The idea for NQM began in the 1980's when there was a dearth of fast games that allowed large multiplayer games to flow smoothly with a minimum of fuss. The authors experience of large cloth-model games at RMA Sandhurst with Dr. Paddy Griffith and others created a yearning to be able to re-create the vast sweep of those games, but with a far less intrusive umpire load. The players would be able to handle all the low-level combat themselves, leaving them, and the umpire(s) free to concentrate on the high-level decisions. Oh, and just to make it harder, the game had to be able to handle a couple of players wanting to have a knock-about on a Friday evening.
The title of the game comes from the main period modelled - WWII. Away from the armoured divisions of the UK and USA, most combatants were not really that mechanised. The Germans and their allies mostly marched into the USSR, and their supply lines followed the railways as much as the roads. The horse was still very much a part of the battlefield on the Eastern front, as the Germans were pleased to call it.
Designed by: Chris Kemp