Kriegsspiel

You command one party. The umpire holds the true position and rules on everything. What follows is the whole of what you need.

The order of a move

A move is two minutes of real time and always runs in the same order:

1. You write orders. Pick a body — click its block on the sheet, or its name in the party list — then choose what it is to do, what formation it is to be in, at what pace, and at what range it may open fire. Point out the ground on the sheet. The order is written out in full beneath, with the courier delay stated.
2. You send them. Send it hands the order to an orderly. You may write as many orders as you like before resolving.
3. The umpire resolves the move. Resolve the move (or Enter) delivers every order that has arrived, moves both parties in four steps of half a minute, resolves all fire simultaneously, rules on every body that came to blows, tests the shaken, and updates what each party has been told.

Movement

Nothing moves on a grid. A body crosses the ground at the pace you set it, slowed by the going and by its formation — a battalion in line moves at little more than half the rate of the same battalion in column, which is the whole reason columns exist. One pace is 0.75 m. Water is impassable except at a marked bridge, ford or causeway. Bodies of the same party ease apart rather than standing on one another.

Drag the sheet to pan; the wheel, a pinch, + and − zoom; 0 shows the whole sheet; the arrow keys nudge it. Esc puts down whichever body you are holding.

What you can see

Your own blocks stand where they stand. The enemy is drawn only as a report — a hollow block at the position last seen, labelled with what was made out and, once contact is lost, with how many moves have passed and a dashed ring showing how far he could have got since. Skirmishers, troops in timber and troops standing still are seen at far shorter range than a column on the march; a battery that has fired announces itself.

Fire

Men struck down in one move by a full battalion in line firing on a body in line in the open. Every other case is that figure modified, and the umpire's slip names every modifier and the face of his die.

Coming to blows

Give a body an Attack order and point it at the enemy. The umpire takes the odds — the attack's combat value over the defence's — and reads the row against his die. R the attack is thrown back · H both hold and bleed · P the defence gives ground · B the defence breaks.

Winning

Each situation names the ground worth points. Ground held by one party at the close scores for that party; ground with bodies of both parties on it is contested and scores for neither. The butcher's bill counts too, at one point for every twenty-five men more than the enemy lost. The total is read against par — what the situation ought to yield. Finish more than eighteen points to the good and you have won; more than forty-five and you have won decisively.

Losing

Finish more than eighteen points below par and the day is the enemy's. You lose ground by being driven off it, and you lose men to fire and to the bayonet. A body reduced past a fifth of its establishment is taken out of the line altogether; a body whose resolve is gone breaks, routs for its own rear, and cannot be given orders again until it rallies. If every body of a party is broken, the action ends at once.

Saving

The action saves itself in your browser after every order and every move — there is nothing to press. Close the page and come back to it: the opening sheet will offer Resume the action in progress, and the position, the reports, the orders still on the road and the machine's own intentions all come back exactly as they were. Starting a new action from the opening sheet discards the saved one. If your browser refuses storage — private browsing, for instance — the game plays normally and simply does not offer to resume.

Restarting

When an action closes, the umpire's account offers Set another action, which clears the save and returns you to the opening sheet. You may also reload the page at any time and start a fresh action from there.

The situations