Latest / The Art of War - Sun Tzu / Little Wars-H. G. Wells

Transcript

Little Wars-H. G. Wells · The Art of War - Sun Tzu

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are into
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. This recording is by Mark Smith of Simpsonville,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: South Carolina. Little Wars a game for boys from twelve
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: years of age to one hundred and fifty and for
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: that more intelligent sort of girl who likes boys games
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: and books, with an appendix on Kriegspiel by H. G. Wells,
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Chapter one of the legendary past. Little Wars is the
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: game of kings for players in an inferior social position.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: It can be played by boys of every age, from
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: twelve to one hundred and fifty, and even later if
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: the limbs remain sufficiently supple by girls of the better sort,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: and by a few rare and gifted women. This is
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: to be a full history of Little Wars, from its
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: recorded and authenticated beginnings until the present time, an account
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: of how to make little warfare, and hints of the
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: most priceless sort for the recumbent strategist. But let it
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: first be noted in passing that there were prehistoric Little Wars.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: This is no new thing, no crude novelty, but a
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: thing tested by time, ancient and ripe in its essentials,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: for all its perennial freshness like spring. There was a
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: someone who fought little wars in the days of Queen Anne,
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: a garden Napoleon. His game was inaccurately observed and insufficiently
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: recorded by Lawrence Sterne. It is clear that Uncle Toby
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: and Corporal Trim were playing little wars on a scale
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: and with an elaboration exceeding even the richshness and beauty
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: of the contemporary game. But the curtain is drawn back
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: only to tantalize us. It is scarcely conceivable that anywhere
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: now on Earth the Shandean rules remain on record. Perhaps
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: they were never committed to paper. And in all ages
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: a certain barbaric warfare has been waged with soldiers of
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: tin and lead and wood, with the weapons of the wild,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: with the catapult, the elastic circular garter, the pea shooter,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: the rubber ball, and such like appliances, a mirror, setting
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: up and knocking down of men tin murder. The advance
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: of civilization has swept such rude contests altogether from the playroom.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: We know them no more. Chapter two, The beginnings of
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: modern Little warfare. The beginning of the game of Little
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: War as we know it became possible with the en
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: invention of the spring breechloader gun. This priceless gift boyhood
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: appeared somewhen towards the end of the last century. A
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: gun capable of hitting a toy soldier nine times out
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: of ten at a distance of nine yards. It has
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: completely superseded all the spiral spring and other makes of
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: gun hitherto used in playroom warfare. These spring breechloaders are
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: made in various sizes and patterns, but the one used
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: in our game is that known in England as the
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: four point seven gun. It fires a wooden cylinder about
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: an inch long and has a screw adjustment for elevation
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: and depression. It is an altogether elegant weapon. It was
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: with one of these guns that the beginning of our
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: war game was made. It was at Sandgate in England.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: The present rider had been lunching with a friend. Let
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: me veil his idea identity under the initials JK J
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: in a room littered with the irrepressible debris of a
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: small boy's pleasures. On a table near our own stood
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: four or five soldiers and one of these guns. Mister JKJ,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: his more urgent needs satisfied, and the coffee imminent, drew
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: a chair to this little table, sat down, examined the gun,
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: discreetly loaded it, warily aimed, and hit his man. Thereupon
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: he boasted of the deed and issued challenges that were
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: accepted with avidity. He fired that day a shot that
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: still echoes round the world. An affair. Let us parallel
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: the cannonade of Valmy, and call it the cannonade of
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: Sandgate occurred a shooting between opposed ranks of soldiers, A
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: shooting not very different in spirit, but how different in resis,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: results from the prehistoric warfare of catapult and garter. But suppose,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: said his antagonists, Suppose somehow one could move the men,
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: and therewith opened a new world of belligerence. The matter
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: went no further with mister JKJ. The seed lay for
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: a time gathering strength, and then began to germinate with
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: another friend, mister W. To mister W was broached the idea,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: I believe that if one set up a few obstacles
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: on the floor volumes of the British Encyclopedia and so forth,
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: to make a country, and move these soldiers and guns about.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: One could have rather a good game, a kind of kriegspiel.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: Primitive attempts to realize the dream were interrupted by a
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: great rustle and chattering of lady visitors. They regarded the
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: objects upon the floor with the emptied disdain of their
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: sex for all imaginative things. But the writer had in
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: those days a very dear friend, a man too ill
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: for long excursions or vigorous sports. He has been dead
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: now these six years, of a very sweet, companionable disposition,
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: a hearty jesture, and full of the spirit of play.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: To him, the idea was broached more fruitfully. We got
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: two forces of toy soldiers, set out a lumpish encyclopedic
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: land upon the carpet, and began to play. We arranged
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: to move an alternate moves. First one moved all his force,
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: and then the other. An infantry man could move one
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: foot at each move. A cavalryman too a gun two
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: and it might fire six shots. And if a man
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: was moved up to touch another man, then we tossed
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: up and decided which man was dead. So we made
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: a game which was not a good game, but which
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: was very amusing. Once or twice the men were packed
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: under the lee of fat volumes, while the guns, animated
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: by a spirit of their own, bagged away at any
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: exposed head or prowled about in search of a shot.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: Occasionally men came into contact with remarkable results. Rash is
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: the man who trusts his life to the spin of
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: a coin. One impossible paladin slew in succession nine men
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: and turned defeat to victory, to the extreme exasperation of
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: the strategists who had led those victims to their doom.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: This inordinate factor of chance eliminated play. The individual freedom
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: of guns turned battles into scandals of crouching concealment. There
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: was too much cover afforded by the books, and vast
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: intervals of waiting while the players took aim. And yet
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: there was something about it. It was a game crying
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: aloud for improved. Improvement came almost simultaneously in several directions. First,
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: there was the development of the country. The soldiers did
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: not stand well on an ordinary carpet, The encyclopedia made clumsy,
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: cliff like cover, and more particularly, the room in which
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: the game had its beginnings was subject to the invasion
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: of callers, alien souls, trampling, skirt swishers, chatterers, creatures unfavorably
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: impressed by the spectacle of two middle aged men playing
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: with toy soldiers on the floor, and very heated and
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: excited about it. Overhead was the day nursery, with a
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: wide extent of smooth cork carpet the natural terrain of
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: toy soldiers, a large box of bricks such as I
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: have described in floor games, and certain large inch thick boards.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: It was an easy task for the head of the
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: household to evict his offspring annexed these advantages and set
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: about planting a more realistic country. I forget what became
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: of the children. The thick boards were piled up one
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: upon another to form hills. Holes were bored in them,
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: into which twigs of various shrubs were stuck to represent trees,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: houses and sheds. Solid and compact piles of from three
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: to six or seven inches high and broad in proportion,
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: and walls were made with the bricks. Ponds and swamps
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: and rivers, with fords and so forth indicated, were chalked
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: out on the floor. Garden stones were brought in to
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: represent great rocks, and the country at least of our
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: perfected war game was in existence. We discovered it was
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: easy to cut out, and bend and gum together paper
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: and cardboard walls into which our toy bricks could be packed,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: and on which we could paint doors and windows, creepers
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: and rainwater pipes and so forth. To represent houses, castles
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: and churches. In a more realistic manner, and growing skillful,
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: we made various bridges and so forth of card Every
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: boy who has ever put together modeled villages knows how
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: to do these things, and the attentive reader will find
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: them edifyingly represented in our photographic illustrations. There has been
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: little development since that time in the country. Our illustrations
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: show the methods of arrangement, and the reader will see
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: how easily and readily the utmost variety of battlefields can
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: be made. It is merely to be remarked that a
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: too crowded country makes the guns ineffective and leads to
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: a mere tree to tree and house to house scramble,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: and that large open spaces along the middle or rivers
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: without frequent fords and bridges, lead to ineffective cannonades. Because
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: of the danger of any advance on the whole. Too
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: much cover is better than too little. We decided that
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: one player should plan and lay out the country, and
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: the other player choose from which side he would come.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: And today we play over such landscapes in a court
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: carpeted schoolroom, from which the proper occupants are no longer evicted,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: but remain to take an increasingly responsible and less and
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: less audible and distressing share in the operations. We found
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: it necessary to make certain general rules. Houses and sheds
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: must be made of solid lumps of bricks and not hollow,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: so that soldiers can be put inside them, because otherwise
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: muddled situations arise, and it was clearly necessary to provide
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: for the replacement of disturbed objects by chalking out the
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: outlines of boards and houses upon the floor or boards
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: upon which they stood. And while we thus perfected the country,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: we were also eliminating all sorts of Tedium's disputable possibilities
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: and deadlocks from the game. We decided that every man
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: should be as brave and skillful as every other man,
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: and that when two men of opposite sides came into contact,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: they would inevitably kill each other. This restored strategy to
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: its predominance over chance. We then began to humanize that
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: wild and fearful foul the gun. We decided that a
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: gun could not be fired if there were not six Afterwards,
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: we reduced the number to four men within six inches
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: of it, and we ruled that a gun could not
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: both fire and move in the same general move. It
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: could either be fired or moved, or left alone. If
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: there were less than six men within six inch of
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: a gun, then we tried letting it fire as many
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: shots as they were men. And we permitted a single
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: man to move a gun and move with it as
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: far as he could go by the rules a foot,
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: that is, if he was an infantryman, and two feet
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: if he was a cavalryman. We abolished altogether that magical
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: freedom of an unassisted gun to move two feet. And
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: on such rules as these we fought a number of battles.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: They were interesting, but not entirely satisfactory. We took no prisoners,
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: a feature at once barbaric and unconvincing. The battles lingered
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: on a long time because we shot with extreme care
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: and deliberation, and they were hard to bring to a
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: decisive finish. The guns were altogether too predominant they prevented
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: the tacks getting home, and they made it possible for
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: a timid player to put all his soldiers out of
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: sight by hind hills and houses, and bang away if
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: his opponent showed as much as the tip of a bayonet.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: Monsieur Bloch seemed vindicated, and little war had become impossible.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: And there was something a little absurd too in the
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: spectacle of a solitary drummer boy, for example, marching off
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: with a gun. But as there was nevertheless much that
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: seemed to us extremely pretty and picturesque about the game,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: we set to work. And here a certain mister m
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: with his brother, Captain m Hot from the Great War
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: in South Africa, came in most helpfully to quicken it. Manifestly,
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: the guns had to be reduced to manageable terms. We
