The Ministry of Gentlemanly Warfare is a game-writing and publishing partnership wholly owned by Charles Murton and Craig Cartmell.

We began writing games together when commissioned by Osprey to pen the successful In Her Majesty’s Name series of narrative skirmish wargames books. We had already been good friends and gaming companions for thirty years by that point.

Since then we have formed this partnership and are publishing games such as Daishō – skirmish warfare in mythical Japan, Blood Eagle – skirmish warfare in the mythical Dark Ages, IHMN Gothic – the Victorian horror supplement, and Thud & Blunder – fantasy skirmish warfare and adventuring.

The purpose of this website is to keep fans of these games informed, entertained and engaged. It also holds a large and growing repository of additional free material for players.

Author Biographies

Craig Cartmell (aka Craig Arthur Wellesley Cartmell, Secretary of State, Ministry of Gentlemanly Warfare)

A gamer since the mid-nineteen-seventies I have been tinkering with other rules and writing my own for about thirty years. Now in my fifties, I reside in rural Wales, where I make a living as a factory quality manager. Writing is my dream job but not one that pays the mortgage, unfortunately.

My first two real successes were the; FUBAR, one page, small unit action rules and; In the Emperor’s Name, skirmish rules for Warhammer 40K. It was these latter rules that attracted Osprey to my door with the offer to create a set of ‘steampunk’ rules.
These last seven years, writing in partnership with Charles, have been everything I wanted and more. I love gaming, the industry, and most of all, the players!

Charles Murton (aka Field Marshall Sir Charles Napier Murton, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Gentlemanly Warfare)

I started “playing with toy soldiers” at a very young age (even younger than Craig, I think!) and have been writing and tinkering with wargaming rules for as long as I can remember. This was probably part of my motivation to take a job in the Civil Service, working for the Ministry of Defence, when I graduated. I spent my entire career in the Civil Service, experiencing a wide variety of different roles and responsibilities (including professional wargaming for the military!), before taking early retirement in mid-2016.

Throughout my career I’ve been a regular hobby wargamer. My first love is definitely role-playing games but I also play a wide variety of table-top and board games. IHMN was my first experience of writing professionally; I must have enjoyed it because Craig and I are still writing together and there’s no end in sight!
My other main hobby is target shooting. I know my way around a wide variety of firearms and compete regularly at club, national and international level. So if you have a problem with the interpretation of particular firearms types in any of our rules, that’s probably down to me … (or I sneaked it past him – Craig).

In Her Majesty’s Name
Daishō
Blood Eagle
In the Emperor’s Name
Thud & Blunder