The games of war
Subtitle: a treasury of rules for battles with toy soldiers, ships, and planes
By: by John Bobek.
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Published: 2007
Place of publication: Bloomington, IN
Language: eng
Number of pages: 271
ISBN-13: 9781434330284
Subjects: War games
Description: BOOK SUMMARY:

	The Games of War has a subtitle that pretty much tells it all. It’s a collection of rules for using toy soldiers, ships, and planes in tabletop games of strategy and tactics. There are rules that cover nearly every conceivable conflict from the ancient past to the fanciful future. The book is divided into seven chapters, each with a different theme.
	Chapter one introduces the reader to what wargames are and aren’t. There is advice, not only on what’s needed to begin gaming, but also on what’s needed to host a wargame. This chapter contains a simple but adaptable set of rules that is the basis for most of the rules that are in this book. Chapter one includes a framework for campaigns. Campaigns are extended games that rely on strategic movement to bring the miniature armies and fleets to battle. Finally, the author, a science teacher who has also taught history, has incorporated these “war” games into his history classroom as “labs.” Student interest rises and they experience “first hand” what they studied. There are several sample labs and directions for their use in the history classroom.
	Because it only improves the whole experience to have some knowledge of the era that you’re gaming, each of the subsequent chapters provides an explanation of the period and a bibliography of useful books.
	Chapter two covers the warfare of the ancient empires into the Middle Ages with four separate sets of rules. “We who are about to die salute you!” is unique because it covers gladiatorial contests.
	Chapter three is titled “The Horse and Musket Era.” From the pike and shot of the English Civil War to the killing fields of the American Civil War, nine sets of rules let you game with the most colorful armies ever to take the field. While these rules use units ranging from regiments to divisions as their basic playing piece, “Ambuscade” provides the opportunity to skirmish in small groups where one figure equals one man. You won’t have to be crazy to be Napoleon!
	Chapter four takes the reader into the 20th Century (Actually, it includes the 21st Century as well.). Seven different sets of rules cover the changing face of ground war from WWI to the present. “Combat Patrol” is really more a method to use the other rules to replicate small unit patrols, sort of “paintball” without the “pain!”
	Chapter five is titled “Sky Warriors.” There are three sets of rules that cover air warfare from the first flimsy biplanes to the latest jet fighters. Detailed listings of aircraft and their capabilities bring these warplanes to life. A unique “kriegspiel” type of movement is incorporated to give a fast moving game in limited space.
	Chapter six sets sail with nine sets of rules. From the Greek triremes to Aegis destroyers, naval warfare is thoroughly covered. For the pirate wannabes, “Cannon and Cutlass” lets you swash your buckles with the best of them. “At Periscope Depth” lets you command a submarine on patrol in the equivalent of a naval dungeon adventure. Most of these rules utilize a free form of movement that lets you get your feet “wet” in high seas action!
	The last chapter with its five rules sets, covers everything the previous chapters don’t. “Spears and Spells” lets the reader do fantasy games with or without miniature figures. “Dodge City” is trip back in time to the Old West, or at least as it was portrayed in the classic Westerns. “Law and Disorder” is a cops and criminals game. The author wrote these rules to challenge one of his former students who is a police officer. He met the challenge well! “Saturn Blocked Our View” takes a different twist on space wars, especially as portrayed in the movies.
	There’s a short table of unit organizations for WWII armor divisions to help organize armor battles. And finally, there’s one more set of rules. Really, it’s just a modification to a set presented earlier.

THE BOOK’S APPEAL

	Why play wargames with miniatures when there are computer and board games that do the same thing? Computer games have great visual and auditory effects. But, playing a computer game is just not as social as wargaming with the “toys.” The toys are just as visually rewarding and have a tactile satisfaction that a computer interface can’t. If the computer game has a flaw in  its design, other than waiting for a new game to be released, you’re out of luck. With rules such as the ones in this book, you can “fine tune” the rules to suit your taste. Your only limitations to your game scenarios is what you own and your imagination! Finally, part of the fun with miniatures is the collecting!
	Why wargame at all? Doesn’t it train people to be violent? Well, no more so than the first major wargame, chess! While it may be possible to use the games for training purposes, it’s still just a game. It’s more like taking a role in a “movie” that you’re watching. Playing wargames won’t make one more prone to violence anymore than playing baseball would. With baseball, you beat a ball with a large club.

THE BOOK’S AUDIENCE

	Who would play wargames? Anyone who has an interest in history, particularly military history, would have their opportunity to safely step back in time and “experience” it! People who like to play paintball would love miniature wargames. Paintball has its limitations (no tanks and air strikes available!). If you loved your old toy soldiers, or still collect them, now they’re not just collecting dust. Who else would like this book? H. G. Wells, in his own wargame book, Little Wars, wrote “for Boys from twelve years of age to one hundred and fifty and for that more intelligent sort of girl who likes boys’ games and books.” That pretty much sums it up!
Notes: THE AUTHOR’S PERSONAL INFORMATION

