Where did wargames come from? What purposes did they serve? Who participated in them, why, and what for? What forms did they take? What factors drove their development, and to what extent did they reflect changes in the art of war itself? What did they simulate, what didn’t they simulate, how, and why? What do they reveal about the conduct of war at the times, and in the places, where they were played? How useful are they in training for war and preparing for it? Why are some so much more popular than others, how do men and women compare in this respect, and what can the way the sexes relate to wargames teach us about their nature and the relationship between them? Finally, what does all this tell us about real war, fake or make-believe war, the interaction between the two, and the human condition in general? These are the sorts of questions the present volume has set out to answer; now that the voyage is almost done and the port is in sight, it is time to try and answer them.

Like all things with a long history behind them, wargames are almost impossible to define. They appear to have their origins in four basic human needs. The first is religion − meaning either the will to appease the gods by shedding blood in their honor or to determine, with the aid of combat of champions and judicial combat, what their wishes might be. The second is the perceived need for some mechanism to enable adversaries to settle certain kinds of disputes while risking all, but without endangering the rest of society, as in the case of single combat, trial by battle, and the duel.