"What Wargaming Conventional Wisdom Do You Not Follow?" Topic

This is a poll in which we should be able to pick our top 15 or 25

Agreed

I managed it but cutting down to five was not easy

x42

My favorite--that is, the one with which I most disagree--didn't even make the list. "It's all minis" invariably uttered by a science fiction or fantasy gamer who can't understand why anyone would restrict his painting to things actually worn, or his rules to what was historically possible.

Before anyone asks, yes, I do both science fiction and fantasy wargaming. But I understand that historical miniatures gaming is not fantasy gaming with some arbitrary restrictions imposed.

The whole "3:1 to attack" thing always riles me up and is a big pet peeve of mine. Yes, it's in Sun Tzu's Art of War, and it may be good advice to get a successful attack, but some people take it as gospel. I mean, come on! Look at almost every successful battle in attack. Most of the time, they do not have 3:1. In fact, I think more attacks at greater than 3:1 have failed or gone poorly because there are too many troops for the maneuver space!

"Gaming is just an excuse for a social occasion"

Not for me, considering that I primarily game solo

I was thinking there should be an "all of the above" in the selections.

I think the 3:1 attack business is a moderns thing, exacerbated by the old Avalon Hill CRT. At least, the "doctrinal frontages" we were taught for conventional warfare expected a company in defense--presumably dug-in and camouflaged--to have more or less the frontage of a battalion in the attack. Mind you, it still made my top five.

Most of that list isn't wrong: it's provincial--right for one period, scale or group of gamers and assumed to be universal on that basis.

There is conventional wisdom from wargamers?

Of course there is, Cyrus. Many of us are wise to particular conventions.

<snort>! OK, whose going to clean and dry my keyboard?!

"It's all minis"

robert piepenbrink +2

"It's all minis"

I hate hearing that. They are different hobbies. It's like car collecting. Some collect Hot Wheels and others collect real cars. Yes they both involve cars but they are different hobbies.