Wargames??? YES YOU CAN!
Hunga Dunga
United States
Portland
Oregon
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Many people who think that MAYBE they'd like to try playing wargames are sometimes intimidated by their seeming complexity. And it is true that a wargame rulebook can be anywhere from 8 to 80 pages in length.
However, there are some fundamental concepts that are shared by most wargames, which, once understood, will let you breeze through most any wargame rulebook as if it were a Flashman novel.
Well, almost, anyway.
This geeklist is an attempt to walk through some of these common concepts. If you have any questions, my comrades and I will be more than happy to answer them.
Once you understand the basics, most of what you will find in wargame rules are essentially variations on these concepts.
If, after reading this geeklist, you feel you have a handle on these babies, you're well on your way to really enjoying your first wargame!
Grognard Alert! Any of you grumbling, unhappy lot are welcome to add any common concepts I have missed, or correct me on those I have called out but might not have explained clearly or thoroughly enough. Just promise me you'll do your best to...keep it simple!
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Hunga Dunga
United States
Portland
Oregon
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Movement
Almost every playing piece you have can move, and every turn you will have the opportunity to move them. It is YOUR choice whether you want to move some, all, or none of your playing pieces.
You will be moving your pieces around on a map that has a hexagonal grid superimposed upon it in order to help regulate movement. Each hexagonal space is called a "hex".
How far can you move one piece? You can tell by the Movement Factor printed on the playing pieces.
If a playing piece has a Movement Factor of "10", it will be able to move 10 hexes through clear terrain. Every game comes with a Terrain Effects Chart that tells you how many movement factors you have to spend in order to cross terrain that is not clear. Rough terrain may cost 2 movement factors per hex. Travelling on a road may cost only 0.5 movement factors per hex.
You can't move more than the movement factors printed on that playing piece, but you can move less.
You can't transfer unused movement factors from one playing piece to another.
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Hunga Dunga
United States
Portland
Oregon
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Stacking
How much area is a hex supposed to represent? And how many of my playing pieces - the "units" of my armies - can fit in one hex?
Depending on the game, a hex can be any size. Whether it's 25 yards or 25 miles across, the hex size is the "scale" of the map. And depending on the size of the units, you may only be able to fit one unit in a hex at any one time, or you may be able to fit many. The maximum number of units you can stack at any one time is the "stacking limit" in the game.
But stacking does more than tell you how many units you can put in one hex. Some games do not allow your opponent to see anything other than the top unit in a stack, allowing you to hide some units. Other games restrict the ability to engage in combat to only the top unit in a stack, requiring you to spend some time thinking about how you want to organize your units. Still other games will only allow certain units to stack, and others not: for example, a game could allow infantry units to stack with artillery units, and artillery units to stack with cavalry units, but not allow cavalry units to stack with infantry units.
It spooks the horses.
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Hunga Dunga
United States
Portland
Oregon
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Zones of Control
Generally speaking, given that you have enough movement factors, you can move your units into almost any open hex on the game map. However, in most wargames, the six hexes surrounding the hex that your opponent's unit is occupying are considered...special.
There IS something special about units getting so close to each other that they can practically hear each other breathe. Some games require that you spend more movement factors to approach within one hex of an opposing unit (aka entering a Zone of Control hex): this reflects the extra caution, maybe even trepidation, that a unit has when getting so close to opposing forces.
Other games will ask you to spend more movement factors when LEAVING a Zone of Control. This represents a slow enough withdrawal so as not to alarm the opposing units. Still other games will not allow a unit to leave and enter a Zone of Control during the same turn: that would be way too much stress!
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Hunga Dunga
United States
Portland
Oregon
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Line of Sight
If the game you're playing has weapons that fire over a distance of more than one hex, you have to have a way of figuring out if the firing unit can actually see the target unit.
One of the problems with the imposition of a hex grid on a map is that it is not uncommon to find more than one "line-of-sight" route: one being clear (no interfering hills, forests, etc.), the other, not. Most games simply state that if there is more than one option of equivalent distance, you have to use the one least favorable to you. Other games will spend a little more time helping you decide whether or not you can see the enemy unit.
