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Ryan Lavelle  Wargaming

Having run Archer Models, a business manufacturing 1/76-scale military vehicle kits during the 1990s, Ryan sold the range in 1997 in order to concentrate on postgraduate study. 
Ryan has since maintained an interest in the links between conflict simulation (wargaming), model-making and historical study, for academic teaching purposes and for the introduction of historical periods to a wider audience, not least as a fulfilling hobby. His interests in twentieth-century wargames are supplemented by historical gaming in the early medieval period, and Ryan has written on both these periods for wargames magazines.


Strategy Gaming

Ryan has an interest in the use of
strategic games based on the events of 1066 for teaching purposes and has applied the principles of 'committee gaming', with the participants sat around a single table and decision-based gaming, with participants separated at different tables, on a number of occasions.  An article on the lessons learned from these experiences is planned.

Ryan is also developing a strategy gaming system based on Viking attacks on the English kingdom during the reign of Æthelred 'the Unready' (978-1016), using principles of campaigning addressed in his book, Alfred's Wars; preliminary versions of the board and counters are intended to be made available for limited distribution via this website.



Miniature Wargaming

Anglo-Saxon tent conversion
Ryan is a collector and painter of 28mm (1/56 scale) figures for medieval wargames, with a special interest in building miniature armies for the late Anglo-Saxon and post-Conquest periods (ninth to twelfth centuries). His article on the subject, 'Rethinking "Saxon" Wargaming', is in the April 2011 edition of Wargames Illustrated, with accompanying reviews of Gripping Beast's 28mm scale 'Saxon Thegns' and SAGA wargaming rules. Ryan's article on refighting Alfred the Great's 896 naval battle, addressing themes discussed in his book, Alfred's Wars, was published in Wargames Illustrated's 300th issue, in September 2012.
page updated 5 August 2013