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Invasion Literature
Little Wars and Floor Games
Little Wars
(A Game for Boys from twelve years of age to one
hundred and fifty and
for that more intelligent sort of girl who likes boys' games and books)
With an Appendix on Kriegspiel
By H. G. Wells
CONTENTS
I. OF THE LEGENDARY PAST
II. THE BEGINNINGS OF MODERN LITTLE WARFARE
III. THE RULES--
The Country
The Move
Mobility of the Various Arms
Hand-to-Hand Fighting and Capturing
Varieties of the Battle-Game
Composition of Forces
Size of the Soldiers
IV. THE BATTLE OF HOOK'S FARM
V. EXTENSIONS AND AMPLIFICATIONS OF LITTLE WAR
VI. ENDING WITH A SORT OF CHALLENGE
APPENDIX--
LITTLE WARS AND KRIEGSPIEL
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Little Wars was written by the famous author
H. G. Wells in 1913 and is a set of rules for playing with toy soldiers. Its
full title is Little Wars: a game for boys from twelve years of age to one
hundred and fifty and for that more intelligent sort of girl who likes boys'
games and books.
The game, geared towards boys, revolved around the use of lead soldiers and
battlefields made from whatever materials were on hand, usually blocks or
other toys. Little Wars is considered by some to be the first modern table
top war game. It included fairly complex rules for infantry, cavalry, and
even artillery in the form of a toy 4.7 inch naval gun that launched
projectiles, usually small wooden dowels to knock down enemy soldiers. In
addition to it being a war game, the book hints at several philosophical
aspects of war. The development of the game is explained and Wells' thoughts
on war, as he was known to be a pacifist, is revealed in his writing.
and
FLOOR GAMES
A Father's Account of Play and Its Legacy of
Healing
by Herbert George Wells
Contents
I. The Toys To Have
II. The Game Of The Wonderful Islands
III. Of The Building Of Cities
IV. Funiculars, Marble Towers, Castles And War Games,
But Very LIttle Of War Games
Floor Games was written by science fiction author H. G. Wells in 1911 and is
a lighthearted, sometimes humorous discussion about the theory, purpose, and
methodology of playing a variety of children's games with models,
miniatures, and other props.
Floor Games is often somewhat misleadingly characterized as a "companion
book" to Well's Little Wars, even though that book was not actually
published until 1913, two years after the release of Floor Games. As the
text of the earlier book makes clear, however, it was conceived of as a
self-standing volume that the author might eventually decide to follow with
a text devoted purely to wargames.
Numerous reprints of Floor Games have been published in the century since
its initial release.
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By the end of the 19th century, the tradition
of the Kriegspieler, wargames played either on boards or sand tables, with
wooden blocks or pieces, by professionals for training purposes and by
laymen for personal enjoyment, was well-established throughout Europe and
the United States; indeed, in his Appendix to Little Wars, Wells speaks of
the changes required to convert his admittedly simplistic rules into a more
rigorous Kriegspiel. This is no great surprise; after all, Kriegspieler had
existed for more than a century, the first being invented by Helmut, Master
of Pages, for the Duke of Brunswick, in 1780.
Britain was a nation enraptured by military glory, by the successes of
British arms against the "lesser breeds without the law," to borrow
Kipling's term, and convinced of its fundamental superiority over all the
world.
These books are in the tradition of that first bloom of science fiction, in
the form of the "future war" novel, a genre popular mainly in Britain, but
successful also in France and the United States, which generally portrayed
the conquest of the nation of the author by some antagonistic state (usually
Germany for the British, some Asiatic menace for the United States).
Wells as a socialist and internationalist, cannot be condemned as sharing
the limited horizons of the purveyors of such nonsense; yet he wrote in an
era wherein boyish enthusiasm was not an inappropriate emotion to bring to
the contemplation of war.
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Herbert George Wells (September 21, 1866 – August 13, 1946) was a British
writer best known for his science fiction novels such as The War of the
Worlds, The Invisible Man, The Island of Doctor Moreau and The Time Machine.
He was a prolific writer in the history of literature, and wrote works in
nearly every genre, including short stories and nonfiction. He was an
outspoken socialist, and most of his works contain some notable political or
social commentary.
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