Broadside

 Broadside is a precursor to Battleship, dating to the Second World War, played by four people.

This was designed by a French veteran of the First World War. Canards du Camp is from the perspective of the POW camp.

A Canadian officer fashioned a Spitfire out of the wreckage of a German bomber.

Another game of war- Black Out has the players try to navigate through a city with a black-out curfew.

As the Cold War rose up, with nuclear annihilation as part of the scenario, different toys entered the scene.

Games had their own propaganda value in the day- such as Soviet chess champions like the woman at left. At right, Canadian military officers go through war gaming scenarios, particularly the prospect of a missile strike at Ottawa. It's sobering, looking at this model, to know that my home would be pretty much vaporized instantly.

Games of a military nature would become more complex as time went on.

Ironically, it was military training and tabletop exercises on the part of both sides that lent some stability to things. Forces would extensively train with their equipment and vehicles in war game exercises, while tactical and strategic exercises would lead officers from NATO and the Warsaw Pact to the repeat conclusion: there's no way to win a nuclear war. 

This is one example of military table-top gaming- the Dunn-Kempf War Game, dating to the 1970s.