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: cut down the number of shots per move to four,
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: and we required that four men should be within six
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: inches of a gun for it to be in action
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: at all. Without four men, it could neither fire nor move.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: It was out of action, and if it moved, the
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: four men had to go with it. Moreover, to put
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: an end to that little resistant body of men behind
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: a house, we required that after a gun had been fired,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: it should remain without alteration of the elevation, pointing in
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: the direction of its last shot, and have two men placed,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: one on either side of the end of its trail.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: This secured a certain exposure on the part of concealed
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: and sheltered gunners. It was no longer possible to go
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: on shooting out of perfect security forever. All this favored
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: the attack and led to a livelier game. Our next
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: step was to abolish the tedium due to the elaborate
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: aiming of the guns by fixing a time limit for
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: every move. We made this an outside limit at first
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: ten minutes, but afterwards we discovered that it made the
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: game much more warlike to cut the time down to
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: a link that would barely permit a slow moving player
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: to fire all his guns and move all his men.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: This led to small bodies of men lagging and getting
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: left to careless exposures, to rapid, less accurate shooting, and
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: just that eventfulness one would expect in a hurry and
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: passion of real fighting. It also made the game brisker.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: We have since also made a limit, sometimes of four minutes,
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: sometimes of five minutes to the interval for adjustment and
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: deliberation after one move is finished and before the next
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: move begins. This further removes the game from the chess
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: category and approximates it to the likeness of active service.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: Most of a general's decisions once a fight has begun
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: must be made in such brief intervals of time, but
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: we leave unlimited time at the outset for the planning.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: As to our time keeper, we catch a visitor with
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: a stopwatch if we can, and if we cannot, we
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: use a fair sized clock with a second hand. The
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: player not moving says go and warns at the last
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: two minutes, last minute, and last thirty seconds. But I
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: think it would not be difficult to procure a cheap clock,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: because of course, no one wants a very accurate agreement
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: with Greenwich as to the length of a second. That
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: would have minutes instead of hours, and seconds instead of minutes,
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: and that would ping at the end of every minute
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: and discharge an alarm note at the end of the move.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: That would abolish the rather boring strain of time keeping.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: One could just watch the fighting. Moreover, in our desire
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: to bring the game to a climax, we decided that
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: instead of a fight to a finish, we would fight
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: to some determined point, and we found very good sport
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: in supposing that the rival of three men of one
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: force upon the back line of the opponent's side of
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: the country was of such strategic importance as to determine
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: the battle. But this form of battle we have since
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: largely abandoned in favor of the old fight to a finish. Again,
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: we found it led to one type of battle, only
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: a massed rush at the antagonist's line, and that our
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: arrangements of time limits and capture and so forth had
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: eliminated most of the concluding drag upon the game. Our
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: game was now very much in its present form. We
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: considered at various times the possibility of introducing some complication
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: due to the bringing up of ammunition or supplies generally,
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: and we decided that it would add little to the
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: interest or reality of the game. Our battles are little,
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: brisk fights, in which one may suppose that all the
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: ammunition in food needed are carried by the men themselves.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: But our latest development has been in the direction of
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: killing hand to hand or taking prisoners. We found it
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: necessary to distinguish between an isolated force and a force
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: that was merely a projecting part of a larger force.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: We made a definition of isolation. After a considerable amount
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: of trials, we decided that a man or a detachment
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: shall be considered to be isolated when there is less
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: than half its number of its own side within a
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: move of it. Now, in actual civilized warfare, small detached
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: bodies do not sell their lives dearly. A considerably larger
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: force is able to make them prisoners without difficulty. Accordingly,
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: we decided that if a blue force, for example, has
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: one or more men isolated, and a red force of
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: at least double the strength of this isolated detachment moves
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: up to contact with it, the blue men will be
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: considered to be prisoners. That seemed fair, But so desperate
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: is the courage and devotion of lead soldiers that it
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: came to this that any small force that got or
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: seemed likely to get isolated and caught by a superior force,
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: instead of waiting to be taken prisoners, dashed at its
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: possible captors and slew them man for man. It was
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: manifestly unreasonable to permit this, and in considering how best
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: to prevent such inhuman heroisms, we were reminded of yet
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: another frequent incident at our battles that also aired towards
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: the incredible and vitiated our strategy, that was the charging
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: of one or two isolated horsemen at a gun in
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: order to disable it. Let me illustrate this by an incident.
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: A force consisting of ten infantry and five cavalry with
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: a gun are retreating across an exposed space, and a
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: gun with thirty men cavalry and infantry in sop comes
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: out upon a crest into a position to fire within
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: two feet of the retreating cavalry. The attacking player puts
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: eight men within six inches of his gun and pushes
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: the rest of his men a little forward to the
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: right or left in pursuit of his enemy. In the
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: real thing, the retreating horsemen would go off to cover
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: with the gun hell for leather, while the infantry would
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: open out and retreat firing. But see what happened in
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: our imperfect form of little war. The move of the
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: retreating player began. Instead of retreating his whole force, he
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: charged home with his mounted desperadoes, killed five of the
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: eight men about the gun, and so by the rule,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: silenced it, enabling the rest of his little body to
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: get clean away to cover at the leisurely pace of
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: one foot a move. This was not like any sort
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: of warfare in real life. Cavalry cannot pick out and
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: kill its equivalent in cavalry while that equivalent is closely
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: supported by other cavalry or infantry. A handful of troopers
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: cannot gallop past well and abundantly manned guns in action,
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: cut down the gunners and interrupt the fire. And yet
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: for a time we found it a little difficult to
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: frame simple rules to meet these two bad cases and
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: prevent such scandalous possibilities. We did at last contrive to
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: do so. We invented what we call the melee, and
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: our revised rules in the event of a melee will
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: be found set out upon a later page. They do
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: really permit something like an actual result in hand to
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: hand encounters. They abolish horatious cocals. We also found difficulties
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: about the capturing of guns. At first, we had merely
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: provided that a gun was captured when it was out
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: of action and four men of the opposite force were
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: within six inches of it. But we found a number
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: of cases for which this rule was too vague. A gun,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: for example, would be disabled and left with only three
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: men within six inches. The enemy would then come up
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: eight or ten strong within six inches on the other side,
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: but not really reaching the gun. At the next move,
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: the original possessor of the gun would bring up half
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: a dozen men within six inches to whom did the
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: gun belong By the original wording of our rule, it
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: might be supposed to belong to the attack which had
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: never really touched the gun yet, and they could claim
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: to turn it upon its original side. We had to
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: meet a number of such cases. We met them by
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: requiring the capturing force, or to be precise, four men
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: of it, actually to pass the axle of the gun
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: before it could be taken. All sorts of odd little
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: difficulties arose too connected with the use of the gun
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: guns as a shelter from fire, and very exact rules
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: had to be made to avoid tilting the nose and
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: raising the breach of a gun in order to use
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: it as cover. We still found it difficult to introduce
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: any imitation into our game of either retreat or the
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: surrender of men not actually taking prisoners in a melae.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: Both things were possible by the rules, but nobody did
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: them because there was no inducement to do them. Games
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: were apt to end obstinately with the death or capture
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: of the last man. An inducement was needed. This we
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: contrived by playing not for the game but for points,
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: scoring the result of each game, and counting the points
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: towards the decision of a campaign. Our campaign was to
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: our single game what a rubber is to a game
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: of whist. We made the end of a war two hundred,
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: three hundred, or four hundred or more points up according
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: to the number of games we wanted to play, and
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: we scored a hundred for each battle one and in
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: addition one for each infantrymen, one and one half for
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: each cavalryman, ten for each gun, one half for each
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: man held prisoner by the enemy, and one half for
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: each prisoner held at the end of the game, subtracting
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: what the antagonists scored by the same scale. Thus, when
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: he felt the battle was hopelessly lost, he had a
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: direct inducement to retreat any guns he could still save,
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: and surrender any men who were under the fire of
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: the victor's guns and likely to be slaughtered, in order
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: to minimize the score against him, And an interest was
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: given to a skillful retreat in which the loser not
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: only saved points for himself, but inflicted losses upon the
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: pursuing enemy. At first, we played the game from the outset,
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: with each other's force within sight of his dead antagonist.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: Then we found it possible to hang a double curtain
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: of casement cloth from a string stretched across the middle
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: of the field, and we drew this back only after
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: both sides had set out their men. Without these curtains,
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: we found the first player was at a heavy disadvantage
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: because he displayed all his dispositions before his opponent set
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: down his men. And at last our rules have reached stability,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: and we regard them now with the virtuous pride of
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: men who have persisted in a great undertaking and arrived
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: at precision after much tribulation. There is not a piece
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: of constructive legislation in the world, not a solitary attempt
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: to meet a complicated problem, that we do not now
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: regard the more charitably for our efforts to get a
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: right result from this apparently easy and puerile business of
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: fighting with tin soldiers on the floor. And so are
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: laws all made. Battles have been fought the mere beginnings
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: we feel of vast campaigns. The game has become in
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: a dozen aspects, extraordinarily like a small real battle. The
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: plans are made, the country hastily surveyed, and then the
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: curtains are closed and the antagonists make their opening dispositions.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: Then the curtains are drawn back, and the hostile forces
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: come within sight of each other. The little companies and
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: squadrons and batteries appear, hurrying to their positions, the infantry
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: deploying into long open lines, the cavalry sheltering in reserve
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: or galloping with the guns to favorable advanced positions. In
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: two or three moves, the guns are flickering into action.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: A cavalry melee may be in progress. The plans of
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: the attack are more or less apparent. Here are men
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: pouring out from the shelter of a wood to secure
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: some point of vantage, and here are troops massing among
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: farm buildings for a vigorous attack. The combat grows hot
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: round some vital point. Move follows move in swift succession.