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Hunga Dunga
United States
Portland
Oregon
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Supply
Any wargame where the fighting is supposed to go on for more than a day (in "game time") will probably have supply rules. Basically, do your units have enough food and ammunition to continue fighting effectively?
Many games handle this in an abstract fashion: Can you trace a line of hexes from your unit to a friendly edge of the map that doesn't pass through any enemy Zones of Control? If yes, you're fine. If not, your unit will be penalized by, say, only operating at half strength until the situations corrected.
Other wargames will have more complicated supply rules that in some cases will actually limit your supply of ammunition.
What? No buhwets? Oh, noooooo...
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Hunga Dunga
United States
Portland
Oregon
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Command
So you've got all these little cardboard guys. How are you going to tell them what to do?
Some games follow an "Igo-Ugo"pattern: I move all of my little guys, then you move all of your little guys.
Other games add another layer that increases the fun-factor: playing pieces are designated by color-coding into different sub-groups. Each sub-group is represented by a unique chip that gets mixed up in a cup with all the other chips. Players then take turns drawing a chip, which activates that color group of guys. So you have a plan, but the coordination of different groups is a little more unpredictable than the standard Igo-Ugo system.
If that isn't enough, still other games will allow you to form and re-form groups: the closer your guys are to each other, the better their chances of working together as one team! Remember that scene in Patton where George C. Scott walks across a muddy field and starts directing traffic? It kinda feels like that.
And that's a good thing!
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Hunga Dunga
United States
Portland
Oregon
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Combat
Ok. So let's say you're good. I mean...REALLY good.
If you're another Napoleon Bonaparte, combat is a bit of a yawn.
Why?
Because you've already used the aforementioned concepts to position your troops so that your opponent's only hope is to roll magic dice.
And there is no magic in wargames.
But if you are no military genius (which is a pretty inclusive category in wargaming society), combat becomes a critical aspect of the game.
It's also important to remember that combat is not about killing: it's about demoralizing your opponent's units.
When a unit gets taken off the map, it's not because the little guys that unit represents have all been moyded, it's because that unit has lost it's "cohesion". Your little guys are running around willy-nilly, hiding under empty barrels, doing anything but listening to their commander. Some games will let you try to reconstitute these units.
Combat can be very simple in some games: take the attack factor written on the attacking unit, and compare it to the defensive factor written on the defending unit. Consult a "Combat Results Table" (CRT). If the attack factor and the defense factor are the same, find the "1:1" column on the CRT, roll a die, and apply the result.
Sometimes the result will eliminate one or the other unit.
Sometime the result will ask one unit or the other to retreat a hex or two.
Sometimes the result won't change anything.
Why did I waste my time putting together that wussy attack? I'm dead meat now.
Other games add another layer or two to combat. For example, you want one of your units to attack? Roll a die to see if they have the gumption to do so. "Gumption" is a technical term used in wargaming.
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Hunga Dunga
United States
Portland
Oregon
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Sequence of Play
You now understand the basic concepts. You've got your map, your units, your charts...but...what strings it all together? What sets the pace of the game? How does this all get orchestrated?
It's the Sequence of Play!
1.0 Sequence of Play
1.1 Player A moves.
1.2 Player A attacks.
1.3 Player B moves.
1.4 Player B attacks.
1.5 Players A and B bring on any reinforcement units.
1.6 Move the Game Turn Counter one space. If the Game Turn Counter is at the last space on the Turn Record Track, the game is over. If the Game Turn Counter is not on the last space of the Turn Record Track, repeat the Sequence of Play.
Every wargame uses a sequence of play that not only organizes when things are done and by whom, but it also sets a cadence to the game. While many games will use Sequences of Play that are as simple as the one above, other games by necessity have to orchestrate many factors: artillery, cavalry, air support, supply effects, re-organization.
Good wargames have a Sequence of Play that flows naturally.
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Hunga Dunga
United States
Portland
Oregon
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Victory Conditions
"The smell of newly printed maps and cardboard chits, it smells like...victory."
You've diligently planned and played your turns. Now is the time to find out who won.
In wargames, the nature of victory conditions varies greatly. It could be the number of units you've managed to move off one edge of the map, or how many key cities or towns you control at the end of the day. Victory Conditions are usually found at the end of the rule book.
