Historical Miniature Wargaming

Refighting real battles with painted miniatures — Napoleonic, Ancient, Medieval, English Civil War, WWII and beyond.

🌤both

What is Historical Miniature Wargaming?

Historical Miniature Wargaming is the vast hobby of refighting real historical battles with painted miniatures — from Marathon to Waterloo to Kursk. Its roots lie in the 19th-century Prussian Kriegsspiel training kits and, for the modern civilian hobby, H.G. Wells's 1913 Little Wars. Countless rulesets cover every period and scale — DBA/DBM for Ancients, Sharp Practice and Blucher for Napoleonic, Command Decision for WWII, and hundreds more.

Quick facts

Category

Miniature Wargames

Type

Individual

Players

2–6

Where played

both

Country of origin

🇩🇪 Germany

Estimated origin

19th-century Prussian Kriegsspiel — modern hobby: H.G. Wells's 'Little Wars' 1913

Olympic

No

Popularity

regional

Sources & provenance

Last verified 2026-08-24.verified