Counter (board wargames)

Counter (English for counter) is a term used to refer to small, mostly made of cardboard counters for board games. They are mainly used in conflict simulation games to display of military units, events, or damage.

Counter are one or two-sided cardboard tiles, often not greater than 1 cm X 1 cm are. They are usually square, but there are also rectangular, round or hexagonal shapes. On the counters abstract play values ​​are in the form of numbers, symbols, or individual words. In many conflict simulation games counters are used to display troop strengths, abilities or loss events. They can be stacked and thus making it possible to combine different units together or assign them by additional Counter altered properties. A stack of counters can be on the board just as easy to move as a single counter. This is a significant advantage over other forms of game characters, such as pawns.

The first use of counters is the American Conflict Simulation Game Tactics by Avalon Hill in 1958 attributed.