I became involved in wargames in the spring of 1968 when I had been asked by a classmate who had observed my doodles to illustrate a magazine that he helped publish. He was a member of the recently renamed International Federation of Wargaming. That was a wargaming club of about, at that time, 130 members around the nation. The IFW became involved in organizing gaming conventions, most noticeably in Lake Geneva, WI.
One of the original members of the IFW was the late E. Gary Gygax. Although he lived in Lake Geneva (330 Center St. to be exact), he commuted by train to Chicago to work at Fireman’s Fund insurance. The long commutes allowed him to indulge in writing articles and designing games. Gary was the key figure behind the GenCon game conventions. At the time, most wargamers in the IFW could be classified at “board” gamers. That is, they played one of the numerous board games provided by such companies as Avalon Hill. (The original game, Tactics II, started the trend. There is an excellent article about naval wargames in the August, 2006 issue of Naval History published by the U. S. Naval Institute.). Many people at the conventions played these board games and games such as Diplomacy. However, the highlights of these conventions were the wargames using miniatures. Nothing would draw spectators more than lavish scenery and serried ranks of Napoleonic lead soldiers! I was hooked. While I mostly helped in the refreshment stand with Gary’s eldest daughter Elyssa, I was able to play in some miniature games.
      Back in Chicago, I was a member of the Chicago Circle Games Committee at the U. of I. in Chicago. We began to have an open games night every Tuesday and a convention once a quarter. As there were never enough judges for games, I began to put on some games. During this time, the hardest thing about playing a miniatures game was finding a good set of rules. Rules were sold as single sets. Chainmail, a set of rules for medieval warfare, was one such set, written by Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren. There was often very little commonality between rules. Trying to keep the different rules straight was never easy when you played a variety of time periods. Some rule sets became little books unto themselves with page after page of directions.
Gradually, I experimented with writing rules of my own. One goal was to keep them from becoming too complicated. Another was to keep the game moving. At Circle, we would play a naval game using Alnavco rules. We discussed strategy and moved ships in 5 to 10 minutes. Then, we waited for an hour while the judge figured out what happened. BORING! I found that I was pretty successful in writing rules that were “playable.” Playable means that the people in the game could carry on the basic computations without the constant intercession of the judge! Finally, I wanted the rules to better reflect the experiences I had read about. One set of American Civil War Rules, Blue Light Manual, actually allowed Confederate cavalry to trample Union soldiers! It was most assuredly NOT a cavalry tactic of that conflict!
While still in college, I became the editor of the IFW’s International Wargamer magazine. Our circulation increased to a little over 500 members, including members in several foreign countries. In that pre-computer era, it was a lot of work. I began teaching in the fall of 1971 and my free time dropped dramatically. While I wargamed with friends at their homes and still attended and judged at conventions, the magazine began falling behind schedule. We were forced to send 3 monthly issues in a single mailing. When the Post Office lost a shipment, dues dried up and so did the IFW! That was in 1973.
As a teacher, I found that a number of students enjoyed playing wargames after school. When I began teaching at St. Daniel the Prophet School in the fall of 1973, our schedule had one 45 minute period that we had nothing to schedule. We each began to offer an elective class to last one quarter. There was latch hooking, needlepoint, and several other classes I no longer remember. I taught chess and games. The chess was easy as I had been captain of my high school chess team and president of the chess club. The games part was a little harder. Dungeons and Dragons had become popular so I created a dungeon to use in the classroom with about 36 to 40 students (A lot of boys didn’t want needlepoint!). I couldn’t use the regular D+D rules as they took too long so I came up with my own.
Scheduling was different the following year so the electives were never offered again. However, when I finally got to teach History in the later 80’s, I began incorporating wargames into the classroom as “lab” work. This proved very successful. Not only where important lessons becoming “real,” the students were having fun! Unfortunately, as St. Dan’s has grown in numbers, I’m limited to only teaching Science and Art (to the whole 7th grade at one time!). I now do wargames after school as time permits with whomever wishes to stay. It’s as popular as ever!
As for wargame conventions, I’ve judged at a number of GenCon gaming conventions. I stopped back in the early 90’s when the gaming was playing fourth fiddle to dressing up in costume, role playing fantasy games, and selling merchandise. If I could have a better game at my house, why travel to Milwaukee (GenCon moved there because the convention center could accommodate the approximate 10,000 participants better than the University of Wisconsin at Parkside, the previous site.)? I judged 9 conventions at Chicago Circle, 1 at Loyola U., 1in New York (Where I met with Jim Dunnigan), 1 in Madison, WI, 1 at Notre Dame in IN, and several others at high schools and colleges in the Chicago area.
Well, that should do it for general gaming background! I consider Gary Gygax to be my gaming mentor. He displayed great patience and good humor when judging or playing in a game. He wrote articles for the International Wargamer. He had me over his home in Lake Geneva to playtest Dungeons and Dragons. While there, I entered a “room” marked “forbidden.” His young son Ernie was with me and I was confident we would be ok. We were transported to the center of the earth and crushed to death! So much for paternal concern! Gary and I were both members of the Castle and Crusade Society of the IFW. This group focused on medieval warfare but the Tolkien influence grew and fantasy wargaming developed out of it! Dave Arneson, the co-author of D+D, was also at the game conventions. He was also an author of “Don’t Give Up the Ship,” rules for Napoleonic naval wargames with miniature ship models. This was another rules booklet sold separately. He also wrote articles for me for the IW. I persuaded him to publish the miniature rules in the IW by giving him free hot dogs at GenCon! In June of 2006 and 2007, I was one of the guests of honor at the Lake Geneva Gaming Convention. Past members of the Castle and Crusade Society were being feted.