Some games will ask you to compare what you have achieved to what actually happened in the historical battle. In this way, you can play a side that historically lost a battle, but if you can do better than the historical result - in other words, lose by less - then you can legitimately claim a victory!
Many games are broken down into half a dozen or more scenarios - important parts of the battle you can enjoy without having to play the whole battle from start to finish. Each scenario will have its own Victory Conditions.
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Colin Hunter
New Zealand
Auckland
Stop the admins removing history from the Wargaming forum.
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Hierarchy of Force
One of the most difficult aspect to understand wargames, particularly from The Gamers, is all the military organization and jargon associated with it. The hardest thing for me about learning TCS for example was figuring out the deployment of troops, not the rules.
Here is a brief summary that may prove helpful that I found easy to mistake. Corp is the biggest Platoon is the smallest
XXXX = Army
XXX = Corp
XX = Division
X = Brigade
lll = Regiment
ll = Battalion
l = Company
*** = Platoon
Take a look at this picture close up. You should be able to spot, Army, Corp, Division, Brigade and Battalion at least.
Also take a look at the unit symbols is quite helpful too, at least armour and infantry for WWII.
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11.
Board Game: Cavalry
[Average Rating:6.17 Unranked]
J.L. Robert
United States
Sherman Oaks
California
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Reinforcements
Many games that depict long campaigns include rules for reinforcements, units which did not begin the game in the area covered on the map, but which subsequently were sent to aid with the initial forces engaged.
Some may be units that were en route to the battle area at the time the game begins play. Some may have been ordered to help shore up defensive lines, or to aid in the offensive. Yet others can be hastily-created militia, or even equipment being manufactured as the war wages on.
Most times, a player's reinforcements are placed on the "friendly" edge of the board. Some games will allow reinforcements to be placed on specific locations on the map (key cities or defensive positions). Most games have back-up rules incase a reinforcement's appearance location is enemy-occupied.
A sub-type of reinforcement is the replacement. These are units drawn from those that were previously eliminated during the game. It can represent the loose remnants of that unit finally being re-assembled back into some sort of cohesive force, or the formation being totally being re-created by higher commands. In each case, additional troops are being added in to bring the unit back up to a fighting strength (typically, the reduced value of the unit, if it has one).
Reinforcements and/or replacements typically arrive at the end of the turn, after all movement, combat and supply checking has been completed.
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Sometimes the '0' on the ten-sided die counts as a zero,
otherwhiles it is read as a ten.
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Wendell
United States
Arlington
Virginia
All the little chicks with crimson lips, go...
Hey, get your stinking cursor off my face! I got nukes, you know.
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A wargame will be at one of three levels of warfare - tactical, operational, or strategic. Tactical games depict a skirmish, battle or series of battles, using smaller scale units and maps that depict a battleground that is a few miles or less - sometimes much less - in size. Examples of tactical wargames include Advanced Squad Leader and Combat Commander: Pacific.
Operational wargames cover a broader scope of military actions, greater than single battles. These may cover an entire smaller war, or a series of operations or a campaign within a greater war. Units are larger than in tactical games. Examples of operational level wargames include Fortress Europa and 1914: Twilight in the East.
Wargames on the strategic level usually recreate a major war on a large scale. Typically units in such a game will be corps or army level, although in so-called "monster" wargames (no set definition, but usually a game with large maps and lots of counters that takes a long time to play) divisions and even smaller sized units can be depicted. Strategic wargames are more likely than tactical or operational level games to include big-picture issues such as production of new military units. Examples of strategic level wargames include World in Flames, Paths of Glory, and Here I Stand.
Edit: BTW, I chose Tactics II for this because of the word "tactics"! It's a venerable war game (and deserves respect for that) but is not representative of the modern hobby.
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Stephen Gidney
England
Norwich (end of the line...)
