Wargames as a sub-genre of computer games Strategy genre (Strategy games) trace their history back to two games, but not computer. The oldest wargame was the Indian board game Chaturanga, a prototype of the game, which later in the Middle Ages and in our time is called chess. A second source of wargames are military exercises in Prussia in the mid-nineteenth century, out of simplicity and economy of means, transferred from the real fields, forests and rivers, with real troops on a large table with miniature models of them. Over time, these wargames split in the direction of complication – to help the military – where they became the modern CSU and in the direction of simplification, where they became the basis of rules for military board games.
Thus, combining the material part (chess pieces) and the mental part (complex and varied rules), the first board wargames appeared in the early 20th century.
They were the soldiers we have known since childhood, with fundamentally complex rules, seeking to play out on the floor fight more or less similar to the real one. Plus a rich imagination that worked to the fullest was added to the mix. It turned out very interesting entertainment capable of occupy a lot of time and awaken, or already developing, an interest in history in general and military history and martial arts, in particular.
On an industrial scale desktop wargames were produced in the second half of XX century. And with the development of the computer base in the 80s came the first PC-wargames.
The lion’s share of the first computer wargames, won subsequently a wide popularity among players and connoisseurs, was based on the rules of any known board wargames. For example, the famous series of Close Combat is based on the rules of desktop wargame Squad leader, simulating the battle infantry units during the Second World War.
Total the essence of computer wargames is a simulation of combat from the level of platoon-company to the level of the front group of armies. Based on this, wargames are divided into historical and fantasy/fantasy.
The main emphasis of wargames is on the following elements:
- authenticity;
- realism;
- historicity.
That is, the desire to follow our reality. Roughly speaking, if in life we can not produce any piece of weaponry or a soldier in a few minutes, there is no such thing in a wargame. We only have what we “bought” before the battle, or what is given to us by the mission designer. Our goal: the tactic is to defeat the enemy in combat using the forces that we have at our disposal.