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Wargaming is either- A hobby in which one or more players simulate battles or entire wars, or
- The model or computer simulation of possible scenarios in military planning , also called warfare simulation . See also defense contractors, or
- The full-scale rehearsal of military maneuver s 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.
1 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.
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).
One of the main difficulties with wargaming is the level of complexity of rules and record keeping.
Extremely detailed wargame rule sets (some of which require hundreds of pages of small print and intensive recordkeeping) generally result in a slow (and for many, less enjoyable) game. Simple rule sets, on the other hand, may not cover events that historically took place in a conflict, forcing the players to invent "house rules" to resolve disputes.
2 Board wargaming
A typical non-computerized wargame (Kriegspiel) consists of the following components:
- Map: The map shows the terrain over which the battle/war is fought, usually overlaid by hexagons 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).
- Counters: These are usually cardboard squares that represent armiesAn army comprises all of a nation's land-based military forces or a specific large military force. Military land forces An army is a military organization. The word army can refer to any armed force, or more specifically a force primarily designed for lan, military unitA military unit is an organisation within an armed force. It may consist of any number of soldiers, ships, vehicles, or aircraft. Armies, navies, and air forces, are organised hierarchicaly into groups of various sizes for functional, tactical and adminiss or individual military personnelCorporal, armed with an MP-5) A soldier is a person who has enlisted with, or was conscripted into, the armed forces of a sovereign country and has undergone training and received equipment to defend that country or its interests. Soldiers are a part of s, as well as markers to show current statusStatus is a state, condition or situation. Status" often refers to social status. Status quo Establishment Conservative Status symbol. that these units might be in.
- DiceDice (the plural of the word die probably from the Latin dare to give) are, in general, small polyhedral objects with the faces marked with numbers or other symbols, thrown in order to choose one of the faces randomly. The most common dice are small cubes: 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 chessFor other meanings, see Chess (disambiguation). Chess (from the Persian word Shah is a board game for two players played on a square board divided into eight rows (or ranks and eight columns (or files creating 64 individual squares which alternate in colo and goGo is a strategic, two-player board game originating in ancient China between 2000 BC and 200 BC. Go is a popular game in East Asia. The development of Internet play has served to increase notably its popularity throughout the rest of the world, in recent may be considered too abstract to represent real war.
Board wargames typically use cardboard counters to represent the units, and a printed mapboard as the playing surface.
Miniatures games typically use miniatureA miniature figure also known as a miniature or just a mini is a small figurine commonly used in role playing games (RPGs) such as Dungeons & Dragons''. Minis help visualize where characters are during combat, such as which way each character is facing, w plastic or metal models for the units and model scenery placed on a tabletop or floor as a playing surface. Games with miniatures are often called Table-top games.
Computer wargames may take either approach and display the units and scenery on the monitor screen.
