“Because at heart, all boys are grognards.”
Here’s something that you may not have noticed is missing from American curricula: military history.
I’m reminded of this by Jonathan Last’s piece in the Wall Street Journal discussing the long-time popularity of war strategy games among men and boys.
Historian and Harvard prof Niall Ferguson has been working with the makers of the very popular war-strategy-game Making History:
Like its predecessor, Making History II is a World War II simulation, where players choose a country and, beginning in 1933, guide it—diplomatically, economically and militarily—through the great conflagration. The new version boasts many intriguing features, not the least interesting of which is the involvement of historian Niall Ferguson.
… Mr. Ferguson worked with the developers at Muzzy Lane to realistically map material resources and economic frameworks. As such, Making History II may be the apogee of a breed which has been quietly beloved of boys and men for half a century: the war-strategy game. While computers have added a level of mathematical sophistication to the genre, the older, hands-on war-strategy games retain an elegant charm.
These games have been around for a long time:
Chess, of course, was the original war-strategy game. But in 1954 a Harvard undergrad named Allan Calhamer created a board game about pre-World War I Europe. It was eccentric, requiring seven players, one each for the major powers of the day. Players conspired with each other between turns, writing their moves down on cards which were then played simultaneously. Victory or defeat for armies depended entirely on the level of allied support—there was no randomness to combat. As such, Mr. Calhamer’s game demanded shifting alliances and strategic planning that was both broad and deep. He called his game Diplomacy.
Finally published in 1959, Diplomacy gained a serious following. President Kennedy played it in the White House. In 1973 Henry Kissinger declared that it was his favorite game.
The popularity of Diplomacy and other war-strategy games– some of them quite complex– brought with it a name for serious game players: the grognard, a term which, according to the OED, originally referred to “a soldier of Napoleons’ Old Guard; a veteran soldier; grumbler (French).”
Hooked? Get your grognard gear here.
