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August 21st, 2007
Although wargaming comes in many different forms from basic board games such as Risk all the way to playing Paintball with some buddies in the woods, our group primarily sticks with two Genres: Miniature and Computer Wargames. Below is a brief description of these two hobbies.
Miniature Wargaming:
History:
Miniature Wargaming has probably been around since
the first Sumerian General practiced his trade with wooden blocks and rocks on a
sandy floor some 4,000 years ago. However, it is Kriegsspiel that is given
credit as the forefather of modern miniature wargaming. In 1811,
Baron
Von Reisswitz, a civilian war counselor in the Prussian court in Breslau,
invented this game (called
Kriegsspiel or "The War Game").
Baron
Von Reisswitz introduced the game to the Prussian princes Wilhelm and Friedrich
and they were so impressed by it, that it was adopted by the Prussian military
to practice on-the-field command decisions. The game was played on a sand
covered table and used wooden playing pieces to represent the different types of
units. The rules covered movement and the effects of terrain. Combat was
resolved using an odds table.
In 1912 the author, H.G. Wells, created a game called "Little Wars". The game used cast lead figures and spring-loaded cannons that fired wooden projectiles. The rules covered the movement and the use of model houses and streets. Wells said, "Combat results should be determined by actual gun and rifle fire, not by computation." Little Wars was more of a grown-ups toy, than an accurate simulation, but it made quite an impact on the wargaming field. Today the wargaming industry awards for wargaming rules and miniature models are called the H.G. Wells awards.
Present:
A miniature wargame is typically played on a tabletop with scaled down terrain
similar to a model railroad table. Dice are usually used to add the element of
chance to a battle. Players will maneuver and fight with groups of models
on the table in order to achieve certain objectives. These objectives can
be anything as simple as "Route the enemy army" to "take and hold the village at
the crossroads". A game can take anywhere from a few hours to a whole day or more,
depending on the size of the armies and the skill of the players.
The majority of miniature models today are either lead based or pewter, but many are also now available in plastic. Miniature models are made in several sizes or scales for wargaming, 2mm, 6mm, 10mm, 15mm or 25mm. This refers to the height of the model, so a 15mm scale model soldier is 15mm tall when measured from head to foot. There's no real advantage of one size over the other. Some people find painting the smaller sized models a bit easier due to having less details that actually need to be painted. 25mm figures can be quite detailed and while they require more time to paint, the effort can pay off as they can look amazing on the table. Wargaming miniatures are available in almost every historical period and are also available in fantasy and science fiction settings.
Miniature wargaming rules can be found for a wide range of historical periods as well as Science Fiction and Fantasy settings. Most miniature rules come in book form and some are in a boxed set that includes game aids, such as cardboard mounted combat tables, movement charts, fire templates, etc. Other miniature rules come packaged with a starter set of figures to get you started.
Miniature wargaming is an enjoyable hobby and like any hobby can take time and effort, but the rewards are worth it. Building an army takes time in preparing, painting and mounting the figures on bases. Armies can be as small as a couple dozen figures or can be comprised of several thousand.
Few people realize that this is really two hobbies in one. One: assembling and painting the miniatures and/or terrain and Two: the actual playing of the game itself.
Here are just a few examples of the different model scales available.
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Computer Wargaming:
While Miniature Wargaming takes place on a tabletop with two or more players
pushing models around, computer wargames are played (surprise, surprise) on a
computer. Computer wargames cover most historical periods as well as the
Science fiction and Fantasy realms and are often played solo, but can be played
vs. another human opponent via the internet.
There are
several advantages to computer wargaming:
1) The ability to play anytime without having to arrange for someone to come
over and play with you. Most computer wargames have an AI (Artificial
Intelligence) that you can play against.
2) Computers can be used to employ their incredible computing power for figuring out all the things that happen in the battle such as "did my tank get hit?" , "how much ammo do I have left?" or "how fast will this cavalry move?". In Miniature wargaming all of these things have to be referenced by the player on a chart or in the rule book. Having the computer calculate this allows the player to concentrate on strategy as opposed to thumbing through reference charts.
3) Computers also can give the game more realism such as Fog of War. In a miniatures game, both players have the "Birds eye view" of the table and can see each others troops. In most computer games, it is possible to limit what the player can see by only showing him what his troops actually see, thus giving a much more realistic and exciting game ("is there a tank behind that hill?" or How many men are hiding in those woods?).
The downside of all of this (IMHO), is the human factor is missing. Even if you play vs. an opponent over the internet, you still miss that human interaction that Miniature wargaming brings.