Wargame

Table wargame ( eng. Board wargame ) originated in 1954 with the publication of the Tactics game by Charles S. Roberts ( Eng. Charles Swann Roberts ) ^[1] and became the most popular in the mid -70s . For such games, miniature figures are often used to indicate military equipment or a detachment of troops, although table wargame can use chips or cards instead of figures.

The first game of this type was Kriegspiel , created in Prussia at the beginning of the XIX century.

Wargames as a subgenre of computer games of the genre of strategy also lead their history from two games, but non-computer ones. The oldest wargame was the Indian board game Chaturanga , a prototype of a game that was later called chess in the Middle Ages and in our time. The second source of the appearance of wargames is military exercises in Prussia from the middle of the 19th century , from simplification and cost savings, transferred from real fields, forests and rivers, with real troops, to a large table with smaller models thereof. Over time, these war games ( English “wargames” ) divided into the direction of complication - to help the military - where they became modern KSHU , and towards simplification, where they became the basis of the rules for board war games. Thus, combining the material part (chess pieces) and the mental part (complex and varied rules), the first desktop wargames appeared at the beginning of the 20th century .

On an industrial scale, desktop wargames began to be produced in the second half of the 20th century. There are many different board games in various genres. :

• realistic, based on real events ( Warhammer Ancient Battles , Flames of War , "The Great Patriotic War", "Age of Battles");
• sci-fi ( BattleTech , Warhammer 40,000 , Starship Troopers);
• Fantasy ( Warhammer Fantasy ).

The first definition of the computer wargame genre in the domestic press was as follows: " If you, having started the game, already have military equipment, the amount of which decreases during the fighting, this is pure wargame ." ^[2]

Computer wargames are usually based on the rules of desktop wargames. So, for example, the famous Close Combat series is based on the rules of the desktop squad leader Squad leader , which simulates the battle of infantry units during World War II . The subgenre of wargame games is usually built on the simulation of battle from the platoon company level to the front-group army level. In addition, according to the "universe of action", wargames are divided into historical and fantasy / fantastic. Traditionally, the vast majority are “war games” dedicated to real events.

The main emphasis in wargames is on the combination of such elements as:

• authenticity - compliance of the characteristics of military units , military equipment and weapons with well-known organizational and staff structures and tactical and technical characteristics ;
• realism - the display of the behavior and interaction of military units among themselves on the ground, in accordance with the laws of physics, chemistry, topography, meteorology, military psychology, etc .;
• historicity - the correspondence of military formations, military equipment, weapons, terrain and other conditions in a battle, played out events of the history of mankind or the tradition (the so-called Lore ) of one or another game universe in the genre of science fiction or fantasy.

Do not confuse wargames with tactical role-playing games (for example: Jagged Alliance , Incubation , Alpha: Antiterror , Fallout Tactics ); and realistic simulators (for example: T-72: Balkans on fire , IL-2 Sturmovik , Silent Hunter , Operation Flashpoint ).

• Kriegspiel

• Portal dedicated to the main historical computer wargames (rus.)
• Desktop wargames and miniatures on Militerra.com