Editing Wargame (section)

==History==
[[Chess]] is probably the oldest wargame still commonly played, though it's generally counted among board games instead because of how heavily abstracted it is. Modern wargaming as we think of it originated around the Napoleonic Wars, when Prussian officers developed a series of wargames, referred to as "[[Kriegsspiel]]" (literally german for War Game). Kriegsspiel was intended as an officer's training tool rather than a game played for entertainment, but it caught on, first among the officer corps and then eventually among civilians. By modern standards, Kriegsspiel is very clunky and difficult to play, but some dedicated players do still follow it. Kriegsspiel used paper chits to represent groups of soldiers, and did use dice rolls to account for chance.

The first wargame marketed towards civilians was actually developed by early science fiction author H.G Wells, who developed a codified ruleset for playing with toy soldiers and spring loaded toy cannons that fired wooden plugs, both of which were common toys at the time. Almost a direct opposite to Kriegsspiel in many ways, Wells' system, which he dubbed Little Wars, was very rules light, using no dice and emphasizing maneuver over chance. The main element of player skill involved was in the use of the artillery, where you would actually fire wooden plugs at the other side's soldiers in order to kill whichever soldiers you hit. The rules are available online for free, so [http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3691 be classy and take a look at the rules for the first ever Wargame, right here.]

Little Wars was published in 1913, and didn't enjoy huge success. Wargaming didn't truly take off as a hobby until after World War II. The early wargames of this era were historical, many of them themed around the days of the Roman empire, but the publication of [[Lord Of The Rings]] caused a major interest in medieval and fantasy warfare in the 60s and 70s - a notable entry in this was the wargame Chainmail, which was spawned a little hero-focused spinoff called [[Dungeons & Dragons]]. The 1980s were mostly notable for wargaming delving into science fiction and fantasy. The popularity of Star Wars, the plethora of excellent Fantasy films, and the enduring enthusiasm for Lord of The Rings lead to the introduction of more and more fantastical games. Most notable were [[Battletech]], influenced heavily by Mecha anime before codifying the western Mecha genre, and [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]. Warhammer was the first wargame meant to be played with proprietary miniatures, serving as a product first, and it was a major success, spawning its eventually more popular science fiction equivalent Warhammer 40,000. The 1990s and 2000s saw a slow but gradual spread in wargaming's popularity, with many wargame properties adapted to video games. In this time period, the various Warhammer properties solidified a hold on the market that they keep today - the 2010s saw challengers such as [[Warmachine]] and [[Hordes]], both from Privateer Press, and  [[X-Wing]] and [[Star Wars: Legion]], both from Fantasy Flight Games, but neither managed to disrupt Warhammer's dominant position.
Description	What you type	What you get
Italic	''Italic text''	Italic text
Bold	'''Bold text'''	Bold text
Bold & italic	'''''Bold & italic text'''''	*Bold & italic text*
Description	What you type	What you get
Reference	Page text.<ref>[https://www.example.org/ Link text], additional text.</ref>	Page text.^[1]
Named reference	Page text.<ref name="test">[https://www.example.org/ Link text]</ref>	Page text.^[2]
Additional use of the same reference	Page text.<ref name="test" />	Page text.^[2]
Display references	<references />	↑ Link text, additional text. ↑ Link text