Wargames, or more specifically board wargames, are games that simulate historical or hypothetical conflicts. Board wargames are sometimes called "strategy games" but this is a misnomer since the scope of wargames is not limited to military or political strategy. They are usually played by two or more players who control forces in conflict. Within the strict confines of the game rules, players strive to meet the victory conditions by moving their forces and engaging in combat. If you have played Risk, you have played a very simple wargame.
Wargames are normally played on a "map" that represents the area in which the conflict is occurring. Usually the map has a hexagonal grid superimposed over it that is used to regulate movement, combat, and other aspects of the game (see the graphic above which is a small section of the playing map from GREENLINE:CHECHNYA by Joe Miranda, published by One Small Step.). Some games break up the map into areas, zones, or other irregular shapes.
Counters (or markers) represent units in conflict. Depending upon the scale of the game (see below), units can be anything from entire national armies down to individual soldiers or vehicles. Markers are also used to represent status or condition of the unit, or even to hide the units from the other player.
The scale of a wargame is described by the amount of territory each hexagon
(or "hex") on the map represents, the size of the unit the counters represent,
and the time represented by each turn. For example, an early wargame called
BLITZKREIG used counters that represented division of infantry, armor, or
artillery. Each hex in BLITZKREIG represented an area 10 miles across. Each turn
represented one week of elapsed time. In a more recently-released game, ACHTUNG!
SPITFIRE, each hex represents only 100 yards, each counter represents a single
WWII aircraft, and one combat turn represents only 10 seconds of real time.
There are a number of free wargames available on this site here.
Commercially produced games Look in your local yellow pages under "games"
for retailers that carry wargames. Larger cities will likely have stores
that carry only wargames. You can also find them in some hobby stores.
Or, check out the links page for on-line dealers that stock games, miniatures, and models.
Collecting games is as much fun as playing them! Here is a list of the games
in my collection.