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: One realizes, with a sickening sense of error, that one
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: is outnumbered and hard pressed here and uselessly cut off there,
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: that one's guns are ill placed that one's wings are
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: spread too widely, and that help can come only over
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: some deadly zone of fire. So the fight wears on,
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: guns are lost or won, hills or villages stormed or held.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: Suddenly it grows clear that the scales are tilting beyond recovery,
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: and the loser has nothing left but to contrive how
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: he may get to the back line and safety with
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: the vestiges of his command. But let me, before I
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: go on to tell of actual battles and campaigns, give
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: here a summary of our essential rules. End of chapter.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. This recording is by Mark Smith
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: of Simpsonville, South Carolina. Little Wars by H. G. Wells,
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: Chapter three. The rules here, then, are the rules of
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: the perfect battle game as we play it in an
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: ordinary room. The country One. The country must be arranged
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: by one player, who, failing any other agreement, shall be
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: selected by the toss of a coin. Two. The other
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: player shall then choose which side of the field he
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: will fight from. Three. The country must be disturbed a
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: as little as possible. In each move, nothing in the
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: country shall be moved or set aside deliberately to facilitate
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: the firing of guns. A player must not lie across
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: the country so as to crush or disturb the country.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: If his opponent objects, whatever is moved by accident shall
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: be replaced after the end of the move the move
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: one after the country is made and the sides chosen,
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: then and not until then, the player shall toss for
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: the first move two. If there is no curtain, The
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: player winning the toss thereafter called The first player shall
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: next arrange his men along his back line as he chooses.
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: Any man he may place behind or in front of
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: his back line shall count in the subsequent move as
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: if they touch the back line at its nearest point.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: The second player shall then do the same, but if
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: a curtain is available, both first and the second player
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: may put down their men at the same time. Both
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: players may take unlimited time for the putting down of
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: their men if there is a curtain that is drawn
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: back when they are ready, and the game then begins three.
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: The subsequent moves after the putting down are timed. The
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: length of time given for each move is determined by
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: the size of the forces engaged, about a minute should
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: be allowed for moving thirty men and a minute for
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: each gun. Thus, for a force of one hundred ten
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: men and three guns moved by one player, seven minutes
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: is an ample allowance. As the battle progresses and the
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: men are killed off, the allowance is reduced as the
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: players may agree. The player about to move stands at
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: attention a yard behind his back line until the time
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: keeper says go. He then proceeds to make his move
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: until time is up. He must instantly stop at the
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: cry of time. Warnings should be given by the timekeeper
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: two minutes, one minute and thirty seconds before time is up.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: There will be an interval before the next move, during
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: which any disturbance of the country can be rearranged and
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: men accidentally overturned replaced in a proper attitude. This interval
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: must not exceed five or four minutes, as may be
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: agreed upon. Four guns must not be fired before the
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: second move of the first player, not counting the putting
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: down as a move. Thus, the first player puts down,
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: then the second player. The first player moves, then the
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: second player, and the two forces are then supposed to
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: come into effective range of each other, and the first
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: player may open fire if he wishes to do so. Five.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: In making his move, a player must move or fire
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: his guns if he wants to do so before moving
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: his men. To this rule of guns first, there is
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: to be no exception. Six. Every soldier may be moved
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: and every gun moved or fired at each move, subject
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: to the following rules. Mobility of the various arms. Each
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: player must be provided with two pieces of string, one
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: two feet in length and the other six inches. One.
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: An infantry man may be moved afoot or any less
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: distance at each move. Two A cavalryman may be moved
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: two feet or any less distance at each move. Three.
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: A gun is in action if there are at least
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: four men of its own side within six inches of it.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: If there are not at least four men within that distance,
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: it can neither be moved nor fired. Four. If a
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: gun is in action, it can either be moved or
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: fired at each move, but not both. If it is fired,
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: it may fire as many as four shots in each move.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: It may be swung round on its axis the middle
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: point of its wheel axle to take aim, provided the
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: country about it permits. It may be elevated or depressed,
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: and the soldiers about it may, at the discretion of
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: the firer be made to lie down in their places
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: to facilitate its handling. Moreover, soldiers who have got in
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: front of the fire of their own guns may lie
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: down while the guns fire over them. At the end
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: of the move, the gun must be left without altering
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: its elevation and pointing in the direction of the last shot,
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: and after firing, two men must be placed exactly at
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: the end of the trail of the gun, one on
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: either side, in a line directly behind the wheels, so
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: much for firing. If the gun is moved and not fired,
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: then at least four men who are with the gun
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: must move up with it to its new position and
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: be placed within six inches of it. In its new position,
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: the gun itself must be placed trail forward and the
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: muzzle pointed back in the direction from which it came,
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: and so it must remain until it is swung round
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: on its axis to fire. Obviously, the distance which a
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: gun can move will be determined by the men it
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: is with. If there are at least four cavalrymen with it,
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: they can take the gun two feet, but if there
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: are fewer cavalrymen than four and the rest infantry, or
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: no cavalry and all infantry. The gun will be movable
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: only one foot five. Every man must be placed fairly
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: clear of hills, buildings, trees, guns, et cetera. He must
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: not be jammed in two interstices. And either player may
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: insist upon a clear distance between any man and any
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: gun or other object of at least one sixteenth of
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: an inch. Nor must men be packed in contact with men,
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: a space of one sixteenth of an inch should be
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: kept between them. Six When men are knocked over by
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: a shot, they are dead. And as many men are
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: dead as a shot knocks over or causes to fall
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: or to lean so that they would fall if unsupported.
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: But if a shot strikes a man but does not
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: knock him over, he is dead, provided the shot has
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: not already killed a man. But a shot cannot kill
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: more than one man without knocking him over. And if
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: it touches several without oversetting them, only the first touched
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: is dead, and the others are not incapacitated. A shot
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: that rebounds from or glances off any object and touches
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: a man kills him. It kills him even if it
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: simply rolls to his feet subject to what has been
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: said in the previous sentence, hand to hand fighting and
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: capturing one a man or a body of men which
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: has less than half its own number of men on
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: its own side within a move of it is said
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: to be isolated. But if there is at least half
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: its number of men of its own side within a
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: move of it, it is not isolated. It is supported.
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: Two men may be moved up into virtual contact one
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: eighth of an inch or closer with men of the
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: opposite side. They must then be left until the end
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: of the move. Three. At the end of the move,
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: if there are men of the side that has just
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: moved in contact with any men of the other side,
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: that constitute a melee. All the men in contact and
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: any other men within six inches of the men in
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: contact measuring from any point of their persons, weapons, or
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: horses are supposed to take part in the melee. At
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: the end into the move, the two players examine the
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: melee and dispose of the men concerned according to the
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: following rules. Either the numbers taking part in the melee
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: on each side are equal or unequal. A. If they
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: are equal, all the men on both sides are killed B.
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: If they are unequal, then the inferior force is either
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: isolated or measuring from the points of contact, not isolated.
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: Part B SUBI. If it is isolated c One above,
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: then as many men become prisoners as the inferior force
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: is less in numbers than the superior force, and the
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: rest kill each a man and are killed. Thus nine
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: against eleven have two taken prisoners, and each side seven
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: men dead. Four of the eleven remain with two prisoners.
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: One may put this in another way by saying that
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: the two forces kill each other off man for man
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: until one force is double the other, which is then
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: taken prisoner. Seven men kill seven men, and then four
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: are left with two. Part B sub two. But if
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: the inferior force is not isolated see one above, then
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: each man of the inferior force kills a man of
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: the superior force and is himself killed. And the player
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: who has just completed the move, the one who is charged, decides,
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: when there is any choice, which men in the melee,
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: both of his own and of his antagonist, shall die,
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: and which shall be prisoners or captors. All these arrangements
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: are made after the move is over in the interval
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: between the moves, and the time taken for the adjustment
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: does not count as part of the usual interval. For consideration,
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: it is extra time. The player next moving may, if
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: he has taken prisoners, move these prisoners. Prisoners may be
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: sent under escort to the rear or wherever the capturer directs,
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: and one man within six inches of any number of
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: prisoners up to seven can escort these prisoners and go
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: with them. Prisoners are liberated by the death of any
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: escort there may be within six inches of them, but
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: they may not be moved by the player of their
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: own side until the move following that in which the
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: escort is killed. Directly prisoners are taken, they are supposed
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: to be disarmed, and if they are liberated, they cannot
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: fight until they are re armed. In order to be rearmed,
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: they must return to the back line of their own side.
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: An escort, having conducted prisoners to the back line and
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: so beyond the reach of liberation, may then return into
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: the fighting line. Prisoners once may cannot fight until they
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: have returned to their back line. It follows therefore, that
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: if after the adjudication of a melee, a player moves
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: up more men into touch with the survivors of this
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: first melee, and so constitutes a second melee. Any prisoners
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: made in the first melee will not count as combatants
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: in the second melee. Thus, if A moves up nineteen
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: men into a melee with thirteen of bees, B having
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: only five in support, A makes six prisoners, kills seven men,
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: and has seven of his own killed. If now B
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: can move up fourteen men into melee with A's victorious survivors,
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: which he may be able to do by bringing the
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: five into contact and getting nine others within six inches
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: of them, no count is made of the six of
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: Be's men who are prisoners in the hands of A.
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: They are disarmed. B therefore has fourteen men, and the
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: second melee and A twelve B makes two prisoners, kills
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: ten of A's men and has ten of his own killed.
