Going Small - Reducing Your Periods

Part 4 of the Lazy Gamer's Guide to Wargaming

Last time I introduced my overall strategy to lazy gaming, which I called the Three S’s. The first principle was to go Small.

There are multiple ways to go small, to reduce the scale of your gaming so that it takes less effort to prepare and play. Some ways include:

• Focus on a small number of periods.
• Keep armies small
• Keep the battlefield small
• Use smaller miniatures

I am going to cover each of these in a separate post. For today, I’ll cover going small with the number of periods.

Going Small by Specializing
One approach is to specialize in one or two periods. This is to choose a particular period, say American Revolution, and restrict all my gaming to this particular period. I would only collect miniatures for the Continental or British armies (or both). All my games would be set in that milieu. I would only have to build terrain that would fit an 18th century American environment. This approach would certainly allow me to focus and to minimize effort because I wouldn’t be flitting among multiple periods. It would work if I could discipline myself to stay within the bounds of one period.

Unfortunately, such specialization is hard for me to achieve because I like to dabble around in a variety of different periods. While I do enjoy a good horse & musket game, there are times when I want to get medieval and play games where my troops are hacking and slashing at each other. Other times I want to see tanks rumble across the battlefield. Specialization prevents this jumping around. In essence, specialization would hamper one of my important values – flexibility. Clearly another approach is in order.

Going Small by Reduction
Fortunately, Joseph Morschauser, author of How to Play War Games in Miniature (published in 1962), has provided the solution for me. 

He categorized the whole scope of land warfare into 3 periods – shock  (ancient/ medieval), horse & musket, and modern. By following his approach, I have reduced the number of periods I would need to prepare. I don’t need Marlburian, Frederican, American Revolution, Napoleonic, American Civil War, etc. armies if I want horse & musket battles. I just need two generic horse & musket armies. Similarly, I can build a pair of shock period armies and a pair of modern armies. Thus, I can cover a wide swath of military history with just 6 armies.

This approach works for me because flexibility is more important to me than strict historical accuracy. Thus, I have no issues with substitution, using miniatures from a different era to fill in for ones I don’t have. I would have no issue playing Waterloo or Gettysburg with tricorn-wearing figures. I’m not creating a museum showpiece or precise simulation. I derive entertainment with a historically based intellectual challenge. The challenge does not change if the figures are “wrong.”

The use of imaginary nations (imagi-nations) greatly assist with my particular brand of wargaming heresy. Having a degree in history, I do get a twinge of guilt if things aren’t historically accurate. I can avoid that if I am doing a fictional battle in a fictional setting. While I might worry if my Continental Army regulars have the correct color turnbacks, it is not an issue when I am parading the Redgravian Rifles on my battlefield. Using imagi-nations, I can replicate any horse & musket conflict as part of the never-ending saga of warfare between Red and Blue armies while blissfully ignoring any concerns about uniform inaccuracies.

Fantasy and science fiction also offer opportunities for flexibility. A pair of generic fantasy armies can be used to represent actual forces from a wide swath of ancient and medieval history. For modern battles, I like to use science fiction troops. I can replicate battles during the World Wars, Vietnam, the Middle East, etc. by substituting just two generic science fiction armies. Note that I can do the same with air and naval combat. Spaceships can dogfight in outer space or they can be battleships ready for fleet actions.

Thus, the principle of reduction maximizes my flexibility. I can play games based on practically any conflict in history. I have to compromise a bit – I won’t have historically accurate miniatures. However, I previously mentioned that I am willing to sacrifice accuracy for flexibility. Use of imagi-nations, fantasy, and science fiction provides the avenue whereby I can be flexible without too much historian’s guilt. This strategy enables me to accomplish my mission - derive maximum enjoyment playing miniature wargames in multiple eras/settings with minimal preparation and effort.

Aside - now if I could just discipline myself to follow my strategy I might save myself some unnecessary "work." Sometimes I just succumb to temptation, as with my recent purchase of ships for World War 2 coastal actions. Oh well, such is the life of a gamer with GADD (Gamer's Attention Deficit Disorder).

NEXT
Another way to go small is to reduce army sizes. I’ll discuss ways that I accomplished this.