An interview with Ian S. Clarke

An interview with the author of the Battlegroup Modern Rules

Ian S. Clarke, for BGCoA (BattleGroup Community of Athens)

Vaggelis' M. Israeli M-48s and Zeldas (photo: BGCoA)

BGCoA: Ian, please tell us a few words about the creation of the Battlegroup Modern.

Ian Clarke in Derby 2012 (Modern World Championships)

Ian Clarke:  When I first started playing modern warfare the club I played at used Challenger 2. We enjoyed it and took part in the Derby world championships each year. In those days we’d get 60+ entries and have to have play offs in May for the 48 competition places in October. Then Tabletop games stopped selling Challenger 2 and brought out Challenger 2000, they changed big chunks of the gaming system, big chunks that change the game from something that worked to something that didn’t. How badly did this affect things, entries for Derby fell from 60+ to less than 20.

For the next few years we struggled on with Challenger 2000 and numbers continued to drop.

Jim Dickenson who’d been the Derby umpire decided to stop umpiring and I took over in 1996.

It was heartbreaking really.

In 1997 Mike Jones produced a set of rules called Modern Fast play and these were tried at the RAF championships and then at Derby. While they worked better than Challenger 2000 they still didn’t quite work. Many changes were made between then and 2003 which saw the first version of Battlegroup authored by Mike with help from many people. Looking at the copy I have here anyone familiar with Battlegroup would be able to see it was the basis of the current rules, but also just how much has been added and changed.

Mike was in the RAF and work had become too busy for him to continue to run with the rules. There were many updates needed and he asked if I’d take over the rules. Which I was happy to do.

In 2005 the 2^nd Edition was introduced and then a 3^rd edition in 2009. To be honest while there have been a few minor changes there hasn’t been need for a major change since then, however I have release 2009+ with the changes and corrections since the original version was released.

Lately I have noticed more interest and the need to upgrade some bits and I have a feeling I’ll need to issue a new version in the near future with these changes.

Nikos' M. Greek Leopards 2HEL and M-113 (photo: BGCoA)

BGCoA:       Introduce the game with a couple of words.

IC:       Battlegroup is a set of modern rules intended for Battalion/Regiment/Brigade level games. The rules try to use simple solutions to cover a complex period. I’d rate the rules a fairly complex. They should allow a battalion level game to come to a conclusion in 3-4 hours with bigger games taking longer.

BGCoA:   Why a wargamer with interest of modern era should choose to play Battlegroup Modern?

IC:       If you have the time to read through the rules (which are big) they give an enjoyable game and a fairly accurate depiction of modern warfare.

Johns' F. T-80s and BMPs (photo: BGCoA)

BGCoA:       What do you think are the “High lights” of the game?

IC:       Most of the game can be played with just a hand full of quick ref sheets with the rules only being needed for the less common things that can happen and to be honest once you are used to the rules you can play most of a game with only a hand full of looks at the data sheets. This means you can spend your time thinking about the game not the rules.

Leopards 2 vs T-80s in a tank duel (photo: BGCoA)

BGCoA:       Do you think that the 1/300^th is the best scale for the game? What are the benefits of the use of the 1/300^th scale?

IC:       The best scale might well be smaller as given the group scale of the game 1/300^th vehicles are the size of small fields! The major advantage of 1/300^th is that the figures are available for almost anything you might need and most importantly I have loads of 1/300^th figures ;-)

Johns' M. Centurions (photo: BGCoA)

BGCoA:       Can you calculate about how many people play Battlegroup Modern all over the world?

IC:       Unfortunately I don’t think it’s very many. There’s about 20 people in the UK, 8-10 in Greece, 4-6 in South Africa, a couple in Australia and a few in the US that I know of. That comes to less than 40, however there are 718 people on the group (http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/BGMR/) so I’d like to think there are more out there playing but not making too much noise about it.

Israeli tanks and APCs in Golan Heights (photo: BGCoA) 

BGCoA:       Have you any “commercial” thoughts for the Battlegroup Modern? Are you going to give the rights of the game to a major wargaming company for better management and promotion? 

IC:       If a company wanted to produce a commercial copy of the rules that would be fine with me, the rules have always been my way of keeping modern wargaming alive so it going commercial would help that goal I’d be happy. So if there’s someone out there that is interested I’d be willing to talk.

BGCoA: Thank you very much Ian. Hope to see you in Athens in the near future for a Greek-British tournament...