COW 2023

COW 2023

With Knutson now up for sale, this year COW was held at Missenden Abbey in Gt Missenden in Buckinghamshire. I think it's fair to say that pretty much everyone found it to be an ideal venue for us, with a wide range of different sized rooms for games, a big plenary room, tea and coffee on-tap (and even a bar in the evenings), lots of bedrooms, excellent food, friendly staff, a huge lawn or two and a railway station within easy walking distance. I think there's a good chance we'll be back there in 2024, and 2025.....

Around 50 members attended for the weekend. There were about 38 sessions (almost all games, with just a few "illustrated" discussions), with up to 6 games running simultaneously!

View the COW Programme 2023.

Missenden Abbey

Friday Evening Games

On Friday there is traditionally a plenary game to act as an ice-breaker. This time it was Spartacists - a (vaguely) role-playing/committee game on the Germany immediately after WW1, with added street action! After that there were a number of mostly shorter games for people to play - although Another Footfall Situation allegedly finished around 2am!

In parallel with the committee action Spartacists included a "riot" wargame, complete with Nerf guns!
Tim managing the street action for Spartacists

Saturday Games

Twenty-four games were available on Saturday. There may even have been a few more as COW as a bit of an "unconference" vibe and if there's a spare slot you can just add a game for it onto the big wall planner. Most games have a sign-up sheet which people use on arrival and throughout the weekend to get signed up for a game.

Little World Wars
Messiah - role-playing and street-fighting in biblical Jerusalem
Dealing with Jesus causing consternation in the Temple
Buffalo Hunters - a nice card-based movement mechanic
A herd of buffalo!
Run Through the Jungle - based on the Ranger game
Don't Tell the Tsar - The Russo-Swedish Naval War of August 1914
Uncle Bruce's Arab Israeli Wargame
Close up of Uncle Bruce (Quarrie).
SPI's Fighting Sail
SPI's Fighting Sail
Planning phase for The Battle of Redditch 2027
The Battle of Redditch 2027 underway
The Future is Past - Dirtside II game run by the author
The Future is Past - Dirtside II game - the Soviets taking a hammering
Rubble Town - a quick urban card-based game
Follow the Bush Tucker Trail - A Long Range Patrol (LRP) with an ANZAC SAS patrol in Vietnam 1966.
Follow The Bush Tucker Trail - time for the extraction!

Sunday Morning Games

Games usually only run on Sunday morning, so that we can hold the AGM immediately after lunch and people can make a reasonable getaway.

The Cold War Wargame Workshop
Whatever Happened to NQM Eastern Front game
The Soviets throw a Division against the city
Long-shot of Not Quite Mechanised (NQM)
The Soviets try to force the river crossings
German bombers make mince-meat of the Katyushas

Missenden Abbey

Finally a few shots of Missenden Abbey.

This bit of art on the wall was just crying out for its own wargame!
The terrace is a pretty nice place for a relaxing drink
Now that calls for a lawn game - there's even a ha-ha for trench warfare!
It's nice to know the place has its own military connection!
The front entrance to the Abbey
The outdoor seating by the main conference room - with a pond!

Blog Posts

Several WD members run their own blogs. Here are links to their reports on COW2023 which are likely to have more detail of the particular games:

We'll add photos of more games as we receive them. In accordance with the WD privacy policy, if you object to your face being shown in any photo then please advise the webmaster and he'll remove the photo. Please also let him know if there are any errors in the captions!