TerrorBull Games return to Class Wargames

Following our last, hugely successful campaign at the Flea Pit, we're happy to confirm that we've been asked back for another round. It's time to man the barricades again - on Tuesday, 19 August at The Flea Pit, 49 Columbia Road, London E2 7RG.

We'll be hosting as many games of War on Terror as we can get away with and the Class Wargames posse will be demonstrating Guy Debord's 'Game of War', which we're all looking forward to finally trying out. The evening runs from 6.30pm to 11pm. Obviously the earlier you get there, the better chance you have of taking part in the game you want.

Also, during the day, we're going to get up to some top secret shenanigans in London. More on that later ...

Police Seize War on Terror Games

Breaking news - police in Kent are using tried and tested intimidation tactics with the protesters at this year's Climate Camp and last night raided the campsite, systematically emptying tents and vehicles and confiscating offending materials, among them a few War on Terror board games.

According to reports, the police obtained a search warrant to seize articles for use in criminal damage. These included: "planks of wood, carpet and a war-on-terror board game". Latest reports reveal the police have seized "rope, tools, a ladder, three boardgames, boiler suits, wet suits and flares". Take a look at the official police photo of the 'cache'.

"Confiscated items have included: planks of wood, carpet and a war-on-terror board game" Don't get us wrong, we think the police are doing a wonderful job, shoring up democracy by bullying peaceful protesters. But this list of confiscated items - it'd take some imagination to cause any damage using such a weird assortment of objects. It sounds more like a list of props for a conceptual theatre piece. Wet suits and carpet?

Also, just how .... how in God's name do you cause criminal damage with a board game? We know it's been labelled subversive by some, but it's hardly going to bring an entire power station to a juddering halt just by waving one in the air outside the gates.

If only the police had asked us, we'd have given them one. This surely tops the list of "extreme lengths gone to in the pursuit of getting a 'war on terror' board game". And, lads, taking three is just greedy. Give two back at least, eh?

UPDATE: Amusingly, the War on Terror has been highlighted in this story on Channel 4 news (at 1min 35), ITV news (2min 50), The Independent and also the BBC. Check out that "weapons stash"! Well done Kent constabulary, you're all more than earning your salaries. Incidentally, watch the video at the bottom of the BBC page for some good old fashioned police brutality and a classic piece of double-think: "We're here for the safety of the campers" *THWACK*.

UPDATE #2: Don't you just love the silly season? The Independent wrote a fairly favourable piece, focussing on War on Terror and its puzzling unpopularity. That article got recycled by our local paper, The Cambridge Evening News and also popped up on Schnews and game news site ICV2. It also spawned a couple of radio interviews. We only managed to catch the one on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire - here's Andy S rambling on about something or other (mp3 file, 3.5 MB).

UPDATE #3: Crikey, this story's just exploded on the interwebs, mainly thanks to security guru, Bruce Schneier. Boing Boing, B3ta, ZDnet and even Slashdot and Digg all followed suit and caused our server to fall over. It's still pretty slow - sorry about that, folks. Bear with us.

TerrorBull Games Take on the Establishment (at the Flea Pit)

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Revolution means many things to many people. For the uniquely charming folk over at Class Wargames it means playing certain board games in a carefully planned 'campaign' with the hope that political subversion will spring forth from the table top. It's as good a definition as any, so we attended their latest club night in their Summer Campaign at the Flea Pit in London and manned the proverbial barricades with some 'Freedom Lager' (on tap at the 'Pit) and organic cider. This is how all good fights begin.

Tom got a 5-player game up and running straight away, while we waited for more recruits. In another few minutes, we had a second 5-player game in full swing, headed by Andy S. Andy T was left to 'network' - a challenge he rose to like the proper trooper he is. The boy never stopped networking. Except for when he was lying on the leather couch getting drunk. And even then, he was just planning his next network.

Tom's game saw more action from the looks of things - cities sprang up early on, particularly from Tom, proving the kid can't take his own advice which he had happily dished out at the start: 'Don't be the most obviously powerful Warmonger, it will be your downfall'. For quite a while there were suspicions of a loaded dice with 10 being about the only oil roll being played. Tom gained most from this and became very rich, so a plot was hatched - The playing of 3 civil war cards to be precise. This wiped Tom down to 2 villages and despite much well argued efforts he refused to turn terrorist.

Andy S's game spawned a new psychological condition: Disproportionate Revenge DesireAndy S's game was slower, mainly due to a scarcity of oil and some early, pointless bickering over territory which not only diverted valuable funds and attention but also spawned a new psychological condition: Disproportionate Revenge Desire (or DRD for short). Dr Richard Barbrook was particularly susceptible to DRD and shifted his ire and aggression so rapidly and impulsively that he ended up doing the board game equivalent of swatting flies.

Everyone took a brief pause half-way through and Andy S and Andy T explained a bit about the origins of the game and experiences with the media. This was followed by a brief but interesting discussion about what War on Terror actually was. Funny to see the process of people making this thing their own by applying their own beliefs and experiences to it. But also very healthy and revealing.

