Alex Bowers spoke to the Canadian War Museum’s post-1945 historian Dr Andrew Burtch about the attraction’s new War Games exhibitionf
Think of wargames and you probably envision people playing firstperson shooters like Battlefield and Call of Duty, committing hours to slow-paced grand strategies marshalling a dynasty or nation-state through history, or poring over table-top dioramas and plotting their next troop movement. But such popular pastimes only tell part of the story. Wargaming stretches back millennia and has always had significant martial value.
“The interconnections between war and games go back a long way,” explained Dr Andrew Burtch, post-1945 historian at the Canadian War Museum, to Britain at War. The Ottawa-based institution explores these historical links through its new War Games exhibition, which runs until December 31, 2023.
