Little Wars

(1) A man or a body of men which has less than half its own number of men on its own side within a move of it, is said to be isolated.  But if there is at least half its number of men of its own side within a move of it, it is not isolated; it is supported.

(2) Men may be moved up into virtual contact (one-eighth of an inch or closer) with men of the opposite side.  They must then be left until the end of the move.

(3) At the end of the move, if there are men of the side that has just moved in contact with any men of the other side, they constitute a melee.  All the men in contact, and any other men within six inches of the men in contact, measuring from any point of their persons, weapons, or horses, are supposed to take part in the melee.  At the end of the move the two players examine the melee and dispose of the men concerned according to the following rules:—­

Either the numbers taking part in the melee on each side are equal or unequal.

(a) If they are equal, all the men on both sides are killed.

(b) If they are unequal, then the inferior force is either isolated or (measuring from the points of contact) not isolated.

(i) If it is isolated (see (1) above), then as many men become prisoners as the inferior force is less in numbers than the superior force, and the rest kill each a man and are killed.  Thus nine against eleven have two taken prisoners, and each side seven men dead.  Four of the eleven remain with two prisoners.  One may put this in another way by saying that the two forces kill each other off, man for man, until one force is double the other, which is then taken prisoner.  Seven men kill seven men, and then four are left with two.

(ii) But if the inferior force is not isolated (see (1) above), then each man of the inferior force kills a man of the superior force and is himself killed.

And the player who has just completed the move, the one who has charged, decides, when there is any choice, which men in the melee, both of his own and of his antagonist, shall die and which shall be prisoners or captors.

All these arrangements are made after the move is over, in the interval between the moves, and the time taken for the adjustment does not count as part of the usual interval for consideration.  It is extra time.

The player next moving may, if he has taken prisoners, move these prisoners.  Prisoners may be sent under escort to the rear or wherever the capturer directs, and one man within six inches of any number of prisoners up to seven can escort these prisoners and go with them.  Prisoners are liberated by the death of any escort there may be within six inches of them, but they may not be moved by the player of their own side until the move following that in which the escort is killed.  Directly prisoners are taken they are supposed to be disarmed, and if they are liberated they cannot fight until they are rearmed.  In order to be rearmed they must return to the back line of their own side.  An escort having conducted prisoners to the back line, and so beyond the reach of liberation, may then return into the fighting line.

Prisoners once made cannot fight until they have returned to their back line.  It follows, therefore, that if after the adjudication of a melee a player moves up more men into touch with the survivors of this first melee, and so constitutes a second melee, any prisoners made in the first melee will not count as combatants in the second melee.  Thus if A moves up nineteen men into a melee with thirteen of B’s—­B having only five in support—­A makes six prisoners, kills seven men, and has seven of his own killed.  If, now, B can move up fourteen men into melee with A’s victorious survivors, which he may be able to do by bringing the five into contact, and getting nine others within six inches of them, no count is made of the six of B’s men who are prisoners in the hands of A. They are disarmed.  B, therefore, has fourteen men in the second melee and A twelve, B makes two prisoners, kills ten of A’s men, and has ten of his own killed.  But now the six prisoners originally made by A are left without an escort, and are therefore recaptured by B. But they must go to B’s back line and return before they can fight again.  So, as the outcome of these two melees, there are six of B’s men going as released prisoners to his back line whence they may return into the battle, two of A’s men prisoners in the hands of B, one of B’s staying with them as escort, and three of B’s men still actively free for action.  A, at a cost of nineteen men, has disposed of seventeen of B’s men for good, and of six or seven, according to whether B keeps his prisoners in his fighting line or not, temporarily.

(4) Any isolated body may hoist the white flag and surrender at any time.

(5) A gun is captured when there is no man whatever of its original side within six inches of it, and when at least four men of the antagonist side have moved up to it and have passed its wheel axis going in the direction of their attack.  This latter point is important.  An antagonist’s gun may be out of action, and you may have a score of men coming up to it and within six inches of it, but it is not yet captured; and you may have brought up a dozen men all round the hostile gun, but if there is still one enemy just out of their reach and within six inches of the end of the trail of the gun, that gun is not captured:  it is still in dispute and out of action, and you may not fire it or move it at the next move.  But once a gun is fully captured, it follows all the rules of your own guns.