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: But now the six prisoners originally made by A are
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: left without an escort and are therefore recaptured by B.
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: But they must go to Bee's back line and return
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: before they can fight again. So as the outcome of
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: these two meles, there are six of bees men going
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: as released prisoners to his back line. Whence they may
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: return into the battle, two of A's men prisoners in
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: the hands of B, one of B's staying with them
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: as escort, and three of Be's men still actively free
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: for action. A, at a cost of nineteen men, has
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: disposed of seventeen of bees men for good, and of
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: six or seven, according to whether B keeps his prisoners
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: in his fighting line or not temporarily. Four, Any isolated
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: body may hoist the white flag and surrender at any time. Five.
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: A gun is captured when there is no man whatever
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: of its original side within six inches of it, and
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: when at least four men of the antagonist's side have
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: moved up to it and have passed its wheel axis,
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: going in the direction of their attack. This latter point
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: is important. An antagonist's gun may be out of action,
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: and you may have a score of men coming up
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: to it and within six inches of it, but it
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: is not yet captured. And you may have brought up
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: a dozen men all around the hostile gun. But if
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: there is still one enemy just out of their reach
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: and within six inches of the end of the trail
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: of the gun, that gun is not captured. It is
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: still in dispute and out of action, and you may
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: not fire it or move it at the next move,
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: but once a gun is fully captured, it follows all
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: the rules of your own guns. Varieties of the battle game.
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: You may play various types of game. One one is
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: the fight to the finish. You move in from any
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: points you like on the back line and try to kill, capture,
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: or drive over his back line the whole of the
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: enemy's force. You play the game for points. You score
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: one hundred for the victory, and ten for every gun
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: you hold or are in a position to take, one
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: and one half for every cavalryman, one for every infantryman
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: still alive and uncaptured, one half for every man of
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: yours prisoner in the hands of the enemy, and one
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: half for every prisoner you have taken. If the battle
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: is still undecided. When both forces are reduced below fifteen men,
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: the battle is drawn and the hundred points for victory
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: are divided. Note this game can be fought with any
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: sized force, but if it is fought with less than
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: fifty a side, the minimum must be ten a side. Two.
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: The blow at the rear game is decided when at
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: least three men of one force reach any point in
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: the back line of their antagonist. He is then supposed
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: to have suffered a strategic defeat, and he must retreat
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: his entire force over the back line in six moves
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: i e. Six of his moves. Anything left on the
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: field after six moves capitulates to the victor points count
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: as in the preceding game, but this lasts a shorter
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: time and is better adapted to a cramp country with
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: a short back line with a long rear line. The
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: game is simply a rush at some weak point in
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: the first player's line by the entire cavalry brigade of
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: the second player, instead of making the whole back line
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: available for the bloweth the rear, the middle, or either
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: half may be taken. Three. In the defensive game, a
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: force the defenders two thirds as strong as the antagonist,
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: tries to prevent the latter arriving while still a quarter
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: of its original strength upon the defender's back line. The
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: country must be made by one or both of the
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: players before it is determined which shall be defender. The
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: players then toss for choice of sides, and the winner
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: of the toss becomes the defender. He puts out his
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: force over the field on his own side anywhere up
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: to the distance of one move off the middle line.
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: That is to say, he must not put any man
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: within one move of the middle line, but he may
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: do so anywhere on his own side of that limit.
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: And then the loser of the toss becomes first player
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: and sets out his men a move from his back line.
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: The defender may open fire forthwith. He need not wait
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: until after the second move of the first place, as
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: the second player has to do. Composition of forces, except
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: in the above cases, or when otherwise agreed upon, the
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: forces in gage shall be equal in number and similar
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: in composition. The methods of handicapping are obvious. A slight
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: inequality chances of war may be arranged between equal players
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: by leaving out twelve men on each side and tossing
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: with a pair of dice to see how many each
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: player shall take. Of these. The best arrangement and proportion
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: of the forces is in small bodies of about twenty
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: to twenty five infantrymen and twelve to fifteen cavalry to
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: a gun. Such a force can maneuver comfortably on a
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: front of four or five feet. Most of our games
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: have been played with about eighty infantry fifty cavalry, three
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: or four naval guns and a field gun on either side,
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: or with smaller proportional for uras. We have played excellent
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: games on an eighteen foot battlefield with over two hundred
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: men and six guns aside. A player may of course
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: rearrange his forces to suit his own convenience, brigade all
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: or most of his cavalry into a powerful striking force,
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: or what not. But more guns proportionally lead to their
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: being put out of action too early for want of men.
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: A larger proportion of infantry mixed the game sluggish, and
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: more cavalry because of the difficulty of keeping large bodies
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: of this force under cover, leads simply to early, heavy
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: losses by gunfire and violent and disastrous charging. The composition
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: of a force may of course be varied considerably. One
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: good fight to a finished game. We tried as follows.
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: We made the country toss for choice, and then drew
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: curtains across the biddle of the field. Each player then
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: selected his force from the available soldiers. In this way,
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: he counted infantry as one, each cavalry as one and
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: a half, and a gun as ten, and taking whatever
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: he liked in whatever position. He liked. He made up
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: a total of one hundred fifty. He could, for instance,
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: choose one hundred infantry and five guns, or one hundred
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: cavalry and no guns, or sixty infantry, forty cavalry and
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: three guns. In the result, a bower like cavalry force
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: of eighty with three guns suffered defeat at the hands
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: of one hundred and ten infantry with four size of
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: the soldiers the soldiers use should be all of one size.
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: The best British makers have standardized sizes and sell infantry
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: and cavalry in exactly proportioned dimensions, the infantry being nearly
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: two inches tall. There is a lighter, cheaper make of
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: perhaps an inch and a half high, that is also available.
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: Foreign made soldiers are of variable sizes. End of section three.
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. This recording is by Mark Smith
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: of Simpsonville, South Carolina. Little Wars by H. G. Wells.
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: Section four The Battle of Hook's Farm. And now having
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: given all the exact science of our wargame, having told
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: something of the development of this warfare. Let me here
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: set out the particulars of an exemplary game. And suddenly
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: your author changes. He changes into what perhaps he might
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: have been under different circumstances. His inky fingers become large,
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: manly hands, drooping scholastic back stiffens, his elbows go out,
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: His etiolated complexion corrugates and darkens. His mustaches increase and
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: grow and spread and curl up horribly, and a large
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: red scar a saber cut, grows lurid over one eye.
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: He expands all over, He expands, He clears his throat,
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: startlingly at lugs at the still growing ends of his mustache,
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: and says, with just a faint and fading doubt in
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: his voice, as to whether he can do it. Yea sir,
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: Now for a while you listen to General H. G.
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: W of the Blue Army. You hear tales of victory.
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: The photographs of the battlefields are by a woman war correspondent,
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: A C. W. A darling ornament of her sex. I vanish,
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: I vanish, But I will return. Here then is the
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: story of the Battle of Hook's Farm. The affair of
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: Hook's Farm was one of those brisk little things that
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: did so much to build up my early reputation. I
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: did remarkably well, though perhaps it is not my function
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: to say so. The enemy was slightly stronger, both in
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: cavalry and infantry than myself footnote a slight but pardonable
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: error on the part of the gallant gentleman. The forces
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: were exactly equal, and the footnote he had the choice
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: of position and opened the ball. Nevertheless, I routed him.
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: I had with me a compact little force of three guns,
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: forty eight infantry and twenty five horse. My instructions were
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: to clear up the country to the east of Fierley Church.
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: We came very speedily into touch. I discovered the enemy
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: advancing upon Hook's Farm and Firely Church, evidently with the
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: intention of holding these two positions and giving me a
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: warm welcome. Have buy me a photograph or so of
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: the battle field, and also a little sketch I used
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: upon the field. They will give the intelligent reader a
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: far better idea of the encounter than any so called
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: fine writing can do. The original advance of the enemy
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: was through the open country behind Fireley Church and Hook's Farm.
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: I cited him between the points marked A A and
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: B B, and his force was divided into two columns,
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: with very little cover or possibility of communication between them.
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: If once the intervening ground was under fire, I reckoned
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: about twenty two to his left and fifty or sixty
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: to his right. Footnote Here again the gallant gentleman airs.
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: This time he magnifies and footnote. Evidently he means to
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: seize both firely church and Hook's farm, get his guns
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: into action, and pound my little force to pieces while
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: it was still practically in the open. He could reach
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: both these admirable positions before I could hope to get
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: a man. There. There was no effective cover whatever upon
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: my right that would have permitted an advance up to
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: the church, and so I decided to concentrate my whole
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: force in a rush upon Hook's farm, while I staved
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: off his left with gun fire. I do not believe
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: any strategist whatever could have bettered that scheme. My guns
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: were at the points marked D C, E, each with
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: five horsemen, and I deployed my infantry in a line
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: between D and E. The rest of my cavalry I
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: ordered to advance on Hook's farm from C. I have
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: shown by arrows on the sketch the course I proposed
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: for my guns. The gun e was to go straight
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: for its assigned position and get into action at once.
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: C was not to risk capture or being put out
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: of action. Its exact position was to be determined by
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: Red's rapidity in getting up to the farm, and it
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: was to halt and get to work directly it saw
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: any chance of effective fire. Red had now sighted us
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: throughout the affair. He showed a remarkably poor stomach for
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: gun fire, and this was his undoing. Moreover, he was tempted,
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: by the poorness of our cover on our right to
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: attempt to outflank and inflate us there. Accordingly, partly to
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: get cover from our two central guns, and partly to
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: outflank us, he sent the whole of his left wing
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: to the left of Fireley Church, where except for the gun,
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: it became almost a negligible quantity. The gun came out
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: between the church and the wood, into a position from
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: which it did a considerable amount of mischief to the
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: infantry on our right, and nearly drove our rightmost gun
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: in upon its supports. Meanwhile, Red's two guns on his
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: right came forward to Hook's farm rather badly, supported by
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: his infantry. Once they got into position there received that
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: we should be done for, and accordingly I rushed every
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: available man forward in a vigorous counter attack, and my
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: own two guns came lumbering up to the farm house
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: corners and got into the wedge of shelter close behind
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: the house before his could open fire. His fire met
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: my advance, littering the gentle grass slope with dead and
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: then hot behind the storm of shell, and even as
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: my cavalry gathered to charge his guns, he charged mine.