Tom's game wrapped up just before last orders with a terrorist win. Bass seemed to be the orchestrator, corrupting Mr. X for a loud and violent terrorist victory.

Meanwhile, Andy S's game was still stuck in the middle ages. Fabian's attempt at brokering peace between Dr Barbrook and his many enemies resulted only in Andy S lashing out against Fabian and double-nuking his (up-until-that-point) promising Asian empire. Joy turned terrorist after failing to escape from South America and the game was declared a draw, although the other Richard claimed a win based on the fact that he was the only person to hold an entire continent (N.America).

So well done Richard (your win didn't count) and Bass. And big thanks to both Class Wargames and the Flea Pit and of course everyone who showed up and all the lovely friendly people who simply came over to say 'hello'. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening. It looks like we'll be back for the next Class Wargames outing in August (19th) but we'll post details closer to the time.

And remember, the revolution may not be televised, but who needs a TV when you have board games like War on Terror.

War on Terror in 'Top Ten Historical Board Games of 2007'

The prestigious Historical Jury of the Origins Awards in the USA have placed our humble game in the top ten "2007 Historical Board Games" for the 34th Annual Origins Awards.

It sounds pretty impressive and we're dead chuffed to get so far, especially as we were up against some big, well-established names. Sadly we didn't make the final short list of 6, so we're between 7 and 10. We also have to admit that we don't know how many entrants there were. Maybe just 7. In which case, we effectively came last. So we're not cracking open that champagne bottle yet (that's being saved for the day the real war on terror ends... by which time it will probably be nothing more than syrupy vinegar).

As a bonus, we were given a glowing review by Frank Chadwick, co-founder of Game Designers' Workshop and a legendary and prolific historical game designer. Here's the review in its entirety.

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I had a chance to play The War on Terror boardgame with friends over the weekend and it is an enormously entertaining game. Very dark, but also very funny.

High Points

Excellent rules layout, easy to read and understand, about five minutes of explanation gets you playing. The core mechanics are quite simple but the cards provide lots of variety in terms of game activity, and most of the rules are actually on the cards themselves. This is nothing earth-shattering -- lots of games do this -- but it is very well executed here.

An enormously entertaining game. Very dark, but also very funny. Good component quality. Lots of cartoons on the map, rules and, especially, the game cards, which establish the tone of the game very firmly. Plastic pieces are functional and professionally produced. And there are a couple of wonderful extras, which add to the fun and the sense of completeness, specifically the Axis of Evil spinner (a plastic spinner built into the playing board) and "The Balaklava of Evil," which is a genuine knit black balaclava (whole-head mask) with "EVIL" in big red letters on the forehead. If the Axis of Evil spinner points to your color, you become the current Evil Empire and are required (by the rules) to wear the Balaklava of Evil until that honor passes to someone else.

A lot of multi-player games end up with a sense of cascading advantage for one player. War on Terror does not, which I really appreciated. I never felt as if someone was so far ahead that they couldn't be overtaken. Also, players are never completely out of the game. Everyone starts with an Empire, but as empires are bankrupted or their territories taken over, the players become the terrorist player. There is only one terrorist faction, but all eliminated players jointly play it, and it is possible to win as the terrorists. My initial impression was that it was difficult to win as the terrorist faction and that play options for them were limited, but that was due largely to us playing some rules wrong. It's actually tough to win as a straight faction against the terrorists, which is an interesting wrinkle -- the "consolation bracket" has teeth.

Finally, and probably running through all of the above, the game has a great sense of dark humor.

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War on Terror: The Boardgame, Review by Frank Chadwick Origins Awards Historical Jury www.originsgames.com/aagad.

Join us at the Flea Pit

The marvelous Dr Richard Barbrook, one of the founding members of Class Wargames, has invited us to give a short talk about our game, followed by an evening of booze and gaming at The Flea Pit in London on 22nd July.

This event is open to everybody. The Flea Pit can be found near Old Street in the East End and is a good looking converted Victorian warehouse. It's now a pub and cafe which hosts a whole myriad of artistic and political events, with one of the regular club nights belonging to Class War games every last Tuesday of the month. These guys are an interesting bunch who are great advocates of Guy Debord's board game 'The Game of War'

Richard has just returned from California, where he was collecting the Marshall McLuhan award for his book Imaginary Futures. We can't wait to buy the man a congratulatory drink, and of course it's a great oppotunity for you to buy us a drink too.

Whilst a rather interesting looking political film night takes place in the dingy back room of the Flea Pit on the 22nd, Class Wargames will be entertaing us in the swanky front parlour. You'll be able to ask us any questions you like during the evening such as 'What made you do this in the first place?', 'How many death threats have you recieved?' and ' Is Andy Tompkins hair actually real?' and we'll be happy to answer them all and more besides. Club night times are 6:30pm till 11:00 pm, and we'd love to see you, the more the merrier. If you want to go as far as challanging the inventors to a game that might just be possible too, but be warned...we're shit hot.