I didn't know people still played Wargame. I picked it up a few years ago, and then dropped it due to what I perceived as requiring overly aggressive micro to be competitive - and crappy naval warfare mechanics.

As someone who's spent more time than I'd like to admit on grand strategy games, the focus is always on a highly sanitized version of war. Troops march to the front and - though they might die - it's always in service of a glorious cause. Civilian deaths are either not mentioned, or not mechanically possible (looking at you, HOI4). For the people who play these games, it makes it much easier to stomach a real-world war. The most familiar "war" to them is of NATO unit counters moving around on a screen, appearing, disappearing. Nothing about the utter destruction of cities wreaked by industrial warfare, or the starvation rations issued to occupied areas.

Maybe if wargames were realistic, some people would have a much different view of war. But then we probably wouldn't play them in the first place.