Block Wargame Strategic Principles: A Primer

It had been my experience that people either really like block wargames, becoming ‘block heads’ and often accumulating a substantial collection of them, or they can’t stand them. Often those that hate them rationalize their dislike on historical or simulation grounds, but I think they just can’t wrap their heads around the system. After all, every wargame system can have legitimate critiques made on grounds of history or simulation. In fact, any model has its limits. In their favor, block wargames, with step reduction and hidden strengths, can address issues that often arise is real war such as fog of war and attrition. As with many things, it comes down to taste. One thing that may help foster a better appreciation of block wargames is an improved grasp of their unusual characteristics.

Most of what I have to say primarily applies to Columbia’s line of block wargames, although elements also apply to similar games by GMT, Simmons, Mercury, VentoNuovo and, especially, Worthington. For many years block games were pretty much a Columbia exclusive, but the last decade or so has seen an explosion in the genre. To be a block wargame, for purposes of this discussion, the blocks must be used to hide unit strength and implement step reduction. So the blocks used in, say Commands & Colors are better thought of as figure substitutes as mechanically they operate just as the figures do in Memoir’44 and Battle Cry, so Commands & Colors is not a “block game’ for purposes of this discussion.