An interview with the author of the Battlegroup Modern Rules
Ian S. Clarke, for BGCoA (BattleGroup Community of Athens)
BGCoA: Ian, please tell us a few words about the
creation of the Battlegroup Modern.
Ian Clarke in Derby 2012 (Modern World Championships) |
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 2nd Edition was introduced and then a 3rd
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.
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.
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.
BGCoA: Do
you think that the 1/300th is the best scale for the game? What are
the benefits of the use of the 1/300th
scale?
IC: The best
scale might well be smaller as given the group scale of the game 1/300th
vehicles are the size of small fields! The major advantage of 1/300th
is that the figures are available for almost anything you might need and most
importantly I have loads of 1/300th figures ;-)
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) |
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...
BGCoA: Thank you very much Ian. Hope to see you in Athens in the near future for a Greek-British tournament...
5 comments:
Nice interview
Thanks to Ian...
An interview with the creator of a wargame is not an easy project..! well done Vaggelis..! ;)
Interesting interview! Great pictures too!!!
Thank you once more Kostas!
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