"Earlier on social media I shared the news I'm returning to the City of Chesapeake's annual reenactment event for the Battle of Great Bridge Dec. 5-6, 2026. Once again I'll bring along my terrain diorama (sectioned off into convenient board "spaces"), paper miniatures, dice, and signage asking "Can You Win the Battle of Great Bridge?" I invite event attendees to learn about the battle, survey what the area might have looked like 251 years ago, and, using extremely basic rules, play out the fight between British forces and Patriot militia. Last year 1,100-1,600 people passed through the event, and at times it seemed like many listened to my ramblings about history and tried their hand commanding miniature forces to see how they'd fare in this historical engagement. (Spoiler Alert: In most cases the Patriots gave the British a sound drubbing, much like the historical outcome, though occasionally with a few close calls.) In my social media post an old friend, gamer, and educator commented: "Do you have a process for using miniature battles to teach history? Not just tactics, but also the commander's motivation, personality and the battle's likely alternate outcomes." And it started me thinking about how I distill historical battles into miniature wargames, especially with my focus on using games for learning and introducing wargames to young people and newcomers to the hobby.
I've been presenting and facilitating games for decades. My first efforts focused on roleplaying games, primarily convention demonstrations and scenarios for West End Games fare like the Star Wars Roleplaying Game, The World of Indiana Jones, even the Hercules & Xena game. As my situation and interests changed, I indulged in wargaming, mostly focusing on historical conflicts. For about 15 years now I've designed and published my own rules (notably Panzer Kids and Skirmish Kids) and used those and other established rules to create public game presentations, mostly for convention events, but occasionally for educational venues like libraries and museums. Sometimes I create a hypothetical scenario to provide a sense of warfare in a particular period; but in most cases I'm presenting a specific historical battle on the gaming table. Ultimately the process boils down to researching a battle and adapting it to a set of rules.
Much like writing and editing, I just do it. I've done this enough times that I've internalized the process to a degree I don't consciously think about it, at least in a way I can easily and clearly convey to someone else. Reflecting on my methods, though, helps me realize there is a process and I can distill it from the murky workings of my brain to an outline others might use to employ miniature wargames as games for learning. The work falls into two categories: research and rules, with a follow-up bit involving discussion…"
Hobby Games Recce
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Armand