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: I was amazed beyond measure at that rush, knowing his
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: sabers to be slightly outnumbered by mine. In another moment,
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: all the level space round the farmhouse was a whirling
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: storm of slashing cavalry. And then we found ourselves still
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: holding on with half a dozen prisoners, and the farm
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: yard ate perfect shambles of horses and men. The melee
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: was over. His charge had failed, and after a brief
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: breathing space for my shot torn infantry to come up,
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: I led on the counter attack. It was brilliantly successful,
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: a hard five minutes with bayonet and saber, and his
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: right gun was in our hands, and his central one
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: in jeopardy, and now Red was seized with that most
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: fatal disease of generals. In decision he would neither abandon
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: his lost gun nor adequately attack it. He sent forward
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: a feeble little infantry attack that we cut up with
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: the utmost ease, taking several prisoners, made a disastrous demonstration
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: from the church, and then fell back all together from
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: the gentle hill on which Hook Farm is situated, to
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: a position beside and behind an exposed cottage on the level.
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: I at once opened out into a long crescent with
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: a gun at either horn, whose cross fire completely destroyed
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: his chances of retreat from this ill chosen last stand,
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: and there presently we disabled his second gun. I now
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: turned my attention to his still largely unbroken right, from
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: which a gun had maintained a galling fire on us
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: throughout the fight. I might still have had some stiff
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: work getting an attack home to the church, but Red
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: had had enough of it and now decided to relieve
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: me of any further exertion by a precipitate retreat. My
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: gun to the right of Hook's farm killed three of
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: his flying men, but my cavalry were too badly cut
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: up for an effective pursuit. And he got away to
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: the extreme left of his original positions, with about six infantrymen,
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: four cavalry and one gun. He went none too soon.
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: Had he stayed, it would have been only a question
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: of time before we shot him to pieces and finished
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: him all together. So far and a little vaingloriously the general.
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: Let me now shrug my shoulders and shake him off,
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: and go over this battle he describes a little more
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: more exactly with the help of the photographs. The battle
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: is a small compact game of the fight to a
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: finish type, and it was arranged as simply as possible
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: in order to permit of a full and exact explanation.
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: Figure one shows the country of the battlefield. Put out
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: on the right is the church. On the left, near
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: the center of the plate is the farm. In the
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: hollow between the two is a small outbuilding directly behind
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: the farm, and the line of vision is another outbuilding.
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: This is more distinctly seen in other photographs. Behind the
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: chalk back line is clear Red has won the toss
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: both for the choice of a side and after making
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: that choice for first move, and his force is already
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: put out upon the back line for the sake of picturesqueness.
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: The men are not put exactly on the line, but
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: each will have his next move measured from that line.
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: Red has broken his force into two of fatal error,
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: as we shall see in view of the wide space
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: of open ground between the farm and the church. He
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: has one gun, five cavalry and thirteen infantry on his left,
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: who are evidently to take up a strong position by
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: the church and enflade Blues position. Red's right of two guns,
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: twenty cavalry and thirty seven infantry aim at the seizure
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: of the farm. Figure two is a near view of
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: Blues side. With his force put down, he has grasped
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: the strategic mistake of Red and is going to fling
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: every man at the farm. His right of five cavalry
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: and sixteen infantry will get up as soon as possible
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: to the woods near the center of the field, whence
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: the fire of their gun will be able to cut
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: off the two portions of Red's force from each other,
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: and then leaving the gun there with sufficient men to
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: serve it, the rest of this party will put on
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: to cooperate with the main force of their comrades in
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: the inevitable scrimmage for the farm. Fig. Three shows the
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: fight after Red and Blue have both made their first move.
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: It is taken from Red's side. Red has not as
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: yet realized the danger of his position. His left gun
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: struggles into position to the left of the church. His
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: center and right push for the farm. Blues five cavalry
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: on his left have already galloped forward into a favorable
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: position to open fire at the next move. They are
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: a little hidden in the picture by the church. The
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: sixteen infantry follow hard and his main force makes street
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: for the farm. Fig. Four shows the affair developing rapidly.
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: Red's cavalry on his right have taken his two guns
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: well forward into a position to sweep either side of
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: the farm, and his left gun is now well placed
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: to pound blues infantry. His infantry continued to press forward,
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: but Blue, for his second move, has already opened fire
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: from the woods with his right gun and killed three
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: of Red's men. His infantry have now come up to
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: serve this gun, and the cavalry who brought it into
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: position at the first move have now left it to
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: them in order to gallop over to join the force
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: attacking the farm. Undismayed by Red's guns, Blue has brought
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: his other two guns and his men as close to
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: the farm as they can go. His leftmost gun stares
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: Reds in the face and prevents any effective fire. His
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: middle gun faces Red's middle gun. Some of his cavalry
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: are exposed to the right of the farm, but most
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: are completely covered now by the farm from Red's fire.
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: Red has now to move. The nature of his position
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: is becoming apparent to him. His right gun is ineffective,
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: his left and his center guns cannot kill more than
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: seven or eight men between them, and at the next move,
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: unless he can silence them, Blues guns will be mowing
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: his exposed cavalry down from the security of the farm.
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: He is in a fix. How is he to get
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: out of it? His cavalry are slightly outnumbered, but he
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: decides to do as much execution as he can with
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: his own guns, charge the Blue guns before him, and
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: then bring up his infantry to save the situation. Fig.
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: Five a shows the results of Red's move. His two
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: effective guns have between them bowled over two cavalry and
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: six infantry in the gap between the farm and blues
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: right gun, and then, following up the effect of his
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: gun fire, his cavalry charges home over the Blue guns.
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: One oversight he makes, to which Blue at once calls
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: his attention. At the end of his move, Red has
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: reckoned on twenty cavalry for his charge, forgetting that by
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: the rules, he must put two men at the tail
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: of his middle gun. His infantry are just not able
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: to come up for this duty, and consequently two cavalrymen
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: have to be set there. The game then pauses while
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: the players work out the cavalry melee. Red has brought
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: up eighteen men to this in touch or within six
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: inches of touch, there are twenty one Blue cavalry. Red's
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: force is isolated, for only two of his men are
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: within a move, and to support eighteen he would have
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: to have nine by the rules, this gives fifteen men
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: dead on either side and three Red prisoners to Blue.
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: By the rules, also, it rests with Red to indicate
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: the survivors within the limits of the melee. As he chooses.
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: He takes very good care. There are not four men
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: within six inches of either Blue gun, and both these
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: are out of action. Therefore, for Blue's next move, of course,
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: Red would have done far better to have charged home
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: with thirteen men only leaving seven in support, but he
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: was flurried by his comparatively unsuccessful shooting. He had wanted
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: to hit more cavalry, and by the gun trail mistake. Moreover,
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: he had counted his antagonists wrongly and thought he could
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: arrange a melee of twenty against twenty. Figure five B
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: shows the game at the same stage as five A.
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: Immediately after the adjudication of the melee, the dead have
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: been picked up. The three prisoners, by a slight deflection
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: of the rules in the direction of the picturesque, turned
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: their faces towards captivity, and the rest of the picture
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: is exactly in the position of five A. It is
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: now Blues turn to move, and figure six A shows
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: the result of his move. He fires his rightmost gun,
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: the nose of it is just visible to the right,
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: and kills one infantryman and one cavalryman at the tail
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: of Red's central gun, brings up his surviving eight cavalry
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: into convenient positions for the service of his temporarily silenced guns,
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: and hurries his infantry forward to the farm, recklessly exposing
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: them in the thin wood between the farm and his
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: right gun. The attentive reader will be able to trace
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: all this in figure six A, and he will also
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: note the three Red cavalry prisoners going to the rear
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: under the escort of one Khaki infantryman. Figure six B
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: shows exactly the same stage as Figure six A. That
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: is to say, the end of Blues' third move. A
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: cavalryman lies dead at the tail of Red's middle gun,
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: an infantryman a little behind it. His rightmost gun is
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: abandoned and partly masked but not hidden from the observer
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: by a tree to the side of the farmhouse. And
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: now what is Red to do? The reader will probably
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: have his own ideas, as I have mine. What Red
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: did do in the actual game was to lose his head,
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: and then, at the end of four minutes deliberation, he
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: had to move. He blundered desperately. He opened fire on
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: blues exposed center and killed eight men. Their bodies litter
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: the ground in Fig. Seven, which gives a complete bird's
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: eye view of the battle. He then sent forward and
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: isolated six or seven men in a wild attempt to
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: recapture his lost gun, masked his other men behind the
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: inadequate cover of his central gun, and sent the detachment
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: of infantry that had hitherto lurked uselessly behind the church.
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: In a frantic and hopeless rush across the open to
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: join them. The one surviving cavalryman on his right wing
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: will be seen taking refuge behind the cottage. There can
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: be little question of the entire unsoundness of all these movements.
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: Red was at a disadvantage. He fail aailed to capture
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: the farm, and his business now was manifestly to save
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: his men as much as possible, make a defensive fight
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: of it, inflict as much damage as possible with his
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: leftmost gun on Blues advance, get the remnants of his
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: right across to the church, the cottage in the center,
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: and their own gun would have given them a certain
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: amount of cover and build up a new position about
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: that building as a pivot. With two guns right and
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: left of the church, he might conceivably have saved the
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: rest of the fight. That, however, is theory. Let us
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: return to fact. Figure eight gives the disastrous consequences of
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: Red's last move. Blue has moved, his guns have slaughtered
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: ten of Red's wretched foot, and a rush of nine
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: Blue cavalry and infantry mingles with red six surviving infantry
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: about the disputed gun. These infantry, by the definition, are isolated.
