What constitutes a war game?

[player1772]

There are many war-like games out there including A Game of Thrones, Diplomacy, Star Wars: Rebellion, Shogun, etc that are technically not war games. The boardgamegeek website does not even include them in the war games list. Why is that? What does a game need for it to be considered a war game? Another game by the name of Root, which was actually inspired by AGOT and Diplomacy, IS a war game but the aforementioned other two are not. I am curious to hear your thoughts.

[Romain672]

I think it's done manually by the developper. You can open a bug report to ask to add or remove a tag.

[Lunalol]

Wargame = hexagons
No, it is a joke, it is not so simple.
But 30 years ago, it was near to be reality.
So USE, SE4X and "perhaps" Memoir'44 are "true" ones.

[Strode]

I checked BoardGameGeek, and Star Wars: Rebellion is listed as a wargame. It's even listed under "Top Games" in the Wargames category.
A Game of Thrones is also categorized as a wargame. I didn't check the others.

[player1772]

I checked BoardGameGeek, and Star Wars: Rebellion is listed as a wargame. It's even listed under "Top Games" in the Wargames category.
A Game of Thrones is also categorized as a wargame. I didn't check the others.

Hello Strode,

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/187 ... -rebellion -If the game is listed as a war game, there will be a war rank at the top next to "overall" and "thematic". There is no war rank listed for this game.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/103 ... nd-edition -same for A Game of Thrones, there is no war rank at the top of the page.

Another interesting fact is that many war gamers don't even consider Twilight Struggle to be a war game, but BGG does include it in their list. I wonder what most people's opinions are of this?

[player1772]

Wargame = hexagons
No, it is a joke, it is not so simple.
But 30 years ago, it was near to be reality.
So USE, SE4X and "perhaps" Memoir'44 are "true" ones.

Hello Lunalol! Yes, I have read the rules for SE4X and it looks like an amazing game. I will have to try it out sometime. Also, thank you for your hard work in bringing these games to BGA. It is much appreciated.

[Strode]

I checked BoardGameGeek, and Star Wars: Rebellion is listed as a wargame. It's even listed under "Top Games" in the Wargames category.
A Game of Thrones is also categorized as a wargame. I didn't check the others.

Hello Strode,

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/187 ... -rebellion -If the game is listed as a war game, there will be a war rank at the top next to "overall" and "thematic". There is no war rank listed for this game.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/103 ... nd-edition -same for A Game of Thrones, there is no war rank at the top of the page.

Another interesting fact is that many war gamers don't even consider Twilight Struggle to be a war game, but BGG does include it in their list. I wonder what most people's opinions are of this?

I'm going by this:

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamecate ... 19/wargame

Note that SW:Rebllion is listed as one of the top games, and if you click "See All" it shows Game of Thrones.

Or go to the individual game pages, See Full credits, and Categories.

The games have multiple designations and I believe only one subgroup shows in the rank. But that doesn't mean BGG doesn't consider them wargames at all.

[SquashEngineer]

Guns, tanks, troop movements, area control, opponent attrition.

Everything else are just fighting games.

[player1772]

Guns, tanks, troop movements, area control, opponent attrition.

Everything else are just fighting games.

AGOT (2e) has infantry, cavalry, siege engines, ships, ports, troop movement, mustering of units, area control, etc. It has most of the things you mentioned in your post, yet is not characterized as a war game. That seems odd to me, especially considering the fact that by BGG'S same standards the game Risk IS a war game. AGOT (2e) is essentially a more advanced version of Risk.

[Lunalol]

Perhaps a useful link :
https://www.armchairdragoons.com/articl ... CLm2I_xnM0