MIKE Hayes is a former member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, a long-term peace activist and an all-round jolly nice fellow.

It is well to remember this as he sits in his Ranmoor dining room plotting the atomic Armageddon of western Europe. And the downfall, to boot, of your correspondent’s Spanish empire.

“It’s a peaceful game, really,” he says, looking at the board. “Ultimately, it’s about the futility of war.”

Then he explodes a nuclear bomb right over Madrid destroying several armies. Or small plastic counters, if you will.

Welcome, reader, to Classic Warlord.

It’s a game Mike, a retired Sheffield University business studies professor, invented himself some 50 years ago and which was something of a hit.

Games Workshop bought the rights. Some 20,000 copies were sold under the cheery name Apocalypse. And - that ultimate sign of success - a motion was passed in Parliament demanding it be banned for inciting nuclear war.

“I would suggest that playing Dr Strangelove on the dining room table was ethically better than whitewashing your windows, the official Civil Defence solution to Armageddon,” says Mike. “Fortunately, the motion failed.”

Now, after GW’s contract ran out, he and wife Mary, 69, are to bring the game back. They have produced 500 to sell online.

“I’m retired,” says Mike. “So it beats twiddling my thumbs.

“GW phoned me in May and asked if they could renew the rights. But I thought, well, if they think it can work, I’ll have a go at doing it myself.”

So he has done.

And it’s easy to see why it was once loved everywhere from the uni’s Bar One to Borstal (several copies were ordered by the young offenders institute).

Players start out with an empire and spend the next couple of hours invading, retreating, negotiating, double crossing and lobbing nuclear warheads about. If you’re not ruthless, you’re probably not going to win.

“Essentially it lets you become Machiavelli for a bit,” says Mike.

Back in the Seventies, he took his proto-version - knocked up in the cellar - down to the student’s union and played with the chess club. Several members liked it so much they asked to buy their own. One got in the hands of GW bosses and the rest was history. Until now.

“I forgot about it after that, really,” says Mike. “We were busy bringing up five children.”

Which paid off too - because this time he’s enlisted their help.

“One of our daughters is a graphic designer so she did the board and another is a web designer so she did the website,” explains Mike, a grandfather-of-eight. “We discussed it as a family and we decided it was disgraceful that I’d been a professor of business studies but never tried to market the game myself.”

There have been a couple of rule changes and the map has altered but largely it’s the same. And Mike is sure it’s still relevant in a post Cold War age.

“The threat never goes away,” he says. “With this game you see nuclear war’s futility. Whoever wins is left with a world devastated by radiation. The board asks the question: ‘Victory - but at what cost?’”

Pre-order Classic Warlord at www.classicwarlord.com

Dear Michael,

Thanks for your interest in Classic Warlord. You are on the pre-order list as of today, Thursday Sept. 27. This is our schedule. Final parts arrive tomorrow, 28 Sept, assemble and weigh pre-order sets, establishing postal rates, 29 Sept. Informing and updating our customers on cost of game, post and packaging options and payment options, 30 Sept. Awaiting customer confirmation, money transfers and first deliveries depart, Oct 1st onwards. Well, that is the plan but as all good wargamers know ( from Stalingrad etc), you have to make sure that Sod's Law and Murphy's Law don't intervene.

Yours sincerely,

Mike Hayes

 notprop wrote:
Seems like whatever GW were going to produce as Warhammer 40,000: Apocalypse is now looking for a new brand name.

 Kilkrazy wrote:

I would like to believe that GW wanted to renew the rights for a new range of board games they are going to put in their shops.

I would love to order your game but your shipping costs are way too high for most people in the US swallow. I think the UK postage is way too high also. There is a lot of excitement on Dakka for your game especially here in the US but you find that we are willing to part with 59.00 pounds UK if the shipping is reasonable but even the untracked shipping is higher than it should be. I think I will wait till some starts selling copies on eBay unless your shipping goes down.

Dear Michael

Classic Warlord is now launched and you can purchase it through Paypal. Please note that the cost of sending it to the USA can be quite high. The cost-options are on our website www.classicwarlord.com See the P and P details below the "Order Now" page. Please check with us that you will be sending the correct amount as we don't want you to pay either too much or too little.

I put below a message we have sent to all people who pre-ordered Classic Warlord. We are particularly pleased that the interest in the USA continues after so many years.
CLASSIC WARLORD IS LAUNCHED TODAY

Thank-you to all those fans who pre-ordered Classic Warlord.

We much appreciate your confidence that Mike Hayes’ ultimate version of his famous game will prove to be the Holy Grail of board Wargames.

You sent us some great encouraging emails.

You told us you wanted to buy Classic Warlord and this gave us the motivation to set up in business and to produce this First Edition of 500 games.

Mike will autograph the inside of your box if you would like this. Just let us know.

We hope that you enjoy the challenges presented by Classic Warlord.


Our website www.classicwarlord.com gives full details of how to buy the game.

Kind regards

Mary Hayes