NEVER IN THE FIELD OF CARDBOARD CONFLICT HAS ANYONE WAITED SO LONG AS FOR TOTAL WAR
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Specialist Units
Some wargames will provide different units with specialist skills and abilities (and sometimes disabilities). This makes picking the right attackers important in the right situations. For example:
- Units may have extra abilities in the attack, such as tanks/panzers in the open, engineers in attacking cities
- Units may be able to move faster than others in some terrain or weather - eg ski troops in snow, light infantry in forests or camels in the desert
- Fast units may get to move more often, like motorised units may be able to move, attack and move again
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Stephen Gidney
England
Norwich (end of the line...)
NEVER IN THE FIELD OF CARDBOARD CONFLICT HAS ANYONE WAITED SO LONG AS FOR TOTAL WAR
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Combined operations
Some wargames allow you to try some really fun stuff, such as dropping paratroops behind your enemy's lines or landing amphibious invasions.
The player with the elite special forces shouldn't get too overconfident however, often the landings will go horribly wrong and your paras will get blown off course or your amphibious tanks sink before they hit the beach.
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Jeff Curtis
United States
Plainfield
Indiana
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Morale
The morale of troops often affects the other principals described in this list. Units genrally start with normal morale but combat results or moving through certain types of terrain/units may disorganize a unit. An adverse combat result may even break a unit and leave it with a routed status. These represent a loss of cohesion within the unit that negatively impact their ability to move or conduct subsequent combat actions. Routed units usually cannot move towards the enemy or conduct attacks. Disorganized units can, but with negative consequence to their movement and combat factors.
There are even some games where units go into a blood lust and take on a morale that increases their abilities in combat.
Most wargames have a phase where you have some opportunity to improve a units morale. Leaders inevidentably help in this situation, unless they are a poor leader.
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Elwyn Darden
United States
Richmond
Virginia
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Asymmetry
Unlike many other games, wargames embrace asymmetry. One side is stronger than the other. One side has the burden of attack. One side is racing the clock, while the other is playing for time. If you are seeking perfect fairness, look elsewhere. The games may be balanced, but expect the demands placed on the individual players to be wildly dissimilar.
In Cortes one side has gunpowder, the other has canoes. Further, only one side is permitted to practice human sacrifice
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Phil McDonald
England
Staffordshire
UK
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Have you eased yourself into wargaming via Memoir '44 and/or Tide of Iron? Don't worry if some people try and tell you they're not really wargames... they're war-themed games and if the've piqued your curiosity for something a bit more hard-core, then what's the problem?
Are you put off by seemingly endless pages of dry text, with a myriad of ifs and ands and plenty of buts?
Does subsection 142.97 send chills of aprehension down your spine?
Are you looking for a game with an approachable manual that requires thought, but will then walk you through the first few turns of a sample game that you can play along with and set the lightbulb in your brain alight.
Do you want a game with more atmosphere than you can shake a stick at?
Would you like multi-use command cards to make your plays with?
Would you like those cards to become available to you progressively throughout the game?
How about a point to point map system instead of the dreaded hex based maps?
Do you like grand strategic games instead of the micromanagement of squad-based games?
If the answer to the above is yes, then have no fear, Paths of Glory will change your gaming life forever.
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Ken
United States
Crystal Lake
Illinois
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Leaders
Many wargames will incorporate leaders into the mix. They should do this in a way that is consistent with the scale of the game and the other mechanics in use. This can result in a range of different rules:
- You may need a leader to issue orders to other leaders (Army Commander - Corps/Division Commander)
- You may need a leader to ignore orders issued and/or get a unit to act without orders (often to react to developments)
- You may need a leader to rally forces that have fled the battle or to restore some cohesion to damaged units.
- You may need to place units with a leader to move them at all or move them to their full potential.
- A leader may allow you to react to an opponent's move when it isn't your turn.
- A leader may provide a combat bonus, such as a shift of columns on the CRT or a die roll modifier when combat is resolved.
- A leader may provide bonuses to movement or allow units to move in different ways.
When a game contains leaders of some fashion, it is probably important to focus on what it is they do in the game. Their influence is often a critical part of getting the result that you want to occur when you want it. Using leaders effectively can often swing battles from defeat to victory, and using them ineffectively can create disasters unimagined.
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Bulldozers
United States
Crystal Lake
Illinois
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Wargames have lots of charts and tables.
They make playing more easily accomplished and pack oodles of information into handy little pages or cards or print outs.
