"A strange thing, war. With its bloodshed and cruelty, its pain, grief and tears, it ought to fill every civilized person with the utmost and unwavering revulsion. It ought to and often does. And yet, and yet..."
"Yet there is a strange and timeless fascination about warfare and the warrior that has exercised minds and emotions since time began."
With these words Frederick Forsyth opens the foreword to the book SOLDIERS - A HISTORY OF MEN IN BATTLE, by John Keegan and Richard Holmes. The authors then take over and, with many illustrations, explain how warfare has been and is conducted concentrating on the differing roles of the soldier throughout history. The question that comes to mind regarding Mr. Forsyth's opening statement is not if it is true, but why it is true. More importantly for us is: "How do these facts about war relate to wargaming itself?"
This is a topic that is not discussed much in the hobby itself. The questions it raises can sometimes be very disturbing and the answers are often difficult to determine. Each individual gamer has his own rationale for what he does and how he does it. This article is not intended as criticism of anyone's reasons for wargaming. Hopefully, by exploring some little travelled paths in this area we can fill in some of the blank spaces that always seem to show up when someone sincerely asks: "Why do you play wargames?"
The question itself is a fairly common one and I am sure that most of you who have been at it awhile have had to answer it at one time or another. There are many short and sweet, stock answers that satisfy the casual questioner who just wants to know what you are up to. He really is not interested in, nor would he find it easy to understand a more detailed description anyway. Such as how you lay awake in bed, for an hour before getting to sleep, going over in your mind how the assault on the hill that you failed with could have been different. But once in awhile though a serious questioner comes along who really wants to know why you do what you do.
This can often seem like a challenge to our beliefs on the subject of wargaming and many times the questioner seems almost accusatory. We may even find ourselves a bit defensive and uncomfortable with our explanation. Partly because we can't be sure of the reaction of the listener to what we have to say, and partly because we don't get much practice at explaining to people so the ideas don't flow as freely as it seems they should. Part of this awkwardness also comes from the fact that deep down, we may be a bit unsure ourselves what motivates us to war game.
Consider for a moment all of the short and sweet answers that we give as reasons for wargaming. Gamesmanship and fun, the intellectual challenge, the social aspect, the history, the spectacle, the rules, the figures and even more. I have used many of these in the past as an answer to the question of why I play wargames. They are all legitimate answers for most of us to use and they are understandable to the person asking the question. But if you take a hard look at those answers you will find that all of them can be found while pursuing other activities as well. So why have we chosen wargaming?
- "It is well that war is so terrible, or we should get too fond of it."
- --Robert E. Lee
For a better answer we have to dig a bit deeper and sometimes it may not be too pleasant. I must confess that every so often I have doubts about why I play wargames.
These moments have invariably come while I am reading. It may be an especially vivid battle account or a very graphic descirption by a skilled author of a particular feat. Sometimes it is a single statement of fact that seems to stand out bigger than life because of the way it was phrased. And of course, many times it is a picture that manages to get through the outer layers of screening and strike home with stark reality. During these moments I feel closer to the actual event of war than ever before. I feel as if I am not just listening to the story but I am feeling it happen and knowing what it must have been like. It is at times like this when the revulsion of what war really is makes me wonder how I could want to portray it with, of all things, a game.
Clarity
It is at times like this that some things become very clear about what war really is and how it relates to what we call wargaming. The study of war shows us that the battlefield is capable of bringing out the extremes of the human condition. It is here that we find death and destruction beyond our normal comprehension. The cruelty, pain and suffering that are common on the battlefield are hardly ever encountered in our everyday lives, and never to such an extent.
At the same time we find courage and loyalty as well as self-sacrifice in evidence. Love for fellow man exists here too as men fight and die for their friends. Dividing these two extremes we also have the impersonal violence and terror that works on the bodies and the minds of men in the heat of action. Through all of this the human instinct to survive is constantly being tested. It is a combination of all these things that make the battlefield such a contradiction. Here death does its worst while life tries its best to triumph in the end, and every aspect of the human condition is revealed in the process. It is for this reason that we find war so fascinating, despite its horrors. Through the study of war we can observe ourselves under extreme conditions that rarely exist anywhere else.
The average person who leads a normal life will never have to make the type of decision that many men make when they go into battle. It is this fact that sometimes makes it so difficult for returning veterans to re-adjust to civilian life after living on the "cutting edge" of battle. This is also part of the fascination we have for war. It is an experience that taxes the full potential of each participant, not only to survive, but to function as part of a group of men with the object of destroying the enemy. This "completeness" of involvement that many men feel in battle they often describe as being totally alive with all of their senses attuned to what is going on around them 100%. This is also the "test" of battle that we have heard so much about. All who enter into this test wonder if they will pass it by living up to the expectations of themselves and their comrades in arms. It is for this reason that we, as spectators, envy those that have been given the opportunity to ultimately prove themselves, both in their own mind and in the eyes of their fellow men. I believe that our desire to read of men in combat comes from our need to get closer to this experience than we can in our everyday lives.
There is nothing inherently wrong with this desire to get closer to the human condition that comes from the study of war. Great war stories should rank with great love stores, adventures, poetry and art. But there is a stigma that many attach to the study of war. War is a very complex activity, with many different faces. Its most prominent feature is that of death, destruction and extreme violence, and rightly so. Most people seek no further when they encounter these images of war and they have a difficult time understanding someone who does. Some people make the hasty judgement that anyone who would delve into the subject of war to such an extent must be a "warmonger" or a "hawk" at heart. They don't realize that this could not be further from the truth. Most wargamers I know would be the last ones, along with the veterans themselves, to advocate going to war. The reason that people get the wrong impression is because they don't really understand what we are studying when we study war.
