-+---+-.-+---+-.-+ | | . | | . | | . | | . | +---+-.-+---+-.-+---+-.-+---+-.
That, I think, is the most pacific realisation conceivable, and Little War brings you to it as nothing else but Great War can do. APPENDIX LITTLE WARS AND KRIEGSPIEL THIS little book has, I hope, been perfectly frank about its intentions. It is not a book upon Kriegspiel. It gives merely a game that may be played by two or four or six amateurish persons in an afternoon and evening with toy soldiers. But it has a very distinct relation to Kriegspiel; and since the main portion of it was written and published in a magazine, I have had quite a considerable correspondence with military people who have been interested by it, and who have shown a very friendly spirit towards it--in spite of the pacific outbreak in its concluding section. They tell me--what I already a little suspected--that Kriegspiel, as it is played by the British Army, is a very dull and unsatisfactory exercise, lacking in realism, in stir and the unexpected, obsessed by the umpire at every turn, and of very doubtful value in waking up the imagination, which should be its chief function. I am particularly indebted to Colonel Mark Sykes for advice and information in this matter. He has pointed out to me the possibility of developing Little Wars into a vivid and inspiring Kriegspiel, in which the element of the umpire would be reduced to a minimum; and it would be ungrateful to him, and a waste of an interesting opportunity, if I did not add this Appendix, pointing out how a Kriegspiel of real educational value for junior officers may be developed out of the amusing methods of Little War. If Great War is to be played at all, the better it is played the more humanely it will be done. I see no inconsistency in deploring the practice while perfecting the method.
The pack must be presented to the pone to be cut, and the entire pack is then dealt out, one card at a time. When two play, the dealer gives each six cards, one at a time. These two hands are kept separate, and two more are dealt in the same manner, and then a third two, the last card being turned up for the trump. When the deal is complete, there will be six hands on the table, three belonging to each player. [Illustration: +-----+ +-----+ +-----+ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +-----+ +-----+ +-----+ 1ST HANDS. 2ND HANDS. 3RD HANDS. +-----+ +-----+ +-----+ | | | | | | +------+ | | | | | | |Trump.| | | | | | | +------+ +-----+ +-----+ +-----+ ] When three play, the cards are dealt in much the same manner; two separate hands of six cards being given to each player. When four, five, six, seven, or eight play, the cards are dealt in rotation from left to right until the pack is exhausted, the last card being turned up for the trump.
The smallest possible is one point;--two singles and the rubber, against a triple. If the first two games are won by the same partners, the third is not played. _=DEALING.=_ Any player has the right to shuffle the cards, the dealer last. The pack must be presented to the pone to be cut, and he must leave at least four cards in each packet. Beginning on his left, the dealer distributes the cards either two at a time and then three, or three and then two to each player in rotation, until all have five cards. Whichever number, two or three, the dealer begins with, he must continue giving the same number to every player, including himself, for the first round. After the cards are dealt, the next card is turned face up on the remainder of the pack, except in five and seven-handed Euchre, in which no trump is turned. Each player deals in turn to the left, until the conclusion of the game or rubber. _=Irregularities in the Deal.
| -- | -- | -- | | 12.| -- | -- |You shall have a duck.| | 13.|We will give you pots | -- | -- | | |and pans. | | | | 14.|.....
The following count one point each: 1st. Turning up the _=Jack=_ of trumps. 2nd. Being _=given=_ a point by the dealer. 3rd. Holding the _=Highest=_ trump. 4th. Holding the _=Lowest=_ trump. 5th. Winning a trick with the _=Jack=_ of trumps in it.
The deal is completed when the last card is dealt. 36. In the event of a misdeal, the same pack must be dealt again by the same player. A NEW DEAL. 37. There _must_ be a new deal: (_a_) If the cards be not dealt, beginning at the dealer’s left into four packets one at a time and in regular rotation. (_b_) If, during a deal, or during the play the pack be proved incorrect. (_c_) If, during a deal, any card be faced in the pack or exposed, on, above, or below the table. (_d_) If more than thirteen cards be dealt to any player.[6] (_e_) If the last card does not come in its regular order to the dealer.
In order to prove any calculation of this kind all that is necessary is to ascertain the number of remaining events, and if their sum, added to that already found, equals unity, the calculation must be correct. For instance: The probability of turning a black trump at whist is 13/52 + 13/52 = 26/52; because there are two black suits of 13 cards each. The only other event which can happen is a red trump, the probability of which is also 26/52, and the sum of these two probabilities is therefore 26/52 + 26/52 = 52/52, or unity. Another fallacy in connection with the maturity of the chances is shown in betting against two successive events, both improbable, one of which has happened. The odds against drawing two aces in succession from a pack of 52 cards are 220 to 1; but after an ace has been drawn the odds against the second card being an ace also are only 16 to 1, although some persons would be mad enough to bet 1000 to 1 against it, on the principle that the first draw was a great piece of luck and the second ace was practically impossible. While the four aces were in the pack the probability of drawing one was 4/52. One ace having been drawn, 3 remain in 51 cards, so the probability of getting the second is 3/51, or 1/17. Before a card was drawn, the probability of getting two aces in succession was the product of these fractions; 1/13 × 1/17 = 1/221. On the same principle the odds against two players cutting cards that are a tie, such as two Fours, are not 220 to 1, unless it is specified that the first card shall be a Four. The first player having cut, the odds against the second cutting a card of equal value are only 16 to 1.
F. Foster, 1905. Foster’s Bridge Maxims, by R.F. Foster, 1905. The Bridge Blue Book, by P.F. Mottelay, 1906. Good Bridge, by C.S.