Description

The Game of War, in the designer's own words:

"THE GAME OF WAR is one of skill, and belongs to that class which includes chess and checkers. It is played upon a board laid out in squares or rectangles, and the pieces employed represent and symbolize the important men and weapons of warfare, while their movements simulate the military evolutions of two armies opposed in battle, advancing, retreating and engaging in the diverse methods that characterize actual warfare, and employing all the various forms of strategy.

Each side, as a fighting force, comprises a king, a commanding officer, field and siege artillery, cavalry and ordinary troops and flying machines.

All the movements of Chess are found in the game, and, in addition, the troops have the movements made familiar in checkers or draughts, while some pieces are given different moves, and more freedom of movement than in either Chess or Checkers. But while these two games are thus drawn on to contribute all their virtues, the vital principle of The Game of War is radically different and wholly new.

In Chess the game is won when a player so hems in his adversary's king that it cannot escape capture; in Checkers all of the adversary's pieces must be captured and taken from the board, or the last of them penned, to secure a victory.

In The Game of War, however, the object is to lay siege to and capture the citadel — a central square in the king's rank on which the ruler is stationed at the outset of the game. When an adversary's piece can enter and hold this square without being captured at the next move, such occupancy of the citadel wins the game.

Chief of the many other distinctive features in The Game of War is the introduction of two flying machines on each side. The purpose and the movements of these are wholly novel, and give a singular fascination to the playing of the game. Moreover, the board used in the game is of a new design, having one hundred squares, instead of sixty-four, as in chess and checkers, and the all-important citadel square stands forth in battlemented prominence. In addition, there are four flying machine stations."