This page is the Table of Contents for the section. There are many sites on the Web concerning "War Games". Consequently there is no need for this section to be exhaustive about the subject. Rather, the focus is upon the equipment in the collection for games of this type.
A game is included in this section if it's name indicates a military setting or a historic conflict classified as a war, such as "Bomb The Axis". Sometimes it is only the design of the equipment or the play of the game that suggests a war as in the game of "Chess".
While some examples of games in this classification were added to the collection from it's start, in 1987 somewhere over 50 games of this type were donated to the collection by the family of Professor Gerald De Gre.
De Gre was a professor of Sociology at the University of Waterloo. His hobby was war games. As a socio-historian, he held a number of gaming sessions in his home, in which players re-fought many historical battles. He collected books, subscribed to journals, acquired ephemera materials, and boxed war games. He modified many of the games based upon his historical research, or the needs of players in the gaming sessions. He invited students, neighbors in the area, and other interested persons to participate in his war gaming sessions. Only part of his collection was donated to the Museum by his family after his death. Many valuable pieces, such as hand carved ivory chess pieces from the orient, or hand cast and painted lead soldiers were sold to dealers in England where his family moved to after his death. Click on the left menu item to view a page with a partial list of the games the De Gre family donated to the collection.
Click on a title in the list below to be taken to a page with comments and photographic illustrations about a specific game in the collection.
Last update June 26, 2010