Miniature wargaming

Miniature wargames are played on custom-made battlefields, often with modular terrain, and abstract scaling is used to adapt real-world ranges to the limitations of table space.

In most miniature wargames, the outcomes of fights between units are resolved through simple arithmetic, usually combined with dice rolls or playing cards.

For instance, a wargame set in the Napoleonic Wars should use models of Napoleonic-era soldiers, wielding muskets and cannons, and not spears or automatic rifles.

[2] For instance, Warhammer Age of Sigmar is mostly based on medieval warfare, but includes supernatural elements such as wizards and dragons.

Miniature wargames are generally played for recreation, as the physical limitations of the medium prevents it from representing modern warfare accurately enough for use in military instruction and research (see the section below on abstract scaling for one reason).

Another reason is that manufacturing methods often stipulate a minimum thickness for casting because molten plastic has difficulty flowing through thin channels in the mold.

Finally, odd proportions may actually make the model look better for its size by accentuating certain features that the human eye focuses on.

Understandably, the time and skill involved in assembling and painting models deters many people from miniature wargaming.

Consequently, it is difficult if not impossible for a historical wargame designer to oblige players to buy models from a certain manufacturer.

The first advantage is that they can design a scenario that fits the resources they have at hand, whereas reconstructing a historical battle may require them to purchase additional models and rulebooks, and perhaps a larger game table.

If placed in an urban environment, a rifleman would not be able to hit a target at the far end of a small street, which shatters the illusion of realism.

Most wargame rulebooks instead prefer to define how far a unit can move in a turn, and this movement range is proportioned to the size of a typical game table.

Rules also vary in the model scale they use: one infantry figure may represent one man, one squad, or much larger numbers of actual troops.

Wargaming in general owes its origins to military simulations, most famously to the Prussian staff training system Kriegsspiel.

Consequently, rules designers struggle with the perceived obligation to actually 'simulate' something, and with the seldom compatible necessity to make an enjoyable 'game'.

Historical battles were seldom fair or even, and the potential detail that can be brought to bear to represent this in a set of rules always comes at the cost of pace of the game and enjoyment.

Most follow tried and true conventions to the extent that a chess player would recognize wargaming merely as a different scaled version of his or her own game.

During the 1960s and 1970s, two new trends in wargaming emerged: First were small-unit rules sets which allowed individual players to portray small units down to even a single figure.

Tolkien's novel The Hobbit and his epic cycle The Lord of the Rings were gaining strong interest in the United States, and as a result, rules were quickly developed to play medieval and Roman-era wargames, where these eras had previously been largely ignored in favor of Napoleonic and American Civil War gaming.

Later, in 1974, TSR designer E. Gary Gygax wrote a set of rules for individual characters under Chainmail, and entitled it Dungeons & Dragons.

Model ships have long been used for wargaming, but it was the introduction of elaborate rules in the early 20th century that made the hobby more popular.

Prior to World War II, firms such as Bassett-Lowke in England and the German company Wiking marketed these to the public.

[24] In naval wargaming of the modern period, General Quarters, primarily (though not exclusively) using six-sided dice, has established itself as one of the leading sets of World War I and II era rules.

As such, air wargaming tends to break down into three broad periods: In addition there are science fiction and "alternative history" games such as Aeronefs and those in the Crimson Skies universe.

The earliest wargames were based on chess; the pieces represented real military units (artillery, cavalry, etc.)

After Prussia defeated France in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, wargaming spread around the world and was played enthusiastically by both officers and civilians.

[28] The English writer H. G. Wells developed his own codified rules for playing with toy soldiers, which he published in a book titled Little Wars (1913).

For artillery attacks, players used spring-loaded toy cannons which fired little wooden cylinders to physically knock over enemy models.

This output of published wargaming titles from British authors coupled with the emergence at the same time of several manufacturers providing suitable wargame miniatures (e.g. Miniature Figurines, Hinchliffe, Peter Laing, Garrison, Airfix, Skytrex, Davco, Heroic & Ros) was responsible for the huge upsurge of popularity of the hobby in the late 1960s and into the 1970s.

Wargamers (miniature and board) have become quite creative in devising ways to play games while maintaining social distancing.