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: There are not three other Reds within a move of them.
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: The view in this photograph also is an extensive one,
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: and the reader will note as a painful accessory the
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: sad spectacle of three Red prisoners receding to the right.
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: The meleey about Red's lost gun works out of course
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: at three dead on each side and three more Red prisoners. Henceforth,
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: the battle moves swiftly to complete the disaster of Red.
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: Shaken and demoralized, that unfortunate general is now only for retreat.
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: His next move, of which I have no picture, is
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: to retreat the infantry he has so wantonly exposed back
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: to the shelter of the church, to withdraw the wreckage
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: of his right into the cover of the cottage, and
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: one last gleam of enterprise, to throw forward his left
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: gun into a position commanding Blue's right. Blue then pounds
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: Red's right with his gun to the right of the
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: farm and kills three men. He extends his the other
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: gun to the left of the farm, right out among
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: the trees, so as to get an effective fire next
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: time upon the tail of Red's gun. He also moves
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: up sufficient men to take possession of Red's lost gun.
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: On the right, Blues gun engages reds and kills one man.
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: All this the reader will see clearly in Fig. Nine,
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: and he will also note a second batch of Red prisoners,
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: this time they are infantry going rearward. Fig. Nine is
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: the last picture that is needed to tell the story
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: of the battle. Red's position is altogether hopeless. He has
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: four men left alive by his rightmost gun, and their
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: only chance is to attempt to save that by retreating
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: with it. If they fire it, one or other will
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: certainly be killed at its tail in Blues subsequent move,
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: and then the gun will be neither movable nor fireable.
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: Red's left gun, with four men only, is also in
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: extreme peril and will be amovable and helpless if it
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: loses another man. Very properly, Red decided upon retreat. His
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: second gun had to be abandoned after one move, but
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: two of the men with it escaped over his back line,
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: five of the infantry behind the church escaped, and his
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: third gun and its four cavalry got away on the
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: extreme left hand corner of Red's position. Blue remained on
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: the field completely victorious, with two captured guns and six prisoners.
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: There you have a scientific record of the worthy General's
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: little affair. End of chapter. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. This
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: recording is by Mark Smith of Simpsonville, South Carolina. Little
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: Wars by H. G. Wells. Chapter five Extensions and Amplifications
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: of Little War Now the Battle of Hook's Farm is,
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: as I have explained, a simplification of the game, set
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: out entirely to illustrate the method of playing. There is
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: scarcely a battle that will not prove more elaborate and
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: eventful than this little encounter. If a number of players
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: and a sufficiently large room can be got, there is
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: no reason why armies of many hundreds of soldiers should
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: not fight over many square yards of model country. So
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: long as each player has about one hundred men and
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: three guns. There is no need to lengthen the duration
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: of the game on that account. But it is too
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: laborious and confusing for a single player to handle more
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: than that number of men. Moreover, on a big floor
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: with an extensive country, it is possible to begin moving
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: with moves double or treble the link here specified, and
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: to come down to moves of the ordinary links when
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: the troops are within fifteen or twelve or ten feet
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: of each other. To players with a time and space available,
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: I would suggest using a quite large country, beginning with
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: treble moves, and with the exception of a select number
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: of cavalry scouts, keeping the soldiers in their boxes with
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: the lids on, and moving the boxes as units. This
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: boxing idea is a new one and affords a very
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: good substitute for the curtain. I have tried it twice
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: for games in the open air where the curtain was
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: not available. Neither side would, of course know what the
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: other had in its boxes. They might be packed regiments
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: or a mere skeleton force. Each side would advance on
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: the other by double or treble moves behind a screen
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: of cavalry scouts until a scout was within ten feet
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: of a box on the opposite side. The contents of
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: that particular box would have to be disclosed, and the
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: men stood out. Troops without any enemy within twenty feet
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: could be returned to their boxes for facility of moving.
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: Playing on such a scale would admit also of the
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: introduction of the problem of provisions and supplies. Little toy
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: army service wagons can be bought, and it could be
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: ruled that troops must have one such wagon for every
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: fifty men within at least six moves. Moreover, ammunition carts
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: may be got, and it may be ruled that one
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: must be within two moves of a gun before the
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: latter can be fired. All these are complications of the
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: war game, and so far I have not been able
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: to get together sufficient experienced players to play on this larger,
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: more elaborate scale. It is only after the smaller, simpler
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: war game here described has been played a number of
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: times and its little dodges mastered completely, that such more
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: warlike devices become practicable. But obviously, with a team of
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: players and an extensive country, one could have a general
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: controlling the whole campaign, divisional commanders, batteries of guns, specialized brigades,
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: and a quite military movement of the whole affair. I have,
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: as several illustrations show, dried little wars in the open air.
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: The toy soldiers stand quite well on closely mown grass,
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: but the long range gun fire becomes a little uncertain
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: if there is any breeze. It gives a greater freedom
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 1: of movement and allows the players to lie down more
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: comfortably when firing. To increase and even double the moves
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: of the indoor game, one can mark out high roads
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: and streams with an ordinary long tennis marker. Mountains and
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: rocks of stones and woods and forests of twigs are
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: easily arranged. But if the game is to be left
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: out all night night and continued next day, a thing
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: I have as yet had no time to try. The
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: houses must be of some more solid material than paper.
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: I would suggest painted blocks of wood on a large lawn.
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: A wide countryside may be easily represented. The players may
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: begin with a game exactly like the ordinary creekspiel, with
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: scouts and boxed soldiers, which will develop into such battles
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: as are here described. As the troops come into contact.
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: It would be easy to give the roads a real
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 1: significance by permitting a move half as long again as
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: in the open country, for wagons or boxed troops along
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: a road. There is a possibility of having a toy
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 1: railway with stations or rolling stock into which troops might
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: be put. On such a giant war map one would
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: allow a move for EN training and another for D training,
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: requiring the troops to be massed alongside of the train
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: at the beginning and end of each journey, and the
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: train might move at four or five times the cavalry rate.
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: One would use open trucks and put in a specified
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: number of men, say twelve infantry or five cavalry, or
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: half a gun per truck, and permit an engine to
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: draw seven or eight trucks or move at a reduced
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: speed with more. One could also rule that four men
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: the same four men remaining on a line during two
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: moves could tear up a rail, and eight men in
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: three moves replace it. I will confess I have never
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: yet tried over these more elaborate developments of Little Wars,
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: partly because of the limited time at my disposal, and
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 1: partly because they all demand a number of players who
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: are well acquainted with the game on each side if
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: they are not to last interminably. The Battle of Hook's Farm,
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: one player aside took a hole after night noon, and
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: most of my battles have lasted the better part of
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: a day. End of chapter chapter six, ending with a
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 1: sort of challenge, I could go on now and tell
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: of battles copiously in the memory of the one skirmish
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: I have given. I do but taste blood. I would
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: like to go on to a large, thick book. It
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: would be an agreeable task. Since I am the chief
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: inventor and practicer. So far of little wars, there has
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 1: fallen to me a disproportionate share of victories. But let
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 1: me not boast. For the present. I have done all
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: that I meant to do in this matter. It is
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: for you, dear reader, now, to get a floor, a friend,
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: some soldiers, and some guns, and show, by a groveling devotion,
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: your appreciation of this noble and beautiful gift of a
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: limitless game that I have given you. And if I
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: might or moment trumpet, how much better is this amiable
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: miniature than the real thing. Here is a homeopathic remedy
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: for the imaginative strategist. Here is the premeditation, the thrill,
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: the strain of accumulating victory or disaster. And no smashed
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: nor sanguinary bodies, no shattered fine buildings nor devastated countrysides,
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: no petty cruelties, none of that awful universal boredom and embitterment,
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: that tiresome delay or stoppage or embarrassment of every gracious, bold,
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: sweet and charming thing that we who are old enough
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: to remember a real modern war know to be the
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: reality of belligerence. This world is for ample living. We
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: want security and freedom, all of us in every country
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: except a few dull witted, energetic bores. Want to see
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 1: the manhood of the world at something better than aping
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: the little lead toys our children buy in boxes. We
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: want fine things made for mankind, splendid cities, open ways,
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 1: more knowledge and power, and more and more and more.
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 1: And so I offer my game for a particular as
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: well as a general end. And let us put this
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 1: prancing monarch and that silly scaremonger, and these excitable patriots,
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: and those adventurers, and all the practitioners of veldt politique
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 1: into one vast temple of war, with cork carpets everywhere,
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: and plenty of little trees and little houses to knock down,
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: and cities and fortresses and unlimited soldiers tons cellars full.
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: And let them lead their own lives there away from us.
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: My game is just as good as their game, and
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 1: saner by reason of its size. Here is war done
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 1: down to rational proportions, and yet out of the way
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 1: of mankind, even as our fathers turned human sacrifices into
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: the eating of little images and symbolic mouthfuls. For my
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 1: own part, I am prepared. I have nearly five hundred men,
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: more than a score of guns, and I twirl my
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: mustache and hurl defiance eastward from my home in Essex
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: across the narrow seas. Not only eastward. I would conclude
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 1: this little discourse with one other disconcerting and exasperating sentence
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: for the admirers and practitioners of big war. I have
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: never yet met in little battle any military gentleman and
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: a captain, major, colonel, general, or eminent commander who did
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: not presently get into difficulties and confusions among even the
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: elementary rules of the battle. You have only to play
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: at little wars three or four times to realie lies
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 1: just what a blundering thing great war must be. Great
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: war is at present, I am convinced not only the
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 1: most expensive game in the universe, but it is a
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: game out of all proportion. Not only are the masses
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 1: of men and material and suffering and inconvenience too monstrously
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: big for reason, but the available heads we have for
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 1: it are too small. That I think is the most
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 1: pacific realization conceivable, and Little War brings you to it
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 1: as nothing else but great war can do. End of chapter.
