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. "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.

2. "De Bellis Magistrorum Militum", an ancient set to try out various new ideas which could not be included in DBM. DBMM was published in March 2007 and may be ordered from Caliver Books (email ask@caliverbooks.com ) and viewed at www.caliverbooks.com. For a web-site devoted to these rules, look at www.dbmm.org.uk .

3. a set of rules for small scale games De Bellis Velitum.

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

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

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

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

Published Rules.

One of Phil's most recent set of rules was the "De Bellis Antiquitatis" (DBA) rules with co-authors Richard Bodley Scott and Susan Laflin-Barker (Phil's wife). Phil and Richard also wrote the "De Bellis Multitudionis" (DBM) rules and the four volumes of accompanying army lists. All these are for wargaming in the ancient (i.e. pre-gunpowder) period.
Phil, Richard and Sue also wrote a set of rules for fantasy games - "Hordes of the Things" (HOTT) and Phil wrote "De Bellis Renationis" (DBR) a set of wargames rules for the Renaissance period (1494-1700) and three volumes of army lists to go with it. (DBA and HOTT have army lists and simple campaign rules included in the same book.)
Earlier Phil had written rules for the "Napoleonic" period 1685-1845, the "second world war" 1925-1950 and "modern warfare" 1950-2000.
Any of these rule sets may be ordered from Paul and Theresa Bailey at WRG, The Keep, London Road, Devizes, Wiltshire SN10 2ER, UK. email address keepwrg@talk21.com phone 0 (44) 1380 724558. Full details may be seen in the Price list, click here for details.

Previous Publications.

Some of his out-of-print publications from Wargames Research Group are now available, along with Sue's history of WRG, click here to view them. His books include "Armies and Enemies of Imperial Rome" (still in print), and "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 story which will be familiar to anyone whose plan has relied heavily on the arrival of a flank march.
Information about some of Sue's other wargaming activities is also available click here to view it.

Page maintained by Sue Laflin-Barker for Phil Barker.