GLOSSARY

DEFINITIONS

This website is intended to meet several objectives with a minimum of duplication of other similar, recommended, websites.

1. provide an accurate and complete database of tactical titles.

2. cast light on the timeline and development of the tactical wargame genre

3. raise awareness of how developers have dealt with design issues in the past

4. keep old favourites in the collective consciousness

5. help gamers find information on older titles in print and online

Some terms used on the site may be used uniquely on the site. A list of definitions is provided below.

Game vs. Simulation

The age-old problem facing developers of wargames in general and tactical wargames in particular is how to trade off the requirement of realistic detail with the necessity of a clean game system that is easy for players to manage and fun to play. Titles with reams of statistical data and complicated procedures tend to be labelled simulations while those that favour less complexity can be referred to simply as "games" in the specific sense of being distinct from a simulation.

Levels of Simulation

There are four basic levels of simulations in wargaming. The levels are defined by what role the player assumes, as determined by what resources he is given and what choices he is permitted to make in managing them. These levels are:

Strategic: players control entire nations and have access to diplomatic, political, and economic resources; military resources may range from army groups down to corps or divisions depending on the game scale.

Operational: players control areas ranging from entire theatres down to individual sectors of front, with access generally restricted to military resources, generally ranging from corps down to company size.

Tactical: tactical games are generally those in which individual units under the player’s control are platoons, squads, or individual men though the latter are often considered a separate category.

Man-to-Man: often considered a separate category of “tactical” gaming.

Unit Control

There are two methods of describing player control in a tactical game; “(unit)-level” and “(unit)-based”. The two are not the same thing. For example, Squad Leader is traditionally considered a company-level, squad-based game. The basic units each represent a squad, while the player’s role most closely matches that of a company commander in real life. In Squad Leader, he directs where the squads should deploy themselves and their weapons, for example, but there is no control over where individual men will go or when to fire.