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Introduction to Kriegsspiel
"Where did wargaming start?" is a question periodically asked by wargamers. There are many potential answers, ranging from John Clerk's naval wargame of 1700, to the abstract Chinese games, such as 'Go' or Chinese Chess, but the Prussian Kriegsspiel perhaps has one of the stronger cases.
In 1811, Two young Prussian Princes, Fredrick and William, learnt of a wargame invented by Herr von Reisswitz who was living in Berlin. They were in intrigued by the idea and soon Reisswitz was given a room in the palace to build a large plaster contoured model of countryside at the arbitrary scale of 26 inches to the mile. The troops were represented by wooden blocks with coloured paper stuck on them. The games were regulated by a set of rules to decide the crucial matters such as movement and firing. Within a year, the king himself started to play the wargame.
The development of the game was then led by Von Reisswitz's son, who turned the rules for the game into something resembling a simulation of war. The playing area model was replaced with more practical maps at a scale of 8 inches to 1 mile. Dice were introduced to represent the element of chance in war. The two sides were labelled as 'Red' and 'Blue'; a naming convention that is still in wargaming.
In 1824, Reisswitz gave a lecture on the game to the general staff, followed by a demonstration. The Prussian Chief of Staff, General Muffling, received the game somewhat coldly at first, 'but as the operations expanded on the map, and move by move the combatants worked out their plans, the old general's face lit up, and at las he broke out with enthusiasm: 'It's not a game at all, it's training for war. I shall recommend it enthusiastically to the whole army'. (Quoted in Wilkinsin S.Essays on the Wargame, London, 1887). Professionally wargaming was then established.
The history of British Kriegsspiel
The Prussian Army readily took to Kriegsspiel as a new training tool, but in Britain the army ignored the developments on the continent. What caught the British War Office attention was almost certainly the success of the Prussian military in the Franco Prussian War of 1870-71 and the published claim by some Prussian Officers that their wargames made an important contribution to their victory.
The British Official Rules for the Conduct of the Wargame were published in 1872. Initially, they were a reprinted of the 1824 Prussian game, hence were somewhat dated, but over the next twenty years the rules were updated by various British officers. Curiously enough, the most ardent enthusiasts for the rules were amongst the Volunteers (the part-time force raised to defend key points during the French invasion scare of 1859 onwards).
As the game became more competitive, the rules needed to be tighter and more rigid. The downside of this became apparent on the continent as tactical reality became submerged by the rule book. On occasions, the games produced results that defied military logic. In 1876, Verdy du Vernois, produced a new version of Kriegspiel, 'Beitrag zum Kriegsspiel'. This largely dispensed with the rules and the dice, instead relying on the sound military judgement of the umpire to arbitrate the actions in the wargame.
This 'free Kriegsspiel game' was translated by J.R.MacDonell in 1884 and published as 'The Tactical War game by General J. von Verdy du Vernoi' after first being published in serial form in the Volunteer Service Gazette.
Although described as a game without rules, guidance in the form of tables was found to be of great assistance to the umpires.
The War Office introduced a rules booklet to help umpires in such kriegspiel games and this is included in this book.
Soon afterwards, the free Kriegsspiel concept took its next logical step and was being used to run strategic level wargames. The earliest example of such a British game I have found was the Defence of India war game, run at Simla (1903) by the Committee of Imperial Defence.