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The Dancing Congress

by Brian Cameron

22 Mar 2025

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

A lot of interest has been expressed in another run of my 2019 game, The Dancing Congress, so it will run again on 22nd March 2025. The game is about the Congress of Vienna which met in 1814 and 1815 to map out Europe following the defeat if Napoleon. The player teams represent the countries attending, each with their own agenda for regaining territory lost / gaining new territory while ensuring that no power is in a position to dominate Europe. Please note that there are no military operations in the game, this is a meeting of statesmen and women to negotiate a settlement through a mixture of open, honest exchanges and dodgy deals made in back rooms. If you've played and enjoyed Washington Congress you may well enjoy this game.

Designer's Comments

Politics and war in 18th Centruy Europe.

Inspired by Springtime for Hitler – if we could do the start of WWII then Bernie and I were convinced that we could do the start of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. There was quite a bit of political background so that while most opposed the French Revolution, they also had others things to occupy them such as partitioning Poland.

The game introduced, I think, the concept of having umpires (as the control team were referred to in those days) to handle the activities and responses of the very small countries which wouldn’t provide enough decisions and activity for a team of players.

The game was successful and we revised and ran it a number of times. A New Age Dawns was such a significant re-design that it is listed separately.