The graphic quality of hex and counter wargames has come a long way from the days of 1958 and the release of Tactics. The utilitarian and almost soulless graphics found in that game have given way to a color palette and imagery that would probably make even the grumpiest grognard weep. I’ve been rather impressed with some of the newer releases I’ve seen lately. And, with companies like Compass Games re-releasing old favorites, we’re seeing a lot of popular games getting the new graphics for their maps and counters. It’s done these old eyes a lot of good.
How many of us had times, even in our youth, when you had trouble reading hex numbers on a map or telling shades of red on a counter apart. I’d say those days are slowly coming to an end with the advent of ever more powerful desktop publishing software. Having been playtesting and editing a few new titles for Compass Games recently, I can honestly say, the advent of the new software has become a real boon to putting out ever higher quality games earlier in the process. And with VASSAL, it makes it a lot easier to create virtual components for playtesting with something that is a lot closer to the final product. No more maps made of poster board with drawn on hexes, shaded to resemble what the terrain was supposed to look like in the final product, and hand-drawn counters where you’re left wondering whether it’s a “1” or a “7” for the attack value of a given counter.
I personally think the bar was set high early in what many are calling the “Second Golden Age of Hex and Counter Wargaming” with many of GMT’s efforts. Their American Revolution games deservedly won awards in the graphics category, and many of their other games were setting new standards for graphic design in the 1990s. It’s only gotten better with their recent releases that I have managed to get a hold of, like Red Storm.
I think that the standard of design is only going to get better as the graphic design software gets more powerful and rapid prototyping gets cheaper. In my opinion, I think hex-and-counter designs are probably about to experiment with not just downloadable print-on-demand games you print yourself, but games where the company can send orders to the printer, print the components, and send them out to the customer within a week. It would obviate the need for companies to have any inventory on hand, and even FLGS could get in on the act. You put your order in at the game store, they take their cut, and your game arrives within a week, or they even print it on site for you while you wait?
The future, my friends, even with smaller print runs and escalating costs is bright, as I feel the print on demand model is a way to keep costs down and maintain quality. Another thought is to abandon print entirely and go with the paid VASSAL model. If you make the rules say reader friendly and keep them manageable, you can have the world’s most portable wargame and costs would be very, very amenable. I have heard some smaller companies are going towards this model, but I haven’t seen anything myself.
While overall print costs are going up (like anything else today), I think that embracing the idea of on demand services in wargaming, coupled with staying abreast of the latest in graphic design trends will allow wargaming to maintain our second golden age. We are seeing games and game design we’d have only dreamed of in the 1970s and 80s, and as someone wiser than me once said “It’s the stuff that dreams are made of.”
I am very confident that in the future, we might even see the size of wargames shrink, as rules could be completely downloadable, and the only physical components would be counters and a map. Perhaps most games would resemble the folio/magazine games of yore. But then again, we’d lose some of the awesome box covers we have been seeing of late…so perhaps not.
It’s a lot of things to think about, personally. I am excited.
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(This article is credited to Jason Weiser. Jason is a long-time wargamer with published works in the Journal of the Society of Twentieth Century Wargamers; Miniature Wargames Magazine; and Wargames, Strategy, and Soldier.)