Man-to-man wargame

A man-to-man wargame (also known as a skirmish wargame) is a wargame in which units generally represent single individuals or weapons systems, and are rated not only on weaponry but may also be rated on such facets as morale, perception, skill-at-arms, etc. The game is designed so that a knowledge of military tactics, especially at the small unit or squad level, will facilitate successful gameplay. Man-to-man wargames offer an extreme challenge to the designer, as fewer variables or characteristics inherent in the units being simulated are directly quantifiable. Modern commercial board wargaming stayed away from man-to-man subjects for many years, though once the initial attempts were made to address the subject, it has evolved into a popular topic among wargamers.

Man-to-man wargames have been a popular pastime for PC and console gamers, though "true" man-to-man combat simulators are much more rare than action-adventure oriented first person shooters which can probably be excluded from the topic of man-to-man wargames. Early role-playing games were derived from skirmish wargames, and many are still played as such. Many early designs for man-to-man games had cumbersome pre-plotting of moves, others used a system of multiple maps and umpires to try and create "fog of war" or uncertainty for players. Modeling conflict at this scale provides unique challenges to the game designer, who must find a way to quantify variables such as human behaviour at an individual level; games at higher (grand strategic, strategic, operational or tactical) levels can arguably have their variables more easily quantified.