Games - Wargaming

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	Games - Wargaming

Wargaming is the play of simulated military operations in the form of games known as war games. It can be one of a number of ways of exploring the effects of warfare or testing strategies without actual combat. It can take the form of a hobby in which one or more players simulate battles or entire wars (as a type of simulation game), or a model or computer simulation of possible scenarios in military planning, (this is also called warfare simulation, see also defense contractors); or the full-scale rehearsal of military maneuvers as practice for warfare. In this case, the two sides in the simulated battle are typically called "blue" and "red", to avoid naming a particular adversary.

History of wargaming

Modern wargaming grew out of the military need to study warfare and to 'reenact' old battles for learning purposes. The stunning Prussian victory over the French in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) is sometimes partly credited to the training of Prussian officers with the Kriegspiel. The first specific non-military wargame club was started in Oxford, England in the 19th century.

H.G. Wells' book Little Wars was an attempt to codify rules for fighting battles with toy soldiers (miniatures), and make them available to the general public. The first modern mass-market wargame, based on cardboard chits (counters) and hex-board maps, was invented by Charles S. Roberts in 1952 called Tactics; he went on to found the Avalon Hill game company, and is called "The father of board wargaming". The modern commercial board wargaming industry is considered to have begun with the publication of Tactics II in 1958, and the founding of The General Magazine by the Avalon Hill Game Company in the early 1960s.

Wargames have existed for centuries — chess is an ancient example. In fact, one could make a case that all competitive zero-sum games may be considered wargames. Wargames, like all games, exist in a range of complexities: some are fundamentally simple (so-called "beer-and-pretzel" games), while others (generally in an attempt to increase the 'realism' of the situation) produce rule sets that may encompass a large variety of actions (so-called "monster" games).

Wargames vary in the level of complexity of rules and record keeping they require. Detailed wargame rulesets (some of which require hundreds of pages of small print and intensive recordkeeping) generally result in a slow (and for many, less enjoyable) game. Simpler "beer and pretzels" rulesets, on the other hand, produce "fun" games and encourage tournament or competitive play, but may not accurately depict events that historically took place in a conflict.

Tabletop wargaming (miniature wargaming)

Miniature wargaming typically involves the use of miniature plastic or metal models for the units and model scenery placed on a tabletop or floor as a playing surface. Games with miniatures are sometimes called tabletop games, tabletop wargames, miniature wargames, or simply wargames.

Board wargaming

A typical non-computerized wargame (Kriegspiel) consists of the following components:

Map: The map (or maps) shows the terrain over which the battle/war is fought, usually overlaid by hexagon
s to regulate movement. Other variations include the "point to point" map where areas are connected by lines to show possible movements, and the area map (similar to Risk
or Axis and Allies
).
Counters: The most frequent counters are cardboard squares and wooden blocks, though a few games aimed at a wider audience use plastic figures.
* Chits
are usually small cardboard squares moved around on the map to represent armies, military units or individual military personnel. Sometimes these markers are printed on both sides, with one side representing the starting condition of the unit and the other side representing the disordered or damaged state.
* Wooden blocks are used in block wargames. By standing the blocks on one side, these counters limit the enemy knowledge of friendly units (simulating fog of war) and can be rotated to a different side to show changes in relative strength.
Dice
: These are generally used to add the element of chance. Given that many military actions have been influenced or even decided by odd events, straight-forward strategy games such as chess and go may be considered too abstract to represent real war.
Rules: Rules vary in complexity and depth from 1 page for some games to 190 pages for others.

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