Rules for Miniature Wargames

He who does not fight, truely wins -- Sunzi (Sun Tzu)

The Age of Eagles – Napoleonic Fire and Fury.

Kriegsspiel, the War Game, is a tactical exercise without troops, using maps or realistically modelled terrain, and simple playing pieces or miniatures representing actual units in the given ground scale. Wargames are designed to realistically recreate the character of a military engagement, to facilitate the training, study, rehearsal, and evolution of military leadership, strategy, and tactics. Wargames are not games, they are military manœuvres on maps, also known as simulations. Wargames are cheaper, easier to implement and evaluate, less dangerous, and much less damaging to the environment than real manœuvres involving thousands of soldiers and their vehicles.

Wargaming advances the Art of War as postulated by Sunzi (Sun Tzu), who strove to avoid war whenever possible, because it would invariable destroy a nation and its people. "Sunzi’s Martial Art" (The Art of War) is considered the earliest book on strategy and tactics, and to this day it is among the most important treatises on the Art of War.

Seizing the enemy without fighting
is the most skillful. -- Sunzi (Sun Tzu)

Strategic wargames are conducted on 1:100000 scale general staff maps, whereas grand tactical and tactical wargames cover much less ground at 1:8000 and 1:6250 scale. Fortress wargames explore the significantly more complex matters of the attack and defence of fortifications. In 1876, German Secretary of the Navy Albrecht v. Stosch called for naval wargames, and when military aircraft became available, the existing ground and naval wargame rules were upgraded to include them.

H.G. Wells, the author of the wargame classic "Little Wars" of 1913, is considered the father of the civilian wargame hobby. Little Wars were typically played in the garden, because H.G. Wells favored 54 mm toy soldiers in 1:32 model railway scale (I gauge), which required a large battlefield. In the late 1950s, Jack Scruby introduced smaller and cheaper 30 mm figures which made wargaming a table-top game. Sophisticated and easily understood wargame rules published by Tony Bath (The Hyborian Campaign, 1956), Donald Featherstone (The Wargamers’ Newsletter, 1962), Charles Grant (The Wargame, 1971), Gary Gygax und Dave Arneson (Dungeon&Dragons, 1974) turned wargaming into a popular hobby around the world. Dungeon&Dragons was the most popular fantasy role-playing game 2006, with an estimated 20 million players world-wide, according to a BBC news report.

Today, there are over 2500 companies world-wide involved in the design and production of wargames and wargame accessories. Even highly unusual wargame subjects involving armed teddybears or snowmen, man-eating plants, and supernatural killer rodents are covered by one or several of the popular manufacturers.

Opponent Finder

Solo-wargaming is feasible, but the really interesting wargames are multi-player affairs involving two to 20 friends, each of whom commands a tactical formation or sub-unit of it. Wargame clubs and regional wargame groups welcome beginning and experienced wargamers alike. University wargaming clubs are especially popular, because they can be a valuable source of talented wargamers, modellers, and military historians fascinated by the miniatures hobby.

Popular Wargame Rules

Bibliography

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Military Miniatures Magazin regularly reviews new wargame rules, and covers interesting developments in wargaming.

Miniature Wargaming