A Paradox?

[usfbrown]

I think of it two ways:

1. It is a strategy game
2. It is abstracted enough that we can enjoy it without realizing what it truly represents.

Wargames provide a unique strategy game that have a sort of grounded realism, i.e. these tactics feel real compared to fantasy type games. The other part is that it's an abstraction of war. If we were playing these games and had to actually witness the horrors that our game actions cause, then I don't think anyone would play them.

This even applies to the oldest games such as Chess. You are battling your opponent and basically killing their troops as you try to capture or kill the king. But the game is so abstracted, we don't truly think of it that way.

[Bligh]

Wargames provide a unique strategy game that have a sort of grounded realism, i.e. these tactics feel real compared to fantasy type games. The other part is that it's an abstraction of war. If we were playing these games and had to actually witness the horrors that our game actions cause, then I don't think anyone would play them.

Nowhere near the horrors of war, but we actually went through a phase in our wargaming, where if you could make an enemy regiment surrender to you the Standard bearer of that Regiment had to be given to the victor. They held it until said regiment captured another colour. They then got theirs back, and so it went on. The problem became accute when several colours were captured from different protaganists at one show, and some of the loosers only played spasmodic games so had little chance of getting their colour back. The book keeping was also getting out of hand on who had which person's colour. So we stopped it. The real killer was that if you captured a gun battery you got to melt down one of the guns. That stopped people risking guns in silly positions, but resulted in guns being withdrawn at the first sign of an enemy advance. We gave up on that idea too.

I don't think that the idea of keeping a struck ship would go down too well in our game either.
Rob.

[usfbrown]

Nowhere near the horrors of war, but we actually went through a phase in our wargaming, where if you could make an enemy regiment surrender to you the Standard bearer of that Regiment had to be given to the victor. They held it until said regiment captured another colour. They then got theirs back, and so it went on. The problem became accute when several colours were captured from different protaganists at one show, and some of the loosers only played spasmodic games so had little chance of getting their colour back. The book keeping was also getting out of hand on who had which person's colour. So we stopped it. The real killer was that if you captured a gun battery you got to melt down one of the guns. That stopped people risking guns in silly positions, but resulted in guns being withdrawn at the first sign of an enemy advance. We gave up on that idea too.

I don't think that the idea of keeping a struck ship would go down too well in our game either.
Rob.

That's impressive. Those rules definitely add another layer to your tactical decision making and consequences. I can how it would become burdensome in the end but a great idea nonetheless.

[Bligh]

It was fun for the first couple of months Bryan! Especially when the players had partaken of a beer or three.
Rob.

[Diamondback]

Nowhere near the horrors of war, but we actually went through a phase in our wargaming, where if you could make an enemy regiment surrender to you the Standard bearer of that Regiment had to be given to the victor. They held it until said regiment captured another colour. They then got theirs back, and so it went on. The problem became accute when several colours were captured from different protaganists at one show, and some of the loosers only played spasmodic games so had little chance of getting their colour back. The book keeping was also getting out of hand on who had which person's colour. So we stopped it. The real killer was that if you captured a gun battery you got to melt down one of the guns. That stopped people risking guns in silly positions, but resulted in guns being withdrawn at the first sign of an enemy advance. We gave up on that idea too.

I don't think that the idea of keeping a struck ship would go down too well in our game either.
Rob.

Well, there is a less destructive option: have everybody bring a lockbox, and whatever gets captured goes into the box and they can't use it again for the rest of the day. "Keep All You Kill" is why I never really got into tournament gaming...

[Bligh]

Never done a tournament myself DB. When we started the school wargames club many years ago, we decided that one of our club rules would be no Tournament play. There was enough friction between young teenagers at the time without adding fuel to the fire by starting blood fueds over games as well, We had seen what the effect was on so called adults at some of the shows. Seeing someone almost come to blows with a Games Master was enough of a indication of what we wanted to avoid at club level.
Rob.