@hobbyhub – You bring up some great points and questions.

First up, I should probably dial back a little of what I said in that previous post.  First, I was at work, and thus in a bad mood.  I should probably not post on OTT while at work, but sometimes it’s all that gets me through the day.  Second, just in case that wasn’t clear, those are of course just my personal views on the “ethics” (God, I hate that word) of modern wargaming.  By no means did I mean to try and imprint or impose them on anyone.  I would go back and just edit the post a little, but once others have responded to a post, I think it’s kind of disingenuous to go back and edit the original post, it can but the responder’s text in an altered light.

But all that aside –

Is chess a wargame? Or for that  matter, what IS a wargame?

Again, just my personal take on it …

Games like Chess or Go or Othello, etc I honestly would not consider wargames.  They are “above” wargames, on something of a higher, more pure plane.  Just speaking for myself, I would classify them as strategy games.

A wargame is a strategy game that hasn’t so much been “dragged through the mud,” but  has stripped off its shirt and happily jumped in and rolled around in the mud.  Whereas pure strategy games typically have little more no element of chance (i.e., no dice or cards, etc.), wargames almost by definition embrace some element of randomness and brute force.  Of course better players will always go for more elegant solutions that minimize the impact of misfortune and chaos inherent in any combat situation (and thus wargame), but it can’t be eliminated altogether.

In chess, the pieces can never survive an attack.  They never fight back.

Strictly to my mind, a wargame is a “game” (forgive me for using part of the word in its own definition, but defining what a “game” is would be another whole paragraph) that seeks not only to entertain, but also emulate to at least some degree some form of armed conflict, and some aspect of a universe or reality larger than and outside of itself.  It tries to not only be “a game,” but also imagine, recreate, or interpret some dimension of an external paradigm.

So in chess, we’re not looking at the Kingdom of Black against the Confederation of White.  When a rook takes a pawn, we don’t know if a knight or baron or duke is discrediting the vassal of the opposing king, maneuvering the arranged marriage of his daughter, or stealing his land or stealing his serfs, or assaulting his town, etc.  It’s not trying to recreate a war, be it historical, fictional, or theoretical.

So is 40K a wargame?  Absolutely.  It’s a game about armed conflict that’s trying to imagine a larger context (the war doesn’t have to be “real” or historical)

Are RTS games wargames?  No.  At least not most of them.  Games where units can be rebuilt with such casual ease removes all strategy from the game, makes most decisions essentially meaningless given enough time, and thus do not actually try to recreate the conditions of an external conflict or context, real or imagined.  Of course there are exceptions.  The old Blitzkrieg series is an example.

Are TCGs / CCGs / LCGs wargames?  Some of them are, some of them aren’t.  This is actually too broad a category to fit into a yes or no answer, I’ve seen some that definitely are (Star Wars Pocket Models), some maybe not so much.

Are Eurogames or “construction” games like Settlers of Catan or Ticket to Ride wargames?  No.  Strategy, yes.  Addressing a larger external context or paradigm, yes.  But armed conflict is not a key component of these genres.  You’re trying to best an opponent, but not necessarily destroy, defeat, or dominate them.  These games are, by design, “non-kinetic.”

Are games like Kingdom Death a wargame? Ehh …. yes?  Sure, it’s cooperative (lots of great cooperative wargames out there, including modern-era, Advanced Warfighter is a great example), and yes there is a construction / development aspect to it.  But you also have to fight and survive and appropriate from a hostile environment.  This is a tough one since the “enemy” is the world itself, but there definitely is combat in it.

In the ongoing theme of “Snag a Normie” month, one of the first hurdles wargamers face when recruiting new players is trying to explain what a wargame is.  Many people ask if wargames are like chess.  Speaking only for myself, I would say no.  But then the challenge is … so what is like a wargame?  What games that “normies” play can best analog into wargaming hobby?

I often offer poker as that analog.  Especially high-stakes variants like no-limit hold ’em.

• The game is skill-based and tactical.
• Yet the game is also “muddied” with a degree of chance and luck.
• That said, a skilled player will almost always overcome the variances of chance over time.
• Battles are lost but the war can be won.
• The game is based in no small part of deception.
• Poker contains a strong element of resource management (not your cards, but the chips.  80% of the game is about your stake, not your cards)
• The game also includes a vital element of brute force.  Players with larger stakes can, with proper timing and conditions, use the sheer weight of their chips to overpower their opponent, forcing them out of hands even if they hold winning cards.  Again, winning battles but losing the war.

Just a few thoughts on the topic.  😀