"Gaming in wartime..." Topic

If your country was involved in a major conflict, would that have any affect on your wargaming?

Now I realize that the US is currently engaged in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq (among other places), but I'm not really talking about that.

I'm talking about a major national conflict on the scale of something like World War II, The Franco Prussian War, or the Russo Japanese War. A conflict where your country is locked in a struggle with another country on a peer level.

Would you stop gaming during such a conflict?

I think gaming an actual shooting war may be hard while the shooting is going on. It may be hard to get reliable info on what is actually happening in a timely manner thereby making it hard to recreate on a wargame table.

I know some people have issues with gaming current or near current conflicts and I respect that. I have no problem with doing a current conflict other than the problems I mentioned above. No ruleset or scenario will be completely accurate to history, but I prefer to get as close as I can.

Fletcher Pratt continued his naval war game into WW2

Zone- I think you misunderstood my question. I don't want to know if you'd game that conflict, but rather would you wargame at all if a full scale war was on?

No.

The professional wargamers actually ramp up wargaming during time of war, and/or when leading up to it, so why should I stop?

It's no different than chess, videogames, etc., etc..

They're just games.

If I got drafted – unlikely now, I suspect, I'd get to game in a larger scale, with louder toys.

Wargaming is my hobby. When I was in the US Army Reserve during the Cold War, I still collected Cold War US Army vehicles and Soviet vehicles and played and enjoyed wargames with them.

I played Viet Nam War games during the real war, even though I was not old enough to serve.

The real world does not impinge on my tabletop unless I let it do so.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog

No

It would play hobb with my gaming. They'd call me back and I'd be away from my regular opponents and probably back to microscale, though I do keep some individually-mounted 1/72 Napoleonics for an emergency.

But if you mean this as a moral question. no, of course I wouldn't stop. If miniature warfare is a morally acceptable recreation, it doesn't become more of less so based on the failures of diplomacy. Should people stop golfing or visiting parks?

I mean if resources were still available to do so and I had the time why not?

Would you stop going to work or cleaning your house or playing catch with your child? Why would I stop wargaming? Now if my country was invaded and I had to fight or be moved to a safer area, now that would interfere with general life itself.

TGerritsen-
"Zone- I think you misunderstood my question. I don't want to know if you'd game that conflict, but rather would you wargame at all if a full scale war was on?"

Sorry, my mistake. I did misunderstand your question.

I assume that I would continue. That would all depend on the proximity of the of the conflict to me. Also, would I have power, electricity, water/plumbing, etc. available to me? I may be too busy trying to eek out a subsistence depending on the circumstances surrounding me.

Gaming it is no different than watching movies or reading books about the ongoing conflict. I would certainly game out an ongoing conflict if I were capable.

I'd continue gaming, but not the current conflicts in respect for the men and women over seas. It's not a game to them so I would not treat it as a game either.

I will say this. I don't have the stomach for such games in very hard times. 9-11, for instance, we suspended our regular DnD game because nobody had the stomach to go killing evil creatures, myself included. we ended up playing Euro-Games that night (the 12th). Our regular game resumed a week or two later.

I think it is quite a shame that people don't even consider the persistent state of war that the US (and some allies) have been involved in since 2001 as "real". Reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw that said " America is not at war, The US military is, America is at the shopping mall."
So to answer your question, yes. I will game, but I don't game past WW2 and even that is a new for me. I used to only game up until the Napoleonic period out of a rationalized sensibility of respect. I know it is not what you asked, but I don't think I would ever game an on going conflict.

There were wargame groups formed in both Afghanistan and Iraq during the height of the conflict there. I was asked to organize support for both groups. They were FOW players. Both groups received a lot of donated troops and game supplies. One group sent back some pictures of playing the games, several with soldiers in full battle rattle. Two of the pics were posted on the HMGS-Midwest website.