Customer Reviews

The Art of Wargaming: A Guide for Professionals and Hobbyists

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From the point of view of a hobby wargamer, the most interesting part is the history of wargames. It goes much further than the typical Von Reissewitz - Wells story. There is almost no mention of miniature wargaming. Only board-wargaming and 'serious' army wargaming are described, but these parts are covered in great detail. Definitely worth reading if your interested in the history of wargaming.

The most comprehensive book on the subject Wargaming from an insider -- Dr. Peter Perla. His theoretical approach to the making of this book combines with actual practices make this book an immensely useful and thought-provoking reference as to historical development, principles of designing and analyzing wargames. Mr. Perla is a naval guy and so there is much coverage on the naval game simulation at the start and in the end part of predicting the future use of wargames. If you can pass these rather technical materials drawn from his extensive experience in the Center for naval Analyses since 1977 where he works as a naval operations research analyst, you can find a vibrant, knowledgeable and insightful as to the modern commercial wargames. A lot of these games are covered especially those from SPI, Avalon Hill and Victory Games. You may jump to read Chapter 3 onwards to Chapter 9 if you are a hobbyist yourselves. Perla's book is more scholarlistic and hard to chew on than James Dunnigan's "The Complete Wargame Handbook". But at the same time, this book offers more depth and breadth on the subject. Highly recommended. The book was first published in 1990. Grab a copy of it before it goes out-of-print.

This book focuses on the history of wargames. It focuses mainly on war games use by the militaries, with only token coverage of the hobby. To say it only discusses board games, though, is inaccurate. It discusses games from a military viewpoint, without discussing much in the way of game mechanics, in a specific manner. Dr. Perla does discuss the abstraction of game design, and the level of details. He discusses the purposes of a particlur game design, and how this is used to explore a particular set of criteria for a military operation. If that sounds complicated, it is. This book is not terribly complex or difficult to read, but the design of military war games, for the professional militaries, is. He does not go into detail for professional designs, but he does discuss the overall concepts well.

This book is aimed at discussing how war games are designed, applied, and used. It discusses what can be learned from such exercises, and what cannot be learned in a simulation. If you are a game designer, you will learn from this book, but perhaps not as much as you would like. He does not discuss details, but rather concepts, and focus level: is this game designed for a tactical level, or strategic level? What do the designers hope to learn from this simulation?

While this book accomplishes its tasks well, if you are looking for a book on the hobby of war games, it may leave you unsatisfied. It is primarily aimed towards professionals, in my opinion, and those who wish to know the history of "professional" war games.

The first half of the book focuses on the history of wargaming, and is quite informative. The second half deals with concepts pertaining to design and use of wargames in the both the professional and hobby industries. Modern commercial wargame designers could learn a lot from reading this book.

This is a decent book. It gives an excellent history of wargaming through the ages, and covers the 70's period extremely well (taking me for a walk down memory lane). I agree with the other esteemed reviewers on the rest of the book, it's worth a read.

Peter Perla, based upon his experience as a hobby wargamer and then as a naval operations research analyst, has written a book on wargaming entitled The Art of Wargaming. Perla's objective in writing this book is to give the reader an understanding of wargaming and the important role it has in the military (professional wargamers). Perla claims wargames offer a "unique learning experience that leads to a deeper and more personal understanding and appreciation of warfare than can be attained by any other method short of actual participation on the field of battle." Therefore, wargaming becomes an important tool for training those who may go into harm's way in the future.
Perla divided his book into three different sections, which contribute to one's understanding of where wargaming originated (history), what wargames actually entail and finally what role wargames will have in the future. When Perla considers the beginning of wargaming, he not only considers the military's perspective, he also addresses the role hobbyist have had in wargaming. In looking at what wargames entail, Perla tries to clarify the differences in what a wargame is and what it is not, thereby showing the potential role it has with professionals. When considering the future, Perla ties the "historical perspective and the theoretical principles...to project into the future of wargaming." Basically, Perla seems to find a balance between playability and realism to achieve some means by what one can achieve in playing wargames.
Perla defines a wargame as "an exercise in human interaction, and the interplay of human decisions and the simulated outcomes of those decisions." He recognized that wargames, while short of the actual physical impacts of war, provide a means for learning the "dynamics of warfare." They provide a means by which "questions of strategy, human decision making, and war-fighting trends" can be analyzed. In comparison, James Dunnigan, author of The Complete Wargames Handbook, describes a wargame as "a combination of game, history and science."
Since every wargame has objectives, whether it is designed for a hobbyist or a professional, the more clearly the objectives are stated beforehand, the more likely a wargame will be successful. In hobby wargames, the designer usually determines the objectives of a wargame. Their ultimate goal is "intellectual entertainment." In a professional wargame, the objectives are usually determined by a sponsor (who sets up the goals of the wargame). The professional wargames are usually designed for educational or research reasons.
Perla distinguishes those games played by hobbyists and those played by professionals as those that are "played to meet educational or training objectives, or to conduct research about specific issues or concepts." Due to that, the design of each wargame is different. When designing wargames, Dunnigan believes that a wargame must accurately simulate a historical event (realism) while ensuring playability. According to Perla, those who help to create professional wargames have to ensure that the players will not only be able to learn something from playing a wargame, they have to ensure that they are also instructional tools. Both Dunnigan and Perla share fundamental principles though in designing games, as there are specific objectives, players, information tools and documents needed in both a hobby and professional wargame. In each case, the designers need to ensure that the wargamers (hobbyists and professionals) actually want to play the wargame.
Perla delves into the designing, development, playing, and analysis of wargames. Based upon his experience, he is able to provide a lot of information though it is done in a rather technical format. Perhaps, what is most evident when reading through this section is Perla's belief that wargaming has a significant, if not a very important role, in teaching, educating, and evaluating military leaders. While there may be some limitations in using wargames, the benefits of using wargames is significant.
Perla clearly is well versed on the subject of wargaming, however one must be able to read through all of his technical views/details of wargaming to learn about professional wargames. Perla appears to have targeted a different audience than Dunnigan, whose book has a lot more detail for the hobbyist. Perla's book seems to be written for the professional wargamer, especially those who may have an interest in the history of professional wargames, the design of wargames and the potential that wargames have to offer in our understanding of potential future conflicts. Based upon my review (as a hobbyist), I don't believe a hobbyist will enjoy reading this book as much as Dunnigan's book, unless they have an interest in understanding the difference between the two different types of wargamers.

Perla's extensive research into the background and history of wargames, along with the books acceptional chapters on designing and playing wargames make it a comprehensive guide for both the FNG (the NG part stands for new guy, the F yu can figure out) and the professional. A must read for any wargaming enthusiast.