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. This recording is by Mark Smith
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 1: of Simpsonville, South Carolina. Little Wars by H. G. Wells.
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 1: The appendix entitled Little Wars and Krigspiel. This little book has,
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 1: I hope, been perfectly frank about its intentions. It is
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 1: not a book upon Krigspiel. It gives merely a game
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 1: that may be played by two or four or six
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: amaterish persons in an afternoon and evening with toy soldiers.
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: But it has a very distinct relation to Krigspiel. And
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: since the main portion of it was written and published
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: in a magazine, I have had quite a considerable correspondence
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 1: with military people who have been interested by it, and
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 1: who have shown a very friendly spirit towards it in
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 1: spite of the Pacific outbreak. In its concluding section they
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: tell me what I all read a little suspected that
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 1: Kriegspiel as it is played by the British Army is
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 1: a very dull and unsatisfactory exercise, lacking in realism, in
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 1: stir and the unexpected, obsessed by the umpire at every turn,
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 1: and a very doubtful value in waking up the imagination,
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 1: which should be its chief function. I am particularly indebted
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 1: to Colonel Mark Sykes for advice and information in this matter.
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: He has pointed out to me the possibility of developing
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 1: Little Wars into a vivid and inspiring Kriegspiel in which
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 1: the element of the umpire would be reduced to a minimum,
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 1: and it would be ungrateful to him and a waste
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 1: of an interesting opportunity if I did not add this
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 1: appendix pointing out how a Kriegspiel of real educational value
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 1: for junior officers may be developed out of the amusing
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 1: methods of Little War. If Great War is to be
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 1: played at all, the better it is played, the more
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 1: humanely it will be done. I see no inconsistency in
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 1: deploring the practice while perfecting the method. But I am
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 1: a civilian and Kriegspiel is not my proper business. I
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: am deeply preoccupied with a novel I am writing, and
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 1: so I think the best thing I can do is
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: just to set down here all the ideas that have
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 1: cropped up in my mind in the footsteps, so to
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 1: speak of Colonel Sykes, and leave it to the military expert,
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 1: if he cares to take the matter up, to reduce
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 1: my scattered suggestions to a system. Now, first, it is
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 1: manifest that in Little Wars there is no equivalent for
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 1: rifle fire, and that the effect of the gunfire has
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 1: no resemblance to the effect of shell. That may be
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: altered very simply, let the rules as to gunfire be
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 1: as they are now, but let a different projectile be used,
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 1: a projectile that will drop down and stay where it falls.
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 1: I find that one can buy an ironmonger's shops small
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 1: brass screws of various sizes and weights, but all capable
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: of being put in the muzzle of the four point
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 1: seven guns without slipping down the barrel. If with such
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 1: a screw in the muzzle, the gun is loaded and fired,
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 1: the wooden bolt remains in the gun, and the screw
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 1: flies and drops and stays near where it falls, its
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 1: range being determined by the size and weight of the
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 1: screw selected by the gunner. Let us assume this is
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 1: a shell, and it is quite easy to make a
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: rule that will give the effect of its explosion half
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 1: or in the case of an odd number one, more
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 1: than half of the men within three inches of the
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 1: shell are dead. And if there is a gun completely
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 1: within the circle of three inches radius from them in
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 1: the shell, it is destroyed. If it is not completely
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: within the circle, it is disabled for two moves. A
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 1: supply wagon is completely destroyed if it falls wholly or
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: partially within the radius. But if there is a wall, house,
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 1: or entrenchment between any men and the shell, they are uninjured.
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 1: They do not count in the reckoning of the effect
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 1: of the shell. I think one can get a practical
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: imitation of the effect of rifle fire by deciding that
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 1: for every five infantrymen who are roughly in a line,
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: and who do not move in any particular move, there
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 1: may be one ordinary shot taken with a four point
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: seven gun. It may be fired from any convenient position
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 1: behind the row of live men, so long as the
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 1: shot passes roughly over the head of the middle man
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 1: of the five. Of course, while in little wars there
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 1: are only three or four players. In any proper crew Bigspiel,
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: the game will go on over a larger area in
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: a drill hall or some such place, and each arm
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 1: and service will be entrusted to a particular player. This
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 1: permits all sorts of complicated imitations of reality that are
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 1: impossible to our parlor and playroom little wars. We can
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 1: consider transport, supply, ammunition, and the moral, effective cavalry impact,
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: and of uphill and downhill movements. We can also bring
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 1: in the spade and entrenchment and give scope to the
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 1: royal engineers. But before I write anything of Colonel Sykes's
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: suggestions about these, let me say a word or two
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 1: about Kriegspiel country. The country for Kriegspiel should be made up.
• 1:28:48
  Speaker 1: I think of heavy blocks or boxes of wood about
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 1: three by three by one half feet, and curve pieces
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 1: with a rounded out line and a cord of three feet,
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 1: or shaped like right angled triangles with an inn curved
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 1: hypotenuse and two straight sides of three feet can easily
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 1: be contrived to round off corners and salient angles. These
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 1: blocks can be bored to take trees, et cetera, exactly
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 1: as the boards and little wars are bored and with
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 1: them a very passable model of any particular country can
• 1:29:25
  Speaker 1: be built up from a contoured ordnance map. Houses may
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 1: be made very cheaply by shaping a long piece of
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 1: wood into a house like section and sawing it up.
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 1: There will always be someone who will touch up, and paint,
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 1: and stick windows on to, and generally adorn and individualize
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: such houses, which are, of course the stabler the heavier
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: the wood used the rest of the country, as in
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 1: Little Wars, upon such a country, a Creekspiel could be
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 1: played with rules upon the lines of the following sketch rule,
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 1: which are the result of a discussion between Colonel Sykes
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 1: and myself, and in which most of the new ideas
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 1: are to be ascribed to Colonel Sykes. We profer them
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 1: not as a finished set of rules, but as material
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 1: for anyone who chooses to work over them in the
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 1: elaboration of what we believe will be a far more
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 1: exciting and edifying kriegsfield than any that exists at the
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 1: present time. The game may be played by any number
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 1: of players according to the forces engaged and the size
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 1: of the country available. Each side will be under the
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 1: supreme command of a general who will be represented by
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 1: a cavalry soldier. The player who is general must stand
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 1: at or behind his representative image and within six feet
• 1:30:48
  Speaker 1: of it. His signaling will be supposed to be perfect,
• 1:30:52
  Speaker 1: and he will communicate with his subordinates by shout, whisper
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 1: or note as he thinks fit. I suggest he should
• 1:30:59
  Speaker 1: be considered invulnerable, But Colonel Sykes has proposed arrangements for
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 1: his disablement. He would have it that if the General
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 1: falls within the zone of destruction of a shell, he
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 1: must go out of the room for three moves injured,
• 1:31:14
  Speaker 1: and that if he is hit by rifle fire or captured,
• 1:31:18
  Speaker 1: he shall quit the game and be succeeded by his
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 1: next subordinate. Now, as to the moves, it is suggested
• 1:31:26
  Speaker 1: that infantry shall move one foot, cavalry shall move three feet.
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 1: The above moves are increased by one half for troops
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 1: in twos or fours On a road, Royal engineers shall
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 1: move two feet, Royal artillery shall move two feet. Transport
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 1: and supply shall move one foot on roads, half foot
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 1: across country. The General shall move six feet, permoter three
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 1: feet across country. Boats shall move one in moving uphill,
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 1: one contour counts as one foot downhill. Two contours count
• 1:32:07
  Speaker 1: as one foot. Where there are four contours to one
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 1: foot vertical, the hill is impassable four wheels unless there
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 1: is a road. Infantry to pass a fordable river equals
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 1: one move. To change from fours to two ranks equals
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 1: half a move. To change from two ranks to extension
• 1:32:30
  Speaker 1: equals half a move to embark into boats equals two
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 1: moves for every twenty men embarked at any point. To
• 1:32:38
  Speaker 1: disembark equals one move for every twenty men. Cavalry to
• 1:32:44
  Speaker 1: pass a fordable river equals one move. To change formation
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 1: equals half. A move to mount equals one move to
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 1: dismount equals one move. Artillery to unlimbered guns equals half.
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 1: A move to limber up guns equals half a move.
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 1: Rivers are impassable to guns. Neither infantry, cavalry, nor artillery
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 1: can fire and move in one move. Royal engineers, no
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 1: repairs can be commenced. No destructions can be begun during
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 1: a move in which Royal Engineers have changed position. Rivers
• 1:33:28
  Speaker 1: impassable Transport and supply. No supplies or stores can be
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 1: delivered during a move. If transport and supply have moved.
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 1: Rivers impassable. Next as to supply in the field, all
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 1: troops must be kept supplied with food, ammunition, and forage.
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 1: The players must give up every six moves one packet
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 1: of food per thirty men, one packet of forage per
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 1: six horses, one packet of ammunition per thirty infantry which
• 1:34:02
  Speaker 1: fire for six consecutive moves. These supplies at the time
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 1: when they are given up must be within six feet
• 1:34:10
  Speaker 1: of the infantry they belong to, and eighteen feet of
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 1: the cavalry. Isolated bodies of less than thirty infantry require
• 1:34:18
  Speaker 1: no supplies. A body is isolated if it is more
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 1: than twelve feet off another body. In calculating supplies for infantry,
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 1: the fractions either count as thirty if fifteen or over,
• 1:34:32
  Speaker 1: or as nothing if less than fifteen. Thus, forty six
• 1:34:37
  Speaker 1: infantry require two packets of food or ammunition. Forty four
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 1: infantry require one packet of food. N B supplies are
• 1:34:48
  Speaker 1: not effective if enemy is between supplies and troops they
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 1: belong to. Men surrounded and besieged must be victualled at
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 1: the following rate. One packet food for every thirty men
• 1:35:03
  Speaker 1: for every six moves, one packet forage every six horses.
