

Little Wars - slater
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3691/3691-h/3691-h.htm

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jarin
H.G. Wells, Original Wargamer :)

This reminds me of a similar game called Lego Wars that my friends and I used
to play in middle school (I downloaded the rules off of GEnie):

<http://mama.indstate.edu/users/sean/legowars/wars.htm>

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pxm
See also BrikWars: <http://www.brikwars.com/rules/2005/cover.htm>

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vonkow
So glad to see this here. I live in the boston area, and have been attempting
to acquire appropriate cannons with which to play. If you're in the area and
wish to join me in my mad quest (in either finding the cannons, or playing),
message me (@vonkow on twitter works too).

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firefoxman1
Wow this is cool. I had never heard of this and Wells is my favorite author.

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eru
You may also like the Kriegsspiel
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kriegsspiel_(wargame)>).

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eliben
"A Game for Boys from twelve years of age to one hundred and fifty and for
that more intelligent sort of girl who likes boys' games and books"

\-- Hmm... old-school chauvinism, or am I just imagining?

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sambeau
…Or feminism. It really depends how you read it and in which context you
choose to place it.

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praptak
There's also: _"It can be played by boys of every age from twelve to one
hundred and fifty—and even later if the limbs remain sufficiently supple—by
girls of the better sort, and by a few rare and gifted women."_

The condition on which boys can play it is that their limbs are supple. Girls
can only play it if they are of the better sort, not to mention women - only a
few rare and gifted can play it.

It looks like there are some underlying assumptions about the abilities of
boys and women. Hm... nope, they do not look much like feminism to me but what
do I know.

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sambeau
As I said, if you put the comment in context, the fact that they are even
suggesting that some girls might like it is a little bit of emancipation.

Full women's suffrage was still 15 years away, the feminism movement over
forty years away. The suffragette movement was at its most active at this
time: this book was published the same year that Emily Davison died trying to
throw a suffragette banner over the King's horse.

HG Wells was probably a feminist: he certainly had affairs (and fathered
children) with a number of prominent feminists of the time. He was certainly a
socialist and a member of The Fabian Society: his books tackle many of the
political problems of the time.

Once you factor this in, the meaning of "the better sort" of girl and "rare
gifted women" becomes far more interesting.

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pxm
Wells also wrote Floor Games: A Companion Volume to 'Little Wars':
<http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3690/3690-h/3690-h.htm>

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mikemccabe
[http://www.archive.org/stream/littlewarsgamefo00welluoft#pag...](http://www.archive.org/stream/littlewarsgamefo00welluoft#page/n7/mode/2up)

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seclorum
BRB, using this as the basis for an iOS/Android game .. ;)

