Wargames & Fantasy Battles as an Aid to Education - 2

Building the Army
When constructing armies to play the games with there is usually a points value applied to each character in the army. Here then we see some simple addition being used, straight forward enough but the player also has to consider what characters are selected, they need to think about the skills that character has and how they combine with the rest of the army, what army they may fight and how the opposing armies skills may counter the skills of their own army.

In order to do the above they’ll need to refer to various sources of information, such as Army Books and Codices. These will contain a lot of information that isn’t needed and so the player needs to assess the structure and type of information presented, comprehend it’s meaning in relation to the whole and to other armies and the gaming system, then filter needed information and use it effectively.

It must be remembered that these books are reference books that while having structure are not sequential narratives that lead the reader from start to end. The player needs to apply reading and comprehension against highly abstract and creative concepts that may be being encountered for the first time. Add to this the need to understand the game rules in addition to Army Book details and relate the two.

In just setting up an army to play with, before a single die has even been rolled, we’re already seeing the player apply basic math skills, employing reading and comprehension skills in order to make sense of multiple abstract sources of information. They’re constantly applying numerical and tactical / strategic planning and analysis as they select the structure of their army. All the while exercising their creative imagination when learning about and considering the characters and world they inhabit.

In the next part...
Playing the Games, Models and Terrain

Wargames & Fantasy Battles as an Aid to Education

A hugely important aspect for Winter Hill Games, both as a Club and a Business, is promoting the educational benefits of our hobby. As you may know we have developed a number of “Club and Schools Learning Packs” for working with Club members and schools to develop various skills through Wargaming and Fantasy Battles.

In the following series of posts we'd like to share with you why we believe our hobby is a tool with which to practice and develop the learned skills acquired through formal education or develop the inherent abilities of the individual.

Please note that while we do get professional assistance in developing the learning packs no one at Winter Hill Games is from an educational background. We all went to school, heck some made it to tertiary education and most still read... but you know what we mean. ;} Therefore we encourage discussion on our views expressed here. We’ll share more about how we develop our Club and Schools Learning Packs in future posts, for now let’s share our ‘mindset’ with you.

Inherent Abilities and Learned Skills
When playing tabletop Wargames and Fantasy Battles the main things to do are to get immersed in the game, the characters, the situation the battle is at, take a break from the routine and stresses of life, enjoy spending time with like minded friends in a safe and relaxed environment and most importantly just have fun.

The great thing is while doing all of that the player can effortlessly do so much more too;

• Rapidly apply mental arithmetic techniques to perform various calculations to help keep track of define the current state of play and the effects of events during play.

• They use their wider math skills to perform numerical analysis either on the fly or against a collection of data for post game analysis.

• The player can perform situational and strategic analysis that leads to structured and accurate decision making based on both the rules of the game and the context of game play.

• They can practice language and communication skills when they discuss their understanding of the current state of the game play, resolve misunderstandings or negotiate issues.

• They exercise their creative, abstract, imaginative skills when engaging with the game board and characters used for the game as representations of real places, characters and events.

• The player will constantly apply reading and comprehension skills understanding the game lore, relationships between characters in the various armies, their background, etc.

All of this takes place fairly unnoticed for the most part and yet each is a significant skill that if practiced and developed will benefit the player greatly outside of the context of the hobby. The skills are highly transferrable to other hobbies, activities and of course the workplace.

In the next part...
How do these skills get applied in practice? By way of example let’s look at some key things the player does and how the above skills come into play.