuania was especially enthusiastic as he knew all about Daugavpils – his sister in law had a cottage very near the city! He wants to produce a scenario of his own in a Lithuanian city.

Where Hamburg and Berlin had been having a heat wave that saw temperatures up to 32 degrees, weather was a lot cooler in the UK – that evening it poured rain and even  briefly hailed which made the long trip home to West Drearyton daunting – a road had collapsed at the north end of town and resurfacing was being done each night which meant buses went on diversion so I had to walk a mile and a half in the rain and dark to get back to the hotel – very glad I had a working iPhone with me since even a paper map would have been little help.

On the final day we had the first Peter Perla Commemorative lecture given by Phil Sabin and David Banks, and they introduced a 15 minute video of wargaming figures (people in the wargaming field that is, not tiny model soldiers and for some reason they asked me to contribute) talking about Peter’s contributions to wargaming.

David Banks talked about the future of wargaming and wargamers (that we-need-analysts-and-gamers theme again) and after quoting Peter Perla in his belief that a wargame is an act of communication, noted that wargames were in a sense art, and about designers as artists as receivers of processes of professionalization and certification. That is (and if this is if I understood him correctly) certification should not be so much “this is how to design one of these things” but exposure to the field’s history, and awareness of past and present theories, criticisms, approaches and trends.

I happen to believe strongly that wargames are indeed art (I also believe Amabel Holland’s upcoming book will be much more articulate on this point than I could be), but I do not believe so strongly in professionalization and certification (for I am as unprofessional as they come and perhaps certifiable, but in a different sense). This made me think to put it further, in terms of a Fine Arts education: a BFA or MFA will give you some background and theory, but it will not teach you how a picture should be painted, whether that picture is any good, nor will it guarantee you a future as a working artist. Meanwhile if you are a working artist a degree is not a prerequisite – though its absence means funny looks from people who derive value from TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) after one’s name.

And again, if wargames can be thought of as art objects, and designers as artist, then it ought to follow that a mature language of criticism for wargames needs to be developed, as has been for theatre, painting etc.. But what should be the basis for this criticism? “Realist” validation through faithful replication or degree of verisimilitude, or “Impressionist” success at delivering an immersive but less exactingly faithful replica of an experience? Something called “game journalism” exists for the computer/ video game world and it provides us lots of bad examples, but there are thoughtful and critical pieces as well… meanwhile, for wargames we are left with cryptic Boardgamegeek thumbnail summaries, “shake the box” reviews, and unboxing videos which are the least critical of all, neither analysis nor sales job. (and yes, there’s plenty of superficial puerile criticism of other forms of art out there too.)

Anyway, something else to think about… but today I am too tired and jetlagged to work it out.

Then, after the commemorative lecture, a quick talk on “micro games” which are like game haikus followed by an invitation to design one yourself – I paired off with someone and within an hour (including interruptions by Jim Wallman) we had made a simple game about a thief/assassin evading surveillance and patrols to make it to the top of a high-rise where their target lay. When I write it up properly I will put it on the Free Games page.

Then more Games Fair, and some final addresses and the usual rushed goodbyes. And that was Connections-UK 2024! No idea where next year’s conference will be held, I would like to attend but there is no way that conferences and other things would line up just so, that I could take a single period away from work to attend them.

Friday I had a wonderful long lunch with Charles Vasey at one of his favourite Italian places, then a quick visit to the National Army Museum where not a lot has changed.

Then to the “Mayday Rooms” on Fleet Street where Richard Barbrook had laid on a public and collective play of Nights of Fire, as he did last year with Civil Power. He had made a double-size map, and Richard (Parry) showed up with some 15mm scale T-62s to represent the Soviet regiments. It was very kind of him to do this, I appreciated it very much!