Home Thoughts from COW 2019....Part the Second

COW is not a trade show but it does maintain a modest bring and buy stand so that those with the urge to ferret around for a bargain there is the opportunity to do so. In my experience wargamers like a bargain and so virtually everyone had a peek to see what was on offer. Then of course there is the prearranged drop off of goods or presents or those that were selling items privately and that were not captured by the bring and buy. The two that fell into this category - there may have been others that I was not aware of - were Trebian and John Curry. The former was selling in support of the Northamptonshire Battlefield Society  and the latter is of course, the History of Wargames Project. Both of these are worthy endeavours.

My rummage in the Bring and Buy turned up the rules you see below.

Covering the Great War in the Middle East and Africa and also including the Caucasus, Mesopotamia as well as the Dardanelles. In other words, right up my street!

I will probably not use the rules but there is a wealth of information contained within its pages as well as some interesting scenarios and orders of battle. I was pleased to have gotten hold of a set of these especially at such a good price.

Originally published by 3W the above is a boardgame covering ACW naval battles and was a development of and is compatible with the old Yaquinto board game, Ironclads.

The above game, courtesy of John Curry, much like the rules above, contains a wealth of information but it is unlikely I would play it as written as it is hugely complex. I used to enjoy the similar game of Ironclads back in the day but I prefer simpler systems these days! My plan is to tinker with the appropriate rules from Bob Cordery's book Gridded Naval Wargames and use them in conjunction with the ship counters and map sheet.

The ship data cards contain a lot of information which will be useful when building my models - especially gun positions - and there is also some very handy templates for measuring firing arcs.

As I drove home I realised I had purchased a couple of items that I would not be using in the way the designers intended. I have previous form for this - Axis and Allies being a good example, not to mention various board games that I have harvested from boot sales over the years.

Does that sit well with the values and beliefs of WD? Based on my experience of COW 2019 I would say a resounding yes!