Re: When does skirmish scale becomes battle scale?

On Sun, 01 Apr 2001 09:43:43 EDT, Glenn M Wilson <triphibious@juno.com>
wrote:

>Okay the first two are clearly "skirmish" but where does "battle"
begin:
>
>1:1
>1:5
>1:10
>1:20-25 (lumped them)
>1:30-33 (ditto)
>1:50
>1:60
>1:100

Depends on your definition of "skirmish". In a military sense, a
skirmish can
be anything up to a couple hundred, and more, soldiers. A skirmish had
certain
implications: small, not many casualties, short length of time. You
could have
a skirmish with a couple hundred cavalry officers a side in the Civil
War. On
the other hand, a modern special operations raid with the commandos
having
less than 50 soldiers wouldn't necessarily be called a skirmish. It
would be a
raid, if not necessarily a "battle". But it wouldn't be a skirmish
because
implied in the military term is a short time span.

In the wargaming sense, it's a matter of how many figures you put on the
table
top. Skirmish wargames imply that the game is played at the single
figure
level. That doesn't mean that the scale is 1:1, but rather that the
decisions
are being made for a single figure.

For instance, I don't consider Stargrunt II a skirmish game. Although
1:1, the
individual figures are essentially just casualty markers and bookkeeping
pieces. You could play the same game on a hex mapsheet with each squad
being
represented by one or two counters, ala Squad Leader. FMA I consider
skirmish.

Here are the terms I had described to me, and which I like to use:

Skirmish: big games would contain a platoon per side, but usually just a
couple of squads per side down to a minimum of 1 figure per side. Each
figure
represents 1 person. Games: FMA Skirmish, Gunslinger, Necromunda,
BattleLust,
Battleground: World War II.

Subtactical: games with a platoon per side up to about a company or two
per
side. Usually figures represent 1 person, but you may have a stand
represent a
squad or fireteam. Usually no worse than 1 figure = 5 people. Games:
Stargrunt
II, Squad Leader, Battleground: World War II.

Tactical: games with a battalion per side up to about a division per
side.
Unlikely to be played at the one figure = 1 person scale. Games: Johnny
Reb,
Fire and Fury, Dirtside II, Panzer Leader, Panzerblitz. 

Grand Tactical: popular for recreating battles from the 19th century
back, as
the ground scale can still encompass an entire battlefield. Anything
from a
brigade per side to an entire army per side. There are modern Grand
Tactical
games, but they usually have to abstract the terrain far more than
pre-20th
century. Games: Fire and Fury, DBA, DBM, Piquet, Sid Meir's Gettysburg.

Operational: I haven't seen many operational miniatures games. Usually
operational games work with anything from a division per side up to an
army.
They were VERY popular at one point as board games (seemed most of what
SPI
pumped out were operational). It's where you see the manoeuvring of
armies
that leads up to an actual battle. Games: Great Battles of the American
Civil
War series (Stonewall Jackson's Way, Here Come the Rebs, etc.), Great
Battle
of the Second World War, many "matrix" games.

Strategic: covers the movement of entire armies in a single theatre, or
a huge
campaign. Usually at least an army, and quite often several, per side. I
haven't seen many strategic games in miniature, either, though I did see
one
matrix game dealing with the Scottish War of Independence. Games: Third
Reich,
Bobby Lee/Sam Grant.

Grand Strategic: wargame that covers an entire war, or series of wars.
This is
a big game. Ground has to be so abstracted that it's not usually done as
a
miniatures game (though you do find games that use miniatures just to
make it
look more appealing aesthetically). Each side usually covers several
armies
and army groups a side. Games: Axis and Allies, SPI's Third World War,
Risk,
Imperium. 

Allan Goodall		       awg@sympatico.ca
Goodall's Grotto:  http://www.vex.net/~agoodall

"Now, see, if you combine different colours of light,
 you get white! Try that with Play-Doh and you get
 brown! How come?" - Alan Moore & Kevin Nolan, 
   "Jack B. Quick, Boy Inventor"