Table Of Contentl:lIMPlElE*
KTIIE
WAREAMES
HANDBOOK
Also by James F. Dunnigan
How to Stop War (with William Martel)
How to Make War
Dirty Little Secrets (with Al Nofi)
Shooting Blanks (with Al Nofi)
A Quick and Dirty Guide to War (with Austin Bay)
From Shield to Storm (with Austin Bay)
III“
W‘¢}E
S
“If
BUMPIHE
J,
I I I
HANDBOOK
__________________________"
K How to Play,
Design, and
Find Them
_.
JAMES IJIINNIGAN
F.
1
ro
*
/am
WILLIAM MORROW
NEW YORK
Copyright © 1992 by JamesF. Dunnigan
Allrights reserved. No partofthis book may be reproducedorutilized in any form orby any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information
storageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermissioninwritingfromthePublisher. Inquiriesshouldbe
addressedtoPermissionsDepartment,WilliamMorrowandCompany,Inc., 1350Avenueofthe
Americas, New York, N.Y. 10019.
ItisthepolicyofWilliamMorrowandCompany,Inc.,anditsimprintsandaffiliates,recognizing
the importance ofpreserving whathasbeen written, toprintthebooks wepublishon acid-free
paper, andwe exertourbesteffortstothatend.
LibraryofCongress Cataloging-in-PublicationData
Dunnigan, James F.
Thecomplete wargames handbook : how toplay, design, and find
them/byJames F. Dunnigan. Rev. ed.
—
cm.
.
Includes bibliographicalreferences.
ISBN0-688-10368-5
1. Wargames. 2. Computerwargames. I. Title.
U310.D86 1992
793.9'2—dc20 92-26553
CIP
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
345678910
BOOKDESIGN BY CIRCA 86
To Raymond Macedonia (colonel, U.S. Army,
retired), who single-handedly exposed the current
generation of generals to wargaming and what it could
do. His efforts, aided by a new generation of
wargamers and wargame designers in the U.S.
military, had a lot to do with the outcome of the 1991
Persian Gulf War, and our prospects for peace into the
next century.
II: it ACKNOWLEDGMENTS III II:
A large number of people helped me create this book and the earlier
version. Chief among these groups are all the wargamers I have worked
with, for, oratcross purposes to overtheyears. Wargamers areasharp lot.
Theirs is “the hobby for the overeducated” and they have never shied
away from giving me comments, criticism, and advice I needed (even ifI
didn’t particularly want it). Next comes the old SPI crew, some of whom
I still work with on a regular basis. It was, among other things, an edu-
cational and enlightening experience working in a place one magazine
article described as “having the ambience ofan unmade bed.” The article
was from Cosmopolitan magazine, so that’s how strange SPI was.
For the current edition, I also called upon a number of individuals.
Among those I owe thanks to are: Mike Garrombone, Mark Herman,
Austin Bay, Ray Macedonia, BradAnderson, Evan Brooks, Richard Berg,
Gordon Walton, Susan Leon, Laurance Rosenzweig, Al Nofi, Dave Men-
coni, Doug MacCaskill, Brian B. Carlin, David C. Fram, Andrew Web-
ber, James M. Storms, Joshua Willoughby, Lance Jones, Michael L.
Malone, Robert B. Kasten, RolfW. Laun, Robin D. Roberts, and several
others whose names I’ve misplaced. You know who you are.
On thebookjacket, the game in the backgroundisArabianNightmare:
TheKuwait War, designed by Austin Bay, published inStrategy & Tactics
magazine in December 1990.
