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A Brief History of WargamingAs a civilian hobby, miniature wargaming became widely popular upon the 1913 publication of Little Wars by the novelist H.G. Wells. The book offered a set of rules for playing with toy soldiers, written in a fun, easy-reading style. Little Wars sparked widespread public interest in a hobby that had actually begun in professional military circles over 100 years earlier, in the midst of the Napoleonic Wars.
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Games of strategy such backgammon, chess, or Chinese "Go" date back well beyond 1000 BC. But the concept of a "wargame" meant to simulate battlefield conditions has more modern roots. A Prussian staff officer named Georg Leopold von Reisswitz is often credited as the first to author a set of rules designed for this purpose. His son called it Instructions for the Representation of Tactical Maneuvers Under the Guise of Wargame, which later became known simply as Kriegsspeil (the German word for war game). The game was considered quite revolutionary at the time and included rules for gridded map movement, terrain, fog of war, limited communication between players, and an umpire to maintain the pace of play. Eventually, it became adopted by the Prussian General Staff as an educational training tool. Prussian officers would later claim that their brilliant victory in the 1870 Franco-Prussian War had been thoroughly "play-tested" and developed with the use Kriegsspiel.
Wargames as a professional simulation tool quickly spread to other nations and became a standard fixture in war colleges and military academies. When H.G. Wells published Little Wars in 1913, a divide began to form between wargames as a formal military simulation, and wargames as a civilian hobby for recreation and fun. Commercial wargames eventually exploded in popularity with the efforts of Donald Featherstone, the Avalon Hill company, SPI, and a long list of other innovators and designers.
Today, wargames encompass a broad range of styles, including computer games, video games, board games, and the original classic--miniature tabletop games. Here at Army Group York, we continue to enjoy maneuvering miniatures the old-fashioned way.
Wargames as a professional simulation tool quickly spread to other nations and became a standard fixture in war colleges and military academies. When H.G. Wells published Little Wars in 1913, a divide began to form between wargames as a formal military simulation, and wargames as a civilian hobby for recreation and fun. Commercial wargames eventually exploded in popularity with the efforts of Donald Featherstone, the Avalon Hill company, SPI, and a long list of other innovators and designers.
Today, wargames encompass a broad range of styles, including computer games, video games, board games, and the original classic--miniature tabletop games. Here at Army Group York, we continue to enjoy maneuvering miniatures the old-fashioned way.
War Games
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