Wargame

Wargames are games which attempt to simulate combat of some sort. Forming one of the four most popular forms of traditional game(along with card games, TTRPGs, and board games), Wargames have been enduringly popular and influential.

History

Chess is probably the oldest wargame still commonly played, though it's generally counted among board games instead because of how heavily abstracted it is. Modern wargaming as we think of it originated around the Napoleonic Wars, when Prussian officers developed a series of wargames, referred to as "Kriegsspiel" (literally german for War Game). Kriegsspiel was intended as an officer's training tool rather than a game played for entertainment, but it caught on, first among the officer corps and then eventually among civilians. By modern standards, Kriegsspiel is very clunky and difficult to play, but some dedicated players do still follow it. Kriegsspiel used paper chits to represent groups of soldiers, and did use dice rolls to account for chance.

The first wargame marketed towards civilians was actually developed by early science fiction author H.G Wells, who developed a codified ruleset for playing with toy soldiers and spring loaded toy cannons that fired wooden plugs, both of which were common toys at the time. Almost a direct opposite to Kriegsspiel in many ways, Wells' system, which he dubbed Little Wars, was very rules light, using no dice and emphasizing maneuver over chance. The main element of player skill involved was in the use of the artillery, where you would actually fire wooden plugs at the other side's soldiers in order to kill whichever soldiers you hit. The rules are available online for free, so be classy and take a look at the rules for the first ever Wargame, right here.

Little Wars was published in 1913, and didn't enjoy huge success. Wargaming didn't truly take off as a hobby until after World War II. The early wargames of this era were historical, many of them themed around the days of the Roman empire, but the publication of Lord Of The Rings caused a major interest in medieval and fantasy warfare in the 60s and 70s - a notable entry in this was the wargame Chainmail, which was spawned a little hero-focused spinoff called Dungeons & Dragons. The 1980s were mostly notable for wargaming delving into science fiction and fantasy. The popularity of Star Wars, the plethora of excellent Fantasy films, and the enduring enthusiasm for Lord of The Rings lead to the introduction of more and more fantastical games. Most notable were Battletech, influenced heavily by Mecha anime before codifying the western Mecha genre, and Warhammer Fantasy Battle. Warhammer was the first wargame meant to be played with proprietary miniatures, serving as a product first, and it was a major success, spawning its eventually more popular science fiction equivalent Warhammer 40,000. The 1990s and 2000s saw a slow but gradual spread in wargaming's popularity, with many wargame properties adapted to video games. In this time period, the various Warhammer properties solidified a hold on the market that they keep today - the 2010s saw challengers such as Warmachine and Hordes, both from Privateer Press, and X-Wing and Star Wars: Legion, both from Fantasy Flight Games, but neither managed to disrupt Warhammer's dominant position.

Types of Wargame

Wargames can be broadly categorized into two groups - Miniature Wargames and Chit Wargames. Chit Wargames are wargames which use paper or cardboard chits to represent the units involved in the battle. Some good examples include Kriegsspiel, Wooden Ships & Iron Men and various other Avalon Hill wargames. Almost every naval wargame also falls in this category. Chit Wargames often straddle the line between wargame and board game, and have waned in popularity in the last few years. By contrast, Miniature Wargames are games in which the units in the game are represented by miniature models. Miniature Wargames combine the aspect of playing the game with a craft hobby element - miniatures are often supplied unassembled, and almost always unpainted. This is seen as a feature, not a bug, as the ability to build and paint your own unique force is a major draw for many wargamers. Warhammer(in all its incarnations), Bolt Action, and Star Wars: Legion are all miniature wargames. Battletech is notable as a hybrid of the two - the game can be played with paper tokens on a hexagon based grid representing units, or with detailed miniature models and no grid.

Chit wargames are generally played on a map, usually supplied with the game, blurring the line between them and board games. Miniature wargames, by contrast, expect the players to produce a miniature battlefield for their models to fight over. Some players lovingly craft unique tables out of common and specialist materials, many companies produce purpose-designed wargaming terrain, while plenty of players, especially those starting out, just use piles of books and whatever else fits on the dining table to produce a playable battlefield.

Wargames are also categorized by scale. While there are no solid guidelines on what a scale consists of, there's generally two important points - how big each unit is in gameplay, and how many units are expected to take part in a battle. The size of the units is often referred to by how tall an individual soldier is, in millimeters, while the number of units expected to take part is generally referred to by the military unit that a player's force is meant to emulate. For example, Bolt Action by Warlord Games uses 28mm scale miniatures, meaning that an individual soldier stands a little over an inch tall, and the game is referred to as "Reinforced Platoon" scale, meaning that each player commands a platoon, sometimes reinforced by a tank, artillery piece, etc. Some games are also referred to as "heroic scale" - this is a simple acknowledgement that the scales aren't exactly consistent, and elements are exaggerated for dramatic effect or just for visibility at a distance.

There's also the matter of the other kind of scale, i.e., "how many people do an individual chit or miniature represent?", and "how many pieces does each side have?". As for the former: Some games have them represent tens of thousands of men; some games have them represent exactly one person, and everything in-between is also commonly seen. (This is (usually) less of an issue with naval or space-fighting wargames, where a ship is a ship is a ship, but is still an issue there as well.) The latter, well, everything from one (in games about one big unit against a bunch of smaller guys, e.g. OGRE), to hundreds (e.g., The Campaign for North Africa)

Genres

• Historical: Replicas of specific wars or periods of wars. The most popular are World War 2, the American Civil War, and the Napoleonic wars, though many others are supported.
• Fantasy: Orcs, Dwarves, and dirty peasants fighting alongside half-crazed wizards. Often features large monsters and magic. The most well known is Warhammer: Age of Sigmar, a continuation of the previous most well known Warhammer Fantasy, Dungeons & Dragons started out as a variant of another called Chainmail. Some other examples include Kings of War and Warmahordes.
• Science Fiction: Laser guns, space ships fighting among the stars, mechs and more. The most well known is Warhammer 40,000, some other examples include Infinity and BattleTech.