Wargames: From Gladiators to Gigabytes

Why do men (mostly) play at war? For religious reasons, to settle disputes, to train or plan for real war, and for entertainment. From tribal mock battles and Roman gladiators, to tournaments, single combat, and duels, to board games and computer-based simulations, van Creveld takes the reader through an exhausting--excuse me, I should say exhaustive--history of wargames in their many forms and roles in their respective societies.I learned that I would like very much not to travel back to ancient Rome, nor would I like to prove my case with a fight to the death. I also learned that video games, laser tag and paintball have converged with reality to the extent that playing at war and preparing for the real thing are sometimes indistinguishable.van Creveld draws helpful lines between war, wargames and other games. It's not always obvious, but history provides many examples to illustrate the differences. The framing of games and sports as wargames also helps to explain why we may have the games, and perhaps part of their appeal.In his whirlwind tour of the subject--spanning thousands of years in a little over 300 pages--the author raises questions that warrant a follow-up. In particular, to what extent have wargames and simulations influenced strategy and the outcomes of real wars since Prussia instituted gaming as a planning methodology in the late 19th century? Applying the lessons to the present, to what extent does the historical record support the expectation that strategists employing simulations gain an advantage from their use?I learned of Martin van Creveld from an old friend who recommended his earlier book,  The Transformation of War: The Most Radical Reinterpretation of Armed Conflict Since Clausewitz , which I also recommend. Again with his new book, van Creveld provides history, thoughtful analysis, and stimulating arguments. You don't have to agree with him, but wrestling with what he writes is a worthy exercise.

Martin van Creveld never really defines “wargames”, indeed in the concluding chapter he decides that such a definition is impossible. But that didn’t stop him from writing this book, and giving himself latitude to cover an incredibly wide scope. The problem is that this scope is so wide as to be almost meaningless, and certainly wider than anybody in the wargaming hobby or profession would recognize.He has the classics, Chess and it’s variants, some mention of the German General Staff and the WWII gaming of the Japanese, he is aware of commercial board wargaming (though he hardly devotes more than a few paragraphs) and he lightly touches on HG Wells and miniatures. I’ll even grudgingly allow his comments on computers and video games to fall under a broad understanding of wargaming.But Gladiators? Duels? Trial by Combat? Does that sound like wargaming to you? Paint Ball, Laser Tag, Reenactments… all get many pages. He includes a long foray into Professional Wrestling, and dives in even deeper with an exploration of Mud Wrestling. And be warned, he spends more time on Mud wrestling than he does on Charles Roberts and James Dunnigan. How is that possible? Well, fully 40% of the book is about Gladiators, for whom he clearly has an obsession. And he’s quite knowledgeable about Gladiators, maybe he should write a book on that topic, but they are overrepresented here to a ridiculous degree, even assuming they should be in a book about wargaming at all.Throw in another chapter about the different ways Men and Women participate in or react to all of the above, which is charitably an opinion piece on social norms, not a history of wargaming, no matter how broadly construed, and you have a half baked, apparently unedited, mishmash of garbage on practically every topic except what a modern wargamer would consider to be his hobby.The best part was the illustrations. (There are none)

While Van Creveld's books on command, logistics, and other aspects of warfare are classic and insightful tomes, his Wargames: From Gladiators to Gigabytes is a disappointment. As other reviewers have noted, he does not define Wargames really, but yet goes on to try to contrast how some definitions are both too broad and too narrow...he then goes on to describe anything involving combat that has been turned into a game or sport... things that modern wargame professionals may determine as marginal to the issues confronting the field and policy makers today. For a history of the topic, the book tends to jump around a lot which impedes the narrative.

Van Creveld is one of my favorites. This is a very interesting take on a unique subject. Only gets 4 stars relative to hus other work. Still highly recommended especially if you're a fan

It's a very interesting book

MvC covers a lot of ground in this book, and if you are interested in the history and development of war and wargaming, it certainly provides the reader with a lot of both.What I missed was a discussion on the "why" - for the different forms of wargaming (as defined), what did the participants gain from the gaming experience, and where did (or does) the gaming experience fail, when compared to reality? I feel that such an approach would have given the book a better focus, and not just a narrative development. I also query whether MvC would have spent so much space on gladiatorial combat, which may be a war-like game, but prepares neither the participants nor the spectators for war.Oddly, the book also omits modern table-top gaming, except for a few mentions that are not further pursued.

Der Großmeister der Kriegsgeschichte hat sich jetzt auch auf das Terrain des Kriegsspiels begeben. Mit gewohntem Durchblick schildert er Geschichte, Gegenwart und Aussagewert des Kriegsspiels für militärische Zecke, aber auch für die private Unterhaltung.

Well written with a broad scope of topics related to what wargames actually mean. First few chapters are more on war trials than what we mean with wargames today but it just expands the notion to all "not-real" wars. Good insights on some wargame history and the role it played in society today. Highly recommended.

Un cadeau idéal pour un wargamer averti! Il vaut mieux s'y connaître pour aborder le texte, mais il fera le bonheur d'un wargamer confirmé et qui habituellement se lamente de ne jamais trouvé un livre complet !