Introduction

The Modern period essentially means the twentieth century, right up until the present time, although I am of the view that it is not ethical to wargame current or very recent conflicts. You certainly need to be aware that veterans of later wars and campaigns, e.g. the Vietnam War, will be alive today. I suppose this period also encompasses hypothetical wars and campaigns, e.g. East-West wargaming was quite popular during the Cold War! And I must confess to being partial to wargaming Tom Clancy's hypothetical naval engagements between USA and China.

The First World War marked the change in method of warfare. Apart from the introduction of the tank, and the near-disappearance of the traditional cavalry arm, probably more significant is the change of infantry tactics from formed line to open, skirmish order, and the consequent change to command and control.

I have variously collected the following forces for this period:

• First World War, Western Front, French and German (c. 1915 AD)
• Russo-German War, Russian and German (c. 1943 AD)
• Vietnam (skirmish-level), US and VC/NVA (c. 1970)

Rules

For World War Two, I started using Charles Grant's rules from his excellent book "Battle! Practical Wargaming". I gathered the rules together into one document and made quite a few tweaks and changes, and specifically targeted the Eastern Front or Russo-German War. There are a large number of commercial and home-grown rule sets for this period, because it is probably the most popular of all historical wargaming periods. It certainly is a very accessible period, and easy to relate to, but it has one special characteristic which gamers love - tanks!

Among the most popular rule sets at the moment are Flames of War and Rapid Fire.

Russo-German War

My most recent figure wargames have been set during the Russo-German War, i.e. the Eastern Front of World War Two. See the Russo-German War Gallery. See the Download section for the rules we used. Read my thoughts about Wargaming Stalingrad.

Vietnam

I have also developed rules for the Vietnam War. These are available to download in my Download section. Please note this set is not fully playtested. For this reason I would be very interested to get some feedback on them.

Spanish Civil War

I have recently read Antony Beevor's acclaimed book The Battle for Spain. This was quite hard going, especially given the complexity of the different political factions. But it has improved my knowledge a lot of the country I am presently living in. Naturally, I have written down my thoughts from a wargaming perspective, although to be honest I wouldn't recommend it as a wargame subject unless you have a particular interest in this conflict. Read Notes and Ideas on Wargaming the Spanish Civil War.