One way to help understand how a battle or topic can be wargamed is to look at all the different wargames that have been done on that battle or topic, and the choices and design decisions that different wargame designers have made in order to model and represent the key features of the battle or idea.

From my work in building the Urban Wargames Database I now know that are only a half-dozen or so battles for which 4 or more Wargames exist, and only another half-dozen or so with 3 wargames. So if I want to do a comparative study on urban wargames these will be my choices:

• Stalingrad 1942/43 (24 games)
• Hue 1968 (9)
• Berlin 1945(6)
• Budapest 1956 (5)
• Second Fallujah 2004 (5)
• Aachen 1944 (4)
• Warsaw 1944 (3)
• Berlin 1985 (3)
• Ortona 1943 (3), (one is my Festung:Ortona which is related to the second, Christmas in Hell, and the third is barely urban)
• Mosul 2017 (3)
• Mogadishu 1993 (3)

My first attempt at a comparative study is on the wargames of the Battle of Hue. It’s been accepted for publication and should be out and linked from here some time in 4Q23. Tempted to do Fallujah next.