History
These German wargames were implemented by Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, Chief of Prussian General Staff. Moltke made several reforms to the Prussian military with the backing of Otto von Bismarck. The reforms including Kriegsspiel were the first of its kind; lending priority to education. As a result, this allowed Prussian officers to become more independent and responsible.
After its initial development, this particular style of wargaming became very popular among the Prussian Army officer corps. After numerous successful Prussian campaigns in the late 1800s, Kriegsspiel became more widely adopted by many militaries.
Kriegsspiel is still played today in both its original format and more free-style games, as proposed by Verdy du Vernois in the 1890s. Both the original 1824 rules by von Reisswitz, the supplementary 1862 rules by von Tschischwitz and several ancillary products such as maps are still published in English by TooFatLardies, a wargames publishing company in England. Much of the renaissance enjoyed by Kriegsspiel is due to Bill Leeson's translation of the original German text in the early 1980s and his promotion of the system in the wargames hobby press.
Read more about this topic: Kriegsspiel (wargame)
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