What is war gaming about?

[warlord frod]

H. G. Wells who wrote the first set of rules for wargaming "Little Wars" said "Little Wars A Game for Boys from twelve years of age to one hundred and fifty and for that more intelligent sort of girls who like boys' games and books."    He also made the point in his little book that playing at war was a lot better than actually waging war.

The appeal of wargaming is broad. Most of us as stated here have an avid interest in History. Wargaming gives us a means of replicating events and seeing if we could have changed the outcome. Many of us probably started with more abstract portrayals of warfare like chess. Wargaming is a way to portray conflicts more realistically. There is the appeal of modeling which you have indicated is what lead you to inquire about this hobby. We get to research and paint military units and equipment. We get to build terrain and buildings to make our games more interesting. (Eye appeal is important  )

There are many rule sets out there to cover almost any period of history. There are also rules to cover fantasy and Science fiction ideas. You can even find some free online. There are many manufacturers of soldiers models and the things needed to play just look for a local shop or jump online. The more you look the more you will see what makes this hobby so appealing. Take a look at the thread "Post a picture of the last game you played" here to see just how vast our hobby is

Finally, we could add the idea of a friendly competition where horrific events can be examined without any real cost because we wage barbaric warfare "with soldiers of tin, lead and wood, with the weapons of the wild, with the catapult, the elastic circular garter, the peashooter, the rubber ball and such-like appliances - a mere setting up and knocking down of men." H. G. Wells "Little wars" pg 2
 

[FramFramson]

Pew pew pew and dakka dakka dakka. 

_{Since a serious, proper answer has already been given... I'll see myself out...}

[Lowtardog]

This wiki tells you a bit around the hobby and elements of wargaming, as a serving member of the armed forces you will possibly be taking place in an exercise which could be part of a larger wargame.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wargaming

below is a link to how the MOD and almost all other nations military use wargaming

https://paxsims.wordpress.com/2017/08/04/uk-mod-wargaming-handbook/

what is notable above is that wargames rules writers contributed to this publication, Richard Clarke of too fat Lardies  (a company that produces rules for gaming with models

[Charlie_]

Be aware that there are LOTS of ruletsets, for all sorts of different eras / genres, and for all sorts of different games. And you have complete freedom to choose which ones you want, adjust and change them how you want, or make up your own rules!

Let's take the example given earlier of Hail Caesar. This is a 'massed battle' game, so is best for BIG games featuring hundreds of models on a large gaming table. For this sort of thing, collecting and painting the armies and making the table / battlefield / gaming surface with associated terrain / scenery is a big undertaking, hopefully a labour of love, which may well take several years of work before your first game is played! Perhaps you'll be working on it with other people, or perhaps doing it all yourself and inviting friends to play the game / project you have proudly constructed.

Hail Ceasar is a historical game, used for 'ancients' and medieval warfare. Basically anything BC to roughly 1500 AD. There are similar rulesets from the same company (Warlord Games) for later periods - Pike And Shotte (1500-1700) and Black Powder (1700-1900). All three games use the same basic rules, but are somewhat different as suits their respective eras. Warfare in 1400 would be VERY different to warfare in 1700, and so one ruleset  wouldn't really cover both periods. But if you are familiar with Hail Ceasar, you would adapt to Pike & Shotte very quickly for example.

But what if you don't like these rulesets, for whatever reason? Perhaps they are too informal, as they are more suited to a friendly narrative game rather than a hyper-competitive game. Perhaps the scale of game is too daunting, and you want rules that will allow you to play games within just a month or two of starting a project (depends on how fast you paint!). Perhaps they are too complex and the games take too long, and you want something more abstract and quick to play. Or perhaps the opposite - you want something with more 'crunch'. Well there are LOADS of alternatives.... Let's say you are interested in the middle ages. Well you could try Lion Rampant, or Sword & Spear, or To The Strongest, to name just a few.... Or you could write your own rules! All have their pros and cons, and all give very different sorts of games. There will be a myriad of different rulesets for (almost) every historical era. Some are very professionally produced by big wargames publishing companies, others are more one-man-band operations. Some will be very well-known and widely played, some will be more obscure.

And that's just historical 'mass battle' games! There are all sorts of fantasy and science fiction games, and things which are hybrids of different genres. And many on much smaller 'skirmish' scales, with just a few dozen models a side, or even fewer, where every model is a unique character.
Wild West?
Victorian Science Fiction?
Steampunk?
Tolkien / Lord Of The Rings / The Hobbit?
Adventure gaming?
H.P. Lovecraft?
Take a look at some of the individual boards on this forum for a flavour of the obscure little corners of history and the imagination that some gamers decide to go into.


What are you most interested in? What would appeal to you most?

[Adlib]

Wow. Thank you guys for all that information. Much appreciated. Got me thinking that maybe I am in the wrong place.

