Wargaming: A Unique Way to Experience Military History

Brian King | October 31, 2003  | 0 comments  | Print  | E-mail

For students of military history, wargaming is where the rubber meets the road when it comes to understanding the events and conflicts of recorded history. Reading about a battle is one thing, but vicariously commanding an army in that battle adds a whole new dimension of understanding. Wargaming allows you to relive military history very nearly as a first hand experience rather than a dry summation of an event. It gives you the freedom to try to change history by avoiding the mistakes of past leaders sometimes letting you make larger mistakes! Wargaming lets you explore every nook and cranny of possibilities in a reconstructed virtual world, and gives you access to one of the most important questions in history; "What if?" What if we change this one little event, what would be the new outcome of the skirmish, battle, war?

Wargame designers know their topic well, and have studied all the "What-ifs" and variables of history in the making of their game. It should come as no surprise then, that some of the best wargame designers are true military historians. Many can tell you each individual unit that fought in a particular battle, as well as where they were before the battle, what their leaders were like, the quality of their equipment, why the battle was being fought, and the outcome and repercussions down through history. With meticulous attention to detail, wargame designers reconstruct history to the last detail, thus giving us our "departure point" where we take command and recreate that event. When we replay the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, we literally have access to each and every tank, plane and man that took part. The research that goes into many wargames is literally that detailed.

Once we have been given a highly detailed and credible reconstruction of the battle (including unit placement, weather, terrain, supply, and 100 other factors) we should be able to set things in motion and achieve results nearly similar to what happened historically. This is called play-balance and is a necessity to give the game credibility. After all, who would play a wargame if the Confederates won the battle of Gettysburg 100% of the time? What could we ever learn from such a lopsided game? Once we have faith that the units on our game board are exactly the same as they were historically, we are faced with our first and possibly most important dilemma. Do we take the same approach as our historical counterpart and hope for a historical outcome, or do we try to do it our way? We come back to "What if?"

What if the German 6th Army was allowed to retreat from Stalingrad instead of being left there to be destroyed? What if the US was allowed to invade North Vietnam, instead of having to fight a defensive war in South Vietnam? What if General Rommel was given enough supplies and manpower to seize the Suez Canal? What outcomes could we expect if those alternative histories were allowed to play out? The only way you can reliably answer those questions is through faithful recreation of the events and combat units involved. A good wargame will be able to give you that answer, or at least a very educated approximation of what could have happened. It is one thing to know the German 6th Army was destroyed inside Stalingrad, but it is quite another if it could be shown that if the 6th Army survived, the war might have lasted an additional six months, or that the Western Allies would then be able to reach Berlin before the Russians! Suddenly that "What if?" becomes very dynamic, and gives new perspective to the historical record.

Lets visit some of these "What-if?" questions using what is undeniably the best wargame construction set available, Norm Koger’s "The Operational Art of War: A Century of Warfare." This system (abbreviated as TOAW) has evolved over the past 5 years, and although not perfect, it does allow recreation of almost any battle from the present day back to the American Civil War. The real beauty of this game, however, is the scenario editor which is the key to giving designers the tools they need to recreate history. As a credit to the versatility of this game system, designers have contributed over 500 scenarios to the military history community. This gives access to almost any "What if?" you can fathom from the past 150 years, as well as into the next 20.

Probably one of the most intriguing questions in recent military history is whether the Axis could ever have won WW2 or if it was a fait accompli that the allies would overwhelm them in the end. Were Hitler’s blunders and dabbling the reason for its downfall, or could a more skilled leader have found a way to guide Germany through to eventual victory? This question is the driving force behind such games as Avalon Hill’s Third Reich, SPI’s World War II (European Theatre of Operations), and it is also the driving question behind a scenario for TOAW called Europe Aflame.

Europe Aflame map

This scenario is a true monster in that it attempts to model the dynamics of the entire war in Europe 1939-1945 from the Urals to the Azores and from Petsamo to South Africa. Frankly it is a near-impossible task, and one which literally pushes the computer program to the limits of its abilities. However, it has been a labor of love for its primary designer (Mark Stevens) as well as scores of players constantly offering advice to improve the level of realism. The drive for accuracy is only matched by the playability of the scenario, making it accessible to the most casual gamer or a serious student of military history. The Axis player can feel his hair blown back as he pushes his Panzers across Poland, France, Denmark, Yugoslavia, etc., but when the direction turns east toward the Soviet Union the wind indeed turns cold. Tough choices abound for the student of history, all of which can be explored in this virtual world.

Using the powerful event engine of the TOAW game system, it is possible to control variables such as the US lend-lease program, supply shortages when oil fields are captured, alliance shifts when one side is doing exceptionally well, and many other historically accurate variables. These events give us the backdrop to conduct our "What-ifs? in this virtual World War II" What if the Axis focused more heavily on capturing the Middle-East, could that have given them access to Russia from across the Caucasus? What if France and the UK decide to attack into Germany in 1940 instead of the other way around? Would it have led to stalemate? What if the US enters the war in the summer of 1941? Does that mean D-Day happens in 1943? Does the US still get caught flat-footed at Pearl Harbor? Those who play this scenario several times can probably give an intelligent answer to all those questions.

Maginot Line 1939

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