- "It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell."
- --William Tecumseh Sherman
Wargamers, as students of war who attempt to portray it on a tabletop are not trying to show the bloodshed, misery and human suffering that takes place. Many wargamers can often be very flippant with graphic description of the death and destruction that they are causing on a tabletop. Much of this comes from a boyish desire to shock the listener and cause alarm. This is a bit of immaturity that many of us never outgrow. But I suspect that part of this non-chalance comes from an attempt to downplay what is really supposed to be happening to our miniature soldiers on the battlefield by making light of it. If this wasn't the case then I think that figures representing casualties would be a lot more popular.
Portrayal
But this is not the image of war or the aspect of battle that we wish to portray. Ours is a very sterile battlefield where casualties usually vanish into boxes and prepare for the next game. But we are all intelligent people here and each of us has read enough to know what we are really doing when we remove those men from the table. It is this point that the non-wargamers find it hard to get past (oftentimes not encouraged by the flippant remarks mentioned earlier)..
But this is not what it is all about, as you know. We are trying, through our games, to capture some of the real-life experiences that we have read so much about. Whether it is at the man-to-man or corps level, we wish to try and get a feel for some of the feelings that were present in the real thing. Our actual understanding of what this means may vary from individual to individual, but the purpose remains the same. But it is the great war story behind the. terrible face of war that we are after, not the pain and gore. If it was the latter that appealed to us than mass murders would also be on our list of games to portray.
How successful we are at portraying what we attempt has been debated countless times by rules reviewers and wargamers themselves. We know that there is no way we can duplicate the actual experiences while playing safely and comfortably in our own homes. The experience of war itself cannot be recreated on the physical level in this way. But from an intellectual level we continue to attempt to build what we feel are accurate models of the thought processes necessary to function in battle. Our "suspension of disbelief" must be such that we face decisions that mirror the ones made by the actual participants. And even though the reflections of battle we achieve may be very faint, it is often satisfying having just made the effort. Wargaming is an escape, there is not doubt of that. We are all our own Walter Mitty going from battlefield to battlefield. Our minds must be able to appreciate the abstractness that is taking place on the tabletop while understanding that the fantasy is based on a firm reality that was an historical battlefield.
Wargaming, like war itself, is a very complex subject. We are often frustrated in our efforts for this very reason. There are so many aspects of battle that can be portrayed that is difficult to know where to start. There are so many wars throughout history that the choice of which to study is virtually endless. But all of these can and do lend themselves to wargaming mainly because it is ultimately the human aspect of war that we are looking for.
Many people read history and historical novels as a pastime. Many collect information on uniforms and equipment of the past. There is a large hobby that simply paints figures for display, many of military men. And quite a few people play games of all sorts for enjoyment. But wargaming is the only hobby that combines all of these things into one. It is a conglomeration of hobbies dedicated to fostering an understanding of one of the most complex human institutions, war. Wargamers are not content to just read or collect information about war. Movies or miniatures by themselves are enough for many people interested in the subject. But by striving to combine all of these things, and more, we try to get closer to the actual experience than any others. It is through this closeness that we wish to achieve a better understanding of war and the people who have gone through it. We can ensure, through our efforts, that the lessons these people learned and have to teach are not lost on future generations. Wargaming, as an enjoyable pastime, is a very creative way of performing a valuable service, that of seeking and learning more about the meaning of war. If there are to be future generations it is a question that they must concern themselves with.
- The War Prayer
"...0 lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it - for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen."
- --Mark Twain (1905)
I realize that the discussion I have carried on here is only scratching the surface as to the reasons that we play wargames. But whatever your reason for playing wargames, I hope that it has started you thinking and may help you to answer that question the next time it is asked. As with the subject of war, there could be entire books devoted to the reason that people wargame. My own opinions have been influenced by reading about war itself and trying to think out its relationship to wargaming. I believe this to be a fascinating topic and hope that others find it worthy of discussion as well. Some of the books that I found most useful are listed below.
Dyer, Gwynne, WAR, Crown Publishers, Inc., New York, 1985.
Gray, J. Glenn, THE WARRIORS, Harper & Row, New York, 1970.
Hackett, General Sir John, THE PROFESSION OF ARMS, Macmillian Publishing Co., NY, 1983.
Hemingway, Ernest (editor) MEN AT WAR, Bramhail House, New York, 1979.
Keegan, John, THE FACE OF BATTLE, Penguin Books, New York, 1978.
Keegan, John and Holmes, Richard, SOLDIERS, Hamish Hamilton, London, 1985.
Mansfield, Sue, THE GESTALTS OF WAR, The Dial Press, New York, 1982.
Marshall, S.L.A., MEN AGAINST FIRE, William Morrow & Co., New York, 1947.
(Editor's Note: Thank you to Tony for a fine piece of writing on a subject that most of us have considered at one time or another. Wargaming publications have contained a fair amount of print on the morality of wargaming. I am anxious to see Part II of Tony's work and would welcome reader's own personal opinions on the subject.)
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© Copyright 1986 Hal Thinglum
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