UK National Wargames Championships

**Martok** · 08-14-2008, 06:03

I was just reading about this at the Wargamer. I was curious as to whether anyone here follows and/or participates -- and if so, what they think of it.

**Whacker** · 08-14-2008, 08:58

Interesting. Any pictures? I couldn't find any with a min or two of quick checking.

/lazy mode

**King Kurt** · 08-14-2008, 09:43

Martok, my old friend - if this was 1988, I would have been there!! I was a regular competitor in the UK National wargamming championships throughout the 80's, reaching the actual final 3 or 4 times - only to loose!! On a couple of occasions my club organised the event, so I ran a competition my self. Wargamming is a game based on warfare of a period using usually metal figures and a book of rules, dice and a tape measure.

The format then - and I am sure it is not too different now - was 8 regional heats early in the year with the regional champions fighting it out over the weekend in a straight knock out competition. All periods of history were covered with about 7 competitions ranging from ancient through to ultra modern.

The whole weekend was very intense and a lot of fun - the saturday night was always characterised by lots of beer and a curry!!! Wargamming was a great hobby - especially if you were single. I suppose my wargamming experience is why I enjoy MTW so much as it is the closest to wargamming a PC game can get. The actual battle part of the game closely mirrors an actual wargame with the added advantage of not having to spend days painting up figures. Computor gamming is not so social as wargamming - the PC is normaly your oppolent as oppssed to somebody on the other side of the table - but this forum comes a close second to that with the ability to chat with people all over the world.

**Martok** · 08-15-2008, 06:24

Cool.

How long as this sort of thing been going on, then (an organized wargaming tournament)? Any idea as to how it came about/got started?

(And out of curiosity, how did you get involved with wargaming, anyway?)

**King Kurt** · 08-15-2008, 10:46

Wargamming goes back to HG Wells (the war of the worlds man) who wrote a book called Little Wars which started the idea. The German staff colleges before WW1 used Kreigspiel to play out scenarios etc. This was picked up by other countries.

National competitions I think started probably in the 60's with a group of gamers who founded the hobby. By the time I got into it, it was well established with several firms making the figures, rules, magazines etc as well as events all over the UK. Besides the nationals, most of the events had wargame competitions, so as a single guy I would go to 6 -8 weekend events a year and play in the local club when there wasn't a competition on. My interest waned when I got married on the basis of I had other things to spend my time and money on!!

As to how I got into it general, I had always been keen on making models since I was a boy. The modelling magazines began to have articles on wargamming so I started to get interested, brought some figures and played with my brother. I then came across a local weekend event which was based on a game of a modern day sea invasion of a fictional land. Through that event I got to meet a load of other players, found a local club and it all grew from here. I played in all periods but in the nationals I played Napoleonic, American Civil War and Napoleonic Naval. I also organised competitions in Ultra Modern and American Civil War - my club won the nationals on 2 occasions so we organised the event the following year. In other competitions I also played Renaissance, Ancient, WW1 and WW2. As a hobby it was great fun, but it did take up a lot of time and money - for example for the WW1 competition I brought a painted army just for a single competition - that was over £100 (in 1988) as well as the costs of travelling, hotels etc.

One of the strangest thigs that happened was early on when I was playing the fictional sea invasion game was I meet a schoolboy - he must have been about 16 - called Mark Urban. Later on we played another big game in the modern period and the tactics I used to beat him were based on Hi-tech weapons, artillery, air power etc. About 10-12 years later mark became a reporter for the BBC and reported on the 1st Iraq war. It was so werid watching him reporting on the Allied forces using very similar tactics to the one I had used to defeat him. One particularly scary moment was watching him report from a roof of a hotel in Saudi on the Scud attacks and the screen going blank suddenly. Fortunately it was just the loss of the line as opposed to a direct hit, but it was a sobering moment - our games reflecting life. Mark went on to host a series called Time Commanders - a TV programme which used RTW to replicate ancient battles - did you ever get that in the States?

**Decker** · 08-15-2008, 17:03

Cool little bio there King Kurt.

Originally Posted by King Kurt

Mark went on to host a series called Time Commanders - a TV programme which used RTW to replicate ancient battles - did you ever get that in the States?

Yea I remember that there was a show that used RTW but it lasted one season and was over before I could watch it. I only saw the episode were they Covered Thermopylae. How long did it last over there?

**Martok** · 08-16-2008, 09:57

Heh, interesting! So out of all the eras you've played, which one has been your favorite thus far?

Originally Posted by King Kurt

Mark went on to host a series called Time Commanders - a TV programme which used RTW to replicate ancient battles - did you ever get that in the States?

Yes, although it was called "Decisive Battles" over here and was hosted on the History Channel. In addition to Thermopylae, I also remember seeing episodes featuring Cannae, Marathon, and Gaugamela.

**King Kurt** · 08-16-2008, 10:56

If I had to choose a favorite, it would be American Civil War. I loved the contrast between the armies - the Confederates with better morale vs the Union with better weapons. Competition games are based on both sides attacking, so the Confederates had a slight edge, but it was a fine balance between the 2 and I probably used both equally. The other aspect was ACW is usually fought in interesting terrain, so that was another factor. Finally, I used to come up against one particular player quite reguarly and our games were always close - and he was a great guy to have a beer with after as well!!

I think Time commanders ran for a couple of seasons over here - it used to be on the BBC early evening - about 6,30 - so it was easy to miss - but it was a good programme - shame it finished really.