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So miniature war gaming is now 100.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/05/books/review/basic-training.html?pagewanted=all&_r=2&

I find it interesting that they never bring up the title of any modern day miniature war games in this article.

Thanks for posting - a fun piece that shows why we're all so crazy.

It's older than that. Reiswitz and his son are probably spinning in their graves, not to mention many others.

Well over 200 years ish plus. (please note - not actually tieing a date to this statement - I also list a time machine - how relaible is that)

While I would love to be able to throw some prrof out there that the CaveNerd first pioneered wargaming - I cannot. Alas - my time machine is broken and the Doctor has yet to return with my improved flux capacitor to fix it.

"Drawing inspiration from Chess, Hellwig, Master of Pages to the Duke of Brunswick created a battle emulation game in 1780. According to Max Boot's book War Made New (2006, pg 122), sometime between 1803 and 1809, the Prussian General Staff developed war games, with staff officers moving metal pieces around on a game table (with blue pieces representing their forces and red pieces those of the enemy), using dice rolls to indicate random chance and with a referee scoring the results. Increasingly realistic variations became part of military training in the 19th century in many nations, and were called "kriegspiel" or "wargames". Wargames or military exercises are still an important part of military training today."

cited from this link - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wargaming

I just helped to plan one last week through this week for my unit. Yes - I get paid to play games - Go Army!

Little Wars is in many respects the progenitor of modern table-top wargaming. A lot of common mechanics in the games we play today can trace back to roots in Little Wars, or at least that is my understanding. So in that sense, although Little Wars itself owes a great deal to a long tradition of wargames and table top wargames, Little Wars itself has had a very profound impact on the wargaming industry as it exists today.

 PanzerTC wrote:
with staff officers moving metal pieces around on a game table (with blue pieces representing their forces and red pieces those of the enemy),

Skirmish gamers then.

Liitle Wars was the first recreational wargame.

That means Kreigspiel is out, since it was not recreational.

i didnt know it was so old

You guys have heard of chess, right?

 JohnnyHell wrote:
You guys have heard of chess, right?

That is not really the point though. Although Chess is a wargame, it is much more akin to a board game than a modern table-top wargame. It would be like saying Halo dates back to Minesweeper. They are both electronic games, sure, and ultimately would not have been possible but for the development of the microprocessor, but that is not really the point.

The point is what Little Wars did that made it unique, and how others have borrowed, copied, or have been inspired by those elements of the game to spawn a world-spanning culture and industry that has persisted for a century.

Liitle Wars was the first recreational wargame.

That means Kreigspiel is out, since it was not recreational.

Not really - kids and adults have gotten around for ages playing games. Establishing some sort of rules is natural. Many people got together and played/wargamed in social clubs/military academies for recreation. The spark that ignited Little Wars was in taken a military function/exercise and applying it to recreation.

Little Wars was the First Printed and codified game in modern times. The timing and the industrialization of the era allowed it to be more feasible and not in the German language. You have to look at "Little Wars" as the natural unintended consequence of statistics, battle math (Infantry/Calvary/Artillery etc.) - what does it attack and defend at ratios, tables and charts, the rules of turns and stuff. While not intended to be used as recreational applications - it is logical to assume that some spillage occurred as a hobby, industry. A friend of mine wrote his master's thesis on the birth of miniatures.

I looked at doing at thesis on wargaming, its history and its applications for the military, the USG and recreation - problem was another guy was doing something similar and I jumped to another topic.

It is hard to pinpoint the exact date - and this is just at looking at Western Culture - I never really delved into Eastern Culture (I mean Asia by this) that I'm told has some documents that predate this. Mind you I have no facts to support this - but if some really looks into I'm sure there was competition for who is first in the area of Wargaming/Miniatures.

More importantly, Little Wars was the first time someone suggested that playing wargames was ****loads of fun for "boys and the more intelligent girl that enjoys boys' games".

Seriously, if you haven't already, get a copy of Little Wars from Project Gutenberg and just read the introduction. It's pretty much the funniest thing in miniatures wargaming between then and Brick Wars.

R.

 precinctomega wrote:
More importantly, Little Wars was the first time someone suggested that playing wargames was ****loads of fun for "boys and the more intelligent girl that enjoys boys' games".

Seriously, if you haven't already, get a copy of Little Wars from Project Gutenberg and just read the introduction. It's pretty much the funniest thing in miniatures wargaming between then and Brick Wars.

R.

Definitely worth checking out the Gutenberg site.

"LITTLE WARS" is the game of kings—for players in an inferior social position. It can be played by boys of every age from twelve to one hundred and fifty—and even later if the limbs remain sufficiently supple—by girls of the better sort, and by a few rare and gifted women."

Ive played a similar game with my little brother, he enjoys it.


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But still we have come far in this time havnt we, from childrens tin soldiers to proffesional plastic, resin and metal models. From simple rules sheets to complex manuals. This is our lifes history in a way that even we can not understand fully. In a way we are the brain child of H.G. Wells.

clearly napoleon's generals were just playing with tiny dolls, making their little dolls bake, cook and host tea parties with guns in the middle of carefully sculpted hills depicting old battlesites......

wargaming is ancient, i guess the popularised form could be 100, and the consumerised form would be... what... 30? but as already mentioned above, wargaming is older than 100. quite a bit older.

A game of little soldiers and stuff fighting on a set feild?

Chess anyone?

Chess is abstracted to a point where you have no scope for creativity or innovation.

Tabletop miniature gaming is primarily about creativity and innovation.