RockyMountainNavy, 3 February 2025
“A French, a German, and an Italian wargamer walk into a game shoppe.” Sounds like the start of a bad joke, eh? Fortunately for the wargaming world we do not get a bad pun but instead a new book. EuroWarGames: The history, state and future of professional and public (war)gaming in Europe takes a scholarly approach to its discussion of wargaming. Edited by German Jan Heinemann (a fellow Armchair Dragoon), Italian Riccardo Masini, and French Frédéric Serval they bring together (mostly) European wargamers to discuss both the wargame practitioner and commercial hobby sides of wargaming.
There has been something of a renaissance in wargaming related books published in the past few months. Among the recent titles are The Art of Rodger B. MacGowan (RBM Studios, 2024) and Wargames According to Mark: An Historian’s View of Wargame Design (Studiolo Designs, 2024) as well as Paper Time Machines: Critical Game Design and Historical Board Games (Routledge, 2024). Now, from the European side of the Atlantic comes EuroWarGames: The history, state and future of professional and public (war)gaming in Europe (Nuts! Publishing, 2024) that shares a decidedly European perspective on both hobby and professional wargaming.

As the back of EuroWarGames points out, wargaming is traditionally thought of, “in two perspectives: as a tool for professional education, training and analysis in military or civic contexts, and as a hobby enjoyed through board and tabletop games.” Both perspectives, the editors argue, are “largely shaped by Anglo-American practices, viewpoints, and player communities.” The editors further argue that the rise of eurogames [BoardGameGeek definition 1 here and definition 2 here] eclipsed hobby wargaming (Heinemann, et al., back cover). The editors go on to contend that small, fragmented, European wargame communities carry the mantle of wargaming in Europe yet go unnoticed.
EuroWarGames intends to right this wrong by:
…bringing together international wargaming practitioners, scholars, designers and players, providing thoughts, stories, and research on communities, conventions, game narratives, the history of wargames, as well as the adaption of mechanics across genres. (Heinemann, et al., back cover)
To make their argument the editors of EuroWarGames break their anthology into three broad areas with each getting a section of the book.
The first section, called “Thinking About Wargames,” includes:
…the more analytical contributions that explore the inner essence of wargaming. Those articles show the rules evolution, the proposed image of war and even the emotional impact on the players for what they really are: individual components organically tied together to create one of the more fascinating applications of the human capability of mentally creating (or re-creating) worlds outside of reality itself. (Heinemann, et al., p. 20)
Five chapters make up the first section of EuroWarGames:
- “Attack of the Hybrids! Wargames and Eurogames-derived mechanics” by EuroWarGames co-editor Riccardo Masini from Italy.
- “Conceptions of War in three different Board Games: Risk, Cruzada y Revolución and This War of Mine” by Daniela Kuschel in Germany.
- “A digital humanities approach to European presence in historical wargames” by Xavier Rubio-Campillo from Spain.
- “The game of data: A data science approach to wargaming” by Alfio Ferrara from…Italy? [Sorry, this is the only chapter without a biography of the author but some Google-foo points to Milan.]
- “Theater of Operations – Wargame and Image: Notes on Geography of the Mind” by Salvatore Santangelo in Italy.
The second section of EuroWarGames shifts focus to wargame design. As the Introduction teases:
Here some of the most prolific authors share their experiences and those of colleagues, as well as the results of actual practices in the professional field of gaming. It is a precious opportunity to gain insight into the real “engine” of our passion, fully understanding the meaning of terms such as “tradition” or “innovation”, explained by people that spend so much time into creating simulations enjoyed by thousands of player all over the world. (Heinemann, et al., p. 21)
The second section of EuroWarGames deliver four chapters:
- “Innovation and Inspiration in Contemporary Board Wargames: Discussions with Designers” by Maurice Suckling from New York and author of the other recently released wargaming book Paper Time Machines.
- “Analog Newsgames” by friend-of-the-Dragoons Brian Train from Canada, eh? [Before everybody gets bent out of shape and accuses me of stereotyping Canadians, please note that I spent two tours and six years working with our Canadian allies at the North American Aerospace Defense Command—NORAD—where I learned sentences end in “eh?” and to never play hockey against a Canadian over age 40 because while they may skate slower than you they never hesitate to roughly check you into the boards.]
- “Board design for business and other non-military wargames” by Stéphane Goria in France.
- “Detail vs. Playability in board wargaming – My personal experience” by Andrea Angiolino from Italy.
The third section of EuroWarGames shifts the focus to players; specifically:
Here the reader will find out how the actual experiences and actions of players, organized groups, clubs and conventions gets to shape a national wargaming community, or a specific sector of professional wargame users. Also, what impact those practices have over the game design process, market dynamics and subsequent evolutionary trends in the hobby. (Heinemann, et al., p. 23)
The third and last section of EuroWarGames has the most chapters along with a guest American writer:
- “Corteo, a Very Countercultural Game: Political struggle and ludic culture in Italy in the 1970s and 1980s” by Giaime Alonge and Riccardo Fassone both hailing from Italy.
- “What makes a wargame ‘historical’ – a case study of the Peloponnesian War” by Paul Hodson in the United Kingdom.
- “Professional Wargaming in Hungary: A short history of 150 years of wargaming” by Zoltán Harangi-Tóth in Hungary.
- “Strike or not? Communication between players inside a team as a way to highlight their faction’s internal dynamics” by Lorenzo Nannetti from Italy.
- “Commercial Off the Shelf Wargames and Professional Development” by Ranald Shepherd in Scotland.
- “Bellotas” by Volko Ruhnke in Virginia.
- “The new Risorgimento of the Italian Wargame” by Guiseppe Tamba from Italy.
The other side of the…pond
In the introduction to EuroWarGames the editors make claims that today we—grandly including all wargamers worldwide—are in the midst of a “Renaissance of wargaming” (Heinemann, et al., p. 15). This renaissance is the result of two processes working together. The first, the editors claim somewhat ironically, is the rise of Eurogames. Indeed, in the first chapter of EuroWarGames Masini explores the rise of Eurogames deeply but that theme runs through many other chapters as well. The second process that contributes to today’s “Renaissance in wargaming” are the, “uses and even the psychological aspects of wargaming” (Heinemann, et al., p. 16).
The editors of EuroWarGames try hard to not let the book devolve into yet another “Eurogames versus Ameritrash” scrum. EuroWarGames is intended to celebrate European wargaming through a “multicultural approach to simulation games and from there to our shared tormented history” (Heinemann, et al., p. 18). That approach in turn leads to a, “different relationship with history, different collective awarenesses, different cultural heritages [that] may lead to different perceptions of the world, and thus different kinds of wargames” (Heinemann, et al., p. 20).

Taken as a whole I found EuroWarGames a very interesting, informative, and even a bit of a provocative read. There are parts I disagree with; for instance Masini’s argument that cards are a tell-tale sign of a hybrid or Euro-inspired wargame comes off as overplayed to me. Regardless of some minor quibbles there is almost certainly a bit of something for every different wargamer in EuroWarGames; from different perspectives on wargames to data analytics to inspiration and innovation in wargame design to shared experiences playing wargames. The message of EuroWarGames, as a whole, is positive and uplifiting. Though I am separated from Euro-wargamers by an ocean the book EuroWarGames helps bring not only myself but all the international wargaming community, hobby and practitioner alike, together. As the editors of EuroWarGames repeat incessantly, today is a “Renaissance of wargaming” and the contributions to this anthology showcase the best aspects of that renaissance from a European perspective.
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In view of current events, Canada may soon try to join the EU, so this anthology would be almost entirely European or EU writers, technically.