Welcome to Phil Barker’s Web Page
Friday 20th November 2009.

Philip C. Barker is a military historian and the author of the WRG wargames rules and army lists as well as several books. He has been active since 1968 and is still working. Prototypes of the sets curently under development may be seen on this web site and enthusiasts are encouraged to play test games and report on their experiences. He welcomes feedback from these tests, so please contact him at his email address, pc.barker@blueyonder.co.uk.

Current Projects.

1. "De Bellis Magistrorum Militum", an ancient set to try out various new ideas. DBMM and its four books of army lists are currently available from Caliver Books.

2. "Horse, Foot and Guns" (HFG), a set of wargames rules for the period 1701-1915. The latest version of HFG has been added as a WORD file and the army lists are still available as HTML documents.

3. THE SHARP END. Another experimental set of modern rules is included here.

4. A set of rules for small scale games De Bellis Velitum.

5. DAMN BATTLESHIPS AGAIN, a prototype set of wargames rules for pre-dreadnought naval battles between 1890 and 1913.

6. "Subs and SAMs", a set of modern naval rules and a VERY early prototype is included here.

7. DBA-ix. A test set for a game involving Pirates, Romans and Gauls, is included here. This was used for Sue's game "Asterix and Redbeard's Treasure" at COW 2007.

Previous Publications.

Some of his out-of-print publications from Wargames Research Group, along with Sue's history of WRG, are now available at www.wrg.me.uk. His books include "Armies and Enemies of Imperial Rome", "Alexander the Great's Campaigns" and the "Airfix Guide to Ancient Wargaming" (usually known as the "Purple Primer").
In addition, it is now possible to see a number of Phil's published articles, mainly from the 1980s, such as "In Defence of Toy Soldiers" (claiming that in some circumstances wargaming with miniatures can be MORE realistic than other methods of simulation) or "The Rule Writer's Point of View" (although written in the mid 1980s, many of the points are still relevant) and an account of his visit to Australia in 1984 "War Gaming in Australia".
In addition, you may see one of the great wargaming verses "Seti on the Flank" by Tom McMillan - a sad story which will be familiar to anyone whose plan has relied heavily on the arrival of a flank march.

Page maintained by Sue Laflin-Barker for Phil Barker.