The Good, The Bad & The Ugly...
...of Wargaming
In this post I'll be talking about some of the good and bad points of miniature wargaming. Just to be clear in this article I'm talking about tabletop miniatures games such as Warhammer rather than board wargames like Squad Leader or Command and Colours.
The Good
In my opinion the best thing about any tabletop game is the simple pleasure of playing with other people; the not so subtle teasing and leg pulling when someone, usually me! makes a tactical gaff is such a joy and something that I'm really missing during these days that are overshadowed by the gloomy cloud of the virus that shall not be mentioned.
We are lucky that in the UK we never more than a 30 minute drive to a wargames club, in fact often more than one club because at some point there was a bit of argy-bargy and the club slip in two.
Personally I've made some great friends at various wargames and my life has been much richer for those friendships, something I shall forever be grateful for.
The Bad
There are two main things that bug me with wargame mechanics, movement and so many games that are just re-skins of Warhammer.
With regards to Warhammer, don't get me wrong I think Warhammer Fantasy, or old Hammer as some people now call it, was a fantastic game. But the problem for me is that there are so many games that are just thin re-skins of it. Firstly Warhammer 40K, which is a sci-fi skirmish game where a laser gun can only has the range of about 50 yards. But the same is true of Bolt Action and many other popular games. I feel that when designing wargames the starting point should be the period or world the designer is trying to model rather than starting from Warhammer and just turning bows into lasguns or rifles. Peter Pig have a great game called "Poor Bloody Infantry" that does a great job of looking the period first, WW2, and designing the rules around that. Arty Conliffe has also written some great games such as Shako, Spearhead and Crossfire that do a fantastic job of putting the period first.
The problem I have with movement in most wargames it's impossible to do a decent flanking attack or to emulate the modern move and maneuverer tactics. Take for example the following diagram:
llustration of a textbook assault by a British section (image from ‘World War II Infantry Tactics: Squad and Platoon’ by Stephen Bull © Osprey Publishing, part of Bloomsbury Publishing)
This image shows a squad coming head on to a prepared position then pinning it with fire with one team while another works around the flank for an assault. In a typical wargame most infantry units would barely get to the first corner of the hedge before the game was over, there's no possibility of emulating even basic historical maneuvers because our troops simply don't have the movement to pull it off. There are some interesting exception to this such as the "Time Telescoping" used in the Napoleonic rules "Empire" or the dynamic movement used in the WW2 rules "Crossfire."
The Ugly
Unfortunately there is also rather sad and ugly face of wargaming too. I'm talking about the "Alpha Nerd". This is where someone uses their historical knowledge or there gaming ability to assert their dominance over another player. As I've Already said I love games clubs and the people you meet there but every now again I've come across a player that wants to win at any cost, the sad thing is that often only new members will play them because they don't know what to expect and sadly if their first experience of wargaming is getting slapped around the table by an Apha Nerd they're highly unlikely to come back for more. Don't get me wrong we all want to win, but your Alpha Nerd just takes it to an unhealthy level!
Wargaming Is a Fabulous Hobby!
Having said all that I don't want to lose sight of the fact that wargaming is a great hobby and it's definitely been a huge positive in my life, often when real life gets stressful it's a real joy to escape to world of toy soldiers and utter nonsense.
Happy Gaming
Paul Brook
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