For example: there are: "Combat Resolution Tables"in many games that can tell you when you roll a dice how much damage you inflicted as a result of the totals on your dice.
Another popular table or chart is most all good wargames include a "Sequence of Play" chart. Believe it or not many wargames boil down into maybe 7 steps or 13 and so on. Neither here or there even the most complex game is made wonderfully simple by this particular table.
There can be tables and charts on almost any variable you could imagine in any wargame. You learn to kind of browse them just for fun noting various whimsical changes in probability.
Many times in wargames there is downtime. In the downtime you have whilst your opponent is deciding his moves you find yourself admiring them.
Simpler games might have 4 charts. More complex games might have 4 pages with 20-30.
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21.
Board Game: JENA!
[Average Rating:6.85 Overall Rank:3237]
Bulldozers
United States
Crystal Lake
Illinois
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Wargames have not only maps, but on these maps many times there are other useful tools or bits of information.
There can by "Time Tracks" for example in some wargames. What you might have is some sort of marker (anything from a cardboard piece to a little astronaut...) that is moved after periods of play.
In these games with time tracks, one player will take one turn and then their opponent moves. Once both have moved etc. the piece on the time track is then advanced one space.
This can movement can symbolize any period of time. The period could be: one hour, one day. one month. one year, and so on.
There are many various things to be found on wargame maps in addition to the terrain and the limits of the theatre of operation (where the game takes place).
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Ray
United States
Carpentersville
Illinois
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This is by far one of the biggest differences between wargames and non-wargames.
An unplaytested Euro? May as well throw it out.
An unplaytested wargame? Well if the map looks nice and the research is still very detailed and the rules cover novel ideas of what factors to take into account you can at least keep it to set up and read over. (The Battle for North Africa anyone>
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As a related concept this needs to be applied to how you learn wargames too. You hand Case Blue to a non-wargamer and he'll never be able to learn and play it thinking her needs to learn all the rules completely before attempting it.
The veteran wargamers knows better. They know just skim them, dive in, and if you play some stuff wrong don't worry about it (with the right attitude monsters are very playable). You aren't playing the game for it to to be this perfectly balanced experience but for the joy of being immersed in the moment and what sense of reenactment you can get out of that moment.
If any lesson needs to be learned by non-wargamers giving them a try is this one. Don't sweat what you didnt pick up, just go on filling in missing rules with your best guess from historic practices. In that way learning wargames are a bit like role playing.
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Michael B.
Canada
Stratford
Ontario
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BATTLESHIPS
Coming into historical wargames from science fiction ones, you might want to have a force of all battleships, but in a historical wargame, one big ship is typically supported by a force of many smaller ships. No sane navy would sacrifice all its biggest, most expensive ships in one battlegroup. You'll never see even one BIG ship sailing around alone. Sorry, Star Trek.
TO THE DEATH
Most armies and navies don't fight to the last man.
They run away. Live to fight another day.
REDUCED FIREPOWER
Unlike some science fiction games, as your unit takes damage, its ability to fight diminishes. Some units become DISORDERED when they take damage, often meaning that they cannot fight at all until RALLIED or REPAIRED (army units rally; ships repair).
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Terence Co
Canada
Vancouver
BC
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Great game.
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Terence Co
Canada
Vancouver
BC
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Well Politics is seldom tackled in a wargame...In the real world, politics affects the battlefield in very critical ways...in fact...in affects the war as a whole mainly on the strategic level.
As for the game, its easy to play but portrays the fighting on the ground and the politics which influenced it very well.
Read my review
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/713759/st-270-american-r...
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Sorry
("what do you mean I can't ship my tank division to Malta under the nose of 300 stukas?").
Even amongst more complex/realistic games, the best ones will come with different levels of rules - maybe a "boot camp" intro for he noobs, a set of standard rules for the standard players and advanced/optional rules for the chromaholics. And remember, it's just a game rule book, not the law or an exam test - if you don't like a rule or it gets in the way, so long as all players agree,then bin it or make up your own house rules. Players have been doing thats since Monopoly (free parking anyone?), so don't be scared of doing the same with a wargame.
400 thumbs! 
