Friday 8 November 2013

New books on British Kriegsspiel and Bruce Quarrie's Wargamer's Guide to the Russian Campaign


The British Kriegsspiel (1872) The 1824 German Kriegsspiel game has been widely referred to as the start of modern professional wargaming. This book, aims to explore the British development of that early game in the 19th century. Much of the 170 pages of material has not been in the public domain since it was first published. The contents of this book include:

·         Map Manoeuvres: An Introduction to Kriegsspiel (1839)

·         The Rules for Kriegsspiel by Captain Baring (1872)

·         A newspaper report on the German Game of War (1878)

·         A discussion about how to create wargaming terrain in Aids to Kriegsspiel (1897)

·         The Dangers of Kriegsspiel and Political Officers (1899)

·         The problems with creating imaginary maps for war games (1888)

·         Bellum, an English Kriegsspiel Variant (1909)

·         The first medieval wargame in Kriegsspiel and the Teaching of Military History (1890)

·         The Game of Polemos as played at RUSI (1888)

·         A wargame with a political message, Lieutenant Henry Chamberlain's RN New Game of Invasion (1888)

Bruce Quarries's Tank Battles in Miniature Vol 2 A Wargamer's Guide to the Russian Campaign 1941-1945 is a reprint (225 pages) of one of Bruce Quarrie’s finest books.


 

3 comments:

  1. A quick question if I may?

    Do any of the 19th century British Kriegsspiels deal with Colonial wars?

    Cheers,

    Pete.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unfortunately not, they are focused on the concept of a European war, but who knows what might be lurking in the archives?

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    Replies
    1. Thanks John for the reply. I'm tempted to draw a comparison to post WW2 Britain; preparing for WW3 on the German plain but fighting mostly counter insurgency war (exceptions being Korea and Falklands)

      It would be very interesting to see a 19th century professional treatment of counter insurgency.

      Cheers,

      Pete.

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