68 
MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
but he seemed to think that, under some circumstances, the u Kriegs 
Spiel ” might conduce to the weakening of military authority. 
In reality, one of the greatest advantages of the game is the mani¬ 
festation of errors, which, however unpleasant to personal feelings, 
ought never to be allowed to stand in the way of the furtherance of the 
true principles of the art of war. To be blind to one’s own faults, as is 
well known, was one of the causes of the disasters which befel the 
French army last year. 
With such men to promote it after poor Reiswitz’s death, as those 
three distinguished officers, it is not a matter of surprise that the game 
was generally adopted in the Prussian army, and the list of its admirers 
now includes those officers of high rank in Prussia who have played a 
conspicuous part in recent campaigns. 
The first requisite for playing the game is to have good maps, on 
a scale of 8 ins. or more, but not less than 6 ins., to the mile, 
all the natural features of the ground, the hills and the valleys, the 
villages and roads, being shown to scale on the plan. The steepness of 
a hill, and consequently its practicability for the ascent of the different 
arms, can be judged of from a look at the map, by those acquainted 
with the system of contours , or the lines where horizontal planes at fixed 
vertical intervals apart cut the surface of the ground. The hills are 
shown to “ scale of shade 33 on Muffling’s principle. 
These maps are cut in squares of about 18 ins., and are mounted for 
convenience on cardboard, so that as many as are required to take in 
the ground which is to be the scene of the operation, can be placed on 
the table. 
The troops are represented by oblong blocks of lead of different 
dimensions, which are painted on the upper surface according to the 
conventional signs for representing troops. They are constructed to 
the same scale as the map, so that a battalion in line represented by a 
block of lead occupies the same extent of front on the map as the real 
battalion would on actual ground. So with smaller bodies, such as 
companies, squadrons, down to single outposts and videttes, each has 
a special block of lead to distinguish it. To distinguish the opposed 
forces, one set of blocks is painted red, the other blue. The front or 
rear, as the case may be, is also shown. 
A scale corresponding to the map, a pair of compasses, and a die 
comprise all the apparatus necessary. 
For the carrying out of a small game—that is to say, of a minor 
operation of war, as the reconnaissance of an enemy’s position, for 
instance—three players are necessary : one to conduct the game, occu¬ 
pying the position of umpire or referee, the other two to command 
the contending forces. In a larger game, the chief umpire would 
be assisted by sub-umpires, and the commanders of forces by troop 
leaders, &c. 
The players being assembled, the chief umpire or instructor gives 
out the “ general idea ” (of a similar nature to that given at the 
autumn manoeuvres), fixing definitely the position of the troops in the 
theatre of war with reference to each other, their bases, lines of com¬ 
munication, &c.—such information, in fact, as would be known to the 
troops in real war. 