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 1: For every six moves. In the event of supplies failing,
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 1: horses may take the place of food, but not of
• 1:35:16
  Speaker 1: course of forage. One horse to equal one packet. In
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 1: the event of supplies failing, the following consequences ensue. Infantry
• 1:35:27
  Speaker 1: without ammunition cannot fire. Guns are supposed to have unlimited
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 1: ammunition with them. Infantry, cavalry, Royal artillery, and Royal engineers
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 1: cannot move without supply. If supplies are not provided within
• 1:35:43
  Speaker 1: six consecutive moves, they are out of action. A force
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 1: surrounded must surrender four moves after eating its last horse.
• 1:35:53
  Speaker 1: Now as two destructions. To destroy a railway bridge, Royal
• 1:35:58
  Speaker 1: engineers take two more moves to repair. Royal engineers take
• 1:36:03
  Speaker 1: ten moves to destroy a railway culvert, Royal engineers take
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 1: one move to repair. Royal engineers take five moves. To
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 1: destroy a river bridge, Royal engineers take one move to repair.
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 1: Royal engineers take five moves. A supply depot can be
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 1: destroyed by one man in two moves, no matter how large,
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 1: by fire. Four men can destroy the contents of six
• 1:36:33
  Speaker 1: wagons in one move. A contact mine can be placed
• 1:36:38
  Speaker 1: on a road or in any place by two men
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 1: in six moves, it will be exploded by the first
• 1:36:44
  Speaker 1: pieces passing over it, and will destroy everything within six
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 1: inches radius. Now as to constructions, entrenchments can be made
• 1:36:55
  Speaker 1: by infantry in four moves. There are to be strips
• 1:36:59
  Speaker 1: of wood two in is high tacked to the country,
• 1:37:02
  Speaker 1: or wooden bricks two inches high. Two men may make
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 1: an inch of entrenchment. In parliaments, for guns may be
• 1:37:10
  Speaker 1: constructed at the rate of six men to one in
• 1:37:12
  Speaker 1: parliament in four moves. Now Here is a footnote. Notice
• 1:37:18
  Speaker 1: is to be given to umpire of commencement of any
• 1:37:21
  Speaker 1: work or the placing of a mine. An event of
• 1:37:24
  Speaker 1: no umpire being available, a folded note must be put
• 1:37:28
  Speaker 1: on the mantelpiece when entrenchmen is commenced, an opponent asked
• 1:37:32
  Speaker 1: to open it when the trench is completed or the
• 1:37:35
  Speaker 1: mine exploded. Rules as to cavalry charging, no body of
• 1:37:41
  Speaker 1: less than eight cavalry may charge, and they must charge
• 1:37:45
  Speaker 1: improper formation. If cavalry charges infantry in extended order, if
• 1:37:52
  Speaker 1: the charge starts at a distance of more than two feet,
• 1:37:55
  Speaker 1: the cavalry loses one man for every five infantrymen charged,
• 1:37:59
  Speaker 1: and d the infantry loses one man for each saber charging.
• 1:38:05
  Speaker 1: At less than one foot, the cavalry loses one man
• 1:38:08
  Speaker 1: for every fifteen charged, and the infantry three men for
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 1: each saber charging. If cavalry charges infantry in close order,
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 1: the result is reversed. Thus, at more than two feet,
• 1:38:23
  Speaker 1: one infantryman kills three cavalrymen and fifteen cavalrymen one infantryman.
• 1:38:30
  Speaker 1: At more than one foot, one infantryman kills two cavalry
• 1:38:34
  Speaker 1: and ten cavalry. One infantry. At less than one foot,
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 1: one infantryman kills one cavalry and five cavalry one infantry. However,
• 1:38:47
  Speaker 1: infantry that has been charged in close order are immobile
• 1:38:51
  Speaker 1: for the subsequent move. Infantry charged in extended order must,
• 1:38:56
  Speaker 1: on the next move retire one foot. They can be
• 1:39:00
  Speaker 1: charged again if cavalry charges cavalry. If cavalry is within
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 1: charging distance of the enemy's cavalry at the end of
• 1:39:09
  Speaker 1: the enemy's move, it must do one of three things dismount, charge,
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 1: or retire. If it remains stationary amounted and the enemy charges,
• 1:39:21
  Speaker 1: one charging saver will kill five stationary sabers and put
• 1:39:25
  Speaker 1: fifteen others three feet to the rear. Dismounted cavalry charged
• 1:39:31
  Speaker 1: is equivalent to infantry in extended order. If cavalry charges
• 1:39:37
  Speaker 1: cavalry and the numbers are equal and the ground level,
• 1:39:41
  Speaker 1: the result must be decided by the toss of a coin,
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 1: the loser losing three quarters of its men and obliged
• 1:39:48
  Speaker 1: to retire, the winner losing one quarter of his men.
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 1: If the numbers are unequal, the melee rules for little
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 1: wars obtain if the ground is level. If the ground slopes,
• 1:40:02
  Speaker 1: the cavalry charging downhill will be multiplied according to the
• 1:40:05
  Speaker 1: number of contours crossed. If it is one contour, it
• 1:40:09
  Speaker 1: must be multiplied by two, two contours multiplied by three,
• 1:40:15
  Speaker 1: three contours multiplied by four. If cavalry retires before cavalry
• 1:40:22
  Speaker 1: instead of accepting a charge, it must continue to retire
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 1: so long as it is pursued. The pursuers can only
• 1:40:29
  Speaker 1: be arrested by fresh cavalry or by infantry or artillery fire.
• 1:40:35
  Speaker 1: If driven off the field or into an unfordable river,
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 1: the retreating body is destroyed. If infantry find hostile cavalry
• 1:40:45
  Speaker 1: within charging distance at the end of the enemy's move,
• 1:40:48
  Speaker 1: and this infantry retires and yet is still within charging distance,
• 1:40:54
  Speaker 1: it will receive double losses. If in extended order. If charged,
• 1:40:59
  Speaker 1: and if in two ranks or in fours, will lose
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 1: at three feet two men for each charging saber. At
• 1:41:06
  Speaker 1: two feet three men for each charging saber. The cavalry
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 1: in these circumstances will lose nothing. The infantry will have
• 1:41:16
  Speaker 1: to continue to retire until their tormentors have exterminated them
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 1: or been driven off by someone else. If cavalry charges
• 1:41:25
  Speaker 1: artillery and is not dealt with by other forces, one
• 1:41:29
  Speaker 1: gun is captured, with a loss to the cavalry of
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 1: four men per gun for a charge at three feet,
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 1: three men at two feet, and one man at one foot.
• 1:41:40
  Speaker 1: If artillery retires before cavalry when cavalry is within charging distance,
• 1:41:46
  Speaker 1: it must continue to retire so long as the cavalry pursues.
• 1:41:52
  Speaker 1: The introduction of toy railway trains moving let us say
• 1:41:56
  Speaker 1: eight feet per move upon toy rails us rules as
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 1: to in training and d training and so forth that
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: will be quite easily worked out upon the model of
• 1:42:06
  Speaker 1: boat embarkation here given, an engine or truck within the
• 1:42:11
  Speaker 1: circle of destruction of a shell will be, of course destroyed.
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 1: The toy soldiers used in this Kriegspiel should not be
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 1: the large soldiers used in Little Wars. The British manufacturers
• 1:42:24
  Speaker 1: who turn out these also make a smaller, cheaper type
• 1:42:28
  Speaker 1: of man, the infantry, about an inch high, which is
• 1:42:31
  Speaker 1: better adapted to Creekspiel purposes. We hope if these suggestions
• 1:42:36
  Speaker 1: catch on to induce them to manufacture a type of
• 1:42:40
  Speaker 1: soldier more exactly suited to the needs of the game,
• 1:42:44
  Speaker 1: including trade carriers for troops in formation, and what is
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 1: at present not attainable dismountable cavalry that will stand. We
• 1:42:54
  Speaker 1: place this rough sketch of a Kriegspiel entirely at the
• 1:42:58
  Speaker 1: disposal of any military men whose needs and opportunities enable
• 1:43:02
  Speaker 1: them to work it out and make it into an
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 1: exact and more realistic game. In doing so, we think
• 1:43:09
  Speaker 1: they will find it advisable to do their utmost to
• 1:43:12
  Speaker 1: make the game work itself, and to keep the need
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 1: for umpire's decisions at a minimum. Whenever possible, death should
• 1:43:21
  Speaker 1: be by actual gun and rifle fire, and not by computation.
• 1:43:25
  Speaker 1: Things should happen and not be decided. We would also
• 1:43:29
  Speaker 1: like to insist upon the absolute need of an official
• 1:43:32
  Speaker 1: upon either side simply to watch and measure the moves taken,
• 1:43:37
  Speaker 1: and to collect and check the amounts of supply and
• 1:43:40
  Speaker 1: ammunition given up. This is a game, like real war,
• 1:43:44
  Speaker 1: played against time, and played under circumstances of considerable excitement.
• 1:43:49
  Speaker 1: And it is remarkable how elastic the measurements of quite
• 1:43:53
  Speaker 1: honest and honorable men can become. We believe that the
• 1:43:58
  Speaker 1: nearer that Kriegspiel aproaches to an actual small model of war,
• 1:44:03
  Speaker 1: not only in its appearance but in its emotional and
• 1:44:06
  Speaker 1: intellectual tests, the better it will serve its purpose of
• 1:44:10
  Speaker 1: trial and education. End of the Appendix and end of
• 1:44:17
  Speaker 1: Little Wars by H. G. Wells