"How a Board Game Helped Win a War" Topic

"Wargames today are considered an essential part of military planning and training. They have also become a distinctive genre of tabletop and computer games where enthusiasts can test their mettle on virtual or imaginary battlefields.

It is fascinating that today's wargames, whether that be Pentagon simulations or two friends playing Warhammer 40,000, share a common ancestor in the 19th century game Kriegsspiel (German for ‘wargame' or ‘warplay').

The German wargame was developed in the 1800s by Prussian officers to teach tactics and strategy to officers. It evolved from early attempts at wargaming in the German states. These first attempts were akin to chess and quite unrealistic. The board was usually laid out in a grid of squares with terrain such as rivers taking unnatural forms…"
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Armand

I would suggest that Warhammer 40K with its open, face to face game structure, player administration of rules and one tabletop display, actually shares no DNA with the Prussian Kriegsspiel which was a closed system, with individual player/team maps and umpire control/administration of rules.

Warhammer 40K and today's miniatures games do share common ancestors in HG Wells's Little Wars and Donald Featherstone's War Games.

Thanks

Armand