The Wargaming Pioneers
Including Little Wars by H.G. Wells, The War Game for Boy Scouts and The War Game by Captain Sachs 1898-1940
Early Wargames Vol. 1
John Curry
Sample Pages
extract from The Boy Scout War Game
RULE II.
YOUR COUNTRY, HOW TO MAKE IT MORE OR LESS EXTENSIVE.
The more space you have for operations the better, the whole of the nursery floor, the ping-pong table or two or more tables side by side make an excellent battle ground. Once this is settled, the next point is how we are to measure distance. Here is a simple plan. Mark out equal distances on two sides of your table or room with little flags made with pins passed through a piece of paper, as in diagram, or mark the intervals on tape and fix to the table by means of drawing pins.
Now you can call the space between the flags, or the in¬tervals marked on the tape, 5 to 15 or 20 miles, just as you like, and you can arrange them anything between 6 inches to 12 inches apart. Suppose your space one way measures 6 feet, it would be well to have 6 spaces of 12 inches each. Now we may decide that 12 inches equals 5 miles that will mean you have an imaginary distance of 30 miles.
RULE III.
HOW TO MAP OUT THE IMAGINARY COUNTRY.
Mark some paper "Farm," "Cornfield," "Hill," " Village," " Bridge," " River," etc., cut out into little flags, using pins to stick through them, plant these flags about the table, and map out the country as desired with farms, cornfields, hills, etc. In the example game described further on only Farms and Hills are shown, the object being to make the first game as simple as possible.
A range of hills should be indicated by tape, each end pinned down by the flags, marked "Hills." The same applies to rivers.
When troops occupy a hill they must be placed on the tape. If desired, the hills can be marked various heights; this will affect Artillery considerably, and must be a matter for the Umpire to arrange.
RULE IV.
How FAR CAN THE VARIOUS UNITS MARCH IN A DAY?
miles an hour limit for one day
Infantry 3 18 miles
Cavalry 5 30
R.H. Art 4 24
R.F. Art
4.7 Guns 2 12
Mule Battery and Maxim Guns same as Infantry.
Transport Wagons same as 4.7 Guns.
Ambulance Wagons same as Infantry.