Dice

One feature of many wargames is chance. Outcomes are not known and predictions can only be made as probabilities. How likely is it that the charge of tiny soldiers will overwhelm the gates of the fortress? How likely is it that Professor Dunbar will go insane as a result of his encounter with the creeping mists of death? Will the cavalry arrive on time? We can only guess because the outcome is not known with certainty and this is a result of the use of dice.

Here is how it works: assign odds to events and roll the dice. If you fire an imaginary shell from a cannon, it may create a breach in the wall on a roll of 12, bounce off harmlessly on rolls of 3 through 11, or hit something else entirely on a roll of 2. The outcome is no longer certain. Perhaps the gunnery crew is highly skilled or the gun fired is exceptionally accurate. Maybe a breach occurs on a roll greater than 9. Die rolls and modifications of die rolls by a list of factors ultimately serves as the cornerstone of wargaming. Even whether or not a group of soldiers could be moved or how far they would move could be controlled by a die roll.

Six-sided dice are most common because of their ready availability but ten-sided dice have the advantage in that the die rolls can more readily express a percentage. Even so, there are a range of dice with varying number of sides including 4-sided, 8-sided, etc. This was especially relevant in RPGs where eventually, players arrived with carefully crafted dice bags to hold all the different dice required by the rules. Some rules also mandated special 6-sided dice with unusual faces or multi-colored dice or large quantities of a particular kind of die.Games Workshop rules insisted on one 6-sided die per man. If 20 men fired guns, you rolled 20 dice to determine the outcome.

This does not mean that dice are essential. It is possible to present a game as H.G. Wells originally did that require no dice at all. But dice have for the most part become an essential element of wargaming.

Measurements

It is an interesting point that wargames can be played with pieces of cardboard or paper cutouts and in fact have been for many years. But one thing that remains consistent is the need for measurement of distance and angle using rulers, protractors, and tape measures. These help determine how far units can move, in which direction, and the distance between pieces used for measuring everything from the ability to hit with ranged weapons to the capacity of a nearby commander to influence the unit.

Also important are templates. Many rules will specify specific templates to show the cone of impact of certain ranged weapons as in cannon loaded with grapeshot, machine guns, or the fire breathed by dragons. Circular templates can be used to determine the possible effect of falling shells or other explosive devices. While rules usually provide templates on stiff paper to be cut out, plastic is much sturdier and easier to use as in the Games Workshop templates illustrated.

Of course, it is possible to toss all those measuring tools out the window by using hex mats. These mats sold in various sizes, materials, colors and hexagon length allow gamers to either use board game rules with miniature figures or adapt their miniatures rules to a hexagonal grid. The mats shown here are from The Armory and Hotz Mat. The larger are made of felt. It is possible to cover an entire floor with these. There are also paper mats though these are getting more difficult to find.