A man-to-man wargame (also known as a skirmish wargame) is a

wargame A wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a realistic simulation of an armed conflict. Wargaming may be played for recreation, to train military officers in the art of strategic thinking, or to s ...

in which units generally represent single individuals or weapons systems, and are rated not only on weaponry but may also be rated on such facets as morale, perception, skill-at-arms, etc. The game is designed so that a knowledge of

military tactics Military tactics encompasses the art of organizing and employing fighting forces on or near the battlefield. They involve the application of four battlefield functions which are closely related – kinetic or firepower, Mobility (military), mobil ...

, especially at the small unit or

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level, will facilitate successful gameplay. Man-to-man wargames offer an extreme challenge to the designer, as fewer variables or characteristics inherent in the units being simulated are directly quantifiable. Modern commercial board wargaming stayed away from man-to-man subjects for many years, though once the initial attempts were made to address the subject, it has evolved into a popular topic among wargamers. Man-to-man wargames have been a popular pastime for PC and console gamers, though "true" man-to-man combat simulators are much more rare than action-adventure oriented

first person shooters First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the pl ...

. Early

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...

s were derived from skirmish wargames, and many are still played as such. Many early designs for man-to-man games had cumbersome pre-plotting of moves, others used a system of multiple maps and umpires to try and create "fog of war" or uncertainty for players. Modeling conflict at this scale provides unique challenges to the game designer, who must find a way to quantify variables such as human behaviour at an individual level; games at higher ( grand strategic,

strategic Strategy (from Greek στρατηγία ''stratēgia'', "art of troop leader; office of general, command, generalship") is a general plan to achieve one or more long-term or overall goals under conditions of uncertainty. In the sense of the "art ...

operational An operational definition specifies concrete, replicable procedures designed to represent a construct. In the words of American psychologist S.S. Stevens (1935), "An operation is the performance which we execute in order to make known a concept." F ...

tactical Tactic(s) or Tactical may refer to: * Tactic (method), a conceptual action implemented as one or more specific tasks ** Military tactics, the disposition and maneuver of units on a particular sea or battlefield ** Chess tactics ** Political tacti ...

) levels can arguably have their variables more easily quantified.

List of wargames

Below is a list of man-to-man wargames in the order in which they were introduced. * ''Western Gunfight Wargame Rules 1st Ed'' (Steve Curtis, Ian Colwill, Mike Blake 1970. 2nd Ed 1971) ** ''Old West Skirmish Rules 1816-1900'' (Skirmish Wargames ((Ian Colwill, Mike Blake)), 1974. US Ed 1975. Revised Ed. 1978) * ''

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Gary Gygax Ernest Gary Gygax ( ; July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008) was an American game designer and author best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') with Dave Arneson. In the 1960s, Gygax created an ...

and Jeff Perren, 1971) * ''Colonial Skirmish Wargames Rules c1850-1900'' (Mike Blake, Steve Curtis, Ian Colwill, Ted Herbert, 1972) * '' Sniper!'' ( SPI, 1973. 2nd ed

TSR, Inc. TSR, Inc. was an American game publishing company, best known as the original publisher of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D''). Its earliest incarnation, Tactical Studies Rules, was founded in October 1973 by Gary Gygax and Don Kaye. Gygax had been ...

1987) ** ''

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'' ( SPI, 1973) ** ''

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, 1988) ** ''

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, 1988) * ''Skirmish Wargaming'' ( Donald Featherstone, 1975) * ''Melee'' (Metagaming, 1977. 2nd Ed. Steve Jackson Games 2018) * ''Once Upon a Time in the West: Rules for Gunfight Wargames'' (Ian S. Beck and John D. Spencer, 1978) * ''Snapshot'' (

Game Designers' Workshop Game Designers' Workshop (GDW) was a wargame and role-playing game publisher from 1973 to 1996. Many of their games are now carried by other publishers. History Game Designers' Workshop was originally established June 22, 1973. The founding m ...

, 1979) * '' City-Fight'' ( SPI, 1979) * ''

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'' (SPI, 1979) * ''

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'' (SPI, 1980) * ''Flintlock & Ramrod 1700-1850 Skirmish Wargames Rules'' (Skirmish Wargames((Ian Colwill, Mike Blake)), 1980) * ''

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