Copyright 2006 T. Sheil & A. Sheil All Rights Reserved
Until
Bob Bard's first book, "Making and Collecting Military Miniatures" was
published, nothing had been written about War Games since H.G. Wells'
famed
booklet, "Little Wars" for public consumption. Bob devoted one
chapter to this interesting phase of collecting military miniatures, and several
photographs of 54mm scale "battles" were included.
Since
that time, war gaming has come into its own - both with military miniatures
and with "board games". It would
impossible to guess how many people
actually play war games, as I am sure that at least 75% of such people
keep their hobby a "secret". In a
few short years, we have seen several hard bound books being published on the
subject of wargaming with military miniatures, and several regular publications
dealing with both this and the board game.
If one counts the manufacturing concerns making plastic soldiers, there
are several dozen companies turning out small-scale figures just for war gaming. Ten years ago no one catered to this
section of the hobby.
At
that time the only available figures inexpensive enough to be considered for
miniature battles were the famed 54mm Britains. Shortly there came out the Holger Eriksson designed SAE
30mm scaled miniature, and then the 20mm model became popular. All this due, of course, to the demand
to have more "room" to fight on on a table top. Today one seldom hears of 54mm models
being used in war games, and I have recently seen some very fine 1/2 inch size soldiers made by a
fellow in Sweden who uses this scale for his table top battles. And then, of course, one must consider the wooden or paper "markers" used in
the board games, such as Avalon Hill
manufacturers. The board games in
themselves must interest many thousands of customers, for every toy shop
in the country handles these.
Not
only the models war games are played with have changed and improved, but also
the "game" itself has gone through many subtle changes. Although there is no such thing as a
standardized set of rules (like Chess), the trend has been to come up with
"realistic" rules of your own, based upon historical fact, and considering £he
most minute detail of what might happen in a real battle. Such factors as
weather, morale, combat values and other miscellania of war, enter
the picture and are re-created where possible, in a realistic manner on the
miniature battleground.
This
trend towards realism is actually causing a "split" within the hobby
itself. One school of thought
believes war games should be a "game"-a competition between the players and
their ability to maneuver miniature troops along historic lines, using simple
rules which give much action, and little
argument. The other school insists
that a war game must be as real as
real war, and their rules reflect this in being somewhat cumbersome because of the massive amount
of detail they must cover. More time is spent in firing guns (for example)
because of the many varied types available to a player, than in
maneuvering and moving. One large
war game that I know of, involving many
thousands of 30mm soldiers, lasted two days - yet only 9 game moves were
made, so complicated were the rules and the judging of the combat that
occurred.
The
use of dice to give a war game the element of "chance", and the fact
that every player makes up his own rules, is what makes a war
game
different
from any other game now in existence.
Where the "board"
war games and Chess - for example- use standardized rules, the war game rules
are left up
to each individual to make up as he sees fit. This leaves
wargaming as a
very "individualist" hobby indeed, and
it is this
attraction that seems interest
the beginner in this phase of the hobby.
For today, when
everything is standardized, and where conformity is king, the non-conformist
individualcan
create a lively hobby himself - and for his own individual use and taste.
And,
whereas Collectors of military miniatures must stick to exact painting
reproductions of historic uniforms, the war gamer- if he desires- may paint
his model soldiers to represent any "dream
country" he wants; can make his own "wars" over anything he wishes, and
fight his table top battle with any set of rules that please
him.
I
believe this is the main reason there are so many unknown war gamers
fighting
war games. Only a few will band
together in clubs or groups, or read the publications dealing with war
games. The others are content with
their own setup and rules, and so long as they have a compatible opponent to
"fight" with, are happy with what they have.
At
the same time, there is a constant challenge to better your own rules, and I
have never yet seen any war gamer content with the rules he plays by. This one factor creates a kind of
"super-interest" in the hobby, and keeps
the hobbyist interested at all times.
For to improve his rules, he must read more military history, must
play enough war games to see where improvement can be made, and often
corresponds with others to get their
ideas. All this keeps interest in
his hobby at a high pitch, and leads to the type of enthusiasm one keeps
finding among those who play this interesting game.
As
for the future of war gaming, it seems to me that it will keep growing.
Anytime there is a challenge, people are bound to become interested.
Like collectors, who are always looking for the "hard to find" things,
the war gamer is looking for the "perfect" set of rules, and keeps plugging away
in this attempt. In the end, it my feeling that war
gaming will grow into as large a hobby as model railroading, and that the growth
in the next ten years will be double that of the last ten years.
Editor's Note: this article was written for a book that Bob Bard never finished. Scruby was a long-time friend of Bob's and one of the founding fathers of modern wargaming. This piece was probably written between 1969 and 1975.