Card Driven Wargames (CDW) Evolution and Revolution - a podcast by Herr Dr

I've kept a chart of Card Driven Wargames (CDWs) up to date the last few years. By CDWs, I mean those games that trace lineage to either We the People or Parths of Glory. I updated that chart today. The link to it is at the bottom of this post.

Paths of Glory brought me back into the hobby. Shortly after that, while attending WBC, I stumbled across Mark Herman and his game For the People...and I was firmly hooked on wargaming and WBC again. During WBC 2002, I met a few players that had a similar strong interest in CDWs. Three of us (Rob Hassard, Keith Wixson and myself) lamented over some BBQ and beer that WBC was only held once a year (August) and wondered whether or not we could have a mini-WBC in dead middle of winter  just for the play of CDWs and consumption of BBQ (Andy Nelson's, of course).

I then discussed with Stuart Tucker; long time GM of the game Hannibal and board member of WBC at the time (Stuart is blueblood Avalon Hill). Soon, Stuart and I approached Don Greenwood, who tossed his support behind the idea and Winter Activation Meeting (WAM) was born (Jan 2003). Stuart and I also were able to enlist Don's support for the pre-cons at WBC that permitted play of the longer wargame tourneys, begining with Paths of Glory and Hannibal, while allowing wargamers to still get their entire fill of WBC during the week.

So, our bar talk eventually paid off: an expanded venue for the games we love to play within the big tent called WBC:  http://www.boardgamers.org/

Since then, we've held 10 WAMs and quite a few pre-cons. Great times, always. Keith Wixson and Teri Coleman now lead that mini-con and tribe. We are all looking forward to WAM XI in Jan 2013. The most recent WAM report is here:

http://www.boardgamers.org/specific/wam12.htm

... and there is a WAM discussion board on consimworld.com (in the Conventions folder).

We'll be discussing CDWs often on Guns, Dice, Butter and having Mark Herman on that Episode 1 was a great way to kickoff the podcast.

One other point regarding CDWs: they would be great on the iPad and similar devices. One reason for the Second Golden Age of Wargaming are CDWs; in that they get played A LOT on line using tools like Vassal and Cyberboard (among others) and the online site ACTS and Wargameroom.com 

The play of cards on a iPad is a natural and would be a great way to pull in new gamers to the hobby. Think about it: we spend most of our time looking at our "hand of cards" (easily viewed on a iPad). And, the art on the cards helps the immersion experience.  I can't think of a better way to expand the hobby; hopefully, someone or some company will get our CDWs (and new ones developed to maximize those devices) on the new devices sooner than later.

Anyways, the link to the CDW Evolution chart:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/1292931

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