War Games and Their History

This is the first book to describe comprehensively the various war games which people have played throughout the ages, from ancient times to the present day. It covers both the games run by governments and those brought out commercially for members of the public. The most important of the official games were usually classified as top secret at the time they were played, and details only trickled out later. It s chilling to realise that politicians and senior officials have used games to explore the use of nuclear weapons and to plan possible wars in the Middle East and elsewhere, though very recent games are understandably still under wraps. The board games produced for the public go back to the Napoleonic Wars and even earlier. Some of these games had excellent graphics which conjured up visions of battles, while others were exciting to play and needed thought. Today many people play dynamic computer games, often over the internet with unknown opponents. Above all this is a book about the ideas and ingenuity underlying the games. Their inventors struggled to combine simplicity and playability with attempts to reproduce features of real-life conflicts. War Games is a definitive book, beautifully illustrated with over 280 detailed colour pictures. We hope you will find it thought-provoking and enjoyable.