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Sugar and Sedition

by John Mizon

11 May 2024

Anerley Town Hall

Game fee is £35.00

Support order, overthrow tyranny, or make a quick buck in the Cuban Revolution.

The World Will Hold its Breath

by Bernie Ganley

3 Aug 2024

Anerley Town Hall

Game fee is £35.00

War Plan Barbarossa was the largest and most decisive campaign in World War Two. For the Germans and their Allies, it was the culmination of their dream of quick and final victory that would end the war in Europe. For the Soviet Union it was a titanic struggle for survival. Can you cross the Volga in 12 weeks or can you as Soviet Russia survive the onslaught of vast panzer armies and air fleets.

At Right Angles to Reality Redux

by Brian Cameron, Paul Hill, Richard Hands and Bruce Walton

26 Oct 2024

Anerley Town Hall

Game fee is £35.00

A game of Gothic Horror set in a small New England town in 1924. Some seek the power of dark gods, some to save the world! What will your investigations reveal? Based on the first version run in 2006.

Two Brush Strokes

by Dave Boundy

23 Nov 2024

Anerley Town Hall

Although not yet open for payment, you can book now to hold a place on the waiting list. When it is open, then you will receive an email.
Game fee is £35.00

The Megagame of China in 1929. This is a political and operational game involving warlords, nationalists, communists, Soviet Russians and Japanese. You will be a very senior figure making hard military, economic and political decisions.

Introduction

Enthralled by military history, war movies and battle dioramas as a child, I was easy prey for the hobby when I first came across minature wargames at the National Army Museum aged 8. Inflicting terrible home brew rules on my parents and schoofriends, I found my hobby outlet of a lifetime through Chestnut Lodge and Megagame Makers aged 15. After more than a quarter century of serious gaming, I have learned more history through games than through my formal education.

I play RPGs and computer strategy games, but my favourite part of the hobby is playing and designing megagames, in particular the interaction between politics and warfare. I tend to prefer historical games still but am up for most things with interesting stories and mechanisms. My main interest is late Anglo-Saxon England, especially the 11th century - I am working on my third game in a trilogy about the decline and fall of the Saxon kingdom. I'm also very interested in ancient mediterranean history (especially Greeks and Carthaginians), the works of JRR Tolkien and a hundred other more minor obsessions.

I refuse to accept the dualism of the Simulation-Game spectrum. I want to write and play games that are realistic but also full of interesting decisions. For me, the crucial decision is scenario selection - picking a game context that generates agency for lots of players within a plausible historic framework. I don't want to re-run history - I want to explore how the possibilities could have worked out differently. I also want to learn something from the experience - and hope that those playing my games do so as well.

At their best, megagames are a grand historical experiment - what if? - as well as a brilliant social environment for interacting with all sorts of gamers. I have hugely enjoyed the renaissance in the last 5 years and it's great to see so many different people making different sorts of games.

Game Designs


Andrew Hadley
17th March 2007For the Light of the TreesAnerley Town Hall
13th November 2010Come One and EorlAnerley Town Hall
14th November 2015Come to a KingAnerley Town Hall

Andrew Hadley & Bruce Walton
15th November 2018Hands of the ManyAnerley Town Hall