But let me introduce myself first. My main wargaming interest in the past thirty or so years have been miniature rules of all sorts, with occasional brief excursions into hex-and-counter territory. I’m fixated with the concept that wargame rules should model actual combat dynamics, informed by historical insights, possibly prompting the players to face the same tactical questions (and answers) as force commanders throughout the eras. Due to this, I’m not interested in fantasy or sci-fi games, although I still remember fondly the first miniature army I’ve ever collected: my beloved WH40K Squats (yes, I’m kinda old)! The rulesets I’ve played most were WRG7th, De Bellis Multitudinis, De Bellis Antiquitatis, Lost Battles, Triumph! Armati, De Bellis Magistrorum Militum, De Bellis Renationis, Warfare in the Age of Reason, Crossfire, Spearhead- and I’m surely forgetting something (as well as purposely omitting several popular rulesets).
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| The first time I tried to decipher WRG 7th I was also studying for a quantum mechanics exam at the University. I clearly remember telling more than one fellow player how all the quantum physics books I was reading were absolutely simpler and clearer than this. Aaaah, good old times! Also, while I still remember most of what I've read about atomic orbitals and stuff, I can't remember anything about these rules :-) |
But you might notice I wrote “the rules I’ve played most” in the paragraph above, without any mention to the rules I’m playing now. Well, here’s the problem. With work, kids and all the stuff I’ve found it difficult to pursue my hobby in a satisfactory way. Miniature wargaming needs lots of time and space- both of which are something of a luxury in my current life. That’s why I started to get into smaller and smaller miniature scales: Baccus’ excellent 6mm range, then Magister Militum’s interesting but somewhat quirky 3mm range, then good old Irregular’s 2mm blobs, which despite their several design flaws (IMHO) have a lot of potential. But I’ve learned that- with the possible exception of a few specific 2mm models- going smaller does not translate into painting faster, for many reasons. So several of my recent projects stumbled and crashed before any playable army was assembled. No playable armies, no games. Add to this that it’s increasingly difficult to find opponents in this pandemic world, and you’ll understand why, a couple of years ago, I’ve decided to quit my wargaming days for good.
But it didn’t last. I continued reading military history books, wargaming blogs, forums… You just can’t shake off a decades-long obsession like that. And the fever returned. I’ve started to collect and study hex-and-counter wargames as a possible alternative, but in the end it wasn’t quite the same thing. For one, biblical and classical eras are among my main interest, and there simply aren’t many ancient era games of this type, barring the ponderous Great Battles of History series. Phil Sabin’s Lost Battles boxed edition helped a lot (I’ve read the book literally dozens of times), but I longed for more. Moreover, there’s something I’ve never liked much about hex-and-counter games: they look terrible. Yes, it’s a totally subjective comment, but I just can’t stand moving piles of 10x10mm pink and yellow cardboard chits around. Even the best painted miniatures can ruin immersion in some cases (I’ll talk about this sooner or later), but most ‘grognard’-oriented wargames just don’t pay any kind of attention to aesthetics. Moreover, the hex-and-counter community seems to be fixated with games involving a huge number of counters, for some reason. Which I can’t really understand- some of the battles are so zoomed-in and cramped that you literally cover half a board with counters, rapidly converge to a scrimmage line and then slog through the micromanaging for hours with very limited grand-tactical decisions. What am I missing?
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| Here, a squadron of red numbers in wedge formation is attempting to break through the sparabara line (source: BGG). |
Then I discovered the so-called ‘block’ wargames (Columbia Games’ first and foremost), which I found to have a good mix of playability, complexity (which doesn’t mean complicatedness!) and looks. I still missed some of the open-endedness afforded by miniature wargames, but I was sold on using blocks as a downright superior (IMHO) alternative to cardboard counters both in terms of aesthetics and tactility.
It didn’t take long before I started to think “hey, wait a minute: can’t I just play the miniature rulesets I like most, but with blocks instead of figures?” This is how I decided to take a serious look into Kriegsspiel, which I had never done before. And it literally was a game-changer. Not necessarily because of the 19th-century game itself, but because of how it looked. Kriegsspiel maps and blocks seem period pieces even during play. I was hooked. If I couldn’t have miniature wargaming anymore, I wanted that look for my games- yes, even those pertaining to the ancient eras. In the process, I’ve discovered Command Post Games and their Pub Battles series – which is in many ways very close to the holy grail of my current wargaming preferences. I’ll surely talk about them here sooner or later!
Kriegsspiel pieces from Command Post Games.
Anyways, as a test, I started to build my ancients kriegsspiel pieces (labeling MDF miniature bases!) to play Triumph games on simple maps, then started to draw my own maps… I was in business again, and all this because of those humble wooden blocks! After some time, I’ve discovered that wooden blocks have several distinct advantages over both miniatures and counters. Fog of war implementation, step loss display, etc etc- there’s ton of stuff you just can’t do as easily with anything else.
I considered calling this blog 'the wargaming blockhead' or something like that, but a quick google search revealed that I was very late to the party, by bringing me to this (very interesting!) blog: https://wargameblockhead.wordpress.com/
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