by Pijus Krūminas, 5 October 2025
Earlier in September, I had the privilege to attend Connections UK, a professional wargaming conference held in the UK since 2013. It’s my second time that I participated, and both of these times it was organized at Brunel University, where one can pursue a master’s degree in the Wargaming and Resilience Planning programme. The place is in Uxbridge, a bit north of the Heathrow Airport. While it is not central, it has an advantage of everyone mostly staying in the vicinity, leading to more opportunities to meet old acquaintances and make new ones. As there was a tube strike, it also meant somewhat less hassle (unless your airport was not Heathrow…), plus the only running underground line wasn’t too far away. The campus layout may be a bit confusing at times, but as the community is friendly, it’s not too difficult to find your way. Plus, if you like the movie A Clockwork Orange, you get to spend time in the brutalist Ludovico Medical Facility (aka Brunel University lecture centre).
In the beginning
Contrary to last year, when my morning flight got cancelled in the middle of the night, and I had to quickly rework the whole route, this year, I arrived a day in advance, so I made it in perfect time to get some coffee and catch up with friends.
I really like the way Connections UK started. First, you get a general overview of the event, some safety instructions, and similar information. Then, there was a presentation on barriers into wargaming by Jessica Viccars and Philippa ‘Pip’ Cawdell. It is very mindful of the audience and especially newcomers, to help think of behaviours in which not only wargaming more broadly but the event as well may benefit.
After these initial presentations, the audience was split into two groups. One of them went to the Wargaming 101 session for an introduction to wargaming for newcomers to the field. The other went to play the megagame Green & Pleasant Land by Stone Paper Scissors. Last year, it was Rollbann, so it is great to get a rotation. Though, I wouldn’t mind playing either of them again.
Although I didn’t have the time to walk upon England’s mountains green or to stroll in its pleasant pastures, I joined the megagame. It focused on crisis and threat response across a wide spectrum of areas, and players took roles in government institutions. I got to play the Chief Medical Officer, which meant dealing with crises such as a stadium collapse. To provide a good response, you had to identify the needed actions, spend money and staff, while also negotiating with other agencies to provide support.
The game lasted for about three hours, and while initially there was some confusion, everything became clear quickly, and it was a lot of fun. It was interesting to hear what other departments faced during the game and to see how narrow your view becomes, when you focus on your own area of problems. Also, it seems there were no injuries among the participants, which makes me conclude that our Department for Health and Social Care did its job.
Talks, presentations, and discussions
After these initial presentations and activities, the programme moved to talks, presentations, and discussions. Over the three days, there was plenty of everything, and sometimes choosing a parallel section to go to was difficult. Luckily, the presentations and audio material are (to be) made available on the website. I’m looking forward to catching up on some parts I missed. For example, I heard a lot of good things about the presentation on revolutionising wargaming in Nigeria by Olakunle Olayinka and Eyitayo Shodam, so I’m waiting for the audio very much.
It started with a very interesting and well run mega game. It ending with a keynote speech from Mark Herman on the intersection of commercial and professional wargaming. In-between there were a plethora of interesting presentations and networking opportunities. Connections 2025 definitely ticked multiple boxes this year for me.
– James Buckley
The presentations I attended started with the keynote talk delivered by Dr David Banks, Academic Director of King’s Wargaming Network. The presentation focused on the types of knowledge that wargaming (might) produce. I think this is a very important discussion to be had, and Dr Banks provided a very good structure for the issue outlined the path to expanding wargaming.
The next morning I went to a session on postgraduate wargaming research, where Tess Butler, Cath Jones, and David Burden outlined their work. I was mostly familiar with the excellent work by David on urban wargaming, but here I had a chance to learn some new things on the just war perspective. Tess’s research focuses on women in wargaming, and it was interesting to hear about the experiment design and findings focused on performance of single gender and mixed gender teams in wargames. Finally, Cath’s presentation addressed research on uncertainty in wargames and how it can be leveraged. It’s great to see postdoctoral research focusing on wargaming and strengthening this niche academic field.
Another session I attended focused on analytical wargaming. Here, there were five presentations focused on a wide range of topics: lessons process (Mike Tickner), the usefulness of analytical wargaming (Anders Melander), operational analysis and wargaming for defence procurement (Nick Bradbeer), red teaming (Natalia Zwarts) and a specific system’s design (Dominic Rougier). As I mostly engage with educational wargaming, the session opened new perspectives to me. On the last day, I listened to the panel on innovation in commercial wargames with a very thoughtful talk by James Buckley on the use of commercial wargame design mindset for professional game design and development, and an in-depth analysis of Next War: Iran by Ali Ansari. Unfortunately, Fred Serval couldn’t make it out of France in time, and the panel was a bit smaller than originally planned.
Connections UK also started a series of Peter Perla Commemorative Talks, this year delivered by none other than Mark Herman himself. It focused on the intersection between commercial and professional wargaming, illustrated by plenty of anecdotes. The talk is now available online
Games in Fair elsewhere
Connections UK provided plenty of time for actually playing a variety of games. This came in several formats. Sadly, due to my flight leaving on the early evening of the third day of the event and the tube strike in London, I had to cut some of my game playing activities this year.
I would like to start with a game jam organized by Evan D’Alessandro – this year it had two sessions, one for prototyping a microgame and the other for playtesting. I only joined the second part, but it was fun to see what participants designed during the previous day. One of the games was on communication between the drone team to take out the red armoured vehicle. Another one was about successful movements among the guerrilla groups. I like the concept of having a game jam during the event, though the programme is so full that it gets competition from parallel events.
The big part of gaming at Connections UK comes through the Game Fair organized on the second and third days of the event. Here, I played an updated version of Brian Train’s QUICK Jr. focused on Daugavpils in Latvia (so, quite close to home). Compared to last year’s version, the most recent one has a brilliant way to simulate the varying density of an urban environment. Running around to see what’s available, I also saw David Burden presenting his game Tooru’s Fire, which focuses on the dynamic interplay between urban and rural operations. The setting of the game is Estonia, and the general focus on the Baltics makes me both more stressed (as the area is becoming increasingly relevant) and hopeful (as the region is getting the attention it needs). I played this game earlier in the year at King’s Wargaming Week, and found it very good in forcing the choice of urban vs. rural engagements. It is also important that both Brian’s and David’s games feature the civilian population, an element which is often lacking. Although I haven’t had a chance to play it, a game on separate stages, including preparing for an urban battle by Des FitzGerald also looked very promising.
I’ve also had a chance to take a look at James Buckley’s Battlegroup Clash: Baltics, which only makes me look forward to it more, as it gives the due attention to electronic warfare and other important aspects of the modern battlefield. The fact that it is based on a professional game also makes it appealing from the educational perspective. Another game that caught my attention from this point of view was Operation Tannenbaum from Centre d’Histoire et de Prospective Militaires in Switzerland. It addresses the planned invasion of Switzerland by the Axis powers and explores this counterfactual history in a game format. It is an interesting approach, especially, as there is historical documentation to support the game development.
Of course, there was plenty of time and space to play games after the main programme of the day. This year social gaming took place at a different floor with more space and larger tables. Therefore, you could see both large and small games played, games published and in development.
I enjoyed the event last year and I enjoyed it this year as well. In addition to the strong programme, it’s mostly the welcoming community and opportunities to meet fellow wargamers from all over the place that makes it special.
Connections UK is part of the Connections family of conferences. Connections Online is co-sponsored by the Armchair Dragoons and will be held 20-25 April, 2026
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