Hamilton321
Prince
Ah, the favorite past time of nerdy men, sitting down with other nerdy men, (whether in person or online) and playing a wargame. Today we take war games for granted, there are numerous variants of wargames which vary widely in complexity, duration, difficulty and scale. Many simple, popular board games emphasize a specific element of war and can be completed in a single day. Stratego emphasizes the fog of war. Risk emphasizes chance and stages of war with rapid and dramatic changes in the balance of power. Other more obscure board games such as The Battle of Fontenoy: 11 May, 1745 and The Campaign for North Africa go to great lengths to simulate all elements of real-life war strategy.
But where and when did war games come from? Prior to the nineteenth century there was no such thing as the modern wargame genre. There were two variants of wargame, but neither of them resemble anything modern. One was chess and the numerous variants of chess. The second was custom made wargames for Prussian royalty. These were incredibly elaborate and expensive games which took months to produce.
The first game which did not fit into one of these categories came into existence in the immediate aftermath of the Napoleonic wars. During the Napoleonic Wars, Prussia's performance was embarrassing: Prussia failed to raise professional armies as large as Austria, France, Russia or Britain. It failed to produce enough ammunition to supply its own armies, Prussia was invaded by Napoleon and was reduced to a mere rump of its former power with large amounts of its territory partitioned to Napoleonic puppet states.
Prussia did not forget its humiliations at the hands of Napoleon and was determined to reform its military, therefore the Prussian government pursued every possible military innovation with incredible zeal. This is the scenario which allowed the first modern wargame to enter the scene. In 1824, captain Reisswitz presented Kregsspiel, a revised version of a wargame previously designed by his father for the king of Prussia. and this 1824 edition was the godfather of all modern war games.
The version by Reisswitz Jr. was less elaborate in appearance, yet it introduced many radical concepts which would forever change wargaming. This edition of the wargame was the first ever game to have; a hit-point system, a simulation of the fog of war, a realistic simulation of terrain, flexible and often unequal starting situations, an umpire to mediate, dice to determine the damage units did in combat, it was a board game that could reproduce realistic combat scenarios and it was easy to produce like chess, allowing it to be distributed publicly. The Prussian military saw this game as a significant military innovation and adopted Kriegsspiel as part of its officer training programs. At one point every regiment in the Prussian army had a Kriegsspiel set. Kriegsspiel was followed by other wargames which were used by the Prussian officer corps to recreate realistic war situations.
In the late 1860s and early 1870s, Prussia seemed invincible; through a series of diplomatic and military triumphs they shocked the world and became the dominant power of continental Europe. The rest of Europe raced to adopt Prussian military reforms. One of these was Prussian wargames, which were studied by many scholars, particularly in England. This led to the development of a plethora of new games which adopted many of the elements first introduced by the 1824 edition of Kriegsspiel and some of these aspects became cornerstones of all modern war games.
But where and when did war games come from? Prior to the nineteenth century there was no such thing as the modern wargame genre. There were two variants of wargame, but neither of them resemble anything modern. One was chess and the numerous variants of chess. The second was custom made wargames for Prussian royalty. These were incredibly elaborate and expensive games which took months to produce.
The first game which did not fit into one of these categories came into existence in the immediate aftermath of the Napoleonic wars. During the Napoleonic Wars, Prussia's performance was embarrassing: Prussia failed to raise professional armies as large as Austria, France, Russia or Britain. It failed to produce enough ammunition to supply its own armies, Prussia was invaded by Napoleon and was reduced to a mere rump of its former power with large amounts of its territory partitioned to Napoleonic puppet states.
Prussia did not forget its humiliations at the hands of Napoleon and was determined to reform its military, therefore the Prussian government pursued every possible military innovation with incredible zeal. This is the scenario which allowed the first modern wargame to enter the scene. In 1824, captain Reisswitz presented Kregsspiel, a revised version of a wargame previously designed by his father for the king of Prussia. and this 1824 edition was the godfather of all modern war games.
The version by Reisswitz Jr. was less elaborate in appearance, yet it introduced many radical concepts which would forever change wargaming. This edition of the wargame was the first ever game to have; a hit-point system, a simulation of the fog of war, a realistic simulation of terrain, flexible and often unequal starting situations, an umpire to mediate, dice to determine the damage units did in combat, it was a board game that could reproduce realistic combat scenarios and it was easy to produce like chess, allowing it to be distributed publicly. The Prussian military saw this game as a significant military innovation and adopted Kriegsspiel as part of its officer training programs. At one point every regiment in the Prussian army had a Kriegsspiel set. Kriegsspiel was followed by other wargames which were used by the Prussian officer corps to recreate realistic war situations.
In the late 1860s and early 1870s, Prussia seemed invincible; through a series of diplomatic and military triumphs they shocked the world and became the dominant power of continental Europe. The rest of Europe raced to adopt Prussian military reforms. One of these was Prussian wargames, which were studied by many scholars, particularly in England. This led to the development of a plethora of new games which adopted many of the elements first introduced by the 1824 edition of Kriegsspiel and some of these aspects became cornerstones of all modern war games.
, after all it was their national industry as the saying goes 
