Gaming has come of age in recent years. Games themselves are objects of curiosity and have become the topic of university research in the areas of history, sociology and literature. Antoine Bourguilleau explores these games in all their manifestations, from staff war games to commercial board games, as well as the scenario created by science fiction author H. Wells in his book War of the Worlds. He explores the sometimes complex rules of these games, which strive to reflect the reality of a warlike confrontation.
This book is rich with insight and allows the reader to approach military history from an underappreciated and still relatively little-studied angle. The author has kindly answered a few questions for napoleon. Antoine Bourguilleau: A number of factors led to the development of the first wargames.
One of these trends was the interest of a number of scientists in the ordering and classification of living things. The second was the development of mathematical games and those based on probabilities. The third was the professionalisation of armies, which created a paradox: on the one hand, infantrymen, artillerymen and cavalrymen were familiar with the β sometimes complex β handling of their weapons, and changes in formations and manoeuvring, but the generals themselves could not actually practice or train in the art of military campaigning and of leading battles.
That Kriegsspiele war games emerged in Prussia at the end of the 18th century, around the same time that the staff schools appeared , was obviously not a coincidence. Antoine Bourguilleau: Initially, they took their inspiration from chess. The classic pieces bishops, pawns or rooks were replaced by dragoons, hussars, artillery, riflemen and grenadiers. The board was no longer made up of 64 squares but several hundred representing villages, roads, hills and forests.
The terrain had an effect upon the lines of sight, the cover available, and the movement of the troops. In , a very successful game was presented to the Prussian staff and immediately adopted for the training of senior officers. For example, in the US Navy where wargaming has been used since the end of the 19th century, nearly war games were organised between and , the vast majority of which involved a possible war with Japan.
