Military Strategy Games

As we look through the history and military, you may want to consider how various forms of gaming can bring historical and military events to life. This month I bring a few really interesting resources which allow you and your kids to make decisions like Napoleon, Lee, or MacArthur.

Junior Generals

http://www.juniorgeneral.org/

This is one of my favorite history sites. It contains rules for dozens of non-computer games that help you and your kids explore many historical events through fascinating simulations. Many of the games can use miniature models. and most also include paper models you can print out. For each game, there are rules, playing pieces you can print out, links to related sites, and historical background. These games would be best played in a coop or group setting, as they are designed for classroom use. Many can also be used with smaller groups, or even two players. Note that tabletop wargames have been in existence for some time, and can be very complex. These rules have been adapted and tested for kids at about the middle school level.

The games include many historical time periods, and a number of interesting scenarios. Here are a few that caught my eye as being especially suitable for homeschoolers:

Salamis - play as the Greeks or the Persians in one of history’s earliest recorded naval battles.
Marathon - Before it was a race or a gas station, Marathon was an important battle in the Greek / Persian wars
Battle of Barons - Looks like a really fun game to play during a unit study on Medieval Europe
Year of One Reed - Aztecs vs. Spaniards. Fascinating game. How students answer questions influences play
Alamo - Features special rules for famous figures like Jim Bowie, Davy Crockett, and Santa Anna
Civil War in 30 Minutes - This intriguing game gives a feel for the problems faced in the US civil war
World War II Air Combat - Great game for 2 players simulating dogfights. Other rules for other time periods available

FreeCiv

http://sourceforge.net/projects/freeciv/

FreeCiv is a free and open-source variation of Civilization: one of the most famous computer games in - well - history. The basic thrust of all the civilization games is the same. The player controls a civilization that begins in the ancient era. You slowly build a civilization by building cities, researching technologies, and of course smiting your enemies.

While the game is great fun on its own, it does have some historical merit. The decisions you have to make are common to leaders throughout history: Do you place your cities for maximum growth potential or where they can be easily defended? Do you emphasize commerce and technical advancement or military power? Do you choose a form of government that leads to happier and more productive people but fewer military options? Are you honest or deceitful in your diplomacy?

As your technology improves, you slowly move through history, moving towards the feudal era, and eventually discovering technology that leads to battleships, tanks, and space travel. You can play on an accurate globe or (to simulate the exploration of the world) a randomly-generated planet that you explore only gradually. The civilization games are highly addictive, and can take a long time to play, but they can be a great starting place for many conversations about historical events. The game was designed to follow the general flow of history, but the exact historical details will not be precisely as you remember from history class, because the results are determined by the human and AI players. (In my most epic game, my Mayan empire defeated the hated Goths by being the first civilization to colonize Alpha Centauri.)

There are many commercial versions of Civilization available. The current version is available for desktop computers, and is quite expensive, but there is also a wonderful smaller version called Civilization Revolution which is less expensive, runs on mobile devices and gaming consoles, and is tuned to run in shorter games of 1-2 hours. (A full game of Civilization can take dozens of hours over weeks, so be warned.)

FreeCiv is a complete free variation of Civilization which runs on all major operating systems. It is roughly equivalent to Civilization II (arguably the best game in the series.)

Xconq

Strategy games have a long history, both as entertainment and serious training. I grew up playing paper wargames with my father (a career infantry officer - I didn’t win very often.) These games are more about game play than flashy graphics, but they can be quite fun, and can give you a real sense of the kind of decsions commanders make.

Xconq (http://sourceware.org/xconq/) is based on a very old computer game called 'Empire.’ While empire was an abstract game set roughly in World War II technology, Xconq was designed from the beginning to be a system rather than a single game. The standard version of the game has units based on the world war II era, but the game was designed to be flexible enough to be used for many different kinds of battles in many different historical eras. The game ships with dozens of interesting scenarios, including the Peloponnesian wars, Gettysburg, The Normandy invasion, and Beirut 1982. If that isn’t enough, the game also comes with a scenario language that makes it reasonably easy to re-create any battle you can imagine. This would be an ideal project for an older student. Rather than writing a report about the battle of Agincourt, why not try to write a scenario to describe how the battle happened?

Xconq (like nearly everything I suggest) is entirely free and works on all major operating systems.

Games are not the only way to study history, but they can be an interesting way to investigate what happened during pivotal battles. If you have students interested in military strategy and tactics, consider allowing them to investigate one of these interesting game alternatives.

Blessings!