Looking back, 2008 was perhaps a pivotal moment for
"serious" and historical wargaming literature. Encouraged by John
Basset, Tom Mouat and Tony Hawkins, I started to publish books in what became The
History of Wargaming Project. This project aimed to preserve the hobby's roots and create a
literature base to support professional wargaming.
The History of Wargaming Project was the most
prolific source of "wargaming" titles at time, including bringing
out-of-print classics back to life. In 2010, I released several "expanded
reprints," such as Joseph Morschauser's How to Play War Games in Miniature
(thanks Bob for your work on this). My publishing included an updated edition
of Peter Perla’s The Art of Wargaming, which remains a "bible"
for both hobbyists and military professionals. Neither Peter Perla and I had
any idea that my republication of an academic text from 1992 would become a
best seller (within the tiny world of professional wargaming!)
The well-known military publisher Osprey noted the
resurgence in wargaming publishing and in 2010 released of Field of Glory:
Renaissance. This proved to be a major title and this helped cement Amazon
as a primary storefront for rulesets that were previously only available in
local hobby shops.
At the start of 2026 wargaming book sales are up and down; more
sold, but on average fewer of each title. The exact number of books published
each year is hard to work out as some books are published in hardback,
paperback and as e-books, then go to second editions, which means they may
count more than once in this total. An estimate of the number of titles
published is to divide the total by 2.5 to allow for the various editions of
the book. Also Amazon’s algorithms sometimes add in books titles that are
closely related to ‘wargaming’ such as ‘Military strategy’. I have not attempted to map the large number
of roleplaying rules and even larger number of supporting roleplaying supplements.
With the above caveats in mind, the numbers are as follows:
2010 – 22 titles (the majority were History of Wargaming Project
books).
2018 56. The traditional publishers such as Osprey
Publishing, Helion & Company, and Pen & Sword dominated. There was also
The Portable Wargame (published 2016), One hour wargames and a
range of professional wargaming books by The History of Wargaming Project.
2023 104 titles.
2024 132 titles. This included the much anticipated The
Third Portable Wargame Compendium.
2025 120 titles.
Currently, in 2026, 90% of wargaming books are now
self-published There is a surge in solo wargaming book titles and AI assisted
campaign generators. Using LLMs, there is a proliferation of low-quality and
often short books. Supported by excellent marketing efforts, they catch many
purchasers. It is easy to produce a wargaming book and associated marketing using
an LLM.
An approximate breakdown of the wargaming books is as
follows:
Rules & Supplements 45% New
systems for skirmish, fleet, and mass-battle gaming.
History & Analysis 20% Deep dives into historical battles
specifically for gamers.
Fiction/RPG 15% Where "wargaming" is a central
plot element or mechanic.
Journals & Logbooks 20% Low-content books like The Ultimate
Wargaming Battle Tracker. These so called ‘ghost titles’ have minimal
content and many blank pages
In 2026 there is some frustration that academic wargaming books
have low sales (and somehow this is my fault!). Part of this is the high price
for some academic books. E.g. Cyber Wargaming: Research and Education for
Security in a Dangerous Digital World is £100 hardback and £38 for the
Kindle version. Politics of Play: Gaming with the US Military £59, but
is now £14 on the Kindle.
One response in the USA has been some books published as
pdfs for free. The authors get no money but get the prestige; the publisher of
the organisation gets kudos which apparently translates into American
government funding. Giving away large numbers of your books apparently
demonstrates an organisations mastery of wargaming. Key examples of this are
from the US Naval War College and the US Marine Corps.
Matt Caffrey (2019) On War https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/newport-papers/43/
Sebastian Bae (2026) Forging
Wargamers: A Framework for Professional Military Education https://www.usmcu.edu/Portals/218/Forging%20Wargamers_web.pdf
So, what is the future of wargaming publishing in 2026?
Osprey will continue to publish a range of varying quality wargaming books. Not
that expensive, some are excellent such as Frost Grave, but others
suffer from lack of play sheets or key rule omissions that make the rules
unplayable. There will continue to be a sprinkling of academic works that are
expensive, with very limited sales, obscure, but achieve the objective of being
seen as high value academic publications. There is no sign the proliferation of
AI generated self-published wargaming books is slowing.
In such a crowded market place, brand name is king. Of
course, the challenge is establishing that brand name so Amazon and Google find
your work and push it out to those their algorithms identify as potential
customers.
As for me, The History of Wargaming Project will
continue to document the development of wargaming and publish what I consider
to be important or merely interesting in this story. The potential level of
sales is not one of my criteria when deciding what to publish. I am currently
working on seven books at the same time, with a further nine more in my to do list.
I also have approximately fifty more books that I could potentially publish if
I get the time to write and edit them!
