Wargaming With Non-Wargamers

As alluded to in an earlier post, Nancy hosted one of the irregularly scheduled game days for her primary social group.  Since the event was to be held at our house, Nancy asked if I was interested in putting on a light wargame such as Commands & Colors to broaden the scope of games on offer.  She announced my participation and several showed an interest in giving this option a try.  As game day approached and the number of potential participants grew along with the number of tables needed, we decided to move my game downstairs into the game room and change from Commands & Colors to a tabletop miniatures game.  That way, I could get more than two players at a time into action.

Now, none of the potential participants had ever played a wargame.  One had played RPGs years ago.  Others had played chess and Risk.  This would present an interesting challenge.  I decided to bring my 28mm Sumerian armies out and play using Basic Impetvs on hexes.  On game day, I had three active players and one who was content to watch the action unfold from the sidelines.  Throughout the session, others would come down to have a look at the figures and see how the game was progressing.

Initial deployments

One challenge in bringing non-wargames into wargaming is introducing and explaining the many concepts unique to our gaming genre.  Every mechanism and concept that veteran wargamers accept as second nature and a "given" had to be explained and demonstrated in laymen's terms.  Not always as easy as the task may sound!  Anyway, after less than thirty minutes of overview, the players were tentatively ready to get stuck in.  One player would command the Red Army (red and green VBU dice) alone while the Blue Army (red and black VBU dice) would be split into two commands to accommodate two players.

Both sides began the approach to contact gingerly as players came to grips with maneuvering the different troop types.  I offered options available throughout to help their decision making.  After a few turns of cautious maneuvering, the two armies were poised within striking distance.  Let's see how the battle unfolded.

Armies slowly advance toward the center.

On the Left Wing, Red battle car rumbles forward and
 drives off an enemy massed bow unit but
not before the archers disorder the battle car as it closes.
Red battle car pursues and smashes into the Blue battle car.

View down the battle lines.

Right Wing Red battle car rumbles into a large body of spear.
Spearmen are driven back in disorder.
The battle car does not pursue. 

In an action-packed turn, Red's Left Wing battle car pursues the enemy
off table but is now essentially out of the fight.
In the foreground, Blue archers are driven off as Red's spear block attacks.
Blue's battle car overruns enemy archers.
Players are getting a good grounding in how combat works! 

Blue Army's Right Wing (black VBU dice) wavers as most
of its command is either destroyed or reduced to '1' VBU.

The end is near...

With Blue Army's Right Wing teetering on collapse and the difference in the Army Breakpoint totals large, the battle is called in favor of the Red Army.  Game duration, after introductions, was about two-and-a-half hours of play.

How did this introduction to tabletop miniatures wargaming to non-wargamers turn out?  Players were all good sports as they took some lumps with the dice.  All three players said they would play again.  One exclaimed that he would play anything anytime!  I reckon this was a success.  As a bonus, I was invited to join one of the players for some billiards' session.  Now, I have not picked up a cue stick in thirty years or more.  This should be fun.  Perhaps I will receive a lesson in billiards for non-billiards players?