Wargaming History – A Look Into The Past
University of Maryland Professor (and more importantly, wargamer!) Matt Kirschenbaum is on a European odyssey this summer. While in Switzerland for an academic conference, he made time to swing by a local museum and found an excellent display of wargaming history.
I was recently in Lausanne, Switzerland for a conference and, well, it rained the entire week. Looking around for something to do I noticed the Swiss Games Musuem, Le Musee Suisse du Jeu, was a short train ride away in the nearby town of La Tour de Pielz. Reading further, I discovered the museum was housed in a castle. A games museum in a castle? Let’s go! Upon arrival, I found two unexpected bonuses: first, the weather briefly cleared, *and* there was a special exhibition of WWI games on!
These are not “wargames” per se, but rather war-themed games, that is games that use traditional mechanics but with cosmetic Great War imagery and (perhaps) some rudimentary consim mechanics. Still, they are delightful and very evocative. The Bataille de Marne game is the most intriguing to me, and I would love to see the rules cards (in both French and German) translated if anyone has the time to do it. I apologize for the quality of the photos: smart phone through display glass, what you see is what you get. Enjoy!
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