What I don't like about miniature wargames

 And it's not about the "toy soldiers". 

I love the look of miniatures; I appreciate the artistry of figure makers. I love holding and looking miniature figures. I am fascinated by the detail the painter has put into each individual figure. But I just do not have the patience to paint lots of soldiers. And I don't have the space to store them.

What I don't like about tabletop miniature wargames is... (and this list might get added to...)

1. The competitive nature of "most" wargamers.

I play games because I enjoy putting myself in the position of the historic participants, mostly at the level of the generals or commanders.

I like the social activity of playing a game that enables me to understand the scenario, the historic situation better. If I want to play a game to win I play boardgames - like Lost Cities, or Tigris & Euphrates

2. Wargames emphasis tactics and technology.

I feel this topic is over represented in too much military history - and don't get me started on some of the Youtube channels. There is a difference between the bodkin tipped arrows and an ordinary tipped arrow, but is it really that important.

What wins battles is organisation, motivation, morale and courage.

3. The God's Viewpoint of the battlefield

 I recently played in a game where the player directed his archers like homing missiles across a game set during the 1480s. 

I prefer a wargame that emphasises the confusion, the lack of information and the uncertainty that the participants had to endure. The problem with tabletop wargames is that they are easy to setup - just get two or more players, a board, some figures, rules and off you go. The games I prefer often require a Control or Umpire and sometimes require two maps or two boards to represent the hidden movement. I know - who wants to be "Control"?

4. The Massive Rules Sets

This is a product of the competitive, two player mainstream wargame norm. Rule sets have to account for every situation, they have to have detail on how to deploy, how to dice for reactions or interruptions etc. And then there are the rules-lawyers... sighs.

My preference for a Control or Umpire is so that I get someone else to apply and adjudicate the rules and I DO NOT CARE if they are making it up or making a judgement call, so long as they are consistent and reasonably accurate to the history.

... 

I will add to this

Hidden Terrain in a Miniatures Game

Vistas

Many years ago I had an idea to break a map game into "vistas". My idea was for a game with two player sides and a control / umpire.

My idea was that each player would be given a map with only the main routes and settlements marked on it and everything in between would be blank - "here be dragons". As the player advanced the player could draw tiles to fill the spaces.

My initial idea was unworkable as I wanted those tiles to be hand crafted "vistas". So as you reached the crest of a hill you could see into the valley and would have a suitably cut "vista" tile to fill that space. It could be done, but it would be time consuming to construct.

I presented this idea in 1990 at an early COW - Conference of Wargamers.

Trigger point Vistas - the updated idea

I was reminded of my idea when I saw this square based map used in this game. Instead of giving the player "vistas" the player is just handed enough tiles to fill in the gaps as they reach "trigger" points on the map. 

The trigger points would either be marked on the map - at obvious places like church spires, hills etc. - and this would enable two players to discover the map - they could keep the tiles thus revealed secret to themselves until the other side reached an opposite trigger point.

One way of doing this would be for the map to consist of face down tiles that just need to be turned over. This reminds me of one of the first German boardgames I ever bought - Entdecker (trans: Explorer). The players explored the map by visiting face down tiles and turning them over by moving to them.

Another method would be in a back-to-back game. Control would build the map for the players as they advanced across "hidden" trigger points. Each map is hidden from the other player.

 

Inspiration

Graham Evan's game - with the map made of squares that is then used to create a wargame miniature's terrain.

https://wargaming4grownups.blogspot.com/2016/10/marchais-en-brie-september-1914-op14.html