“Surrounded with trenches, Marius bided his time and paid no attention to the insults of the enemy. Publius Silo,who had the greatest authority and power among the Italians, once said to Marius, ‘If you are a great general, come down and fight us’; to which he answered, ‘No. If you are a great general, make me.’ ” – Plutarch’s “Life of Marius” (my own paraphrase, based on the Dryden translation.)

There’s this tension between wargamers and RTS players, especially where a mass hit like Starcraft 2 is involved. This has always been the case, though. Real time strategy has been dismissed as “click fest” gameplay that measured reflexes more than smarts, as if smarts was all there was to winning a battle.

But the more time I spend online with RTSes (and it has taken me years) the more I appreciate how many real war elements are a part of the RTS. Tom Chick tells a great story in recent game diary about outfoxing his opponent – the standard ruse of letting him think one thing but then doing another. Quite brilliant, actually.

Most wargames start with the battle site already determined. The forces are laid out, the field chosen and your strategy often determined by the order of battle you have in front of you.

But what if, like Marius in the Social War, you choose not to fight? The more you read about military history, the more you appreciate that a great part of military success is about forcing the enemy to fight when they are unprepared and denying them battle when you aren’t ready. Not that all the preparations in the world can make up for a mediocre army versus genius, but choosing the time and place of battle is what made, in the case of Pompey, Dyrrachium such a success and Pharsalus such a failure.

In the strategy world, only the RTS really captures this sense that terrain and time and tactics are all there so you can force your enemy to accept a disadvantage. Its not about replaying a historical battle and hoping for the best as much as it is about choosing your force disposition and moments.

RTSes aren’t “real” battles of course. When Patton or Rommel or Napoleon or Leonidas walked into battle they had little control over the forces they had. In an RTS you can recognize your enemy and get the feel of the map and build your army accordingly. A truly great general takes the forces he/she is given and makes the best of a limited resource. But Starcraft 2, with its emphasis on speed, seizing good ground and out guessing your enemy is not just a fair to good sport, but a fair reminder of what wargames should approximate – making the enemy fight when he/she’d rather not.