###=kI:0NIENIs#1A<##
INTRODUCTION
S
R
E
T
AP WHAT ISAWAIIGAME? _s03
H
C
HOWTO PLAY CO
Howto Win
Howto Win with the Losing Side
Overcoming Math Anxiety 8
-I
Strategyand Tacticsof Play A
-
The Importance ofQualityof Play U'l
Wargaming Technique U'l
Tempoand Shaping (J'l
Howto PlayWithoutan Opponent U'l
3
Playing by Mail and Team Play O
)
Howto Get into Gaming Painlessiy O'
)
O
PlayingComputerWargames
>
TheTechnical TermsofWargaming O
WHY PLAY THE GAMES (AndHow to GetMore Out of
Them)
information
History
Special ProblemsofAirand Naval Games
DESIGNING WARGAMES
DesigningaGame Step by Step
Whythe RulesAretheWayTheyAre
The Drive on Metz: September 1944
HISTORY OFWARGAMES 145
Hey, Lets StartaWargame Companyin the Basement! 148
TheConventions 153
Intothe 19805 156
Analytic History, and What Is aSimulation Anyway? 163
Wargames OverThere 167
How Many Wargamers AreThere? 169
COMPUTERWARGAMES 171
WhatKind ofComputer, What Kind ofWargame? 172
The Perils ofComputerWargame Publishing 176
S
R
E
T
P
HA GenealogyofComputerWargameTechnology 178
C
The Future 182
DESIGNING COMPUTER WARGAMES 187
The Spec 190
UserDocumentation 194
QualityControl 194
Artificial intelligence (Al) 195
The ComputerWargame DevelopmentTeam 195
HardwareforComputerWargames 197
VictoryatSea 198
Notes on Game Components 199
Hundred Years War 203
6
ComputerWargame Design Tipsforthe Military Designer 220
G
WHO PLAYSTHE GAMES 222
WARGAMESATWAR 234
Wargames, Models, and Simulations 236
The Military Experience with Wargames 238
Wargaming and the Professional Warriors 240
Professional Wargames and Military Decision Making 244
The Payoff, and Warnings 249
WargamingAbroad 255
Wargamesandthe 1991 Iraq War 256
Creating WargamesfortheTroops 265
Differences Between Hobbyists and Professionals 267
Typesof Professional Wargames 270
Use of Historical Data in Models, Simulation, and Gaming 275
Politics in Modeling 277
End Note 279
APPENDICES 281
Reading List 283
MyGame Bibliography 285
Gaming Aids 292
PaperWargame Publishers 297
ComputerWargame Publishers 300
ComputerWargames Published: 1979-1991 302
Questionnaire 317
INDEX 319
2|: 1|: INTRODUCTION llr III
This second edition of The Complete Wargames Handbook is back by
popular demand. This in itself is encouraging. Twelve years have passed
since the publication of the first edition, and a lot has changed in the
wargame world since then. The most visible development has been the
introduction of personal computers on a large enough scale to allow a
substantial shift of commercial—wargaming activity from manual (on pa-
per) to computerized (on PCs) play. A less obvious change has occurred
in professional wargaming, as the Defense Department gamers increas-
ingly adopted the techniques pioneered by the “hobby” gamers. Overall,
there has been a lot more gaming within the military since 1980, and the
story behind that is a fascinating one that is detailed within these pages.
While computer wargames remain a small slice of the overall
computer—games market, they have become an overwhelming factor in the
wargames market. The growthofcomputerwargames occurredatthe same
time (late 1970s, early 1980s) that many gamers were drawn away from
history—based wargames by the broader appeal of fantasy and science-
fiction subjects. Accelerating the shift to computer games was the appear-
ance of increasingly realistic and jazzy computerized military simulators,
“wargames” that put the player in command of ajet fighter, attack heli-
copter, or warship. These simulators were so attractive that they became
more popular than your typical strategic wargame. Despite the appeal of
these, though, many potential computer wargamers (largely manual war-
gamers with a personal computer) were reluctant to buy computer war-
games that didn’t bear some resemblance to their familiar manual
wargames, complete with hexagon grids and so forth.
The net result ofall these changes through the 1980s has been a sharp
decline in the market forconventional (“paper’ or “manual’’) wargames.
’
Twelve years ago, the average manual wargame sold about 10,000 to
20,000 copies. Some sold a lot more, but the bottom line was that, on
average, a wargame sold twice as many copies as the average book on the
same subject. Paper wargames were relatively cheap to produce, and dur-
ing the heydey of manual wargames in the 1970s, nearly 100 titles a year
were published. Today, less than half as many titles a year are published,
and sales per title are less than half of what they were in the 1970s. Yet
wargaming is more popular than ever. It’s just that most of the action has
moved to computers. The average computer wargame today sells over
20,000copiespertitle, andsimulatorwargamescurrentlysellover 100,000
(and sometimes over 250,000) copies per title. One of the effects of the
shift to computer wargames is that, relative to the 1970s, a much larger
group of gamers now play a smaller number of games.
9
