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Wargame

A block wargame is a board wargame that represents military units using wooden blocks instead of cardboard counters or metal/plastic miniatures.

A block wargame uses wooden blocks to represent units. These blocks are typically square, have a labeled and an unlabeled side, and are generally thick enough that they can be placed on their side with the labeled side facing the owning player. Details about the unit (for instance, its identity as well as its attack, defense and movement scores) can then be seen easily by the owning player, while the opposing player will be left unsure of the exact nature of piece; while he can see where his rival's forces are, the fog of war is emulated by preserving the secrecy of the type and quality of the troops. Often, block pieces display the main information in the center with a series of numbers (or pips) around the edge, so that the current strength of the unit can be shown in a "step reduction" system (where a unit's strength is reduced step by step, as it takes damage during combat.) When the unit is undamaged, the largest number will be displayed at 12 o'clock. When the unit is damaged, the player turns it counterclockwise so that the next largest number is at 12 o'clock, with the number of pips at the top of block indicating its current strength. This continues until the unit's strength reaches zero, whereupon it is removed from play. Alternatively, some block wargames require the player to remove the block representing the damaged unit from the board and replace it with a block with a lower strength.

The initial idea of pieces that are visible to only one of two players traces back to the 1908 introduction of the game L'Attaque, the first version of Stratego. Early Stratego pieces were cardboard but were replaced by wood after World War II. (Today Stratego pieces are plastic.) However Stratego was not a direct inspiration for block wargames. In 1972, Lance Gutteridge of Gamma Two Games originally planned on using six sided dice to represent pieces and to provide for step reduction in combat strength. The high cost of dice led him to decide to instead use embossed wooden blocks showing 2, 3 or 4 steps in combat strength. The first such block wargame was Quebec 1759, depicting the campaign surrounding the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. Gamma Two Games later produced the block wargames War of 1812, simulating the war of that name, and Napoleon, simulating the campaign leading up to the Battle of Waterloo. In 1982, Gamma Two changed its name to Columbia Games.