Reply To: Do skirmish/warband level games actually reflect history?

[limburger 21707xp 1]

What about the wild west ?
It’s a very short period in history … and would have skirmish level fights. It’s close enough to ‘modern’ that we may have more chance of finding these things.

otoh … maybe these small encounters rarely get recorded, so we may not have evidence for a definite yes or no.

Also don’t forget the level of secrecy involved in modern engagements.
Spec Ops and SWAT teams would be perfect for representation on the tabletop at the skirmish level, but how many authors are really going to dig in there and give us rules & scenarios of actual engagements ?

Counter argument : do they have to ?

Not every restaurant has to be a 5 star rated experience.
Not every [insert country/food style] is an accurate representation of the food either.

Small skirmish games give us a taste of what a period was like, without having to do all of it.
Some eras/settings do allow for a more realistic representation of things that (could) have happened, while others can never be done.

Pike&shot era ? You may get a game that gets the muskets on the field, but pikes won’t work at all at the skirmish level.
Clash of Spears recognised that limitation for ancient period, so maybe there is a way to get the period done at that scale ?

All I can say is that games and players tend to be in two broad groups : those that want history and those that want a game.

You can see this in the cosplay/re-enactment hobby too. Some folk strive for perfect accuracy. Others are happy with a representation using modern tech for comfort.