A Game

A series of panels look at the process of war games. 

The world wars saw a huge rise in the use of war games and training via their concepts.

That also included toys and games for children, as seen here.

But it's war games in the professional sense that became a thing in the latter 19th century, with officers working with model sets to understand where a battle went right or wrong, or to devise scenarios of future battles.

The British military had one literally called the Game of War.

And this is what it looks like all boxed up.

While this is the version partially laid out.

The concept would lend itself to the Great War, where part of training would include the use of topographic maps, with a three dimensional surface.

The writer H.G. Wells was also an enthusiast of miniature games, and devised Little Wars, a military set of rules using tin soldiers.

The tin soldiers as seen here reminded me of two that I have at home- Union and Confederate soldiers given to me by my parents the last time they visited. They now reside in my rolltop desk.

After the First World War, strategic thinking continued to make use of war game scenarios.

At the United States Naval War College in Rhode Island, doing so was part of the curriculum.