I still can't get into war itself. The closest thing that comes to mind, of what I might like, is racing. Where it is me against others trying to reach a goal. Any warring on my part would be defensive (blocking, diversions). My offensive part would be to not be there (outwit, cloaking, to be seen but not to be seen, outrunning, breakaway). Both require strategy and tactics without actually going against the other head-on. However, if I cannot avoid head-on, my goal is always to stop it as quick as possible - I give no quarter.

So in a weird way, my warring is to avoid war.

To me, war is about trying to get the other to stop warring. It's counter-productive. Much like shouting back at an angry person. The only reason for anger to arise is fear of not coping with change. So, in reality the angry person is fearful. To shout back at a fearful person only makes them more fearful and angry.

So, where would I fit in here?

[Cubs]

Nobody is really warring. It's pretend. It's play. Everyone is there because they enjoy playing games with little toys, that's all there is to it. No ulterior motive, no blood lust, no joy in violence. It's a game.

[Adlib]

Yeah, I know that.

I'll read more about war gaming and play a simulation of my own and report back.

Thanks again for all the help.

[Charlie_]

So, where would I fit in here?

Perhaps some of the more 'adventure' orientated miniature games? Though admittedly they are not something I know much about, others here can enlighten you.

Rather than man making war on man, how do you feel about more fantasy / sci-fi things? When the goal could be more 'save the world' against some sort of evil? I dunno, stop the bad guy opening some sort of portal or something....

[Adlib]

Stopping the potential enemy from being the enemy is more to my liking. But I also like the idea of racing to the portal to shut it down.

Thanks for that idea.

[rumacara]

Adlib, like you wrote you started doing models so i think you could start with that.
This forum has lots of people building houses and structures usefull both for war games and dioramas so you can start searching for them using the theme threads or workbench.
There are always people charing techniques, materiels, etc.

[Poiter50]

You might want to look at Maximillian or Circus Maximus for racing. Admittedly 2 different eras but similar goals in a way.

Wow. Thank you guys for all that information. Much appreciated. Got me thinking that maybe I am in the wrong place.

I still can't get into war itself. The closest thing that comes to mind, of what I might like, is racing. Where it is me against others trying to reach a goal. Any warring on my part would be defensive (blocking, diversions). My offensive part would be to not be there (outwit, cloaking, to be seen but not to be seen, outrunning, breakaway). Both require strategy and tactics without actually going against the other head-on. However, if I cannot avoid head-on, my goal is always to stop it as quick as possible - I give no quarter.

So in a weird way, my warring is to avoid war.

To me, war is about trying to get the other to stop warring. It's counter-productive. Much like shouting back at an angry person. The only reason for anger to arise is fear of not coping with change. So, in reality the angry person is fearful. To shout back at a fearful person only makes them more fearful and angry.

So, where would I fit in here?

[warlord frod]

Racing Games  Try Formula D and Thunder alley two of my favorites 

[FramFramson]

An alternative idea are the ever-popular football-derived games, such as Blood Bowl and other fantasy- (or sci-fi- ) themed football tabletop games.

[Dr Mathias]

I still can't get into war itself. The closest thing that comes to mind, of what I might like, is racing.

There are several types of games that fall under the 'tabletop gaming with miniatures' umbrella without being wargames. Eureka Miniatures (Australia) make two of my favorites, "Wagers of Sin" (velociraptor racing, player blocking) and "Pig Tickler" (unicycle sports, player blocking). Both are hilarious and not really about war.

I read another thread (maybe here on LAF) in which a player wanted to get some family friends into gaming, but they were pacifists and didn't like the war aspect. If I recall they ended up using a game normally used for dinosaur hunting and instead the players controlled photographers that were competing to 'shoot' the most dinosaurs. Pretty clever.

I used to be huge into model making, but after discovering the tabletop gaming hobby I really couldn't get back into painting and assembling kits just to sit unused on a shelf just to be gazed at. That's what my drawings and oil paintings are for

[Poiter50]

Forgot about those two - The Eureka Minis games are great fun and have unexpected quirks/

I'm with you, Dr M, started as a modeller, now a gamer and very infrequent assembler. 

There are several types of games that fall under the 'tabletop gaming with miniatures' umbrella without being wargames. Eureka Miniatures (Australia) make two of my favorites, "Wagers of Sin" (velociraptor racing, player blocking) and "Pig Tickler" (unicycle sports, player blocking). Both are hilarious and not really about war.

I read another thread (maybe here on LAF) in which a player wanted to get some family friends into gaming, but they were pacifists and didn't like the war aspect. If I recall they ended up using a game normally used for dinosaur hunting and instead the players controlled photographers that were competing to 'shoot' the most dinosaurs. Pretty clever.

I used to be huge into model making, but after discovering the tabletop gaming hobby I really couldn't get back into painting and assembling kits just to sit unused on a shelf just to be gazed at. That's what my drawings and oil paintings are for