Little Wars

You may play various types of game.

(1) One is the Fight to the Finish.  You move in from any points you like on the back line and try to kill, capture, or drive over his back line the whole of the enemy’s force.  You play the game for points; you score 100 for the victory, and 10 for every gun you hold or are in a position to take, 1-1/2 for every cavalry-man, 1 for every infantry-man still alive and uncaptured, 1/2 for every man of yours prisoner in the hands of the enemy, and 1/2 for every prisoner you have taken.  If the battle is still undecided when both forces are reduced below fifteen men, the battle is drawn and the 100 points for victory are divided.

Note—­This game can be fought with any sized force, but if it is fought with less than 50 a side, the minimum must be 10 a side.

(2) The Blow at the Rear game is decided when at least three men of one force reach any point in the back line of their antagonist.  He is then supposed to have suffered a strategic defeat, and he must retreat his entire force over the back line in six moves, i.e. six of his moves.  Anything left on the field after six moves capitulates to the victor.  Points count as in the preceding game, but this lasts a shorter time and is better adapted to a cramped country with a short back line.  With a long rear line the game is simply a rush at some weak point in the first player’s line by the entire cavalry brigade of the second player.  Instead of making the whole back line available for the Blow at the Rear, the middle or either half may be taken.

(3) In the Defensive Game, a force, the defenders, two-thirds as strong as its antagonist, tries to prevent the latter arriving, while still a quarter of its original strength, upon the defender’s back line.  The Country must be made by one or both of the players before it is determined which shall be defender.  The players then toss for choice of sides, and the winner of the toss becomes the defender.  He puts out his force over the field on his own side, anywhere up to the distance of one move off the middle line—­that is to say, he must not put any man within one move of the middle line, but he may do so anywhere on his own side of that limit—­and then the loser of the toss becomes first player, and sets out his men a move from his back line.  The defender may open fire forthwith; he need not wait until after the second move of the first player, as the second player has to do.