About the
Site /
Frequently Asked Questions
What
kind of games are within the scope of the site?
Commercial – Games sold for
profit or for fun. Licensed games or simulations solely for military
use aren’t of interest here.
Tactical – For the purposes of
this site, any game whose main units are single soldiers or
vehicles, squads of men, or platoons of men/vehicles is a “tactical”
game. A couple of exceptions such as Soldiers come to mind,
which uses infantry companies as the main unit of maneuver, but the
reasons for this are hopefully made obvious by the time frame of the
game.
Ground – Only those games whose
focus is ground combat are within the scope of the site.
Modern – Only “modern” combat
games are considered, for our purposes anything taking place in the
20th Century or up to the present.
English language - While the
webmaster is aware of the work of Vae Victis in France or the
Japanese wargame Panzergrenadier, it is has been decided that
they are outside the scope of this site.
Serious
– While no one denies the fun of Call of Duty or
Castle Wolfenstein or Memoir ’44 or Tank Pong,
they have been deliberately omitted from content on the site,
except perhaps where they are mentioned tangentially. Generally speaking, anything
requiring hand-eye co-ordination or luck to the exclusion of
reasonable amounts of tactical skill are not discussed. While games such as M-1 Tank Platoon do have a
hand-eye element, they are minor and the game can be played
without touching the gunner’s controls. Not so Intellivision
Armor Battle. Likewise, while Platoon or Up
Front or even Advanced Squad Leader may be heavily
dependent on unconventional design elements and/or luck, they
are also more real-world data driven than, say, Stratego.
While the webmaster realizes these lines are firmly drawn by
individual interpretation, his own preferences are being stated up
front here.
How can I write for Tactical
Wargamer's Journal?
The page on submissions is here.
|
Fun, yes, but not
exactly the most realistic tactical challenge.
Mattel
Electronics' Armor Battle.
The Great Divide in the 1970s: Avalon
Hill vs. SPI. |