Little Wars

Except in the above cases, or when otherwise agreed upon, the forces engaged shall be equal in number and similar in composition.  The methods of handicapping are obvious.  A slight inequality (chances of war) may be arranged between equal players by leaving out 12 men on each side and tossing with a pair of dice to see how many each player shall take of these.  The best arrangement and proportion of the forces is in small bodies of about 20 to 25 infantry-men and 12 to 15 cavalry to a gun.  Such a force can maneuver comfortably on a front of 4 or 5 feet.  Most of our games have been played with about 80 infantry, 50 cavalry, 3 or 4 naval guns, and a field gun on either side, or with smaller proportional forces.  We have played excellent games on an eighteen-foot battlefield with over two hundred men and six guns a side.  A player may, of course, rearrange his forces to suit his own convenience; brigade all or most of his cavalry into a powerful striking force, or what not.  But more guns proportionally lead to their being put out of action too early for want of men; a larger proportion of infantry makes the game sluggish, and more cavalry—­because of the difficulty of keeping large bodies of this force under cover—­leads simply to early heavy losses by gunfire and violent and disastrous charging.  The composition of a force may, of course, be varied considerably.  One good Fight to a Finish game we tried as follows:  We made the Country, tossed for choice, and then drew curtains across the middle of the field.  Each player then selected his force from the available soldiers in this way:  he counted infantry as 1 each, cavalry as 1-1/2, and a gun as 10, and, taking whatever he liked in whatever position he liked, he made up a total of 150.  He could, for instance, choose 100 infantry and 5 guns, or 100 cavalry and no guns, or 60 infantry, 40 cavalry, and 3 guns.  In the result, a Boer-like cavalry force of 80 with 3 guns suffered defeat at the hands of 110 infantry with 4.